I built mine last month :o)

I have recently got rid of my mbp in favour of a dell xps 15, why?

Programs I run are significantly quicker in windows than OSX (lightroom and DXO)
The dell screen is better (1080p full adobe gamut)
It was £700 on dell outlet (quad 1.86, 4gig, 500gig, 1080p RGBLED, 9 cell battery) – which is well over half the price of an equivalent mpb, even with nus discount!

Saying that am a huge fan of apple hardware – we have 2 apples and one dell + an acer server at home, yes it is expensive, but extremely high quality, and resale value is way better than anything else (thank you mac fanboys!)

I am doing 30 miles a day, 44:15 – other than the hill to Wimbledon village it’s quite flat.

I’d suggest 42:16 as a starting point.

I have 3, one is being returned and swapped for a Dell for 1/2 cost.

Mac hardwear is awesome, pretty etc worth the money imho, but not a bargain by any means.

Shame OSX is slow compared to windows, but the lack of virus’s is fantastic

Star wars ABC!

Star Wars Adventures In ABC

DT swiss are quoted as 585g+
http://www.dtswiss.com/Products/Suspension/DT-Swiss-Forks/EXC-Forks-%281%29.aspx

That is impressive….same weight as my Easton Carbon CX forks!

Be careful…

I currently do 13miles each way, mixture of offroad and roads approx 1hr each way on a SS CX bike. Wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Its in London – but I only need to share the road with cars for approx 4 miles, the rest is separate cycleways including Wimbledon common, Richmond Park and the thames footpath. LOVELY

From UK

Link through quidco as usual (obviously need a quidco account)

http://www.quidco.com/crucial-technology-uk/

7% code CRUPROMO7

10% has already been knocked off the price.

If you can look around your current situation and feel satisfied, I think it would be wrong to have regrets – because the decisions you made got you to where you are.

But if you are unhappy with your current situation, you should look to the future and plan accordingly, not regret the past but learn from it.

LMAO!

My girlfriend is very much looking forward to it, with party plans in preparations etc etc.

Why not? kick back and enjoy the good times.

So bored of so many British constantly whinging about everything!

bazzer – you can currently get a 128mb SSD direct from crucial for about £140

7% Quidco
7% Code discount
10% store discount on C300 range

tempting bargain!

So true regarding the price! But I think the quality of macs are better, though I can confirm this when the Dell arrives. I currently have a macbook, mini mac and a pro (being returned) and all three are outstandingly well built, better than any PC i have owned. Also alot more expensive.

Oh and the dell can display 100% of Adobes sRGB colour space

I am doing the same for the same reason – don’t stress too much it’ll be fine!

Yeah I have seen all the hype about the forthcoming Macbook pro – might mbe interesting unless they do opt for a v.small SSD for OSX and the stock HD for Bootcamp…

I have actually just ordered a machine from the dell outlet store. XPS 15 840QM (quad 1.86), 1080p RGB screen and 9cell battery as well as the usual spec – £700. I know the new processors are about to come out but not at that kind of price. And I have 7 days to decide to keep it or not. I can upgrade to SSD and 8gig (from 4) for about £200 and the performance should be outstanding compared to the Mac under windows let alone OSX.

I had seriously looked at the HP with the IPS screen, but its was just too much money. I had could have got the Dell m4500 but the spec was the same as the one I just purchased and it was twice the price.

Well I have spent 2 weeks with the pro now, and it is due for return tomorrow. Pretty it is, OSX does not work for me at all, for the applications I am using performance is definitly significantly lower than Win7 (on the same machine).

Shame as it is a lovely machine, but the performance just hasn’t done it for me especially as I have spent over 75% of my time in Win7.

Have you actually seen an Alienware one? Is the quality up to Macs?

That thinkpad is pretty awesome! Shame its so ugly :)

LOL thats why I bought a singlespeed, hyro discs and as many high quality seals as poss!

I don’t do maintenance!

My understanding is there MBP does not have an IPS display. I certainly have found nothing confirming it.

I just would think if there was really such a huge difference it would have come up
in reviews etc. If that’s what you found why not just enjoy using windows 7 on a very nicely made laptop

Yes this is what I am surprised about. I may keep it and use it with win 7. Just exploring other options right now.

I agree regarding the suitability of a laptop for photo editing – but London flat…no other option. Mac Mini is plugged into the TV!

I have actually repeated the same tests on our Mac Mini and the results came back exactly the same with Win7 significantly faster than OSX – these were real world tests not benchmarking. DXO do a batch conversions for lens and barrel distortion and Lightroom exporting an album to 1080p video – regular but slow stuff ideal for speed comparison.

I also wrote to DXO to comment and this was their reply.

“I run Optics Pro on both Window 7 under boot camp on a quad Mac Pro, and a OS X copy under OS X 10.6.6 on a second Mac Pro quad. To be honest, this is a comparison of apples (so to speak) and oranges. Since the programs are coded differently due to their respective operating systems, it is difficult to accurately determine where any slowness starts.

I will tell you this. Windows 7 runs like a bat on the Mac Pro. Better than any PC I have seen it run on. I believe that the hardware configuration in a Mac is more to the liking of Windows 7 (VISTA stinks on a Mac Pro). What you are seeing is the speed increase due to the efficiency of Win 7 running on the Mac.

I have suggested at the local Microsoft store that they should have Win 7 running on a Mac Pro. Of course, they snickered and walked off playing with their Dells and HPs. My older Mac Pro will smoke their new systems any day of the week running Windows 7. And, the speed at which major Windows programs open is astonishing. Word and Excel 2011 open in 5-10 seconds on my new Mac Pro. Word and Excel 2010 open in under 2 seconds under Windows 7 on the older Mac Pro. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”

Send it to my mechanic, dunno what he does but its as good as new everytime!

Guys, cheers – many great ideas. L

I only say that they can make some difference…

Yeah but like all things special to a person, little things to one person, especially if they are not interested are HUGE things to soemone who is passionate.

Same with bikes.

Yes Naim owners tend to like Naim cables, an observer would say Naim had us over a barrel, when in fact comparing to the cost of some highend cable it is truly cheap. Naim could quite easily charge 5x as much and all Naim owners would buy it, but they don’t. But infact the cable works really well with all Naim Amps from the nait 5 to the 552.

Don’t want to read through pages of posts. Speakers cables make a huge difference.

Naim amp work best with Naim cables. NACA5 and in the grand scheme not expensive.

Have you thought about just getting an apple tv for £99?

Acer easy store @ £199 btw and 640gb

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_easyStore_H340-L_Home_Server__98.T1EYZ.UBH/version.asp?PID=

1. Personally I would get a new PC for a nas rather than an old one a) more energy efficient b)potential hardwear failure. I picked up a windows home server (Acer h340) for £199. Bargain

2. Yes you can, my personal choice is ESI Juli@ or you can use something like a Hiface to get a high quality digital out.

3. Yes

4. Yes use media Monkey

5. Works a treat with an iphone, not sure about an android.

Tenerife, Portugal (cascais) or Morocco

It’s a comedy show…

DMR revolvers

Panasonic LX5 has 10fps – great camera too.

Pizza Street, Lima Peru. Lomo Medium Format

Love it!

Both tex-mex and the real deal

mmmmm fish tacos.

Use quidco all the time – got over £500 back so far. Bloody awesome.

btw I am using cane creek levers, yes they are shifter-less.