The showstopper? (XPS M2010)

[funkyworms]

OSX, illuminated keyboard.

[Nsight7]

The Sager has a better video card and it also has two external monitor hook-ups (one VGA, one DVI). While DVI is technically better, most people (including myself), don't see much a difference on average between the two, and as far as poker playing goes you really shouldn't see much a difference on a couple of 20" externals. Since all poker sites and almost any poker analysis software you would want are native in Windows it is almost certainly easier to simply use Windows anyhow.

Just my opinion though.

As an addition, emulators often run slower than their native counterparts on similarly speced systems, and can sometimes be buggy with more advanced applications. So the easiet thing to do if you pretty much plan on running Windows stuff is to just get a Windows machine.

[Nsight7]

Ah, I see how Boot Camp works. Very interesting. Up to this point it was all emulation but now it is concurrent, similar to how I boot up with Linux and Windows XP now. Very cool. I don't remember the last time I read about the booting in Mac systems but it must have been around the time that I went dual-boot, which might explain why I wasn't exactly up on this hip new technology.

That said, I still don't think it is worth the price for a comparable equipped MacBookPro. The machines, while pretty, are simply overly expensive given that similarly speced machines can cost as little as half. Besides which, there is mostly nothing that can't be done in Windows/Linux that can in Mac OS, except when you get Mac OS and want to boot to Windows, you still have to buy an extra copy of the Windows, which is extra money anyhow. Plus, there is still only one external plug for monitors on the Mac, whereas one can plug and chug two externals on better speced systems that are much cheaper on PCs.

One last thing, the 30" external as I understand it has less real-estate than two 24" monitors (both typically have the same resolution, at least last time I checked). Not greatly more, like in the range of 25%-30%, but considering the fact that you could reasonably get two 24"'s significantly more cheaply, it would still be a bargain to get the better-speced PC lappy even knowing that perhaps the best you can attach is two 24"'s versus 30" monitor support for the MackbookPro for its (at least look, which was several weeks ago) single external monitor port.

[Python49]

Wow great feed back Nsight, this might be an obvious questoin but i'm just asking to make sure i'm understanding this correctly. On the Sager I linked, it has two external monitor hook ups one being DVI other being VGA, this means I could use two 24" monitors on this but not a 30" because 30"s need two DVI correct?, whereas with the macbook pro since that video card has dual DVI I would be able to use 30" ? What doesnt make sense is if the video card in the Sager is better how come that doesnt have dual DVI whereas the Macbook Pro's has dual DVI?

Also, if I have two 24"s hooked up into the Sager, does that mean the screen for the laptop isnt included? I was thinking if you hook up two 24" monitors to the laptop those work in conjunction with the laptop screen as well offering 3 screens? Is this true or does it just take the screen from the laptop and transfer that to the two 24"s?

[Freakin]

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Ah, I see how Boot Camp works. Very interesting. Up to this point it was all emulation but now it is concurrent, similar to how I boot up with Linux and Windows XP now. Very cool. I don't remember the last time I read about the booting in Mac systems but it must have been around the time that I went dual-boot, which might explain why I wasn't exactly up on this hip new technology.


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On the flip side, I'm running OSX on my Dell XPS =)

[Beavis68]

[ QUOTE ]
On the Sager I linked, it has two external monitor hook ups one being DVI other being VGA, this means I could use two 24" monitors on this but not a 30" because 30"s need two DVI correct?,


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I dont think this is correct, I believe the 30" requires a single port that is a dual link port, not dual DVI ports. I hope someone can correct me if I am wrong.

[a nonymous]

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On the Sager I linked, it has two external monitor hook ups one being DVI other being VGA, this means I could use two 24" monitors on this but not a 30" because 30"s need two DVI correct?,


[/ QUOTE ]

I dont think this is correct, I believe the 30" requires a single port that is a dual link port, not dual DVI ports. I hope someone can correct me if I am wrong.

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Right. You need dual-link DVI, not dual DVI ports.

[Python49]

Ok but i'm still unclear on if the Sager laptop would be able to be hooked up with two 20" flatscreens giving me 3 viewable screens? (laptop, two 20s) or two? (two 20s) or it can't be at all? And also unsure why the Macbook pro can be hooked up with a 30" if the Sager's video card is a better newer model.

[a nonymous]

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And also unsure why the Macbook pro can be hooked up with a 30" if the Sager's video card is a better newer model.

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The MacBook Pro's card supports it. Things can be better in some ways and worse in others. There's nothing to be unsure about here, the MacBook Pro supports it and the Sager apparently doesn't (I wouldn't know, but I assume that's what you were told).

[Nsight7]

If I am looking correctly, the DVI port on the Sager is dual-link, so it should support a 30" monitor (though don't quote me please, if you want to test it just brink your lappy to a store and see if it works plugged into a 30" if you can't spec it first), though I kinda doubt the VGA supports that monitor size.

Basically, a there are two kinds of DVI ports, dual-link and single link. Effectively there is just more one can do with dual-link. However, with dual-link or single-link, there is still only one port. On the macbook pro, it only has one external monitor port, the dual-link DVI. On the Sager, it has two external monitor ports, the Dual-link DVI and the VGA.

To answer you question, it would be your laptop's monitor plus the two external monitors, for a total of 3 monitors viewable.