New work laptop: Macbook Pro or Win7?...

glasswave wrote:

I am approved to get a new laptop for my work. It will be my main office computer. I currently have 2 24" Dell u2410's on my desk. The system will be used general MS office work and digital content creation and editing (web design, HD vid, 3ds Max/Maya, After Effects, pShop, Illustrator, Corel Draw ect).
I am considering getting a Macbook Pro. My co worker got a nice one approved and I could get the same, 15" Retina, 500GB ssd,  16GB RAM (a pretty decent Laptop). I am not certain what kind of win7 machine I can get approved, it would have to be a Dell or HP. For heavy duty video or 3d rendering, I could always slip into a lab or edit bay with a fairly powerful Win7 workstation.

At home I have a an i7 six core, 32GB RAM and Samsung 830 256GB ssd, with two Dell u2713H's powered by an nVidia 660ti card. It screams. Most of my hard core content work I  do at home, which is fairly close to work (15 min). Heavy 3d/HD video renders can be done at work as well (render farm on week ends), but for video, I have to tote my RAID array around.

I have been using both Macs and PC's for graphics since the early 90's. I am an expert level win7 user (system install & configuration) and a pretty decent Mac user. I use to be very technical with system 7 ect, but haven't done system level control with osX, which is part of why I'd like to get to know it better again. I never really pay much attention to which OS I am in since the apps are nearly the same. I prefer the Windows interface for file mgt, but really what are a few more clicks here and there? I will manage the system  myself.

I would need to set up the Mac Book pro as a dual boot. Since the Macbook Pro 15" has no optical drive, how will I reformat and reconfigure it? Will I need an external optical drive to reinstall osX, boot camp and win7? How does the touch pad work with win7? Could I run 2 external 24" monitors from it?

My main attraction to the mb Pro is its design (slim and light) and that I could run the Mac osX. My main fear is that it won't play nice when I am in windows. I don't what size and shape of Windows laptop, I could justify, but am fairly sure I could get something with more processing power than the mb Pro. It's likely be a big square brick like design, because form factor arguments will not hold much sway with my IT dept, only specs.

Any advice?

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There is simply too much beauty in the world to photograph it all, but I'm trying.

Your not paying for it so get the MacBook.  If you were I would go with a Windows Machine. The Mac like always will be substantially more money.