InTechSpot  

The reader response to Apple"s new Boot Camp utility, which lets you install Windows XP on a MacBook Pro or an iMac Core Duo, has been mixed so far.



Me, though? Man, I"m psyched. This makes my job a lot easier. As a laptop reviewer, I"ve always been frustrated by the apples to oranges (insert Bronx cheer) comparisons I"ve been forced to make when pitting PowerBooks and iBooks against the PC competition. Boot Camp finally provides a baseline for a true head-to-head contest of Apple hardware vs. PC hardware, without operating systems or Rosetta or anything else qualifying the results.



We went out and bought a 2.0GHz MacBook Pro last night (shout out to the Stonestown Mall Apple Store). Then we dug up some good PC competitors, one of which has almost identical specs. This morning, we started testing. Here"s what we found.



Well, first, a disclosure of the specs. For the most part, they match up perfectly. We were using a MacBook Pro running Windows XP Pro and equipped with a 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo (T2500) processor; 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM (666MHz); an ATI Mobility Radeon x1600 graphics card; and a 100GB hard drive spinning at 5,400rpm.



The Acer TravelMate 8200 was also running Windows XP Pro and was equipped with a 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo (T2500) processor; 2GB of slightly slower DDR2 SDRAM (533MHz); an ATI Mobility Radeon x1600 graphics card; and a slightly larger 120GB hard drive spinning at 5,400rpm.



For additional context, we"ve also included the HP Pavilion dv1000t, another solid laptop running the same Intel Core Duo T2500 processor, as well as the original MacBook Pro we tested back in February, which was running the Mac OS on a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo T2400 processor; take note that this MacBook Pro was running Mac versions of all software.