Buying a Laptop.... advice/opinions appreciated

[nicruns]

After spending a week at a Teacher's tech conference I've decided that I want to purchase a laptop. The only problem is I dont know what to buy!!! The first issue is Mac vs. PC. I like the stability of the Mac OS, iLife software, and the fact that they get less viruses. However my school is a PC school and I am more comfortable using a PC. PC Pros- I know how to use it better, my school is a PC standardized school, im more comfortable with it. Cons- low stability, more succeptable to viruses. I've considered a hybrid but the cost is pretty high.

SO what would you recommend? I use word processing, PowerPoint, and internet browsing the most. I prefer to use Firefox as a browser. I also would want to use it with a SmartBoard, Inspiration, and possibly for some music downloading (i might keep my desktop for music).

Besides what to buy I would also like some advice on Specs ie RAM, Harddrive, type of processor etc.

[Barefoot Matt]

I'm a Mac user, so I'm going to recommend a Mac. You say your school is a PC school; how much do you expect you'll need to interface with the PCs there? is there a network you need to connect to, for example? If there is, it's still doable with a Mac, but your IT staff might not know how to help you with it.

Other than that, the Mac is the obvious choice from my point of view. I don't know anything about SmartBoard and Inspiration, but the rest of those programs definitely work on Macs. There's even a presentation program made by Apple called Keynote that I've heard is better than PowerPoint, though I haven't tried it myself. I've seen it in action, though, and it definitely looks impressive. For word processing, you've got Word, AppleWorks, Pages (the companion to Keynote in the iWork suite; not as powerful as Word), and any number of cross-platform programs like OpenOffice. There are even more browser choices on a Mac than on Windows, because you've got Safari and Camino to choose from as well as Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera. No Internet Explorer, but you already prefer Firefox, so that's no big loss.

For specs: I'd recommend the 1.83 GHz Macbook. You'll do okay with the default 512 MB RAM, but there's a noticeable boost if you go with 1 GB. You can always upgrade that later though. For the hard drive, it depends on your usage. If you intend to download a fair number of movies, or install big games, you may need an upgrade. If you just have a few gigs of music, the default 60 GB should do you fine. If that's less than what you have now, though, best not to downgrade. Also, since you want to use powerpoint, you'll need to pick up the "Apple Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter" so you can connect to a projector.

Happy shopping! Oh, and don't forget to use Apple's education store! Mucho discounts.

[Gezus]

I have a friend who's getting a PC and installing Mac OS on it, so that's always a possibility.

[Kuky]

Whatever you get, focus on the usability. Windows is perfectly stable these days. I have some issues with it, but they're only relevant to techies.

[TylerDurden]

The conception that OSX is more stable than Windows XP is crap - they are both just fine in terms of stability.

Office 2004 for mac runs like ass on the new intel macbooks and I *much* prefer the windows versions. Staroffice and Neooffice while being free alternatives.. run even worse (IE, slower).

barefoot matt: There are just as many browser choices for PC as there are for OS X. Camino, firefox and mozilla share the same common mozilla engine so saying that there are more choices for macs there is silly. No safari, but PCs have IE7. Both Safari and IE7 blow anyways.

In general, get a gig of ram, look for dual core processors and 80+ gig hd. Most any laptop on the market today will be fine for your needs. If your laptop only comes with 512, then upgrade with a stick from newegg.com. It'll be way cheaper than buying from your local box store (best buy, etc).

Not sure what you meant by hybrid, but new macs can run windows. While you can technically install OSX on PCs.. it's a pain in the ass and I'm going to guess that you don't have the technical knowledge needed to fix things when they go wrong.

In terms of learning OSX - it's pretty piss easy. Macs are made for stupid people (no.. really) which is why you'll have zealots harping on about how great they are. PCs will be cheaper though.

[Kuky]

The other thing is, as long as you have a firewall set up, and an updated antivirus... and as long as you don't do anything stupid (e.g. go on your school's wireless network without being properly firewalled), you won't get viruses.

[Mooch]

Well, you can install Windows XP on the new Macs, as other said, so that is only an issue if you want to spend the extra money on it (cause it doesn't come with the mac).

I would go with whatever laptop has all the features you want, at a price you are willing to pay!
(In which case you'd probably only go for a Mac if you want OS X or it's awesome looks...although the integrated webcam might be nice too.)

[Barefoot Matt]

barefoot matt: There are just as many browser choices for PC as there are for OS X. Camino, firefox and mozilla share the same common mozilla engine so saying that there are more choices for macs there is silly. No safari, but PCs have IE7. Both Safari and IE7 blow anyways.
*shrug* I guess it's a matter of perspective. I know all the mozilla-family browsers use the same engine (along with safari and netscape, I think), but that doesn't mean they're all the same. Firefox is awesome on windows, but in OSX it's a bit slow and fairly ugly. Camino is shorter on extensibility, but faster and more Mac-styled, and with a pretty decent built-in adblocker. I haven't tried Mozilla on a Mac, but I definitely had a strong preference for the standalones on Windows (Firefox and Thunderbird).

And Safari doesn't entirely suck. If it had an adblocker, I'd probably use it exclusively, but the ads drove me to Camino. Safari is smarter at handling downloads, and Preview opens PDFs right in the browser (with Camino you have to download them to open them). Camino is a bit prettier, but Safari is generally smarter and more integrated with the OS.

[DiscoBandit]

I have a cheap little Compaq Presario. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done quickly and easily - so far as the numbers I have to run anyway. A word of advice though, opt for something with 3 USB ports, I have 2 and it sucks.

Happy hunting!

[AbnormalBob]

I have a friend who's getting a PC and installing Mac OS on it, so that's always a possibility.
Is that even possible? That sounds awesome.

[Roguish Grin]

Is that even possible? That sounds awesome.


I have a friend at school whose desktop PC that he built runs XP, OSX, and Linux...it's cool, cause he can use different OSs depending on what he wants to do, but it's a technical pain, cause Mac really doesn't want you using OSX on a PC (big surprise) and so it really takes some knowhow and patientience...

[rabidfish]

I have owned 2 laptops, the first was stolen, and i'm typing this from my new laptop.

Get a PC (i'm a pc guy). Get a dell, and hunt around the internet for dell laptop cupon codes. My friend saved close to $800 on his laptop by simply finding a cupon code on a website and using it. I dont think that its illegal to so this, but not certain. Make sure your laptop has a processor geared towards mobility; my first laptop had a freakin pentium 4 in it and it regularly got nearly hot enough to cook an egg on. Almost too hot to touch. I dont know how it didnt fry. My new laptop has a pentium-m processor, 100GB hard drive, 1 gig of ram, radeon 9600 pro turbo vid card and a wide screen. I bought it like this over a year ago because I play video games on it, but wanted the storage of a 100GB hard drive so I could store my massive digital photography hobby on the hard drive as well.

Its really all about what are are going to use it for. Could you tell us what you are going to use your laptop for so we have a better idea as to what we should reccomend? EG: Rendering graphics, storage of media, games, schoolwork, downloading porn to help cure someones PE. etc.

[mad_mel]

I use word processing, PowerPoint, and internet browsing the most. I prefer to use Firefox as a browser. I also would want to use it with a SmartBoard, Inspiration, and possibly for some music downloading (i might keep my desktop for music).

Besides what to buy I would also like some advice on Specs ie RAM, Harddrive, type of processor etc.


Dell and HP's are both "user friendly" machines.

For what you will be using the computer for, you don't need anything fancy.

Im an intel person. So i would suggest the Intel Core Duo processor, 1-2gb of RAM and hdd doesn't really matter - depending on how much storage you need. You won't be playing any hardcore games, so a basic video card would do you fine. You can download firefox and any music d/ling software! :)

Imo, id go with a Dell or HP. Support is good, specs on a lot of the newer notebooks are decent as well. Good luck! :)

[Kuky]

Yeah, my Dell has treated me right (however, in my experience, their tech support has the collective intelligence of one of those long-legged mosquitos that just hang out on the bathroom ceilings in run down restaurants).

[IGemini]

With the fact that the new Apples are running (or going to run on) Intel hardware and the other stuff that PCs and Macs use are pretty much the same, plus the OSX interoperability, I'm not seeing the reason to get one. Apple's support window is pretty limited in some areas.

PCs run just as fine if people are aware of how to prevent all that headache. My advice, get a firewall. And not just an anti-virus. Norton is what I use, and this computer runs practically 24/7, it's powered off probably 2 days a month. It's also a 2-year old Dell.

I owned a Dell laptop. It ran hot, but it was running with a high-heated desktop processor. Dell and HP are nice ideas, but computer wholesale isn't a bad idea either (i.e. newegg.com & tigerdirect.com). Core Duo is the way to go. They should be dropping in price very soon.

Of course, this all depends on your budget.

[Kuky]

Yeah, my dell can run really hot, but a can of compressed air every other month or so will do the trick. In canada, you can find these sitting on the shelves at various electronics stores... in the states, you will find them locked away and you have to ask someone to get it for you, since that's the solution that was chosen (over parenting) to make kids stop sniffing that shit. I'm sorry, I appear to have gone to rant mode :D.