Searchin for a laptop for school. Fuck all that desktop bullshit. I have one, but it's bombed out about now. Lookin into mac vs. pc. I understand mac has less viruses, supposedly isn't quite as user friendly even though I've never seen a problem with it? Pc Is disease ridden but more friendly towards apps and more stuff made for it... so on and so forth.
But there's stuff I don't know, so weigh in with what you think, ideas, suggestions.... If you just post one or the other without a reason, I'll take every aids/ghonnasyphiherpilitus/rabes infested sheep that's ever been touched by Coy/John/Plan B/Jimmy? and will sick them on your first born. Kthxbai
I was more weighing towards the Dell Studio 17 decked out with extras... Priced at just about the same as a mac pro, but I see everything that's going into it... The macpro doesn't list hardly anything, so I have no idea what I would be getting in the complete package.
__________________
Stage Slow...
It's gone... Back to Stock For Realz
I rock dells i love mine man i just got it 2 months ago and its awesome inspiron 1525, its nothing to gangster but it gets the job done and is super fast
HP or Mac. Those are the only stable platforms that I have ever seen. I have owned Dell's, Viao's, Toshiba and all of those were crashing, locking up POS. The HP that I have now has never locked up (ever) and we have only had it go down on us 2 times, both were because of updates to the Vista (yea from MS for crashing my LT).
The Mac's are not cheap. You can get a good HP but it will lack the power for game play. To get a good HP that plays games and such, bring money. For the price that I paid for my last Vaio I could have had 2 HP's set up similar to the Vaio. Sony makes a great gaming console, they make a shit ass horrible laptop.
stay away from vista if you have no idea how to use a computer, vista is the best OS that MS has came out with. you just have to know how to take advantage of the software.
I'm not techno stupid. Just not up to date. Nothing some searching and learning wouldn't cure. Prefering to spend less than or around 2k. Not as much a gaming computer, I'll just set up my desktop for that sort of application. I hadn't heard that about vista... Heard it sucked hard. I got a bootleg copy when it was longhorn, but it was early beta so never took any mind to the bugs.
Thanks for the info John. My parents had a vaio and it's all we had for a couple years while growing up and all I can say is Eff the shiz. Worst laptop I've been around IMO. I've dealt with the early inspirons, but wasn't impressed... but dell notebooks have stepped up as of late, so I'm definitely up for one. I'll check out some HP models and see what the biz is.
It was 98, and yeah for the consumer market, it seemed to be the most well made one out there. I personally still think win 2000 is the most stable. It's like xp, but not as pretty, and personally I don't think too highly of vista from what I've had to deal with so far. That alone might be enough to consider Apple. I haven't used one since the toaster computers of the early 90s, but from what everyone says, they are superior in performance. You could also consider using alternative OSes, but I don't think they'll offer the best app support for school needs. So its MS or Apple, as it always has been, long live capitalism!
From an IT perspective, the most reliable machines I have worked with were Dell Latitudes. They are the business-end machines, so they are built better, more rugged, and offer better support than the Inspiron line. You don't see as many bells and whistles but it's a tradeoff. Dell tend to have blowout sales on them about once a quarter. I don't have enough experience with Dell's consumer line of laptops to make a recommendation, but I don't see why they wouldn't stand behind their product.
I run a Toshiba for my personal machine...because it was free. I worked with the Tecra line in my last job and I missed the Dells every day.
I suppose the choice comes down to what you want in a laptop. If you want a 10-lb desktop replacement that is a 17" screen monster that is a 'portable theater' laptop, they have them. If you want a medium sized laptop that you can bring class-to-class and fits in your backpack, there are plenty of those, too. They even have the new class of laptops, the teeny tiny ones by ASUS and MSI that run around $500 and run Linux.
Mac or PC? It's a matter of preference. Again, from an IT perspective, I'm a PC guy because PC means business. PC means Vista, which as moster said, isn't as bad and everyone perports. It's a very stable OS. People just get annoyed about the perpetual confirmations about anything that can wreck your computer. These can be disabled, but frankly, they don't bother me anymore. It is the most secure platform yet, and if you run a laptop that is 'designed for Vista' or whatever marketing sticker they use, the hardware will be beefy enough to run the OS and keep it stable, and run your applications as well.
Macs are good for multimedia and other production. If you're going to art college or will be doing most of your work in Photoshop or pretty much any Adobe application, Mac is the way to go as it has the most support. I'm not saying that PCs can't do a fantastic job of multimedia, because they do, but Apples are geared more toward production. Also, if you need to have the sexy hardware and don't mind spending an extra $700 to have it, Apple is the brand.
Many people don't realize that Apples run a version of Linux called FreeBSD. It's an OS 'inspired' by UNIX and is a very secure and stable platform. Apple ditched their crappy OS with OS X and has been a pretty good OS since.
By that token, I also run a free 'UNIX inspired' os called Linux-Ubuntu specifically, and I run it on the aforementioned toshiba machine. It has all the goofy window and video effects, too. I wouldn't recommend it since you can't really install any off-the-shelf software on it. There is plenty of software for it, however. It even comes bundled with a free version of a suite like Office and it does about 80% of what Office can do. It comes with a graphics program like Photoshop that does about 70% of what Photoshop can do..so there are alternatives out there if you like to tinker.
So, it basically comes down to your needs and what works best for you. If you've used a PC your whole life, you'll need to learn a new OS if you go to the Mac and vice-versa. Don't let the fanboys persuade you because there are a LOT of them..almost all of them on the Mac side. It's because they are a small minority of computer users (less than 10% of total computer market share-up from 2% before OS X) and they are pretty passionate about their computers.
Thanks James. Tons of info. I thought about an alternate OS, I've used linux systems before, I've seen ubuntu, but I'm not a big enough part of the nerd herd to deal with everything that comes along with a system like that. Not to diss on those who do :P That part of computers just eluded me to where I didn't want to learn as much. I failed pascal I've used macs, never owned one. Had a couple of friends in the military who had them and enjoyed them. But if Vista is more stable than purported, I will definitely lean more towards that way because it's a familiar OS. I also see what you're saying with the computers being built to make it stable. Last time I shopped for computers, the options for ram were 256 and 512 lulz. Now my options are 2 gig and 4 gig. Only thing I can say is..... Oh gawd I wish I could afford alienware.
mehh....dude, I dont run a website on my computer, nor do I do the gmaing shit......I bought a 400 dollar laptop from best buy, it was a compaq, and i upgraded to 2 gig of ram and it works just fine.....alls i do is come on line to talk shit here, and look at dirty movies....
I have a friend who built his own gaming system and put $3K into it, with $800 into the video cards alone. He's a fucking nutcase. But hey, outside of work, he probably spends another 10 hours a day gaming so it's worthwhile to him. Serious gaming requires a desktop machine anyway. Some high-end laptops can do it, but not as well as a well-built desktop would for a cheaper price. Plus, they get hot as fuck.
Enjoy whatever you end up buying. RAM is the big thing to have now and it's cheap. Hard drives are so fucking huge now that unless you store your (or someone elses lol) DVD collection on the hard drive you won't fill it up. That depends, though since I have a modest desktop at home but it has a total of about 2TB of storage and a lot of it is pretty full heh.
So, get a dual-core machine, get 2-4GB of ram, 320GB hard drive and you'll be set for a few years. Make sure the laptop has a video output so you can connect it to a TV. Almost all of them have S-video but it's limited to DVD-quality video (interlaced). If you can, see if the laptop had HDMI or DVI out for high-def. Bluetooth is pretty standard now as is 802.11n wifi. Some of the new laptops come with WiMAX, which is a wide-area wifi like Clearwire. Don't pay extra for the feature unless you plan to subscribe. I usually shy away from extended warranties but in the case of a laptop, get at least 3 years with a 'no questions asked' replacement/repair plan. It'll pay dividends. Make sure to drop it down the stairs after 3 years
Yeah, don't spend more than you really need to. When I build/rebuild my computer it usually ends up being way overkill, good enough to game with, but yet all I do is check email, look at dirty movies and the sort, so all this expensive hardware does me no good. Go to fry's or best buy and play with a few to make sure your getting something decent. Specs can look good, but real world use can differ quite a bit. BTW, OS X is based off of freebsd? Anyone ever use Be OS?
AutoForums.com is the premier network of enthusiast-owned
enthusiast-operated automotive communities.
We operate more than 100 automotive forums where our users consult peers for shopping information and advice, and share
experiences and opinions as a community.
Which Laptop To Get?!
I've used macs, never owned one. Had a couple of friends in the military who had them and enjoyed them. But if Vista is more stable than purported, I will definitely lean more towards that way because it's a familiar OS. I also see what you're saying with the computers being built to make it stable. Last time I shopped for computers, the options for ram were 256 and 512 lulz. Now my options are 2 gig and 4 gig. Only thing I can say is..... Oh gawd I wish I could afford alienware.
Linear Mode
