LAPTOPS

[pak1983]

Im thinking of buying a laptop and not sure what to get. I am relaly liking the macbook pro but it is damn pricey. The low tier mac book pro is 2k and the highend macbook is 1500. If you do a few upgrades to the regular macbook with memory its about the same. Only thing different is screen size and the screen really isnt that important to me. If Im at home using it I will have it plugged into a 27 inch lcd. Anybody here have any good advice on what laptops are good? that they have personally owned or used?

[recxjake]

wait untill jan 30th when microsoft vista comes out... I wold buy an HP... you get the most for the money

[pak1983]

vista will probably be really buggy at first eh?

[Phobia]

Now what you want is an Averatec. Best stuff ever.

[Vegas_Dave]

vista will probably be really buggy at first eh?

Actually... I have RC1 still installed on my main computer at home and really have not had a single problem with it.

It is VERY Mac'ish.

Unless there is some absolute reason that you MUST have a Mac, then for budget constraints, you will get much more bang for your buck by getting a PC with Vista.

We got my mother a new HP for Christmas that was absolutely unreal. Dual core 64bit Turion, 1gb RAM, 180gb hd, widescreen, DL DVD Burner, Media Center with a good photo HP printer & 6.1 megapixel camera for a total of $999.

[88TG88]

HP is pretty good

[PastorMikH]

I've got an HP with an AMD Turion processer and love it.

[pak1983]

thanks for the info, im using my roomies acer and it has a amd turion, i have never uploaded or downloaded anything on it so i dont know how well it performs, just surf web on it. i like the vaio's alot but they are pricey too. i have heard bad stuff about their laptops but my rents have a pc and its about 5 years old and still runs like a champ.

[88TG88]

i like the vaio's alot but they are pricey too. i have heard bad stuff about their laptops but my rents have a pc and its about 5 years old and still runs like a champ.
im using a vaio desktop right now and its great. had it for about 4 or 5 years and no big problems

[pak1983]

i had heard sony cpus sucked before they got theirs and i have been overly impressed by its performance. only had to reformat a few times and that was because of using kazaa back in the day. i have friends that have built cpus with really nice specs in the past couple years and they run nothing like the vaio pc. at the time it was purchased it was like 2400 so it was top of the line.

[Silock]

Get a refurbished Macbook.

[pak1983]

Get a refurbished Macbook.

where at?

[patteeu]

where at?

Refurbished Macs at the Apple Store (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=D8593B5A&nclm=CertifiedMac)

[pak1983]

looked up the refurb mac books and man thats a ****ing steal!!!

[The Rick]

Don't listen to all of these inferior Windows people. :p

Seriously, I switched to a Mac a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. One of the best decisions I've made. I picked up a Macbook this past summer and love it. It's been an awesome laptop for me.

[gblowfish]

I've had the 15" MacBookPro since April 06. It's been a really good laptop. Had a few minor problems. Battery went bad after six months, but Apple replaced it because it was still under warranty.

General Advice:
1) No matter what laptop you buy, get an extended warranty. Laptops get dragged around and beat around more than a desktop computer. If you use it everyday, definitely get the extended warranty.
2) 17" screen is too much screen for a laptop. 15" is better, because the desk footprint is smaller. If you take a 17" on a plane, it won't fit on the tray table.
3) Get a good computer bag. Line it with white packing foam sheets. It'll help keep the outer aluminum finish from getting scratched up.
4) Go to Apple's website and look for a re-furb, or try Small Dog Electronics. They often have good deals on Laptops. Or if you know a teacher, have the teacher buy one for you on the Apples for Teachers program.
5) Get at least a gig of ram. The basic laptop only comes with 500mb. The extra ram makes a big difference if you do any audio or video editing, or if you open ram heavy apps at the same time, like Photoshop and Illustrator at the same time. Good place to buy RAM is Other World Computing.

Links:
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
http://www.smalldog.com
http://macsales.com

[the Talking Can]

I'm looking for a laptop too..but waiting on vista

pisses me off though that standard set-ups still come with only 512mb memories...you can't do shit with that...they're recommending a gig just to run Vista smoothly...there seems to be a price point around $850....everything less is small memory or shitty processors....1GB and Core 2 Duo is $1000+....maybe I'm just greedy (I want 2GB and Core 2 under a grand...sue me)

but I know I don't want to buy something and upgrade to Vista...I'll wait for that to come installed...

[the Talking Can]

I'm looking for a laptop too..but waiting on vista

pisses me off though that standard set-ups still come with only 512mb memories...you can't do shit with that...they're recommending a gig just to run Vista smoothly...there seems to be a price point around $850....everything less is small memory or shitty processors....1GB and Core 2 Duo is $1000+....maybe I'm just greedy (I want 2GB and Core 2 under a grand...sue me)

but I know I don't want to buy something and upgrade to Vista...I'll wait for that to come installed...
of course I look at Dell and they have a Core processor and a 1GB of memory for 800....close..

now if only Word came preloaded...

[Lord Bestyle]

I agree: get the refurb MacBook (or Pro...depends on your screen/video requirements) get the AppleCare to take the warranty and phone support to 3 years. Max out the RAM. And since you're a long-time Windows user, pick up a copy of Parallels Desktop. There's bound to be a Windows app you'll miss. This will let you run it on the MB full speed and protects your software investments.