I Need a New Laptop

[mbryson]

Mac is the best. Adobe suite for design is nice for me. I just love the user friendly attributes. The basic white macbook is on sale right now for $750. Lot of bang for your buck. I've owned this one for over 2 years and feel like it's just breaking in. My previous PC had a life span of only a year and a half. Mac is quality.

There are those of us that have been using Windoze for quite some time. Believe me, it's not an easy conversion. I had the opportunity to "convert" to the Mac religion for over 4 years at my old job. Despite a Mac being the only machine on my desk for at least 6 months, I'm still a primary PC user. There are great things about the Mac, but they really aren't the silver bullet the Mac religion preaches.

If you buy some decent hardware for a PC (let's say comparable to a Mac?), I think you'll have a similar experience with a PC. If you're comparing a $400 pc to a $2500 MacBook Pro, I wonder which one would be the winner?

For the record, I really liked my MacBook Pro (my 6 month conversion machine) but I found that I just started working in Parellels more than it was worth so I bought the current D620 I'm typing on right now (that was at least 3 years ago....shouldn't it have self destructed by now?). Before that I had a $3500 G5 workstation and after the MacBook Pro went to a $1800 iMac. The iMac was my least favorite of the bunch.

I like the Mac, but the bulk of users drive me nuts.

I swear I'm the only pc user with piles of computers around my house that all still work. I have no idea how you guys kill your hardware so fast... and I'm not nice to them either.

I'm with Shane. What the hell happens to your hardware that makes your PC junk?

 

[Shawn]

Marc, Since I have limited knowledge of the laptop world, what would you suggest I pick up as far as a Dell? I get on Dell's website and I start building one and I can't help but think bigger is better, next thing you know my budget is gone. Is it really worth the money to get the most memory and speed? I know, it depends on what you are going to use it for... I guess what I want to know is, what would You order.

Thanks,

 

[mbryson]

Marc, Since I have limited knowledge of the laptop world, what would you suggest I pick up as far as a Dell? I get on Dell's website and I start building one and I can't help but think bigger is better, next thing you know my budget is gone. Is it really worth the money to get the most memory and speed? I know, it depends on what you are going to use it for... I guess what I want to know is, what would You order.

Thanks,

Bigger is better, but I think you can get a respectable system for around $1000-1200? You may or may not want to add the supplemental video card.

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My System Details
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.40GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 800Mhz) Dual Core edit
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[GOAT]

Ive been really happy with dell laptops. I've owned many of them since the 90s, and being from Austin, I'm a bit biased


The one I'm using now is an older than dirt 02' inspiron 2650 that I bought second hand in 2004. It has been dropped and abused numerous times and the worst damage it has are few cracks here in the case. No failures.

Parts are cheap and someone as inept as my myself can work on them.


I did enjoy the old IBM thinkpads though:-\

 

[78mitsu]

Well, the panel were the power button fell off, one of the hinges holding the screen broke so my screen flops around, and now it won't even boot. Ya, it's done...

what model is it exactly, I may have parts.

 

[Green Leader]

I swear I'm the only pc user with piles of computers around my house that all still work. I have no idea how you guys kill your hardware so fast... and I'm not nice to them either.

I could keep all my computers working in my house but i got tired of rebuilding the damn things it seems thats just what you do with PC's. I haven't had to do anything with my MAC.

And their laptops are nice as hell you do pay for them more upfront but they payoff in the long run.

 

[rockdog]

My son spilled water on his hp laptop. Is it worth trying to fix or would it be cheaper to just buy a new one? I have zero computer knowledge so be kind to me.

 

[mbryson]

I could keep all my computers working in my house but i got tired of rebuilding the damn things it seems thats just what you do with PC's. I haven't had to do anything with my MAC.

And their laptops are nice as hell you do pay for them more upfront but they payoff in the long run.

My kids are still using two XP machines that were built at least 5 years ago. They download anything and everything. I'm not sure what issues you're having?

 

[jet_aj]

I have 3 ACER laptops, an Aspire 15xx that I've had for about 4 years and it has worked flawless. I used it at work (in the shop with all sorts of gunk flying about). I have an ACER Tablet PC and just got one of the new ACER ONE small laptops and love being able to take it with me where ever i go and be able to pull pictures off my camera. I've never had any problems with any of my Acer's.

Good luck in your search

 

[Tacoma]

how do you like that Acer One??? I was thinking they would rock for a travel notebook, they're tiny!

And tell me about the tablet?? I may get into one for general use/graphics.

 

[waynehartwig]

Marc, Since I have limited knowledge of the laptop world, what would you suggest I pick up as far as a Dell? I get on Dell's website and I start building one and I can't help but think bigger is better, next thing you know my budget is gone. Is it really worth the money to get the most memory and speed? I know, it depends on what you are going to use it for... I guess what I want to know is, what would You order.

Thanks,

IMO, get the min memory and HDD they have and buy bigger elsewhere - You can get top memory cheaper in the 'aftermarket' world than through Dell and that will save you quite a bit. Things like video card, video size, etc are what they are though.

Also, what is your old laptop? I might have spare parts taht would fix it Also, if you look on ebay you would probably find parts cheap. If you don't know how to fix it, I'm sure someone can help or you can send it to me and I'll fix it - up until 2 years ago, I was certified on all of Dell's products from laptops, to desktops, to printers, to flat panels.

 

[jet_aj]

how do you like that Acer One??? I was thinking they would rock for a travel notebook, they're tiny!

And tell me about the tablet?? I may get into one for general use/graphics.

I really like the Acer One for traveling. Its small yet powerful enough to do anything I need while traveling. It takes a little getting used to the keyboard because it is smaller than a normal keyboard. It will almost fit in my wife's purse... almost. It is also great to carry in a back pack to download pics off my camera when i fill up the memory cards. The battery lasts pretty good, and they offer larger batteries for even longer use away from a plug.

The tablet PC is nice for sitting on the couch surfing the net, my wife uses it about every day so surf around or play solitaire. The stylus pen really makes it quick to surf around, no messing with the touch pad, just tap on the link you want with the pen. I dont know that I would have a tablet PC as a primary laptop because of the extra cost of it. I'm not sure if the touch resolution would be all that great for doing much graphical drawing/ect. A touch sketch pad would probably give you better results, but if your doing graphical enhancement on photos it might be nice to have the portability and the touch screen/tablet

 

[Tacoma]

Thanks... That's pretty much what I was thinking, on both machines. Graphics tablets ARE better for real graphic work, but I'm contemplating using it as sort of a large digital sketchbook, if that makes any sense... I will likely talk myself out of it though, and just overpaint digital pics... as I'm not ever going to do digital work, just sketch out really rough ideas for traditional paintings.

 

[NoTrax]

I would highly recommend the Dell outlet, you can get a 1200-1500 laptop for about 500-700