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ok which laptop computer should I get?
- Thread starter bill4588
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May you say
I would wait for the Intel version. It looks like Apple will finally be putting graphics cards in all of their machines that can actually meet the minimum system requirements of their own software. And, hopefully, it looks like they will all be capable of HiDef video play back.
The only problem is that historically over the last few years Apple has been releasing consumer machines that would appeal most to college students around the time these students are moving into their dorms.
I would wait for the Intel version. It looks like Apple will finally be putting graphics cards in all of their machines that can actually meet the minimum system requirements of their own software. And, hopefully, it looks like they will all be capable of HiDef video play back.
The only problem is that historically over the last few years Apple has been releasing consumer machines that would appeal most to college students around the time these students are moving into their dorms.
for Felldownthewell: I've been looking at the HP dv1000 series and after I customize my own, it ends up being around $850. I also customized a Dell Inspiron 6000 and it is $1225 but i know a guy who works for them and can get dells for 40% off....
for Xephian: sorry I wont use caps from now on
for Xephian: sorry I wont use caps from now on
Open office (neooffice.org) is a great alternative also, as long as you dont'tmind how it looks (reminds me of windows 95 ). Anyways, it is a fully capable word precessor (and spreadsheet i believe, with some tinkering). It also saves into word compatible format. But I would defidently stick with the iBook. Its a tank, and as other people have said, OS X is the difference. But I also agree with them that you should wait until April to see what happpens with the new intel chips.
). Anyways, it is a fully capable word precessor (and spreadsheet i believe, with some tinkering). It also saves into word compatible format. But I would defidently stick with the iBook. Its a tank, and as other people have said, OS X is the difference. But I also agree with them that you should wait until April to see what happpens with the new intel chips.
Initial Cost of Ownership versus long term cost
Are you keeping the notebook for 2-3 years? and how important is it going to be for you to keep the notebook's software up to date?
I know that Microsoft is releasing Windows Vista at the end of this year and in 2 years XP won't be supported nearly as well as it is today. If you buy a low end Wintel notebook (Windows + Intel = wintel) in 2 years its likely the machine will be crawling during normal every day operations with applications like aim and word.
Consider instead that even an 800mhz G4 Powerbook or 900mhz G3 iBook from several years ago equipped with some fairly inexpensive RAM will run just about every single task at a fairly quick speed with no expensive upgrades.
Now lets also put the software tax in the equation.
Your campus (if its even remotely big) will force upon you/provide antivirus for your PC, it will be sub-par to many other solutions and you will have to spend tons of time wiping and restoring the machine to solve those problems. If you are like most users then you won't require the latest and greatest software, yet you will find it necessary to pay for software to fill the gap left by your universities inadequate antivirus solution.
Lets put this in financial terms because this post is getting out of hand in length.
Windows – Initial Cost + Estimated long term costs (if bought from dell)
-- Initial Cost --
$1000 + sales tax (i.e. $150??) + shipping ($99) = $1250
Add an extra $250 if you get the extended warranty for an extra 2 years of support.
-- Estimation –-
$70 / yearly for all necessary Security software (antivirus + antispam + antispyware + firewall)
$100 in lost hourly revenue (as a college student over a 12 month period) from sitting on the phone wasting time talking to Indians in Bangladesh who (try as they might) don’t speak clear understandable English.
-- Total –-
$1,250 initially and an annual $170 to keep it's software up to date and $250 for repairs from time to time.
$1,670 estimated total for the first two years of using it.
Mac – Initial Cost + Estimated long term costs
$949 + sales tax (i.e. $150??) + shipping ($0.00) = $1100
Add an extra $183 for the extra three years of warranty coverage and support.
Estimation
$59 a year for iLife updates if you find it necessary to keep your entertainment software at the latest version.
$69 a year for an absolutely necessary upgrade of the OS X operating system - Not for the features but because most software writers drop support for the old OS X versions when releasing updated software themselves.
$0.00 for each visit to the Mac store if you simply schedule a time to come in and drop the product off for repairs under the initial warranty or during the Applecare time.
Total
$1,100 initial and $130 annually to keep it's software up to date and $183 for repairs from time to time.
$1,413 estimated for the first two years.
Believe it or not though you will find that here people tend to be very biased (I myself can probably be included in that group). You may be saying “well yeah but I asked on a Mac Forum so I expect that” what may elude you in that line of thought is that most of us have seen both sides of the world. This is certainly something you won’t hear on the Dell forums or even find on most other geek community sites. In fact I used a PC notebook for 5 years prior to switching and I never had a single virus, popup, or other security related problem that I couldn’t handle. So why switch? That’s a long story but in the end I’m glad I did.
Are you keeping the notebook for 2-3 years? and how important is it going to be for you to keep the notebook's software up to date?
I know that Microsoft is releasing Windows Vista at the end of this year and in 2 years XP won't be supported nearly as well as it is today. If you buy a low end Wintel notebook (Windows + Intel = wintel) in 2 years its likely the machine will be crawling during normal every day operations with applications like aim and word.
Consider instead that even an 800mhz G4 Powerbook or 900mhz G3 iBook from several years ago equipped with some fairly inexpensive RAM will run just about every single task at a fairly quick speed with no expensive upgrades.
Now lets also put the software tax in the equation.
Your campus (if its even remotely big) will force upon you/provide antivirus for your PC, it will be sub-par to many other solutions and you will have to spend tons of time wiping and restoring the machine to solve those problems. If you are like most users then you won't require the latest and greatest software, yet you will find it necessary to pay for software to fill the gap left by your universities inadequate antivirus solution.
Lets put this in financial terms because this post is getting out of hand in length.
Windows – Initial Cost + Estimated long term costs (if bought from dell)
-- Initial Cost --
$1000 + sales tax (i.e. $150??) + shipping ($99) = $1250
Add an extra $250 if you get the extended warranty for an extra 2 years of support.
-- Estimation –-
$70 / yearly for all necessary Security software (antivirus + antispam + antispyware + firewall)
$100 in lost hourly revenue (as a college student over a 12 month period) from sitting on the phone wasting time talking to Indians in Bangladesh who (try as they might) don’t speak clear understandable English.
-- Total –-
$1,250 initially and an annual $170 to keep it's software up to date and $250 for repairs from time to time.
$1,670 estimated total for the first two years of using it.
Mac – Initial Cost + Estimated long term costs
$949 + sales tax (i.e. $150??) + shipping ($0.00) = $1100
Add an extra $183 for the extra three years of warranty coverage and support.
Estimation
$59 a year for iLife updates if you find it necessary to keep your entertainment software at the latest version.
$69 a year for an absolutely necessary upgrade of the OS X operating system - Not for the features but because most software writers drop support for the old OS X versions when releasing updated software themselves.
$0.00 for each visit to the Mac store if you simply schedule a time to come in and drop the product off for repairs under the initial warranty or during the Applecare time.
Total
$1,100 initial and $130 annually to keep it's software up to date and $183 for repairs from time to time.
$1,413 estimated for the first two years.
Believe it or not though you will find that here people tend to be very biased (I myself can probably be included in that group). You may be saying “well yeah but I asked on a Mac Forum so I expect that” what may elude you in that line of thought is that most of us have seen both sides of the world. This is certainly something you won’t hear on the Dell forums or even find on most other geek community sites. In fact I used a PC notebook for 5 years prior to switching and I never had a single virus, popup, or other security related problem that I couldn’t handle. So why switch? That’s a long story but in the end I’m glad I did.
While many people have posted some great responses, I would also like to add a bit from my own experience. I am currently a sophomore in undergraduate work and own a 12" 1.33 ghz ibook purchased last summer. I went a year without a laptop, working on my dell desktop, and was able to see how all of my new friends fared.
First of all, I cant stress how important portability is on a college campus. A lot of my friends shot for the stars with their laptops and purchased the most powerful, largest screened goliath they could find. All of them regretted this decision, for the simple reason that it was an absolute pain to take anywhere. So from whichever company you purchase from make sure you dont mind walking around, with a book/notebooks with it. Being able to take it to the library, to lab, to the couch, to a friends room, is incredibly useful.
Second of all, make sure that it has solid build quality, but more importantly, good reputation for reliability and stability. The last thing you want is for your primary computer to crap out in the middle of a big project/paper. Furthermore, unless you really have a passion for it, weekly/monthly cleanings is not a good thing for the busy undergrad.
After taking all of these things into consideration, I decided to make the switch and couldn't be happier. While it may be true that you can currently get higher specs for the price on a windows machine, will you be sacrificing portability, reliability, or convenience for it? The current ibook will more than satisfy your needs, and then some (including beginning vid/photo editing for the every once in a while). However, my recommendation is wait a few months, or even several. While it may be excruciating for the graduating senior with enough gift money to burn a hole in iron man's pocket, I would see what intel has in store for the iBook. You may be pleasantly surprised. Plus the education discounts and Student Union deals in the summer puts the icing on the metaphorical cake.
First of all, I cant stress how important portability is on a college campus. A lot of my friends shot for the stars with their laptops and purchased the most powerful, largest screened goliath they could find. All of them regretted this decision, for the simple reason that it was an absolute pain to take anywhere. So from whichever company you purchase from make sure you dont mind walking around, with a book/notebooks with it. Being able to take it to the library, to lab, to the couch, to a friends room, is incredibly useful.
Second of all, make sure that it has solid build quality, but more importantly, good reputation for reliability and stability. The last thing you want is for your primary computer to crap out in the middle of a big project/paper. Furthermore, unless you really have a passion for it, weekly/monthly cleanings is not a good thing for the busy undergrad.
After taking all of these things into consideration, I decided to make the switch and couldn't be happier. While it may be true that you can currently get higher specs for the price on a windows machine, will you be sacrificing portability, reliability, or convenience for it? The current ibook will more than satisfy your needs, and then some (including beginning vid/photo editing for the every once in a while). However, my recommendation is wait a few months, or even several. While it may be excruciating for the graduating senior with enough gift money to burn a hole in iron man's pocket, I would see what intel has in store for the iBook. You may be pleasantly surprised. Plus the education discounts and Student Union deals in the summer puts the icing on the metaphorical cake.
bill4588 said:for Felldownthewell: I've been looking at the HP dv1000 series and after I customize my own, it ends up being around $850. I also customized a Dell Inspiron 6000 and it is $1225 but i know a guy who works for them and can get dells for 40% off....
for Xephian: sorry I wont use caps from now on
As I sit here at my dell desktop, I would advise you against a dell notebook, simply because our family's Pentium 3 dell notebook has problems far beyond the obvious ones of being a P3 dell (i.e. viruses, spyware I simply cannot get rid of, general slow-as-molasses performance...the list goes on and on)
HP makes pretty good machines, when I was shopping around, they were high on my list of possibilities (until I discovered apple and alienware), and they are great with pricing. I would say pick them over dell if you go with a windows machine (other people feel free to challenge me here, I speak only from my experiance)
For what you want to be doing, I would still suggest the intel ibook, or even a G4 ibook (which should be cheaper after the intel is released), but really it is personal preferance.
Xephian: Whatever. Paragraphs are for school. But I will pretend that macrumors is a school. Just a much more entertaining one...
Others make some great arguements, but my school for the pc guys, allows them to download a free anti-virus/spyware.. so yah, you may have that for free for 4 years..
lol im prob comming off as anti-mac, and i really don't mean to me.. i mean personally.. why do you need the laptop now? i am almost positive there will be something with a intel in a ibook, and apple offers some kick-ass back to school offers..like the free ipod plus printer..etc (what i got).. i mean unless your dreading it now..i'd wait till closer to school (June-ish) lol
lol im prob comming off as anti-mac, and i really don't mean to me.. i mean personally.. why do you need the laptop now? i am almost positive there will be something with a intel in a ibook, and apple offers some kick-ass back to school offers..like the free ipod plus printer..etc (what i got).. i mean unless your dreading it now..i'd wait till closer to school (June-ish) lol