I’m in the market for a new laptop, not looking to spend over $1K for the whole package. I’m still toying with the idea of a mac, but the price & software incompatability/purchasing issues are steering me toward a PC/windows model. I’m not much of a brand whore, so any make & model that fits the bill (and won’t be obsolete in 2 years) will do. My usage will be primarily for education and communication. MS Office, Adobe Acrobat, maybe Itunes & a select few non-essential programs will be used. Very basic stuff here. Thin is good, but I don’t require the latest, greatest, thinnest Razor-style computer, just something to get the job done & not require a dufflebag to carry around. Screen size isn’t really important, but I prefer something in the 13" to 15" range.
If I decide to go with the PC, what are the minimum components I should be looking for? Assume I know nothing about the real-world implications of processor speed, RAM, hard drives, etc., (which is pretty much the case) and set me straight. Recommendations of make & model would be appreciated as well.
Now would be an okay time to buy with all of the “back to school” sales going on. It is really difficult to find a brand new machine with Windows XP so you’re likely stuck with Vista. Just make sure you get a minimum of 1 GB of RAM (2 is better). Don’t go below 80 GB on the hard drive. There seems to be a lot of competition in the $700 to $800 price point right now (sometime less with mail-in rebates).
Are you in college? If you are Apple has program with universities to get you a discount on Apple hardware. You might be able to get an Apple laptop for $1K. Check with your school.
Yep. Back to school after a few (ahem) years of earning my living. I checked with Apple and they do have a small discount, but I’m still looking at roughly $1,500 before I install any software, assuming I go with a 2GB model. Dell has a discount program as well, and I could probably put together a comparable package (software included) for just under $1000.
I do like the idea of a Mac, but would it make sense, considering that I frequently bounce back and forth between my current laptop, my home desktop and my work desktop, all of which are PCs? My wife is pulling for the Mac, mostly because her DNA sequencer at work runs Mac and she could work at home (or elsewhere) with a macbook. Maybe some appleheads could chime in and fill in the blanks for me.
The Intel Core 2 Duo chips rock the socks of AMD, at least for today. Nice thing about them is they generally run cool and don’t
use a lot of juice, both obviously very important in a laptop. So, that would be/is my preference.
we just purchased a new laptop yesterday. When it comes to computers, I tend to go with the “cheap” versions. Not too cheap, I like to get a decent amount of HD space and RAM memory. I rather spend $600 and have the $400 remaining towards a new one in a couple of years than spend $1000.
Here is what we bought, $599 plus tax. (after $200 mail in rebate but I’m the pro at filling those out and always do it anyways, copy everything and send it in with tracking and delivery confirmation). I think it was a very decent deal and we also like the look and feel.
The Pavilion dv2416us offers:
14.1"-diagonal widescreen WXGA (1280 x 800) BrightView LCD screen
Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-56 operating at 1.80GHz, with Enhanced Virus Protection†
1MB (512KB+512KB) L2 cache
Up to 1600MHz frontside bus
2.0GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory (2 x 1.0GB)
120GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive
LightScribe SuperMulti DVD drive with Double Layer support (reads/writes DVD±R/RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R Double Layer, CD-R/RW)
ExpressCard slot: supports ExpressCard/54 and ExpressCard/34
802.11a/b/g wireless LAN
10/100Base-T Ethernet network port
56K V.90 modem
3 USB 2.0 ports
1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port
1 S-video out port
1 notebook expansion port 3
Built-in 1.3-megapixel Webcam with omnidirectional microphone, for video chat and still photos
5-in-1 memory card reader: reads SD, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD-Picture Card
nVidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics with up to 559MB of shared memory
Altec Lansing audio with stereo speakers
1 microphone input jack and 2 headphone output jacks (1 stereo, 1 with SPDIF digital audio)
HP mobile remote control (stores in ExpressCard slot)
Stereo earbud headphones (1 pair)
Dimensions: 1 9/16"H x 13 1/8"W x 9 5/16"D
Weight: 5.4 lbs
Plus I like the easily, from the outside, removable battery. Whenever we don’t depend on the battery we can remove it to preserve its life.
The nice thing about the Apple computers is they are light. That is what first made me take notice of them. When my daughter went to college, I bought them a PC for their dorm and a laptop to carry around. Since weight was a major factor, I decided on Apples because they were the lightest at under 5 pounds. The PCs always required major support to keep running. The Apples do not require any support. Eventually, they all switched their desktops to mini Macs.
Are you kidding a whole 30 gig hd. You can fit a couple of programs and photos on there… And a whole 60 day warranty… wow. apple is a marketing machine… ugggh Macs are such a rip off…
I bought a not-so-cheap Dell back in April. It still isn’t their “gamer” machine, but it was some considerable steps higher than their $499 model. So far I am quite pleased with it. There are only two things that I can complain about, and they would be true of most laptops with Vista.
First, I have to wear my glasses to see OR I have to make the picture so big that I have to scroll all of the time. Both options are frustrating in their own right to me. I even have the “bigger” screen and it is still an issue.
Second, for some reason my e-mail gets a “frozen” outbox once in awhile. I know how to unfreeze it, but it is still a bit inconvenient. Apparently this is a bug in Vista that is not critical enough for MS to fix.
I bought the Lojack thing which is pretty cool security-wise. I also have the MS Streets and Trips with the GPS which is also very cool. I also bought their best battery upgrade which seems to give me about 5-7 hours off of the plug depending on whether I’m spinning the DVD-ROM and what the brightness is on the monitor.