Buying a new computer. - Got the Pro, new question again....

[Blake]

Well I did ask for suggestions on other computers, so if it helps me I guess its not spam :

 

 

 

Why a mac? For that price you could get a damn good PC that could be upgraded every year instead of having to buy a brand new mac.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you suggest some? I've been looking around, and sure you can find them with 500+ GB hard drives, 4GB ram and all that other stuff, but I haven't seen one with a 7 hour battery life, programs like iPhoto, no viruses and very little problems with anything. Plus none of them give an education discount or a free iTouch. If you find a good one, post it and ill look at it :

[Sbrideau]

Why a mac? For that price you could get a damn good PC that could be upgraded every year instead of having to buy a brand new mac.

I hope this link will suffice.

 

EDIT: Oh, and this one.

 

 

 

Personal experience is what led me to buy one. Several Tech and Computer users will testify to the troubles I have experienced with PC manufacturers, namely Dell. At first I thought along a similar line - that is was paying more for the same thing I could get from HP, Acer, Dell, etc. But it simply isn't. I'm the kind of person that doesn't mind paying more to more expensive local businesses. I don't mind paying a little extra to go to the hardware shop down the road despite its markup of like 20% compared to Sear's or Lowe's. They have friendly and knowledgeable staff and aid me whenever I need help (lately, they attached a 40 year old hammer to a new handle which saved me like $10) . If it works for me, it's worth paying a little extra.

 

 

 

Dell sucks, everyone knows it. If you want a good computer with Windows from a manufacturer, get an Asus or an HP.

[Blake]

My first computer was a Dell, didnt like it much. Do you think there would be any better choices than a Macbook pro?

[Sbrideau]

My first computer was a Dell, didnt like it much. Do you think there would be any better choices than a Macbook pro?

 

It all depends on what you want and what price you want to pay for it, it's all there is. If you want a Mac, go for a Mac, but if you want another brand, go for Asus or HP.

[Blake]

My first computer was a Dell, didnt like it much. Do you think there would be any better choices than a Macbook pro?

 

It all depends on what you want and what price you want to pay for it, it's all there is. If you want a Mac, go for a Mac, but if you want another brand, go for Asus or HP.

 

 

 

 

 

I am going to spend around $1000 on it. I just want it for a bit of everything, and college. I haven't seen anything that looks as good as a Mac in that price range though, if there is something, id be happy to look at it, if there isn't ill get a mac :

[ElkNight]

Im a little confused and dont want to read through every word of the thread.

 

 

 

You want a laptop right?

[Blake]

Yeah, I cant have a desktop cause I need it for college

[Nadril]

I'm sure laura will hate me for saying this, but you aren't going to get a good mac for $1000. Period. I think you could get the cheapest macbook which is pretty terrible by most standards. Plus in my opinion I think it would be better to get a laptop and put linux on it if you hate windows or something, would be better and cheaper.

 

 

 

Now onto what you want though, it depends if you want to game on it or not. I would recommend:

 

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834220566

 

 

 

This actually looks like an amazing deal. 2.5ghz Core2duo, 4GB Ram, GeForce 240M 1GB DDR3... Really nice for the price. And it's ASUS, a great brand.

[Nero]

I'm sure laura will hate me for saying this, but you aren't going to get a good mac for $1000. Period. I think you could get the cheapest macbook which is pretty terrible by most standards. Plus in my opinion I think it would be better to get a laptop and put linux on it if you hate windows or something, would be better and cheaper.

 

 

 

Now onto what you want though, it depends if you want to game on it or not. I would recommend:

 

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834220566

 

 

 

This actually looks like an amazing deal. 2.5ghz Core2duo, 4GB Ram, GeForce 240M 1GB DDR3... Really nice for the price. And it's ASUS, a great brand.

 

 

 

Plus you'll actually be able to play games with it, which since you say you're going to college, you will want to do.

[Hobgoblinpie]

Apple have a mindset like BOSE. They blow-up the prices for all of their items, therefore making people believe that they are paying for an extraordinary item. Like Apple with the iPod and BOSE with the iPod SoundDock. To get a good quality laptop for $1000, you're going to need to look at buying from someone like Asus or HP (as have already been mentioned).

[Laura]

I'm sure laura will hate me for saying this...

I don't know why everyone thinks this; I am an open-minded person who believes that what is good for one person might not be best for another.

 

 

 

The main reason I would advise against that notebook is that it's overall size dwarfs that of the a MacBook or MacBook Pro. It's two pounds heavier, two inches bigger, and has a battery life half that of a MacBook Pro or two hours less than a regular MacBook.

[Mil]

If you're willing to spend a little bit more, and want a stylish and cool looking laptop, then go for a Macbook. Though the Polycarbonate version isn't as up to date as the Macbook Pro's, it still has pretty good specs. As for Macbook Pro's not being able to play games...wtf? It has at least a 9400m and some also have the 9600m, just dual boot Windows 7 and you can play all games at a respectable quality. It's only due to a completely difference Operating System that it can't play all the same games as Windows.

 

 

 

Just stick with the original plan you stated on the first post.

[Nero]

If you're willing to spend a little bit more, and want a stylish and cool looking laptop, then go for a Macbook. Though the Polycarbonate version isn't as up to date as the Macbook Pro's, it still has pretty good specs. As for Macbook Pro's not being able to play games...wtf? It has at least a 9400m and some also have the 9600m, just dual boot Windows 7 and you can play all games at a respectable quality. It's only due to a completely difference Operating System that it can't play all the same games as Windows.

 

 

 

Just stick with the original plan you stated on the first post.

 

 

 

Yes, but most newbies in computers have no idea you can have different OSs on a computer.

 

 

 

Plus it's a bloody pain in the [wagon].

[Laura]

If you're willing to spend a little bit more, and want a stylish and cool looking laptop, then go for a Macbook. Though the Polycarbonate version isn't as up to date as the Macbook Pro's, it still has pretty good specs. As for Macbook Pro's not being able to play games...wtf? It has at least a 9400m and some also have the 9600m, just dual boot Windows 7 and you can play all games at a respectable quality. It's only due to a completely difference Operating System that it can't play all the same games as Windows.

 

 

 

Just stick with the original plan you stated on the first post.

 

 

 

Yes, but most newbies in computers have no idea you can have different OSs on a computer.

 

 

 

Plus it's a bloody pain in the [wagon].

What is a pain?

[Nero]

If you're willing to spend a little bit more, and want a stylish and cool looking laptop, then go for a Macbook. Though the Polycarbonate version isn't as up to date as the Macbook Pro's, it still has pretty good specs. As for Macbook Pro's not being able to play games...wtf? It has at least a 9400m and some also have the 9600m, just dual boot Windows 7 and you can play all games at a respectable quality. It's only due to a completely difference Operating System that it can't play all the same games as Windows.

 

 

 

Just stick with the original plan you stated on the first post.

 

 

 

Yes, but most newbies in computers have no idea you can have different OSs on a computer.

 

 

 

Plus it's a bloody pain in the [wagon].

What is a pain?

 

 

 

Switching between OSs just to play a game for a couple hours.

[Denismage]

 

 

 

Switching between OSs just to play a game for a couple hours.

 

 

 

Lol. Here's what it takes to boot into OS on a different hard drive:

 

 

 

1) Reboot

 

2) Enter bios

 

3) Change primary to secondary and secondary to primary

 

4) Save changes and reboot

 

 

 

Whole process takes less than 30 seconds.

[Laura]

 

 

 

Switching between OSs just to play a game for a couple hours.

 

 

 

Lol. Here's what it takes to boot into OS on a different hard drive:

 

 

 

1) Reboot

 

2) Enter bios

 

3) Change primary to secondary and secondary to primary

 

4) Save changes and reboot

 

 

 

Whole process takes less than 30 seconds.

It's actually easier than that! You can open up Bootcamp under Utilities and select Windows as your primary OS! You can do the same thing in Windows by clicking on the Bootcamp icon. If you ever want to boot into the secondary OS, you just hold the Option key upon startup or you can toggle the settings in whatever OS you happen to be using. And as Apple has begun further improving its line of graphics cards, more and more titles have begun supporting both operating systems.

 

 

 

In addition, there are several virtualization application available for OS X, both free and fee, that allow you to run Windows/Linux within OS X.

[Blake]

If you're willing to spend a little bit more, and want a stylish and cool looking laptop, then go for a Macbook. Though the Polycarbonate version isn't as up to date as the Macbook Pro's, it still has pretty good specs. As for Macbook Pro's not being able to play games...wtf? It has at least a 9400m and some also have the 9600m, just dual boot Windows 7 and you can play all games at a respectable quality. It's only due to a completely difference Operating System that it can't play all the same games as Windows.

 

 

 

Just stick with the original plan you stated on the first post.

 

 

 

Yes, but most newbies in computers have no idea you can have different OSs on a computer.

 

 

 

Plus it's a bloody pain in the [wagon].

 

 

 

I have 2 OS on my macbook now, I think its very easy ;)

 

There are only 3 games I might play - RS, Peggle, and Oblivion. Oblivion is the only one you need windows for.

 

Battery life and size are big for me, so I dont really like the Asus. I dont really like the looks of it either. But thanks for the suggestion! :)

[Denismage]

 

 

 

Switching between OSs just to play a game for a couple hours.

 

 

 

Lol. Here's what it takes to boot into OS on a different hard drive:

 

 

 

1) Reboot

 

2) Enter bios

 

3) Change primary to secondary and secondary to primary

 

4) Save changes and reboot

 

 

 

Whole process takes less than 30 seconds.

It's actually easier than that! You can open up Bootcamp under Utilities and select Windows as your primary OS! You can do the same thing in Windows by clicking on the Bootcamp icon. If you ever want to boot into the secondary OS, you just hold the Option key upon startup or you can toggle the settings in whatever OS you happen to be using. And as Apple has begun further improving its line of graphics cards, more and more titles have begun supporting both operating systems.

 

 

 

In addition, there are several virtualization application available for OS X, both free and fee, that allow you to run Windows/Linux within OS X.

 

 

 

Well, I don't have a mac (i think they are overpriced), but that's how I boot from linux to windows on my desktop.

 

 

 

Additionally you could use virtualbox, almost no performance loss except it can only use one core. You can run pretty much every OS on it, and the only limit to how many OS's you can have running using virtualbox is RAM. OS's are completely separated and if (for example) a virus affects a virtual OS, it won't affect the actual physical machine. The only bad part - can't play video games, but since my laptop has integrated video I don't care about that.

[Sbrideau]

quote snip

It's actually easier than that! You can open up Bootcamp under Utilities and select Windows as your primary OS! You can do the same thing in Windows by clicking on the Bootcamp icon. If you ever want to boot into the secondary OS, you just hold the Option key upon startup or you can toggle the settings in whatever OS you happen to be using. And as Apple has begun further improving its line of graphics cards, more and more titles have begun supporting both operating systems.

 

 

 

In addition, there are several virtualization application available for OS X, both free and fee, that allow you to run Windows/Linux within OS X.

 

 

 

It's not because of the video cards but because of the processor that Windows works on Apple computers now.

[Nero]

I generally boot up a game on a spur of the moment decision. By the time I go and do all that I don't feel like playing the game anymore.

 

 

 

Damnit, I want my youthful days when I could spend hours upon hours on a game back :(

[Blake]

I generally boot up a game on a spur of the moment decision. By the time I go and do all that I don't feel like playing the game anymore.

 

 

 

Damnit, I want my youthful days when I could spend hours upon hours on a game back :(

 

 

 

Just timed it, going from Mac os x, to windows, to playing oblivion took 1:42 minutes.

[Nero]

I generally boot up a game on a spur of the moment decision. By the time I go and do all that I don't feel like playing the game anymore.

 

 

 

Damnit, I want my youthful days when I could spend hours upon hours on a game back :(

 

 

 

Just timed it, going from Mac os x, to windows, to playing oblivion took 1:42 minutes.

 

 

 

See? By that time I would've already been distracted by some other shiny object.

[Denismage]

I generally boot up a game on a spur of the moment decision. By the time I go and do all that I don't feel like playing the game anymore.

 

 

 

Damnit, I want my youthful days when I could spend hours upon hours on a game back :(

 

 

 

Just timed it, going from Mac os x, to windows, to playing oblivion took 1:42 minutes.

 

 

 

See? By that time I would've already been distracted by some other shiny object.

 

 

 

Well, not all of us have a 5 second attention span.

[Laura]

Well, I get my copy tomorrow so I'll get back to you on how the latest build is.