Labtops

[Mil]

If you need to ask about buying a Mac, you shouldn't buy one.

[Askthedude]

Guys, I dont need advice on how to save money, I really have no problem dishing out a few hundred dollars and getting a mac, simply because its a mac. What I am mainly looking into is the usage of it overseas, and general travelling. I figured the air would be too fragile, and i hear it has no dvd player, which I think iis horrible, so I am looking into the smaller version of macbook pro's right now.

 

I own a macbook myself and have found the experience much better then with some of the windows ones I have had before, so I think we should drop the whole PC, Mac argument.

 

 

Im leaning towards getting the 1200$ macbook pro just because its more then what my sister will need, plus im sure she will love it, she's not a serious computer user, and it is a bit difficult to get internet in the country i am taking it to.

 

Also a sidebar, If i purchased a gaming system would it be compatable with things overseas? Probably a silly question but I'd figure I ask it anyway, also, mobile phones?

Why not ask her if she has any preferences? I can't personally justify the expense of a mac, but if you can then by all means go ahead, so long as you know that there are definitely 'pc' equivilants.

 

Yeah, if you bought a gaming computer it should be compatible with power overseas, so long as the voltage is the same and/or it has a voltage switch on the PSU (applies to desktops only). If it is a desktop by the way, don't buy a prebuilt - make one.

It wont be a desktop, it will be something i can take in my carry on!! :)

If you're wanting a "gaming" laptop look for something with a nvidia 540m, 555m, or 560m or an ati 5790m I think it is. Anything less will struggle with newish games at decent framerates. Notebookcheck.net is a great comparison site for mobile graphics chips.

[cheeky16]

Sounds like you have it all figured out. The $1200 MacBook Pro is a great machine. It's what I use all the time. For the gaming laptop, I would likely check out some ASUS laptops. I've talked to a couple guys at school with them and they were quite happy with them. I wouldn't be bothered too much with the mac haters in the forum. I can definitely see their point of a high price tag but price isn't everything to some people. I have also had better reliability with my Mac than I have with any windows pc. Including my desktops over the years.

[Guy]

Sounds like you have it all figured out. The $1200 MacBook Pro is a great machine. It's what I use all the time. For the gaming laptop, I would likely check out some ASUS laptops. I've talked to a couple guys at school with them and they were quite happy with them. I wouldn't be bothered too much with the mac haters in the forum. I can definitely see their point of a high price tag but price isn't everything to some people. I have also had better reliability with my Mac than I have with any windows pc. Including my desktops over the years.

Hey, I wouldn't mind them if they weren't so overpriced, and I can't consciously recommend something to someone who doesn't totally understand what they're talking about and have them pay more than they need to. By all means, get one, but understand, as I said before, that you can get the equivilant for much much cheaper, just without the nice logo. Price isn't everything to some people, correct, but I would hope that given the opportunity most people would opt to save 1/4 of what they're paying. Mac's are more technophobe-proof and don't allow you to do as much as windows OS does, so you can't as easily go and delete System32.

[Kaphias]

Meh, Macs aren't worth the overprice. Just in class, one guy has a $3000 Macbook (Pro I think) while the other guy has an Asus republic of gamers with much better specs that he got for $1400.

If specs were everything, I wouldn't be using my Mac right now.

Specs are not everything, as you said. Brand also has something to do. If you had a Dell or emachines, it's normal that you're having better experience with a Mac, but if you had an Asus, you'd regret buying a mac.

I buy a Mac 25% for the hardware+computer, 75% for the OS. I love my homebuilt computer- it's fast, cheap, and easy to upgrade. But it can't (legally) run OSX.

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The base MBP that you're looking at will serve your sister fine.

[pal2002]

Why are we all suggesting laptops? OP clearly wanted a labtop. :P

[Sbrideau]

Sounds like you have it all figured out. The $1200 MacBook Pro is a great machine. It's what I use all the time. For the gaming laptop, I would likely check out some ASUS laptops. I've talked to a couple guys at school with them and they were quite happy with them. I wouldn't be bothered too much with the mac haters in the forum. I can definitely see their point of a high price tag but price isn't everything to some people. I have also had better reliability with my Mac than I have with any windows pc. Including my desktops over the years.

 

I'm not a hater. If you want a mac, get one. I would definitely get one if it was affordable. And about reliability, there is a simple reason for that. Apple has to make drivers for very few hardware. Windows has drivers for millions of computers with different hardware. Pulled the numbers out of my ass, but still, that is the reality here. Plus Apple doesn't make their macbooks backwards compatible while MS does.

 

Except I'm not going to suggest getting something overpriced when I had very good experience and reliability from Windows/Linux based computers.

[cheeky16]

Those are all fair reasons to get windows for sure. I actually prefer my windows machine to OSX. But like it was said, they are pretty much idiot proof. There are very few drivers that Apple needs to release to keep their machines running. The price tag is still quite high but I bet if you asked macbook owners if they would drop that much cash on one again they would say yes. I'm not sure how fast laptops are able to startup running windows but my macbook starts in about 16 seconds to a fully operational OSX. It is on an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD though, but my desktop with like 10x the power takes almost a minute to fire up.

 

Also, when I read the comment about having good luck with windows and linux I have a strange view about you. Not in a bad way of course, but in comparison to most of the general public. The linux part instantly says to me that you're very comforatble using a computer and learning new things. Which is good as far as I'm concerned, I haven't had enough time to play around enough myself(yet). The majority of people posting are comfortable with the issues that may arise with drivers, virues, etc. But not everyone is. So the idiot proof mac is often nice to use if you don't know the ins and outs of windows. I've had my fair share of little issues.

 

I'd get a MacBook for a laptop and a Custom Build for my desktop. That's what I have and I would do it again anyday.

[Lacoste]

Just to clarify, my sister isnt technologically suave, and I would like to make sure that she can operate it frequently, consistently and reliably, i may be biased only because i found a mac really easy to use opposed to other ones i've tried. No serious gaming to be played, i was going to get a air but there is no dvd player, which bugged me alot, knowing her she will just want to casually browse the internet, upload/store photos, and watch movies/televsion.

[Sbrideau]

I wouldn't go for the air personally, especially if you/your sister are going to be moving around a bit with it. I would go for the pro which isn't as fragile as the air.

[Robert_R]

If you're going to waste your money on a laptop that's twice what it's worth because there's a picture of an apple on it at least get a macbook pro instead of an air. I'm not a fan of apple but I'm not going to bash the laptop it's a good laptop it's just majorly over priced. In other words, you're paying twice as much because apple restricts their operating system to their laptops (works for them well) so they don't really have to compete much if someone is set on OSx. I'm a much bigger promoter of a pc with much higher specs for half the price with a dual boot of linux and windows though. Specifically Asus laptops and I'm actually leaning in the direction of a Dell XPS with an i7 and 8gb of RAM right now.

[Guy]

Just to clarify, my sister isnt technologically suave, and I would like to make sure that she can operate it frequently, consistently and reliably, i may be biased only because i found a mac really easy to use opposed to other ones i've tried. No serious gaming to be played, i was going to get a air but there is no dvd player, which bugged me alot, knowing her she will just want to casually browse the internet, upload/store photos, and watch movies/televsion.

Windows 7 really isn't hard to use.

[cheeky16]

Yes but all versions of windows can be messed up by changing the wrong settings or not having it properly protected. I think he's decided anyways.

[Guy]

Yes but all versions of windows can be messed up by changing the wrong settings or not having it properly protected. I think he's decided anyways.

If you're mucking around with things and you have no idea what they do (and you have to search pretty deep to get to stuff that common sense can't figure out) then you really deserve to break your installation.

[Kimberly]

If you're going to college and you're not computer savvy, not to mention already had exposure to Windows versus Mac operating systems (like most people do), you should sticky with windows. Yes, Mac is intuitive compared to Windows OS'es before 7. But you won't have to worry about unlearning a whole set of information or saving in particular, compatible formats. Win7 became a lot easier and is only a small step behind and/or equal to Mac in terms of ease-of-use.

[Sbrideau]

Yes but all versions of windows can be messed up by changing the wrong settings or not having it properly protected. I think he's decided anyways.

 

Isn't that applicable to Macs too nowadays? I haven't seen the amount of control Apple lets you have to the full extent, as I have tried only for a few days, but if you can't change OS settings then I am not interested in using a Mac OS and is one more reason for me not to suggest it to someone else.

 

By the way I don't know if you've seen but I sent you a PM yesterday.

[cheeky16]

Oh you can change settings and everything on the mac, just less of them. I personally prefer to work on windows but while at school I find the mac superior as I run off the battery LOTS. I honestly think it is the battery life that makes me enjoy using it for school the most. I don't find many compatability issues with files anymore, buy microsoft office for mac and almost all issues are solved.

 

I just read the PM as I had not noticed. :)

[Robert_R]

Oh you can change settings and everything on the mac, just less of them. I personally prefer to work on windows but while at school I find the mac superior as I run off the battery LOTS. I honestly think it is the battery life that makes me enjoy using it for school the most. I don't find many compatability issues with files anymore, buy microsoft office for mac and almost all issues are solved.

 

I just read the PM as I had not noticed. :)

My toshiba laptop is 3 years old and still runs for 7 hours on battery unless I play games or watch movies.

[cheeky16]

My MacBook will run 9 1/2 - 10 hours on word processor. I've also never seen a windows laptop run that long without the extra large battery.

[Robert_R]

My MacBook will run 9 1/2 - 10 hours on word processor. I've also never seen a windows laptop run that long without the extra large battery.

Does the extra 2 hours justify the extra $1000 dollars. And no, my computer does not have the stupidly large battery in the back.

[jasignhagj]

http://www.techspot.com/news/38724-core-i7-hits-100c-on-macbook-pro-aluminum-shell-to-blame.html

 

Excellent design indeed.

[cheeky16]

http://www.techspot.com/news/38724-core-i7-hits-100c-on-macbook-pro-aluminum-shell-to-blame.html

 

Excellent design indeed.

 

That's like a $3000 laptop during benchmarking... not a laptop anyone would buy for school. I do agree that the design is a flaw for heat dissipation. I never said they are perfect but to me to battery life is worth the money. There are pros and cons for either laptop. Everyone has their own individual needs and should buy a laptop according to those needs. If your laptop is to move from office to office or for traveling where plugging in is never an issue you could buy any laptop you'd like. There is also an optical audio output and backlit keyboard which are important to people who use them.

 

I'd also like to add the review you posted was 17 months ago and that chip is no longer used in the MacBooks either.

[Guy]

I'd also like to add the review you posted was 17 months ago and that chip is no longer used in the MacBooks either.

That doesn't change the fact that from a technical perspective, the macbooks aren't a very good design at all. I take touch-typing for granted, can't believe some people who can afford a thousand-dollar laptop can't learn just by using the computer so much and need a backlit keyboard >.< (not really related, but eh)

[Sbrideau]

http://www.techspot.com/news/38724-core-i7-hits-100c-on-macbook-pro-aluminum-shell-to-blame.html

 

Excellent design indeed.

 

That's like a $3000 laptop during benchmarking... not a laptop anyone would buy for school. I do agree that the design is a flaw for heat dissipation. I never said they are perfect but to me to battery life is worth the money. There are pros and cons for either laptop. Everyone has their own individual needs and should buy a laptop according to those needs. If your laptop is to move from office to office or for traveling where plugging in is never an issue you could buy any laptop you'd like. There is also an optical audio output and backlit keyboard which are important to people who use them.

 

I'd also like to add the review you posted was 17 months ago and that chip is no longer used in the MacBooks either.

 

Some people do buy these for school. For example one person in my class at college. Who by the way had to get a laptop from college temporarily today because there was something wrong with his macbook.