New laptop help

[A9]

I'm looking to replace my current Dell for something that'll last me another 3-4 years. What do you guys have/recommend? I'm not so concerned with cost, moreso about getting the right laptop with all the stuff on it that I need. Apple? HP? Dell? Sony?

It's going to be used for school and personal stuff. Basically school, music, videos, internet surfing, etc. Nothing too much really. I just like to have a lot of extra memory just in case and a good battery life is also very important for me....

Help me out fellas...

Thanks in advance...

[fishnislife]

Dude, don't get a Dell!

Right now I'm typing this on my Compaq Presario. I really like this laptop and I have had no problem with it yet. I too download a lot of music and play games.
If I had a couple more dollars to spend and wanted a nicer one, I would get the Sony VAIO.


fishnislife

[Dave]

The lap tops we use at work both in our office and in our vehicles are Dell and they work great. They fulfill all of our needs and seem to never have problems. If you buy a new Dell you can jazz it up with extra ram, a larger hard drive, the best motherboard, and an upgraded video card for the times when you want to play a video game or watch a movie during lunch hour or whenever. I also have a Dell desk top here at home which has been excellent. I have had no issues with it and when I ordered it online I was able to choose the upgrades right then and there, then they build it and mail it directly to you. So I recommend the Dell. I am sure there are others out there that are less expensive and even a few that are more expensive but Dell makes a dependable smooth running computer so I don't think you can go wrong if you buy a Dell. Good luck.

[Dave]

Too funny!!!! I am sure you will get a wide variety of answers on this topic.

[fisherhall]

I would recommend an Apple for the things you said you would use it for (music, videos, internet surfing, etc.) They last a long time and are great for doing small things with like you said.

[Toni]

If you have the money Apple is the best. Less trouble with viruses, but you have to be aware of programs you want that will work with the OS. With any of the new Microsoft Vista's OS you have to be aware of the any old programs you might want to work with (compatible) this new operating system. Stay away form Gateway and Emachines. Compaq use to be bad but HP took it over a few years ago and I believe it is better. Acer is a newer company coming out. Lenovo is IBM.
If you go to http://www.cnet.com/4244-5_1-0.html?que ... &target=nw they have reviews.
It may be a good thing to wait a bit if you purchase something with Vista on it. Microsoft is still working out the bugs on it even though it has been a year.

[Marc Martyn]

In one word......... Apple. Having owned both Windows and Mac for many years, Mac is much easier to use and is much more reliable. If you want to do videos, iMovie and iDVD can't be beat. I formated my last video, Lake Lenore on my wifes new MacBook laptop. It is simple to load music from iTunes into the video with full editing capabilities. Importing photos into the video is very easy from iPhoto. Both music and photos are brought into the video by clicking and dragging.

Consumer Reports rates Apple the highest for least repairs. I agree with that assessment. I have owned two desktops, an iMac and now am using an eMac. The iMac finally wore out after 6 years, with no repairs needed until the video finally died. I have had my eMac now for 3 years and have no problems at all. We recently bought the MacBook laptop for my wife and it is a great computer.

The new MacBook laptop is also duo format. You can load the drive with Windows and with Mac. We have Word, Exell and Power Point loaded onto the drive. My wife can produce Windows documents on her Mac and e-mail them to her PC at her office at school.

Oh, BTW, the MacBook has a built in video camera:cheers: It works great. My daughter is in New Zealand and we can video talk with her on Skype.

Like I tell people, "I don't do Windows". In my opinion, Mac is the only way to go.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/W ... ly/macbook

[gpc]

I have also heard that the mac is way the go. I guess the vista isnt all that great, but either way I dont know enough to tell the diffrence. But I did get a new lap top for X - mas and I allready have to send it back. It overheated and shut off twice so they say I have to send it back. Its a gateway, and 2 years ago my sister got a gateway and she had problems as well. Is this just a gateway thing? or are we just that un lucky?

[Derrick-k]

Apple my brother has had the iBook for 3 years, and it still works very well. I have an I mac and all I can say is it is the most user friendly computer I have ever used, they work great for video, iTunes, and photos, it already had the software for my new camera built in! The built in web-cam is awesome, its actually good quality for a web-cam. If you need to put windows on you computer all I can say is don't get vista no-matter what my dad has it and he has had nothing but trouble with it.
Hope that helps.

[iPodrodder]

I haven't had many problems with Compaq or Toshiba. One of the newer Compaqs might be good for you, not so sure about the Toshiba (very practical, games not a strong point)

[mmullin]

Sam, I've purchased 6 Gateways since my first "laptop" in 1992 or something like that. Only had one problem which was quickly fixed at no cost. I switched to Dell a couple of years ago because I was conserned Gateway was going to go bankrupt and not be able to honor their warranties - which leads me to my suggestion.

You rarely realize how important your computer is until it crashes! Unless you have multiple machines in your home and synchronize the files you are out of business for how ever long it takes to fix your problem. I once had a hard drive spew molten meltal - it looked like a mini volcano. Gateway had a retail store two blocks away and replaced my hard drive that afternoon.

I'm sure most of the major brands are fairly reliable, but you never know if you will get the one with the defect. If you have good computer store local to your home with on-site service go ahead and purchase from them. If not, go with a mail order firm like Dell that has a great customer service reputation.

Apple? Who you gonna call when you need help? None of your friends will know what to do.

Back up often!

Mike M

[leahcim_dahc]

I wouldn't mind trying out a Mac someday...just too expensive for my taste. Too expensive for what you get. I'm all about hating and bashing on Windows...no one in my house uses it, we are all about Open Source. I am for anything other than Windows...go for the Apple. If you don't want to spend the high price, buy an IBM compatible and put a Linux distribution on it. Ubuntu works well, is easier to install than windows, and has decent support. You can pretty much do just about everything in Linux as you can in Windows, and then some. Minus the obvious program written specifically for Windows. However, there is always Wine or Cedega to emulate a windows installation, or there is usually an Open Source replacement (e.g.- Microsoft Office Pro($400) / Open Office ($0)). Currently I run Ubuntu on my HP Pavilion and Toshiba Satellite, prior I ran Gentoo on both. The daughter's laptop is running Edubuntu, and the wifey is using Debian.

If you want to try out a distribution of linux and not install it, grab a livecd .iso, burn it and boot it. Will operate the system from the cdrom without touching your current o/s. If for nothing else, you at least can try it out and see if everything is supported with minimal effort. Plus it is something other than Windows. Below are linky's to a couple livecd's you can check out.

Gentoo - Source code based O/S...not for the faint at heart.
Ubuntu - Binary (source code already compiled) distribution.

Either way, which ever platform you decide to go with...is pretty much up to you, along with the cunning use of peer pressure.


Chad

[A9]

Went for the black Macbook. I'm on it right now. Thanks for the help fellas...

[2000subaru]

Congrats on the purchase! I'm sure you will love it. I last used a Mac in 1995. Wow how time and technology flies. My Toshiba does tghe job, but it is certainly not a powerbook. Enjoy!

[fishnislife]

Went for the black Macbook. I'm on it right now. Thanks for the help fellas...

Sweet! Good pick up.
How do you like it so far?


fishnislife

[A9]

It's awesome. Take it out of the box and go. No viruses on these things either. They are sweet. Hefty price tag, but worth it. Good memory, and quite a machine. I like it so far and time will tell how much I'll enjoy/like it down the road...

[Marc Martyn]

It's awesome. Take it out of the box and go. No viruses on these things either. They are sweet. Hefty price tag, but worth it. Good memory, and quite a machine. I like it so far and time will tell how much I'll enjoy/like it down the road...

Good for you Sam!:cheers: I am sure that you will really like it. If you are new to Mac and have any questions, send me a PM and I'll try to answer any questions that you may have. Enjoy!!!!

[Marc Martyn]

Congrats on the purchase! I'm sure you will love it. I last used a Mac in 1995. Wow how time and technology flies. My Toshiba does tghe job, but it is certainly not a powerbook. Enjoy!

My first Mac was in 1991. It was a LC II with a whopping 40 mb hard drive and had 8 mb of RAM:cheers: A year later I upgraded to 16 mb of RAM and man... was I flying then!:compress: :bounce:

[A9]

It's awesome. Take it out of the box and go. No viruses on these things either. They are sweet. Hefty price tag, but worth it. Good memory, and quite a machine. I like it so far and time will tell how much I'll enjoy/like it down the road...

Good for you Sam!:cheers: I am sure that you will really like it. If you are new to Mac and have any questions, send me a PM and I'll try to answer any questions that you may have. Enjoy!!!!

Perfect. Thanks Marc. I know Apple is good for their customer service but sometimes getting tech support over the phone just doesn't work...I'll make sure to remember you if I got any questions or problems....

[The Quadfather]

Went for the black Macbook. I'm on it right now. Thanks for the help fellas...

It always cracks me up the "Apple vs. PC debate." I seriously consider it right up with the "Right to life" and the "Whether to breast feed or not" debates. I mean weighty debates you know.

But in the end... I have to tell the truth. My pc went motherboard up a few months ago, and I've been on my wife's Macbook in the mean time. I too love this thing. You will really see what steps mac has made in the ease of use with the music, photo portion of things. Check out what you can do with your photos, slide shows, adding music to the slides etc. Of course we all did this with our pc's but it is so much more intuitive on the Mac.
I was always the one who would look at my Mac friends and kinda think, "Get over yourself dude, it's just a computer."
As far as support goes, as you probably have experieced the Mac. community is very tight and streamlined. If you have an issue almost anybody who uses a Mac. has been down the same path. I realize you are a student and probably don't have a lot of spare time, but go to the Apple store and check out their in store demo/class offerings for what your Macbook can do. Otherwise you may find that you are using only 20% of the functions.