Author Topic: Laptops (Read 2060 times)

bufferman · « **on:** December 25, 2006, 09:55:16 PM »

looking for a laptop any pros and cons on which ones to stay away from or that are really good
and a pc or mac which do you all prefer
thanks steve

Chris · « **Reply #1 on:** December 25, 2006, 11:27:12 PM »

for what use?

bufferman · « **Reply #2 on:** December 25, 2006, 11:50:46 PM »

just basic e-net stuff and want to start to do stuff with photos

amishrabbi · « **Reply #3 on:** December 26, 2006, 02:34:46 AM »

i have a Toshiba and love it, im not laptop expert but the screen is great looking and toshiba has a rep for quality

blarneyman · « **Reply #4 on:** December 26, 2006, 06:43:44 AM »

If you go Mac, you'll never go back!

They do look more expensive at first glance but once you deck out a PC to compare it to a Mac, the Mac will in most cases be less money. I switched over to Mac about 4 years ago and I'll never go back to a PC.

James Buchan · « **Reply #5 on:** December 26, 2006, 08:39:54 AM »

I like both - Mac's have their strong points and PC's have theirs.

Rob DVKK · « **Reply #6 on:** December 26, 2006, 12:29:31 PM »

I'm from the Mac Camp but the new Intel (Mac) Machines can run XP with a neat little app like boot camp or parallels. So you can have both worlds if you need.

AlanU · « **Reply #7 on:** December 26, 2006, 02:05:18 PM »

Quote

I'm from the Mac Camp but the new Intel (Mac) Machines can run XP with a neat little app like boot camp or parallels. So you can have both worlds if you need.

Hows stability? xp with a mac sounds just as unstable as a normal pc.

I've used a \"normal\" pc with XP professional for 3.5Yrs straight with no catastrophic crashes. Rock solid NTFS file table.

Thing is if the xp does crash i can format a hardrive and load a virgin copy of xp in about 2hrs and that is including all of the most current xp updates. Virus wise you just have to be smart with a pc. If your using XP in a mac your probably just as vulnerable as pc using a mac.

Bufferman, if your just gonna use your confuser/computer for simple applications you dont need to spend premium $$$ for a mac. At futureshop you can buy a basic decent laptop for 600bucks from acer.

Laptops are great but when shit happens you cant fix it yourself usually if its hardware related. This is why I like home desktops since you can buy alot of hardware dirt cheap. I built a \"you build\" and catered all my parts to what I wanted. AMD dual core 4200+, 1 gig ram, 320 baracuda seagate SATA, Samsung dual dvd burner, Ultra quiet computer case with an asus mother board with a nvidia 6150 processor on board video car for 850 bucks (corporate deal which saved me 175bucks) including tax NOT INCLUDING MONITOR. I could have bought an almost equivalent HP with components not as higher end for 695 bucks maybe even with a monitor.

Laptops are great for your living quarters or type of application. I like desktops because you can get killer power for cheap.

buy a laptop from costco and use it and if you dont like it I think you can get full $$$ if you return it within 6 months. Dells has free shipping deals sometimes so you can go that route too. Check out futureshop or bestbuy if you want to play before you buy.

If space isn't an issue you can get a desktop combo deal for as much as 1000 bucks (like a laptop) but in a desktop you can add a new hardrive, more memory in minutes without paying a tech to install. if the power supply craps out you can replace it in minutes too. If you need more power in the video department you can swap out video cars instanltly. Laptops are not as simple to upgrade and when you battery craps out you gotta dish out an easy 150 -250 bucks.

I was bored today so I bought a samsung 22\" LCD monitor. So for a total of $1250 bucks i have a high end system. If something breaks down I can have it up and running in a matter of driving to your local cheap ass computer retail store.

Something to think about.

Rob DVKK · « **Reply #8 on:** December 26, 2006, 10:50:46 PM »

Every microsoft program has its own issues. Loading XP on to a Mac is on a separate partition - so no problems between the two. What ever you decide, just fill it with as much ram as you can afford.

As for the whole Mac vs. PC thing. What do you want? Something you set up and run or something you set up load drivers, fix with patches, and constantly check your virus software? Either way you pay, money or eventually time and hassle.

bufferman · « **Reply #9 on:** December 26, 2006, 11:37:21 PM »

thanks guys alot of good points i want to start playing around with photos etc just looking for something that is pretty easy to learn to work with with good results have had a e-machine desktop for about
2 1/2 years now with XP and with no problems but kinda hard to take it on the road and to do photos i would have to up grade the desktop to a lot better unit

for you mac guys do the macs slow down like the pcs do seems like always cleaning it up and only using about a 1/3 of hard drive

thanks
steve

Chad M · « **Reply #10 on:** December 26, 2006, 11:58:13 PM »

I've had the MacBook Pro for 6 months now and I couldn't be happier with the machine. I wouldn't go back to a PC, period. No slow downs ever, mind you all I do are photos, music and the internet.

blarneyman · « **Reply #11 on:** December 27, 2006, 06:50:26 AM »

I run anywhere from 100 to 600 photos a month through my Mac (older powerbook). It never slows down even when the hard drive is almost full. I now copy my photos onto disc about every 3 months (just because the hard drive gets full).

bufferman · « **Reply #12 on:** December 27, 2006, 02:39:56 PM »

mmmmmmmmmmm thanks again guys mac looking pretty good choice i think

bwaz · « **Reply #13 on:** December 27, 2006, 04:59:58 PM »

Oh, except if you want to connect to your network at work, where mostly everything is pc, and the mac can't render or save to the network correctly as it times out halfway through a long file transfer, or only works on the black and white printer, not the colour. (just experience talking, and not to say our XP's are perfect either)
b

Chris · « **Reply #14 on:** December 27, 2006, 05:19:09 PM »

I would suggest you consider your budget in your case. You dont seem to be a power user per say. The internet is more PC friendly than a MAC, yet both are completely acceptable. Any business or productivity software is more than likely designed for a PC, such as OFFICE which includes word, excel and powerpoint, programs such as financial software again more than likely developed for PC.

When you say you want to start to do stuff with photos, you should be more specific. Do you want to edit photos or just resize them and upload them to a website? Do you want to edit photos in the sense that you want to \"photoshop\" some person in or out of the photo?

Most basic photo editing functions can be handled by a PC, in fact everything I do is done on a PC. I cant afford a MAC that would be anywhere near as capable as my PC. Last time I priced it out it was well over $7000. Im just over $2500 on my PC.

Unless your doing web design, or making music (not downloading mp3's) and doing some wild and crazy editing I would say save your money, buy a PC based laptop and spend the money on a decent photo and graphics package. Although most of the software that comes with a digital camera will do what most digital camera/computer users need in regards to photo editing. Hell spend the money on a kick ass digital camera.

A base model I-Book is around $1200 CDN with a 60GB hard drive, 512 MB Ram , and a similar PC with with 120GB hard drive and 1024 MB of ram is $1100. Warranty is the same. Parts inside are the same. I have found even better deals on PC laptops down to $700 CDN for better than the I-book features.

Just my 2 cents.