Ankhanu 0 Posted December 23, 2006 Share Posted December 23, 2006 My old Dell Inspiron 5150 has been going wonky the past month. For over two and a half years it's been treating me very well; it's been my primary computer almost the entire time (save maybe a month when I first got it), seeing several hours of use every day and has only given me some minor issues. At the end of last month, my HDD decided it was time to die and did so, now that I've gotten a replacement (smaller capacity, slower rpm) it seems other hardware is going on me (I think there may be RAM issues, the CPU is being over used and performance is retarded... but it could be something else). So, I've been considering replacing it, even though I can't afford to. I'm going to need a reliable laptop for working on my Masters degree. So, I've, once again, been considering a Mac. Initially I was only looking at 17" Macbook Pros, as I want a 17" display since it will be my primary computer. But, their price is, well, prohibitive As I got to thinking, a 17" laptop is terrible for portability, but great for multi-use computing... I realized that the 13" Macbooks would be much better as a school system; being much more portable and just fine for working on papers... but they'd be terrible as a primary home system with that tiny display. Now I'm considering going with a 13" Macbook and getting a 17" LCD monitor for home use.... this would cost me about $1800 (Macbook - $1499, 17" monitor $170), which is less than I paid for my current system. This way I'd have a very portable, versatile system for working and at home, I could dual monitor it and make use of the larger display of the 17" LCD. What do you guys think of that solution? Link to comment
Yarasa 0 Posted December 23, 2006 Share Posted December 23, 2006 I think it is a great idea. It will give you 13" portability and 17" desktop capability on same time. I like it. P.S. Long term used microsoft products will cause performans issues. Formating and re-installing windows will give you fresh start. Get a good backup and after the format re-install your windows, before you spend tons of money. Link to comment
Ankhanu 0 Posted December 23, 2006 Author Share Posted December 23, 2006 Yeah, right now I'm on an ~7 day old install of Windows on a HDD that used to have Mac OS X on it... so it's pretty fresh. OS degradation isn't the problem this time. Link to comment
Guest gogoblender Posted December 23, 2006 Share Posted December 23, 2006 I like yer direction with this Ankh The laptop with a large nice screen at home is the ultimate in convenience. Course...having a laptop fer gaming is expensive and ultimatley won't net you as great an efficiency regarding the playing of top of the line games, but, if yer gaming needs are reasonable, as they seem to be and you're using this mostly for document creation, yer technology lines seems sound. A lot of my friends in school all use em and have nothing but great stuff to say about the macs. Course myself though I'd opt fer a pc notebook if had the coin. More games availability and all and my ultimate setup for it would be a the biggest alienware screen I could get my hand on. http://www.alienware.com/GearShop_Pages/Ge...&CatId=1255 http://www.alienware.com/GearShop_Pages/Ge...&CatId=1008 gogo Link to comment
Schot 407 Posted December 23, 2006 Share Posted December 23, 2006 Hey there Ankhanu. My first question is; why mac? Although mac is making efforts to be affordable I think pc may still be much better in price. Mac has been geared toward graphics and sound designers as I understand and because of this special hardware setups for these aspects has been their main focus. Essentially being specialized systems as opposed to pc which is much more of a general users system. have you considered a pc laptop? Compared the pricing? If it is biology/ecology that you will be studying further then my thoughts are that a pc laptop will do just fine and likely at a lower price then a mac. Of course there's a lot of conjecture in my post as I have not gone shopping for a pc, or laptop for that matter, in a very long time. Me 2 cents. Link to comment
Ankhanu 0 Posted December 23, 2006 Author Share Posted December 23, 2006 Well, I've been considering Macs for a couple years now; with my last purchase, I was going to get the old titanium ones, but got my Dell as it was ~$1000 cheaper. Part of it is that I like their aesthetics. Part of it is wanting to be versed in their OS and software as well. Part of it is some of their statistical package capabilities... It doesn't hurt their cause that my academic mentor is a Mac diehard, along with a few other people I respect in the faculty and a couple friends. Macs are a lot more versatile now than they used to; especially with the Intel chips in them, though Intel isn't a big selling point for me There are a lot fewer viruses to worry about and a lot of what you need for normal computing is already included in the OS. It just seems there's less to go wrong with them than PCs. The major downfall of getting the Mac at this point is that they didn't make Neverwinter Nights 2 compatible with Macs... so I won't be able to play it on that system. But, I also don't own the game (as my current pc systems won't run it either) and I don't play many games otherwise, other than browser games. Link to comment
-Jade- 0 Posted December 23, 2006 Share Posted December 23, 2006 Well I personally don't like Macs. Never have and never will. I agree with Schot that PC's are a better solution. They are significantly cheaper and practically every program runs on them. Link to comment
Ankhanu 0 Posted January 2, 2007 Author Share Posted January 2, 2007 Well, I bit the bullet and ordered the 2.0GHz Macbook and two 17" Acer LCD monitors today. Hopefully they'll be in in about a week. Link to comment
Guest gogoblender Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Ahh, very sweet the choice in laptops is probably about as personal as clothes, music and art. What's important is getting the most out of it and I bet yer hyped to take the new machine everywhere. Have fun with it gogo Link to comment
Ankhanu 0 Posted January 3, 2007 Author Share Posted January 3, 2007 Yeah, I should have it in about a week... just enough time to really start in on my MSc work Cth got the same system for Christmas, but his has more RAM. He's loving it so far, so I'm sure I will too. Link to comment
Aurora 2 Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Awesome Ankh! Bet you will be counting down the days Link to comment
Cth 0 Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I'm loving it for sure! And I just thought that I'd mention that intel macs can run windows via bootcamp, giving you the best of both worlds (As far as Im concerned windows only offers compatibility with more games hehe ) Link to comment
Ankhanu 0 Posted January 4, 2007 Author Share Posted January 4, 2007 Apparently a more efficient version of bootcamp, or some other dual boot system is going to be a part of the next OSX release, so it will come standard and work better. Link to comment
Guest gogoblender Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Cth got a new laptop too? hey...I think Santy fergot mine Maybe we'll just head up to the north pole and pay him a visit gogo Link to comment
OuttaTown 0 Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 laptop!! I have been thinking about getting a new one too...but the price is very discouraging. It might be cheaper if I get it from....Asia....a fujitsu- very portable and high tech.. The one I have now is a satellite toshiba- well the performance is a bit shaky (I have it for 4 years + ) ...the cd rom doesn't even work anymore!! But then, I don't really need to have a laptop for any special use... I mean I don't do anything with my current one except going here and foruming with you awesome people .. anyways - ank .. I think it's a good thing to get a mac- cause it performs extremely well + it's much harder to get a virus on a mac !! Link to comment
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