Apple or PC + laptop for college, non-gaming tho

[kuplicks22]

hey all, I would greatly appreciate some help on laptop buying advice... I need a new laptop for college mainly for the purposes of schoolwork, wireless internet, music, photography, and watching dvds... basic needs, but no gaming needs, so i don't know if i'll need to high of a graphics cards, however, i would like to watch DVDs in good picture quality on the laptop, so i donno if that is affected by the video card quality. Anyways, a couple of other things... I would prolly just want a cd burner on the comp, no need for a DVD burner really. A 12" screen will do, but larger is nice. My sister has a superdrive PowerMac G4 12" she got about 5 months ago and loves it, so Apple is in consideration. Let me know what you guys think if you can. By the way, price range- anything under $2,000

[sc03979]

I would go with a regular PC, but if you have to go for a Laptop I would check out dell or compaq for pretty descent laptops for the money or go with a sony or toshiba which will run you more but with better quality.

Check out gotapex.com and morestuff4lessblog.com, there are usually some great deals on dell laptops. You could get a great dell for around 1200 bucks. If you have the money and you do make sure you get a laptop with Intel Centrino technology so you can have better battery life.

Go with the Windows system simply because:

1. It's cheaper

2. Most schools use MS office for homework.

[Mr Cherry]

I've always been partial to Mac laptops. Very solid and very stylish. Comes with pretty much all the software you need and OS X is great.

@sc03979
They have M$ Office for Mac as well. ;)

[mynameis]

Things to think about
1. You have to spend at least $1300 to get a low end 14in Apple Laptop, for that money you can get a very good PC
2. Some classes require use of some windows only programs, for example I use visual studio .NET in some of my classes.
3. Battery life, in my dell my cd-rom can be taken out and replaced with a battery, I get like 5-6 hours of actual use.

[ImaNihilist]

I'd go with an ASUS notebook if you could get your hands on one.

[kuplicks22]

what do you guys think of the ABS ZForce F2?

[T4c0]

Apple laptop is the way to go. with the time spending on killing the PC virus. i could have finish my school work already :D
look into apple refurbish laptops and also education discount.
I got mine powerbook 15" Radeon 9700 mobile + superdrive under 2k including tax. great deal and it will last you through your school years for sure.
good luck on your purchase.

[SkyDog]

Have you decided on a major, or at least narrowed it down? Some fields use specialized software that's written for (or at least more prevalent on) one platform or the other.

If you don't need to worry about compatibility with specialized apps, then you just need to look at each option:

Looking at software, Apple's OS X is a good OS, but Windows XP isn't bad, either. For the stuff you described, you can get software on either platform to do the job. You really can't lose either way.

Looking at hardware, Apple's products are generally well-designed and well-built. Because there are so many different manufacturers, you can find PC hardware that runs the whole spectrum. Some are really solid little machines, while others are fragile or flimsy. You'll need to evaluate specific models.

Comparing support is like comparing hardware, and for the same reason. Apple's support is generally regarded to be good. Some PC companies have good support, while others don't.

So far, things are looking good for Apple, but now let's run down their weak points: It generally costs a lot more for an Apple laptop than a PC of comparable quality. iBooks don't have PCMCIA slots, so you'd need to buy a more expensive PowerBook to have any kind of internal expandability.

...and while there aren't as many Mac viruses in the wild, they DO exist. (God forbid one actually starts to run rampant because there are a number of Mac users who have a false sense of immunity!) Whether you get a Mac or PC, make sure you've got an antivirus product and keep it up to date.

Personally, I'm fond of IBM ThinkPads (except some of the budget models they've made over the years). They're generally well-engineered, well-built, and IBM provides excellent support. The ThinkPad T41 seems to be a popular model at the moment and it's worth checking out at least.

[freedon]

Originally posted by SkyDog

Personally, I'm fond of IBM ThinkPads (except some of the budget models they've made over the years). They're generally well-engineered, well-built, and IBM provides excellent support. The ThinkPad T41 seems to be a popular model at the moment and it's worth checking out at least.

Do all IBM models take out the WIN key? I've never seen that key on thinkpads that I've worked on. I use that ley a lot for my shortcuts, using those laptops slows my work :o

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by freedonX
Do all IBM models take out the WIN key? I've never seen that key on thinkpads that I've worked on. I use that ley a lot for my shortcuts, using those laptops slows my work :o

I've never noticed that before, but now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever seen a Windows key on a ThinkPad. I use a lot of custom keyboard shortcuts, but have never used the Windows key for them. Without those two extra keys, it's no wonder most ThinkPad keyboards feel a little less cramped.

Out of curiosity, I did some looking around and IBM does have a utility so you can assign that functionality to a different key (like the second Alt key) if you want:
http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-44185

[Polaris]

Judging by my experience at work, IBMs rock, especially the T40's and R40's.

Also the higher end Compaqs. I myself am considering an Athlon 64-based book.

A fully loaded A64 3400+ with 3 year damage protection can be had for $1800, and would be much faster than any Mac.

[kpxgq]

either a 12" ibook

or a small centrino based dell sounds like waht you need