Laptop advice

[Dick Whitman]

You get what you pay for.

I used to go cheap on laptops. And I would fight with it for two years before having to buy another one because it just couldn't keep up.

The MacBook is still as good as they day I brought it home. Worth every penny. And it's not because of the "coolness" factor, but because of the ease of use factor. I understand that computer geeks can do more tinkering with Windows, but a Mac is completely functional for my needs and more.

$1,500 has been the bargain of a lifetime.

 

[I'll never tell]

Bought a Dell Inspiron last year just before Christmas. Paid around $400 for it. For what I do, surf the web, watch hulu and netflix, and write, you're just pretty much stupid to pay any more money.

Granted, I got mine on a pre-thanksgiving sale, but still that price range is fine.

That being said, we also have a Mac in the house. For that, my better half does her graphic design, and if you're going to do stuff like that, yes, you're going to have to shell out big money.

Lastly, take slappy's advice: Upgrade memory, don't screw with hard drive. External is the way to go there, b/c if your computer crashes, you're screwed. And you can get a 1 TB for $120-150. If you can fill that up, you're got more Dead and Phish shows/porn than any man/woman should have.

 

[Dick Whitman]

****, you also get what you pay for with BMWs and Mercedes. Do they get you from Point A to Point B faster than a Ford Focus? Nope. And if the Focus dies, you can buy another one and still have $20,000 left over. Same thing with the Macbook. No doubt they're great. But for $1500? That's not great. That's a waste of money. I got a Gateway laptop early this year for $438. Does everything a Mac does, except it also leaves me with an extra grand for other stuff.

And since both my laptop and yours will be obsolete in a year or so, when it comes to decide we need newer, cooler bells and whistles, those of us who spend 30 percent of the cost of a Mac will be well ahead of the game when it comes to purchasing a new one.

To each his own. The peace of mind is worth it for me. I like the reliability and user-friendliness of it. I like the keyboard. I suppose I could have worked harder to find what PC could have been as reliable and as user-friendly for less money. But I had been burned too many times by cheap PCs. I'm tired of running anti-virus. I'm tired of monitors coming unhinged from the keyboard.

I guess what I'm saying is that I get what you're saying, to a degree. I just don't care. For someone like me, who quickly loses patience with computers, the MacBook has been a godsend.

 

[Azrael]

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Does anyone here have one of the small netbooks? Do you like them?

Bought one for my wife early this year and it.......works. For email/surfing/streaming music and NPR podcasts, its fine. Typing is lame and the lack of memory comes into play pretty fast with photos and videos being downloaded.

Its more portable than a laptop but now I'm thinking there was a better way.

The one I'm looking at has a 250G hard drive, which is the same as my piece of **** Dell that broke after two years.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

****, you also get what you pay for with BMWs and Mercedes. Do they get you from Point A to Point B faster than a Ford Focus? Nope. And if the Focus dies, you can buy another one and still have $20,000 left over. Same thing with the Macbook. No doubt they're great. But for $1500? That's not great. That's a waste of money. I got a Gateway laptop early this year for $438. Does everything a Mac does, except it also leaves me with an extra grand for other stuff.

And since both my laptop and yours will be obsolete in a year or so, when it comes to decide we need newer, cooler bells and whistles, those of us who spend 30 percent of the cost of a Mac will be well ahead of the game when it comes to purchasing a new one.

To each his own. The peace of mind is worth it for me. I like the reliability and user-friendliness of it. I like the keyboard. I suppose I could have worked harder to find what PC could have been as reliable and as user-friendly for less money. But I had been burned too many times by cheap PCs. I'm tired of running anti-virus. I'm tired of monitors coming unhinged from the keyboard.

I guess what I'm saying is that I get what you're saying, to a degree. I just don't care. For someone like me, who quickly loses patience with computers, the MacBook has been a godsend.

You still need to run anti-virus on Macs. If you're not, that's just plain stupid.

Macs don't get viruses very often, but they are out there. Anyone who connects to the Internet should have some sort of virus protection.

 

[Giggity]

Got a leader in the clubhouse: http://tinyurl.com/2bj2phh

 

[wicked]

Bump.

In the market myself -- it has to be a PC, because that's the platform we use at work and because using Mac controls on Parallels or Virtual PC isn't the easiest thing in the world. Also, want something that runs as cool as possible.