Need a Laptop, are Macbooks any good?

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Blackout

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College is starting soon and I'm going to need a laptop. I'm really interested in getting a Macbook but I don't know much about them. To let you know, I'll be using it for writing papers and all that normal school stuff. I also want to use it for podcasting, making videos, music, web design, etc. Which is the best one to buy for the stuff I want to do and for a reasonable price? I don't want to spend thousands. Thanks for any help!
 
macbooks are great. i used to be a pc guy, but i am slowing going over to the mac side of things. Everything seems more efficient on mac than a pc. Its a little pricey, but in the long run its worth it. The cheapest macbook is $1000, though you can get an education discount and bring it down to 900. If you want more power, the macbook pro is the way to go (depending on how intense your video editing is going to be).
 
I just got a Macbook Pro yesterday and I am loving it. It runs great and you get a free (after MIB) iPod Touch 8GB if you are buying it for school. You also get $100 off a Macbook or $200 off a Macbook Pro.
 
[quote name='magiic']I just got a Macbook Pro yesterday and I am loving it. It runs great and you get a free (after MIB) iPod Touch 8GB if you are buying it for school. You also get $100 off a Macbook or $200 off a Macbook Pro.[/QUOTE]
Holy Shit balls. Tim u better do that just sell off the itouch or keep it.
 
yeh...MAC's seem to be great...however you are paying mostly for the name...always 10x more expensive than a little PC notebook. If you have extra cash lying around, then sure...otherwise, since you posted here at CAG, I would suggest getting a PC, will save you at least 400 bucks or more depending on your needs.
 
[quote name='Dufran3']yeh...MAC's seem to be great...however you are paying mostly for the name...always 10x more expensive than a little PC notebook. If you have extra cash lying around, then sure...otherwise, since you posted here at CAG, I would suggest getting a PC, will save you at least 400 bucks or more depending on your needs.[/QUOTE]
Yup.
 
[quote name='Dufran3']yeh...MAC's seem to be great...however you are paying mostly for the name...always 10x more expensive than a little PC notebook. If you have extra cash lying around, then sure...otherwise, since you posted here at CAG, I would suggest getting a PC, will save you at least 400 bucks or more depending on your needs.[/QUOTE]

Ummm ok I see wat u are saying but I am going to have to disagree. Have you ever used a MacBook, they might be 10x more expensive but wouldn't you want something that is well built and won't give you a blue screen of death. Don't get me wrong Im a pc guy, but I've always seen apple as the dominate producer of computer technology. To me they are well worth the price especially for what blackout needs it for.
 
I'm not really sure what the prices are like nowadays but a couple of years ago when my sister bought her first Macbook (bought one soon after the Intel Macs were released) there actually wasn't that much of a price difference between a Macbook and a similarly configured Dell or Sony. Yes Dell and/or Sony had cheaper models, but once you picked a model that had the same CPU speed, RAM, HDD, etc. the price difference was actually quite small. And the Macs laptops were always smaller and lighter than the PC equivalents of the same spec.

Also not to mention that my 4 year old Powerbook G4 is still going strong, and unlike Windows, I run the latest OS on my 4-year old laptop with pretty much the same speed as the OS it shipped with. In fact my G4 is still plenty fine as a PC- the only complaint I have about its speed is that it is a little slow when working with digital photos. Other than that it's great- which 4-year old PC laptop does that?

In the end it's up to you but IMO it's worth the little extra money because I believe that OS X is a better OS than Windows and i have not regretted switching once.

P.S. since it's CAG here's a way to save some money when buying an apple- buy the computer with the minimum amount of RAM from Apple, and then go to newegg or wherever and buy your own RAM. The RAM when purchased direct from Apple is very expensive. And yes get extra RAM because OS X will use and love it :)

Ruahrc
 
[quote name='rick3000gto']Ummm ok I see wat u are saying but I am going to have to disagree. Have you ever used a MacBook, they might be 10x more expensive but wouldn't you want something that is well built and won't give you a blue screen of death. Don't get me wrong Im a pc guy, but I've always seen apple as the dominate producer of computer technology. To me they are well worth the price especially for what blackout needs it for.[/quote]

I also agree that they are the dominate producer of computer technology. I would get a mac and mac book if I could afford one. However, they are more expensive...gotta figure your biggest bang for your buck really isn't a mac. I am not a MS fanboy by any means, I can't stress that enough. But think about it, how many mac's are running some version of windows? lol, if I were to get a mac, I would run parrallels(SP) and be mostly in windows, not OS X. Anyway, in the end it is your decision, I just wanted to give some input from someone on the other side. No disrespect to anyone else...but pc is cheaper...and actually not as unstable as everyone likes to think. But also, not as stable as a mac...k...that's it...:):whistle2:#
 
[quote name='Ruahrc']I'm not really sure what the prices are like nowadays but a couple of years ago when my sister bought her first Macbook (bought one soon after the Intel Macs were released) there actually wasn't that much of a price difference between a Macbook and a similarly configured Dell or Sony. Yes Dell and/or Sony had cheaper models, but once you picked a model that had the same CPU speed, RAM, HDD, etc. the price difference was actually quite small. And the Macs laptops were always smaller and lighter than the PC equivalents of the same spec.

Also not to mention that my 4 year old Powerbook G4 is still going strong, and unlike Windows, I run the latest OS on my 4-year old laptop with pretty much the same speed as the OS it shipped with. In fact my G4 is still plenty fine as a PC- the only complaint I have about its speed is that it is a little slow when working with digital photos. Other than that it's great- which 4-year old PC laptop does that?

In the end it's up to you but IMO it's worth the little extra money because I believe that OS X is a better OS than Windows and i have not regretted switching once.

P.S. since it's CAG here's a way to save some money when buying an apple- buy the computer with the minimum amount of RAM from Apple, and then go to newegg or wherever and buy your own RAM. The RAM when purchased direct from Apple is very expensive. And yes get extra RAM because OS X will use and love it :)

Ruahrc[/quote]
AGREED
 
notebookreview.com is good site to check out. they don't talk about macs over there, but are really informative about laptops and usually have links to good deals on laptops
 
Personally I would go for a Lenovo Thinkpad. I'm on an HP right now, don't hate it but don't love it. If you go for a macbook, and you're a student, you can get a hundred dollars off and add ipod touch and than you can send in a rebate for that. I hear it's real easy, all online and doesn't take six to eight weeks like normal rebates.
 
If you aren't much of a power user, I would suggest a netbook, aka UMPC. They are awesome. They're basically pcs crammed into 9"-ish frames and weigh on the average 2.5lbs. Most of the models also are far from the 1 grand mark, half of them under $500). I just got an Eee PC 901 (MSRP $599) a couple weeks ago and am still in love with it. I was running XP Pro, but as of yesterday, I have converted to Ubuntu (Linux). So far so good, even though this is my actual first encounter with the Linux operating system. All my life I've been using Windows, so it is much of a e-culture shock to me. The main specs are 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom Processor, 20GB SSD, and 1GB ram. Definitely not enough to run graphics intensive programs, but more than suitable for quick internet and word processing status. When I had XP installed, I could easily use Photoshop 7 and Skype. However, I quickly became tired of anti-virus and anti-adware and gave Linux a try. The main aspect that influenced my decision on getting an Eee PC was the battery life, claims almost 8 hours, but I can definitely get a solid 6+ hours everytime.

Also, all the girls are telling me how cute the Eee is. Even next to someone using their Macbook Pro.

I was always skeptical about Macs. From my understanding, all those Ipod deals with Macs are to liquidate their old inventory to prepare for the next in line from Apple.

edit: And don't they charge extra for the black models? wtf is up with that?!
 
Before considering any opions on the Mac you've got to realize there are differnt kinds of Mac users and you need to be careful who you listen to.

The knoledgeable: Users you can put on any computer and they'll be productive. These are the guys to listen to

The itards: Barely know how to turn on a computer, can barely spend five minutes on a windows computer without doing something to fuck it up, and it's all Microsoft's fault their idiots. The only use the Mac features that were designed with 3 years olds in mind and because of that have a very unrealistic view of things. Their advice on anything including non-computer stuff should be ignored.

The fanatics: They gave up on reality a long time ago. More likely to tell you that Macs cure cancer than tell you anything useful. For the sake of humanity ignore them and pretend they don't exist.

That said, for when you mentioned a Mac would serve you well. The thing is that a much less expensive PC would as well. Here are the factors you should look at when making your decision.

1) Have you ever used a Mac? If not don't consider anything until you use one. Some will swear by the interface, I think the dock is the source of all evil in the world. You won't know if you don't try it so either find a friend that has one or get your ass into a Mac store

2) Do you have specific software you need to use? If so make sure it's available for Mac and if you already have it, realize you will need to repurchase it. Yes you can bootcamp windows, but that will add to the cost of entry, and doesn't it kind of beet the point of a Mac

3) What do you really need? Do you really need a Mac or not. These days they are both capable of the same things, so is it worth spending possibly a good bit more money for something that isn't much more than a status symbol? Unless you have a specific need for a Mac or buying something that screams "please think I'm cool" is what you're looking for, it might not be right for you. The key it to make up your own mind.
 
You can even use VMWare Fusion to run windows apps if you dont want to do gaming. If you are interested in switching check out this guys blog. I really enjoyed it, read from February on.
 
There are coupons/discounts on Dells every week or two. You can check slickdeals or techbargains for that. As for deals on Macs, check the Apple outlet. They knock a good amount out of the original price (it's about $100 - $200 cheaper than the educational discount). Of course, that's only if you don't mind them to be refurbs.

I also suggests getting RAM outside source than from Dell or Apple or from wherever you are buying. Newegg has a memory configurator to help you choose the right ones.

Personally, I would just go with how much money you have to spend and the best bang for the buck. Just don't buy it as a desktop replacement. That was a mistake I made many years ago.
 
If you can afford a macbook go for it. They are nice I currently have a mac mini and had it for 3 years still works great.
 
Right now on HP.com you can use the coupon NB6997 for $400 off $1299 and NB3089 for 5% off any notebook (stackable). This means you can get a $1300 notebook for only around $850. Personally I would go to HP.com, add the 9700t (under notebooks -> entertainment powerhouse), upgrade the OS to Vista x64, the CPU to 2.4 ghz, the monitor up to the higher resolution, the GPU up to the 8600M, and maybe the battery up to the high capacity model. That would be about $950 (and you could take out an upgrade or two to get it closer to $850). This is the biggest reason I will never buy a mac. The cheapest macbook is $1000 after a student discount and is far, far worse than this (1/3 the memory, 1/2 the hard drive, I think integrated video). Also, HP is my favorite PC manufacturer. I own one and compared to my friends Dell, Acer, and Vaio notebooks it looks better, feels more solid, and has a better touch pad. If you want something lighter (9700t is probably close to 8 pounds) try the dv5t and put some upgrades on it.

EDIT: Actually the 5% off coupon is only stackable with other offers, not coupons, so the notebooks would be about $50 more.
 
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I've heard that Macbooks were the way to go for podcasting as stuff (maybe Cheapy said that on the podcast) Can I still do all that podcasting/videos/web design if I get one off Dell?
 
[quote name='Blackout542']I've heard that Macbooks were the way to go for podcasting as stuff (maybe Cheapy said that on the podcast) Can I still do all that podcasting/videos/web design if I get one off Dell?[/quote]

Most defiantly.

Windows movie makes is the equivalent to iMovie and Audacity is awesome for podcasts (my club's podcast is using audacity on windows xp).

Web Design is depending or not if you want to spend money. Nvu is great and free or there is other options if you want to buy a product.
 
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