Miscellaneous laptop discussions : Laptop for College
Laptop for College
by alexd88 - 8/2/06 9:35 PMHey everybody I need help deciding on what laptop to buy for college! I am going to a 4 year university and will be studying mass communications. My choices are a SONY, AlIEN WARE, or an APPLE MACBOOK PRO. I have about $1800 to spend on a laptop and I just want to get the best. If any of you could offer advice that would be great! Thanks
-Alex
go for HP
by Diirewolf - 8/3/06 1:19 AM In reply to: Laptop for College by alexd88Personally, id go for an HP Pavilion, definately not an Apple macbook. Sony Vaio is alright but certain models lack performance, even the expensive models. I dont know much bout alienware but i'll recommend HP Pavilion dv1600 if you're not going to be doing serious gaming or graphics. If so then go for the dv5000 or dv6000 with nvidia graphics (both are 15.4''). Both of these have all the features youll need out of a laptop: webcam + mic in-built, Core Duo Processor, widescreenw w/ brightview, DVD Burner dual layer + lightscribe + lots more... check it out on their website. Far as i know even the best configs for these laptops will cost you no more than $1800.
my recommendation
by foodang1 - 8/3/06 4:39 AM In reply to: Laptop for College by alexd88i just recently received the alienware m9700 in the mail which i will probably write a review on. i been to college and pretty much know what your going to be going through with moving around to different dorms and the road trips, the last thing you need is a lot of bulk to slow your pace. i would like to recommend the alienware system. i can play all the latest games, burn music and dvd's, i even use it to replace my television since it can also record live tv through one of the ports in the back, but the alienware systems are expensive (1800 bucks is not gonna cut it), therefore i suggest going with the current hp dv8000 or dv9000 which should be coming out this month. these systems will alow you to play games, music, and watch television without lugging around a seperate tv, dvd player, tivo, music system, and computer. all the features of alienware just not as powerful. also as a side note i dealt with hp recently in buying a laptop for my mother. it came within 2 weeks instead of the 6 weeks it took alienware.
Laptop for College
by alexd88 - 8/3/06 11:56 AM In reply to: my recommendation by foodang1Thanks for the advice! I have always heard bad things about HP though.. I am also leaning more toward getting that mac. What do you think would be best? Do you know what the disadvantages of MAC or HP would be?
thanks
advantages
by shadowagent - 8/3/06 2:47 PM In reply to: Laptop for College by alexd88Advantages of a Mac are they are extremely fast and reliable, their OS is extremely stable and kills Windows in features, and their tech support is incredible.
Advantages of the HP are most likely cheaper depending on which one you are looking at, more compatible hardware and programs than a mac, easier to upgrade in the future.
I personally have a MacBook Pro, and if you know how to use the Mac OS well then it is a great laptop. However I have heard that HP is somewhat righting the ship and are putting out better products than they used too. Really it all comes down to which OS you want, and what you are looking for in a laptop. If you are going to be doing any time of image editing or graphic design than the Mac is the only way to go. They are pratically built for graphic design. Either way you should be pretty happy. Another reason why I personally chse Apple is like I mentioned above their tech support is absolutely the best and most efficient out there.
Macbook Pro
by patbollin - 8/3/06 9:11 PM In reply to: advantages by shadowagentI'm a 4th year Pharmacy student and I am now on my 2nd laptop. As a freshman, I got a sony, which worked ok until it was stolen from my dorm. I replaced it with an apple ibook after using the apple computers on campus. Sure Mac's dont have as much free-ware, but you really dont need it anyways, and there are no virus, so you dont have to run programs to check for spyware/ adware. If you have $1800 to spend, I would go for the an upgraded macbook myself and pocket the rest....you may want to buy somehting later. However, if your heart is set on the Pro, I would wait until they get the Memrom processor. Thats what I am doing..........can't wait!!
Just another point of view....
by LJKaH - 8/4/06 12:47 AM In reply to: Laptop for College by alexd88Hi, it seems like you have some strong pushes towards the Mac...but just as a devil's advocate:
My sister got a Mac 3 years ago before she went to college (a G4, I believe). She went to Dartmouth, a well known to be Mac friendly school (most of their labs are Mac labs). Three years later, her batteries has been replaced, her power adapter replaced, her screen, because of a design fault in the laptop, has an imprint of the keys slowly working its way into it, as well as serious stablity issues.
As much as I would like to say this is an isolated case, the iMac in our house last week completely packed up--Finder wouldn't load, nor any built in components (Safari, iTunes, etc.). A reinstall of the OS with the disk was remarkably easy, however, had I not been dilligent about backing up data, it would have been a far more deadly disaster then it was.
Basically, the point that I have run across is this. With Windows, yeah, things might go wrong more often, but THERE ARE THINGS I CAN DO TO FIX IT. With a Mac, if Finder doesn't load, there is no recovery console, no command prompt, no network boot, etc.
If I am wrong on that last statement, please correct me, but all I will says is that everyone knows to push ctrl-alt-delete when things go wrong. Push it on Windows and you'll get a response. Push it on a Mac...
Go HP, but not for gaming's sake
by sonicxml - 8/4/06 5:25 AM In reply to: Laptop for College by alexd88Hey Alex, Im in the same boat you are. Ive been researching HP laptops lately and I can tell you they are wonderful Multimedia machines. Some people here however have mistakenly mentioned the words ''HP laptop'' and ''Gaming'' in the same sentence. I warn you that these laptops' Integrated (and sometimes dedicated) graphics lack the punch to play anything like Doom 3, F.E.A.R., Oblivion, etc. You may scoot by with a decent framerate on games made pre-2004, but these high-end games give enthusiast desktop systems more than they can handle, and will turn your laptop into a slide show projector, even on minimalistic settings.
HP is making better quality systems today, especially compared to dell home computers. My buddy has one and his hard drive has died on him twice in one year! I am going to order a DV6000 from HP if they introduce one with a Merom processor chip inside it. It will be worth the wait.
Keith
MabBook
by Shaun822 - 8/4/06 8:38 PM In reply to: Laptop for College by alexd88If you are leaning towards a MacBook I highly recommend that you consult with your school's tech department first. I bought one for law school in a couple weeks after talking to some people in the admissions dept. and all I heard was "Oh ya Mac compatability is our highest priority", etc. So I went out and purchased the 13.3" MacBook with the black casing. I love the machine and in the few weeks I have had it I have grown to love it and have basically abandoned my Windows machines. However, I received a letter from the school that basically states "Windows is what we want you to use but if you bought a Mac we can jury rig something up for you."
As far as Mac vs. PC laptops unless something goes horribly wrong with my MacBook I doubt that I would ever go back to a PC. I have a Sony Vaio laptop and a Dell XPS. The Vaio is so old that it is running Windows ME, so I won't even compare that with the Mac because it wouldn't even be fair. However after less than a week I began to have some trouble with some of XP's security holes and just random crashes, etc. To date I have had nothing nearing the early trouble I had with my XP system.
Basically it comes down to your school and its compatabilty features. If you can go with a Mac and be fully compatible then I highly recommend it, but if you are going to run into a situation like mine where your school allows them but won't do much to support them then I would suggest you just go with one of the Windows based machines listed already.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
