purchasing a laptop (1 Viewer)

[jenez]

My dad has agreed to allow me to purchase a laptop for my year 11 studies next year. I’m looking for something new and definitely something function-able.
I have to save about $ 500 and my dad said he’d pay for the rest, it’s just im not sure which ‘brand’ is the best to get, I was thinking Toshiba. I’m also a bit unsure of the MB, GB HDD and that sort of thing.
To tell you the trust I’m really clueless, I’m just looking for your thoughts on what’s available and what’s best, please let me know what you think and the pro’s and con’s of certain models.
Thanks
http://community.boredofstudies.org/search.php?searchid=2119266

 

[jenez]

Hmmm, I haven’t heard of them before, I’m a bit I.T alliterate. I’d like to know more, it’s just a bit pricy; my budget extends to about $1500 (at the most). Could you tell me a bit more about them?

 

[HotShot]

Hmmm, I haven’t heard of them before, I’m a bit I.T alliterate. I’d like to know more, it’s just a bit pricy; my budget extends to about $1500 (at the most). Could you tell me a bit more about them?

ACER

who cares sleekiness. when the price is the most important factor. 999 get good laptop that will do that job.. and will help u out in UNI.

Macbooks are a waste - new interface.. not that gud. compared to Windows.. which has more compatability.

 

[nwatts]

ACER

who cares sleekiness. when the price is the most important factor. 999 get good laptop that will do that job.. and will help u out in UNI.

Macbooks are a waste - new interface.. not that gud. compared to Windows.. which has more compatability.

ahahah

no.

i own a macbook, superb. os x is a fantastic piece of software. plus, learning curve = next to nothing.

 

[Collin]

With $1,500 I'd go with Dell, Acer or Compaq. Toshiba is a decent brand indeed, but you tend to pay a premium just for the brand name.

Since you're IT illiterate, I won't elaborate too much on the GIGAFLOPSLOLz but I will suggest that you ensure your laptop:

Has a processor called Pentium M, Core Duo or Core2 Duo (although unlikely for $1,500 unless you go with ExplodingDell). Pray you don't get ripped off with a Banias Pentium M too (for the 3-digit processor number for the Pentium M, ensure that the last digit isn't a 5). These kind of processors may also be accompanied by a term called 'Centrino'. If this is the case, understand that your laptop will also come with built-in wireless support. A processor called Turion is also a good option.
The point is, stay away from 'Semprons' and 'Celerons'.

Has atleast 512MB of RAM. Watch out for the common trap of getting a decent processor but only 256MB of RAM. For $1,500 you could get 1GB if you go Dell.

HD is an acronym for hard disk. The more hard disk space you have, the more photos, movies, documents etc. you can store on your computer. For $1,500, I'd expect something around 60GB (or 40GB if you wanna go suparflashybrand).

 

[IronMaiden]

MacBook + Student Discount = 1500

 

[woodwardbrett]

Get yourself a macbook. You will be able to run both windows and mac os so you can have the best of both worlds (thats if you really need to run windows). check out http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebO...v36sW8fjKm6/0.PSLID?mco=2B4053E2&nclm=MacBook
for more info. as a student you get a discount, so the base model is only $1,574.10. it comes with 13.3-inch widescreen display, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo1 processor, 512MB Ram, 60GB hard drive and a combo drive (dvd-rom, cd burner), a built in camera (web cam soughta thing, called an isight). The price also includes all software that you will need. They also come with a cool remote control so you can watch dvds etc with it and not have to get up to pause etc. Macs also all come with wireless cards built in and also bluetooth (so you can connect with your mobile phone etc)

you seriously can't go wrong with a mac laptop these days... let alone any other mac. they are well priced and damn they have alot of features. and if for some reason you dont like the mac operating system you can use windows but personally i dont see a reason to not use Mac OS

buy a mac, you shan't regret it ever!! if you want to know anything PM me, i know alot about macs and can help you out.

 

[Espo15]

when you say you can run windows on it, does that mean you can use it just like a pc?
i've always wished i was brought up on macs, as everyone says they run more effectively etc, but the thought of learning a whole new operating system is just too daunting to make the conversion now.

 

[The Gate Keeper]

the exploding battery thing is so overrated. They were only in laptops bought in late 2005. There have been no other reports of "exploding" laptops. Though you could more so blame sony, since that lot was made by sony.

There is another laptop thread, which has the same price range, so yea, it would be good to take a look on that thread to see comments made by myself and other computer enthuses.

 

[withoutaface]

when you say you can run windows on it, does that mean you can use it just like a pc?
i've always wished i was brought up on macs, as everyone says they run more effectively etc, but the thought of learning a whole new operating system is just too daunting to make the conversion now.

Yes, windows runs completely natively on the new intel macs, and it's been shown to perform at almost the exact same rate as PC's with comparable specs, and at times even outperforms OS X on the same machine at certain tasks. Probably what I'd do is install both and log into windows most of the time, OS X when you felt like fooling around with it and see if it grows on you.

 

[MedNez]

Yes, windows runs completely natively on the new intel macs, and it's been shown to perform at almost the exact same rate as PC's with comparable specs, and at times even outperforms OS X on the same machine at certain tasks. Probably what I'd do is install both and log into windows most of the time, OS X when you felt like fooling around with it and see if it grows on you.

Yeah, that's what I planned to do

I've not yet needed (and no longer want to) install Windows. Everything I've had to use there's an appropriate equivelant.

In saying that however, in my later year comp courses I will need Windows for some of the development environments.

 

[jemsta]

theres a special for a song vaio laptop
details are here
http://www.laptop.com.au/product/sonyy18gp.shtml

 

[Ssj(0.0)Vivi]

sorry....iam not that familiar with how the Mac works but do programs such as WoW and maybe Ragnarok online function fully well on it? or do they need extra patches or something?

 

[withoutaface]

WoW is fully supported for Mac. It's a different operating environment, but blizzard released it for both PC and Mac, so yeah.

 

[almost done now]

www.hp.com.au/familyandfriendsstore

This site gives you much lower prices on hp products

I've ordered the dv2040tx (14 inch, Intel Core Duo, 1gb RAM, 128meg graphics) which has an rrp of $1900, but if you buy it from the above site it is only $1400 with free delivery. This makes it a better deal than a Dell, which are usually hard to beat in terms of performance for your dollar.

It says it's for "family and friends of hp staff", but i figure with prices like that anyone can be a friend of hp...