Need some laptop suggestions

[rbwill2]

mac mac mac mac

 

[Spekkio]

I'll second the ASUS line. I've used their motherboards for years in my desktops and bought a really nice laptop last year. Very happy with their performance and customer service. Best prices for them are going to be online, so do your research there.

Don't buy a Mac.

Brett

Thirded about ASUS. Bought one last year off of www.newegg.com and love it.

Buying a PC is not just a matter of picking a brand. Not all ASUS laptops are created equal, and the same goes for every other brand as well. You have to take note of what hardware is inside the PC/laptop, and that does take a little bit of research. I suggest starting with www.tomshardware.com. Saying blanket statements like "HP's are crap" or "Dell's are good" are misleading; if you take two computers from two different manufacturers with identical hardware, they are going to have the same reliability. However, brands like HP and Gateway tend to have a high price/performance ratio, while Dell is more reasonable. Thus, two people spending equal amounts of money without noting internal hardware (like many PC consumers do) will get a better experience from Dell.

My roommate at OCS had a mac. Damn thing had all sorts of problems, and it was fairly new at the time. A buddy from LI purchased a Mac in '08, had his Mac less than 1 year when his E key stopped working. Also, the person who said that you will pay a premium for asthetics with Mac is spot on. If you do your homework and shop wisely, you can get a lot more performance for your buck with a PC laptop.

Geek squad? Obviously a ripoff. But what's the probability that you have a friend who can un-fuck your PC vs. the probability that you have a friend who can un-fuck your Mac for free? If you claim Macs don't break, you need to get yourself to Apple's tech support forums. Some Mac's do break, and people do have problems with them, just like some PCs break and people have problems with them, too.

If you shop for a PC by looking at the hardware inside, like people should, the main difference between brands will typically be in the form factor of the case, the price, and any extra software they include in the bundle. For your usage, you will not need a dedicated video card (that will save quite a bit of cost and increase battery life). I would suggest finding a budget, then getting the fastest CPU/most RAM/biggest HDD that you can afford in that budget, since those three factors will affect the longevity of your laptop.

Also, how important is battery life to you? Higher performing processors will decrease battery life, so you're going to have to weigh which is most important to you. If battery life is important, you should look at laptops with an intel Centrino processor; if performance is more important, look for laptops with intel core duo P8600/8700 processors.

Finally, I leave you with this:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

 

[mmx1]

I'll give you that it's fringe, but the various companies that distribute Linux have a fraction of the advertising budget of Microsoft/Apple. I'd bet that a bunch of people would probably be interested in Linux, since it does what it does cheaply, efficiently, and it's very stable. I'll give you that it is an alternative OS (so is the upcoming Google Chrome OS), but it hardly requires any tinkering now. It really is as easy as installing OS X or Windows.

Fringe isn't just about advertising. It's about having very common consumer devices supported due to the size of the userbase. Can you sync an iphone with a ubuntu out of the box? What about netflix streaming movies (which require silverlight)? If you buy a wireless keyboard or some other random usb peripheral at Best Buy, how many of the "media functions" are going to work in Linux? Linux isn't even where Apple was in the OS9 days.

The mac userbase is not ignorable from a consumer developer's standpoint - linux is. That's why Microsoft has Office for Mac, and vice versa with Quicktime and iTunes on the PC (as well as exchange on the mac).

That's what fringe entails. It's kinda like being a smarcar owner. Ooh, it's unique, but you'd better hope you live near a dealer or know how to turn wrenches.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Fringe isn't just about advertising. It's about having very common consumer devices supported due to the size of the userbase.

How does one develop a large userbase? Advertising. Mac was a fringe operating system, then they made a concerted effort at advertising.

Linux isn't even where Apple was in the OS9 days.

I'll agree there, but the difference between Apple and Linux is the fact that it's open source. Instead of hundreds of programmers working for a salary in one geographic location with deadlines, it's mainly volunteer programmers from around the world making tweaks and sharing it with the community.

That's what fringe entails. It's kinda like being a smarcar owner. Ooh, it's unique, but you'd better hope you live near a dealer or know how to turn wrenches.

I think you'll find as more and more is moved to the "cloud", that the actual OS will become irrelevant, and Linux will move more mainstream because of it's cost of ownership.

 

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

Thirded about ASUS. Bought one last year off of www.newegg.com and love it.

Buying a PC is not just a matter of picking a brand. Not all ASUS laptops are created equal, and the same goes for every other brand as well. You have to take note of what hardware is inside the PC/laptop, and that does take a little bit of research. I suggest starting with www.tomshardware.com. Saying blanket statements like "HP's are crap" or "Dell's are good" are misleading; if you take two computers from two different manufacturers with identical hardware, they are going to have the same reliability. However, brands like HP and Gateway tend to have a high price/performance ratio, while Dell is more reasonable. Thus, two people spending equal amounts of money without noting internal hardware (like many PC consumers do) will get a better experience from Dell.

My roommate at OCS had a mac. Damn thing had all sorts of problems, and it was fairly new at the time. A buddy from LI purchased a Mac in '08, had his Mac less than 1 year when his E key stopped working. Also, the person who said that you will pay a premium for asthetics with Mac is spot on. If you do your homework and shop wisely, you can get a lot more performance for your buck with a PC laptop.

Geek squad? Obviously a ripoff. But what's the probability that you have a friend who can un-fuck your PC vs. the probability that you have a friend who can un-fuck your Mac for free? If you claim Macs don't break, you need to get yourself to Apple's tech support forums. Some Mac's do break, and people do have problems with them, just like some PCs break and people have problems with them, too.

If you shop for a PC by looking at the hardware inside, like people should, the main difference between brands will typically be in the form factor of the case, the price, and any extra software they include in the bundle. For your usage, you will not need a dedicated video card (that will save quite a bit of cost and increase battery life). I would suggest finding a budget, then getting the fastest CPU/most RAM/biggest HDD that you can afford in that budget, since those three factors will affect the longevity of your laptop.

Also, how important is battery life to you? Higher performing processors will decrease battery life, so you're going to have to weigh which is most important to you. If battery life is important, you should look at laptops with an intel Centrino processor; if performance is more important, look for laptops with intel core duo P8600/8700 processors.

Finally, I leave you with this:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

I don't know....my Macbook Pro is showing 6 hours remaining with the screen brightness amped all the way and illustrator running as well as iTunes.

 

[Spekkio]

I don't know....my Macbook Pro is showing 6 hours remaining with the screen brightness amped all the way and illustrator running as well as iTunes.

Screen brightness is not the end-all, be-all of battery life, and itunes takes very little processing power. What was your point, exactly?

 

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

Screen brightness is not the end-all, be-all of battery life, and itunes takes very little processing power. What was your point, exactly?

My point is that I'm using a high-end machine with a faster processor and I'm getting GREAT battery life and that it is possible to have the best of both worlds.

I don't know of ANY PC Laptop that has the same speed of this machine while maintaining the same type of mobility. In other words the only batteries I've seen that could reach that length of time were HUGE and sacrificed mobility greatly.

 

[phrogpilot73]

I don't know....my Macbook Pro is showing 6 hours remaining with the screen brightness amped all the way and illustrator running as well as iTunes.

This is turning into a fan boy pissing contest. I'm sitting here showing 7 hours remaining on my battery, and I only paid $629.

You don't have to convert every person you ever meet to use the operating system that you happen to like. All fan boys (Windows, Mac, Linux) piss me off because they do that. I have a mix of Windows and Linux in my house, and I'm going to build a Hackintosh for PSW. Each OS serves its purpose, and the OP needs to decide which OS serves her needs best. Period. Not what serves your needs.

My point is that I'm using a high-end machine with a faster processor and I'm getting GREAT battery life and that it is possible to have the best of both worlds.

I don't know of ANY PC Laptop that has the same speed of this machine while maintaining the same type of mobility. In other words the only batteries I've seen that could reach that length of time were HUGE and sacrificed mobility greatly.

I'm running a dual core, with 4 gigs of memory, a 320 gig hard drive, wireless N, and am capable of doing all the tasks I want to do. Did I mention that this laptop weighs around 4 lbs? And I paid $629. How much did you pay?

 

[Spekkio]

My point is that I'm using a high-end machine with a faster processor and I'm getting GREAT battery life and that it is possible to have the best of both worlds.

Faster processor than what? Longer battery life than what?

I didn't know what your point was because, after re-reading my prior post about 3 more times, I couldn't find anywhere that I detailed exact battery life numbers corresponding to hardware specs. I simply stated a fact that higher performing hardware will decrease battery life. That is a tradeoff that people have to consider with laptops. Since someone like the OP who browses the internet and watches the occassional YouTube video doesn't need robust hardware, you can err on the side of weaker hardware to get longer battery life.

You're making a comparison between Mac and nothing, and calling the Mac better. If the Mac were able to offer better performance for the cost, then I'd suggest a Mac to the OP. However, that is not the case.

 

[Nordo]

I don't think you do. Nobody, especially a housewife computer neophyte, is going to run an esoteric Linux OS for a "family" computer. It's a ridiculous proposition, and we both know it.

Brett

I don't think you are giving her enough credit; if you can use a computer, you can use Ubuntu. Ubuntu is not Arch, Gentoo, etc; it is designed for the average, family computer, and is all about usability. The only time she will probably need to go in the console is to install Flash, where you could just copy/paste the commands.

Why not test drive Ubuntu or Kubuntu or any other -untu distro?
Worst case scenario is your hardware isn't supported (unlikely), no harm is done, and you can go buy a Mac. Best case scenario is you saved a whole lot of money.

 

[eddie]

I think you'll find as more and more is moved to the "cloud", that the actual OS will become irrelevant, and Linux will move more mainstream because of it's cost of ownership.

Maybe. From a marketing standpoint, I feel like most people really really like having more than open-source-dom to fall back on, a brand, etc.

But why do you say OS will become irrelevant if we move toward network computing?

 

[Brett327]

I don't think you are giving her enough credit; if you can use a computer, you can use Ubuntu. Ubuntu is not Arch, Gentoo, etc; it is designed for the average, family computer, and is all about usability. The only time she will probably need to go in the console is to install Flash, where you could just copy/paste the commands.

Why not test drive Ubuntu or Kubuntu or any other -untu distro?
Worst case scenario is your hardware isn't supported (unlikely), no harm is done, and you can go buy a Mac. Best case scenario is you saved a whole lot of money.

Tell you what, let's see if you can convince her. I'm betting she won't bite.

Brett

 

[Herc_Dude]

Tell you what, let's see if you can convince her. I'm betting she won't bite.

Brett

As the husband of this fine woman seeking advice, I'll tell you right now that Brett is correct. Sure all that crap might work, be cheaper, etc... We are looking for simplicity, she really doesn't have time for trying shit out while keepin the kid happy, growing more babies, keeping the house clean, and doing all those other things that real wives do and that feminists hate. I'm not about to do my own laundry, so if it means spending a few extra bucks to maintain my standard of living so be it.

My wife takes all my shit with so much grace...

 

[devil_dog_wife]

+1 to the husband.. Thanks for the laugh..

I'm doing my research and shopping around...