I am planning on buying a laptop, both because my current computer has so many annoying problems that it is probably not worth investing any more in it, and because I would like to have one in any classes which I shall take, in graduate school and beyond. I have thought about getting a Mac and I have taken a look at some of the I-Book models: they look good both in price and capabilities. I should not need any special software, since most of what I shall be doing with my laptop will be just writing. I am still unsure about getting Mac, though; I have only heard that they function much better than PCs, but I have not used one in over ten years. The Mac shop which I visited also sometimes has used computers in stock, and so I have also thought about getting one of those. My therapist, who told me about the shop, got one for about $400 (Canadian) which had several hundred dollars of software already on it and no problems whatsoever.
Anyhow, if anyone has any advice on offer on laptops, by all means.
If all you are planning on doing is writing, then I suggest just getting an older laptop model. My friend has a laptop only for word processing and all it can run is early windows games and solitaire. He says it works out fine for what he is doing. Unless you want a multi-media center, which you said you don’t, then I say just go with an older model.
Ehh…I wouldn’t suggest a complete dinosaur computer, especially if you’re going to run MS Word or Corel WordPerfect, because then it takes forever to save or edit anything.
A 3-4 year old laptop should suit you.
Try and get a Dell with Front Bay ports, and a second battery. That way, you can eject your CD-Rom drive when you’re going to class, pop in the second battery (Supposing you had it charged earlier) and you’ve got double your battery life. It’s what Sin has.
You’re right about Mac, OSX is the stablest OS in ages, thats a good choice, and if you can get it used, then thats even better because new Macs can be expensive.
I have already put my name on a list to be contacted when used models come into the shop which I mentioned beforehand. The new I-Books did not look too bad in price (about $1,200 to $1,500), but obviously I should spend less on a used one.
I am not inclined to get anything too old also because I do not want to invest in something which may die or come with/develop problems soon enough.
My Inspiron 8600 works rather nicely, although I’m not impressed with Dell’s customer service. Assholes. If you get one of the new mobility systems (a little pricier, but works just as well even though they’re not clocked as high) you might not even need the extra battery. My battery lasts almost 6 hours.
Ya don’t need one that’s not a complete dinosaur computer. I have a laptop from '98; it’s essentially crippled… Its CD drive is broken, so I’m permanently left with only the original War2 CD inside, forever… Keyboard doesn’t work, at all… I have it essentially nailed to my desk, with how awful it is to move it (separate keyboard and mouse!)… But, hey, I can use Word and WarCraft 2!
The list above is mostly based on my own experiences. Dells are supposedly nice and all, but that doesn’t make my laptop nice at all: Its screencard requires custom drivers, which crashes Windows XP; it barely runs with Windows 2000; and it has already required repairs twice, and seem to be needing more soon. Quite the contrary to my old Acer from 1995: It’s still working, and has only needed repairs once. Go with Acer, or Apple should you want MacOSX. Just stay away from Dell, or buy me one that isn’t bugged.
Dell’s supposed to have good CS, but when I sent it in cuz the video card fried (manufacturing defect aparently), they first sent it back to me with nothing changed and told me to reinstall the drivers myself which I had to find on their website (not good if you’re not computer friendly) which I knew wouldn’t work because the vid card initially had problems with the drivers they told me to install, and by sending it back to me with having nothing done, they ignored the phone person’s order to change the vid card, which was done after I bitched for an hour and a half on the phone about nothing being solved by their idiot drivers. So I had to send it over AGAIN. Now it works fine despite the shipping people being fucking bitches. I really like my Dell despite all this. Nulani is right that some parts and drivers are custom (Dell specific) but I don’t have any complaints about that. I personally really hated Fujitsu’s site. I went there to look at what they had to offer and I just couldn’t get it. I like the way Dell’s website works and how easy it is to assemble and customize what you want.
Apples are REALLY good machines, I know a lot of people at my university use Apple products. However, they ARE pricey and you also need to consider what you’ll be using your computer for if you’re getting an Apple.
I’ve had a dell for two years, and has never needed repairs (minus putting a key back in, which popped out. I did that myself). Though with a couple dents, I can likely keep it afloat for a couple more years. However, Yar Kramer’s Dell is nowhere near as old and yet has offered many issues to him. He would probably be able to elaborate more on that than I. So in the end, I would say that Dell is extremely variable, and you may get lucky or unlucky in regards to build quality. In teh end, I’d say not take the risk and avoid.
I have another question. At home, my old computer was part of an LAN with PCs, through which I was connected to the internet and to our printer. If I were to get a Mac, would it still be possible to be part of the LAN with the PCs?