Pc Or Mac laptop

[rpm12505]

My son starts college next month and we need to get him a laptop. He originally wanted a mac but is now looking at pc's. The old fogies have no experience with mac but I see there is alot of trouble with vista. Any insight is greatly appreciated.


Hope I'm not starting another chevy vs ford war :yell:

Well maybe a little :p

 

[SpDyKen]

Macs are not inexpensive; most all graphic artists use one.

 

[flyingfuzzball]

i would go with a PC. when i use my friends macs for school projects they (the mac) always bother me. some of the stuff just doesnt make any sense to me.

and with 5 minutes of research i would doublely (if thats a word) go with a PC. i just did a quick comparison of Apples laptop vs Dells laptop

the cheapest apple.....$1099

cheapest dell......499

PS when you make a computer (if you order online) you can have them put XP in. i think its more expensive but not much. so that gets you around vista problems.

 

[rpm12505]

Thanks guys. I was unaware of the XP option

 

[Patman]

I have both a PC with Vista & a Macbook. Honestly I thin the Macbook is a better built unit than any PC I was able to find in the similar price range. As far as usability it takes some getting use to but the Apple interface is pretty familiar after just a bit of use. Program selection is a bit of a different situation so depending on what your son is going to be doing with it there might be a definative winner based on that alone. Yes there is always the dual boot option but then you might as well have a PC to start with.

 

[Cman250]

Well I think it really depends on your price range and compatibility of the majority users of his college. You can get a good mac for the right price but the mac books like the G4 are a joke IMO. Go for a Macbook pro if you choose an apple. Another thing is most laptops non-macs usually come loaded with useful and wastefull programs on their computers. My HP desktop was so loaded up with crap that I have spent countless hours deleting and removing useless programs just to get it run right. It is much easier to file share with programs and such on the same operating systems when doing papers, so see what the professors are using and that will make it easier to choose.

 

[Solid State]

PCs are cheap and quite suitable for students. Just settle on a price range and you'll have your answer.

Good luck.

 

[rpm12505]

Thanks again for all the input. We're in the $1500 range which I guess gets you a low end apple or mid pc. I just noticed the dual boot option as you called it. Interesting. Also noticed quite a few pc's offering xp pro.

Yes it would be easier if the lad knew what he wanted to do but he is an undecided major. Not all that uncommon I guess. Seems 70% of all decided majors switch before their on parole :whoa:
The IT guy at the college said it was a matter of personal preference, big help.

 

[Patman]

Cman the current MacBook compares quite nicely with the Pro model, the G4 variant was phased out in 2006.

I went through this very decission process just 4 months ago and trust me I was favoring PC's in a big way but when I compared similar priced products the Apple products were head and shoulder above in quality of the finished piece. Yes it for sure was tough to pull that trigger to the single click world but I'm quite happy we did. It's also quite suprising to me how similar the various programs really are and how easy it is to "convert" files.

 

[cmp11]

if he didnt not have experience with a mac in school or anywhere then dont buy him one they are very tricky to adjust too because they are so different from others

 

[flyingfuzzball]

if you are in the 1500 range then you can get a low end alienware (highend for everything else) they are high performance made for gaming but because of that they work for 3d designing etc.

and 1500 isnt that low for laptops which have gotten alot cheaper in the last couple years.

 

[BBking25]

The Mac took me awhile to adjust to back about 4 years ago...however once you're adjusted they're the best!
But now is not the right time for your son.

 

[cmp11]

your best bet is a sony vaio they have been around for sometime mid-range priced very high quality and plus you cant go wrong with a sony

 

[xgenjammer1]

GET A MAC!!! im 13 and have a macbook. it took me a week to figure everything out but it was worth it. I hate using pcs now.

 

[XRpredator]

. . . im 13 . . .

That does it. Case closed. The experts have spoken. There is no further discussion.

he's 13

 

[Patman]

LOL! Mac's are difficult / tricky to use?! OMG I just spit EAS shake all over my monitor! I would take it from those comments that changing a spark plug on a CRF50 is a difficutly / tricky task as well? :laugh:

 

[XRpredator]

. . . I would take it from those comments that changing a spark plug on a CRF50 is a difficutly / tricky task as well? :laugh:

If you're used to changing one on a YZinger, maybe . . .

or maybe not :nener:

 

[Daf]

I use both now but that was not always the case.

Kind of a funny story - having used PCs for a long time before ever using an Apple - my boss populated the office with some Macs and we were to use them for certain tasks. One task involved moving data around with a floppy (this was a long time ago!). I stuck the floppy in and managed to fumble my way around in the files to get the job done ... but when it came time to take the floppy out I ... couldn't!!! WTH! The floppy drive had no eject button!! I was just about to get the flat head screwdriver at it when a buddy informed me that you simply drag the floppy icon to the trash bin. Wow - that was bizarre for an PC user! :whoa:

Anyway - now they are no problem and really shouldn't require much "adjustment" if you are used to PCs. I believe that the Apple machines are quality instruments, as are most mid to high end PCs. It's the hand behind the tool.

Daf

 

[XRpredator]

. . . It's the hand behind the tool.

must . . . resist! :bang:

 

[mkelly04]

Keep in mind that there really isnt such a thing as a low end mac.

The 1099 mac (999 if you buy through the educational store) is still a core 2 duo processor with a gig of ram. The 499 dell is a celeron with an 80 gig hdd. If you spec the dell out with the same hardware as the macbook it comes in at $724

For the extra cash you really do get something for your money. Apple really does make some nice hardware. They are a lot higher quality then dell. Also, when is the last time you heard a mac user complain about his computer crashing or having a virus? :)


Also, if you are really worried about the apple os you can always run XP or vista on the apple so you can have all your bases covered.

 

[rpm12505]

XRpredator your killing me :laugh:

Thanks for all the input people

Ryan has worked with macs in high school so he is comfortable with using them. I read somewhere that macs are not the greatest for gaming. This is a plus in my book as I am sure he will be playing enough games :p as it is. It wasn't that long ago that I bombed out, I mean, went to college :bang:

I have a bit of a bug up my waazoo about dell. When we needed help with my daughters laptop they were no where to be found. Then a year later they called me!! Seems they wanted to sell me an extension on our service and tech support contract with them. I said sorry you had your chance. "Oh but we'll give you the super-secret tech number" if you send us more money. Yeah that check is in the mail. No more dell dome of silence for me :yell:

He's off to the apple store on his next day off to check them out :yikes: Guess I know how that's going to play out. Yeah I'll just go back to work now. :

 

[flyingfuzzball]

you have to keep in mind though that dell isnt the only people who made PC's. there is also HP and gateway and Alienware (owned by dell but seperately operated) and voodoo and sager and sony and...the list goes on.

i have a question though do macbooks (another annoyance there with the name) have the stupid one button mouse. that is the main reason i hate the imac.

 

[friar tuck]

Buy an HP notebook, and buy Business Class. MUCH better componenents, and for about 150 you can get 3 or 4 years on site, next day service. That's right, they come to the machine the next day and fix it. Business Class support is less hassle as well. That's what I got for my daughter who is heading to Bowling Green in a couple weeks. :(

 

[Patman]

The one button thing is specific to the OS not the hardware so yes the Macbook would have the one button touch pad.

 

[Okiewan]

The one button thing is specific to the OS not the hardware so yes the Macbook would have the one button touch pad.

OS thing? Not really, you can use any USB 3 button (or more) mouse you want on a Mac. Yes, the notebooks have a one button mouse (touchpad), but it's purely a hardware decision.