[porfryrieggwo]

I need (want) a college laptop. Should I go with a cheap HP PC or explore the world of mac?

I love the style and simplicity of Macbooks. What are all your opinions?

 

[SuperNothing]

Go with the Mac.

 

[indysmith]

I vote Mac all the way! I've never looked back

 

[craiglester]

Check with the college and see what software you may be required to use for your course. Also, what do you have right now? if it's a PC, ask yourself why you want to change, and do you want to go out and buy all that software again?

If you're already using a mac, then stick with it, if the college does not have specific pc requirements.

 

[SuperNothing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by craiglester /img/forum/go_quote.gif Check with the college and see what software you may be required to use for your course. Also, what do you have right now? if it's a PC, ask yourself why you want to change, and do you want to go out and buy all that software again? If you're already using a mac, then stick with it, if the college does not have specific pc requirements.

That is true. If you are going for engineering you should probably go PC as you can't run AutoCAD natively on a Mac. You would have to buy Vista or XP and then run AutoCAD through bootcamp. If you are going for anything that involves video or image editing you probably want to go for the Mac. If you don't need either go for the Mac.

 

[mark_h]

Mac, you can get good deals if you are a student and their support is better by far than ANY! PC supplier. I have owned HP, Vaio, Thinkpads, Powerbooks and a macbook, the apples were the least problematic, the support on the others was good but not nearly as good as apple.

 

[ZarakiSan]

PC. I've had some limited experience with Macs, but I never did like them. I don't like the way you're supposed to be part of this 'mac community' and I don't like how propietary Macs are. I've also owned an iPod, and it's completely the same, glad I sold it even though I want my Rockbox back.

Also, check out Linux if you want something else. Sony notebooks are pretty good-looking.

 

[ozz]

Go with the mac everyone i know has never gone back to a pc.

 

[vhobhstr]

I've used macs since 1993 and I think that the mac has finally come into its own. The software (good since 10.2) and the hardware (good since G5 and intel) are there. There's never been a better time to switch. The only thing that's missing now is Mac OS for the PC

 

[grawk]

Mac hasn't been hardware proprietary in a couple of years now. Intel even makes their motherboards now.

 

[rocdoc]

You will certainly get replies split along the PC/Mac lines, based on everyone's experience. It depends on what you want to do and what software you already own. I am a Mac convert, and I did that because I process photographs for my hobby and my PC's would die often and hard when running that software. Since switching to Mac everything is smoooooth... Also, in terms of integration with peripherals it's a dream.
I hear PC's are still the way to go for a lot of games for example, so to get more meaningful advice let us know what it will be used for.

 

[krmathis]

/me vote for the MacBook.

 

[Chrispy]

PC. I also like how you're supposed to be in the Mac community.

With laptops, it's not so much a big deal, but if you were getting a desktop, I would say PC because they tend to be cheaper for what you get, and easier to upgrade and switch components around.

 

[wanderman]

macbooks can still use windows. I would get a macbook and build a workstation if you need to do more intensive stuff. Apple laptops are great and osx really shines at lower resolutions imo.

 

[RYCeT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrispy /img/forum/go_quote.gif With laptops, it's not so much a big deal, but if you were getting a desktop, I would say PC because they tend to be cheaper for what you get, and easier to upgrade and switch components around.

What he said ^^^^^^



Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderman /img/forum/go_quote.gif macbooks can still use windows. I would get a macbook and build a workstation if you need to do more intensive stuff. Apple laptops are great and osx really shines at lower resolutions imo.

Yes, macbook can use windows but don't expect to use it for word processing, they still need to add the touchpad option on bootcamp.