New Computer Question

[chelle]

I've decided it's time to bag my current laptop (late 1990's IBM model with Pentium processor, 28.8 dial-up) and get one that includes today's technology. Since I haven't worked in almost 11 months and I'll be a student starting in Jan, I can't afford to buy the top of the line. Maybe some of you computer folks could help me decide what to buy. I'm thinking of getting a lease through Gateway or maybe buying a refurbished computer. Does anyone know whether these are good deals? Another option is to get a Mac through the student discount programs.

 

p.s. I need a laptop because of living space constraints.

[JoshK]

About how much can you spend? You can get a whole lot of laptop these days for not that much. It's the nice screen upgrades that really start raising the price. Though I'm sure a bunch of people will flame me, I think you get very little with a mac for the money, and I've always thought it's kind of a pain since 95% of the world runs on PCs. Just my 2 cents

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Gateway, HP, and Dell all have laptops all over the price range, and some, if not all of the aforementioned have refurbished computers on their websites. They also give you the option of adding or removing things from the computer you want, so you can tweak for price and features. You might also try ebay or ubid.com, both places one can snag a good deal if one is diligent.

[sk]

we have a mac desk top and i have a pc lap top that I like very much with all the microsft softwear there is not that hudge of a diffrence for me as I am not recording music or doing graphics... so go with what you can afford, something that comes with programs that you will use. Look for a deal! my lap top is some strange off brand ( it was given to me and I don't know or I would tell you ) and it is just Fine

[offwidthclimber]

"Since I haven't worked in almost 11 months and I'll be a student starting in Jan"

 

that sounds eerily familiar... i'm in the same situation.

 

i'd buy dell over gateway or hp.

 

DUDE, YOU'RE GETTING A DELL

[sk]

I LOVE HIM!!!

[Juneriver]

EBAY = cheap refurb's

[jon]

Apple education is selling iBooks for $899. Apple has a loan offer, but the interest rates aren't as good as you could do with a credit card.

 

[CascadeClimber]

Try to find one (new or used) with a decent warranty. Otherwise you'll be SOL when (not if) it breaks. My clients have a lot of laptops and the ones that get moved around a lot have little things go wrong with them.

 

There is risk in spending too little. You don't need a Mercedes, but you don't want a Yugo, either.

 

There should be some kicking sales post-Christmas.

 

-L

[mwills]

i would suggest checking this site once a day or so:

 

techbargains

 

for example, here was a deal posted on Dec 5:

 

Back! Hot! BestBuy.com has the Toshiba Satellite Notebook Celeron 1.5GHz 256MB/20GB DVD 14.1" Screen Ethernet, 56k modem, XP Home $1049 - $350 rebates (Only 1 Toshiba $200 rebate needs original UPC) = $699 shipped free. (Thanks Steve)

 

so, if you are willing to deal with rebates and wait a while for these deals to come up (there are at least a couple each week) you could get a nicely loaded laptop (with warranty) for under $700.

[fleblebleb]

1 - Buy a name brand.

 

Microsoft, Intel and the UW computer science department buy Dell PCs almost exclusively, that's a good recommendation. I see a lot of students and faculty with brand new Apple machines these days, but usually sitting next to a PC. The Apple laptops look just great though and Macs have a reputation for being easy to use.

 

2 - Get the warranty.

 

Considering for how long you've had your current machine think seriously about getting the extended warranty. However, if you won't use the new machine very much then it probably won't break down at all until after the extended warranty would expire.

 

3 - Go cheap.

 

First pick a name brand (expensive) then look at the cheap end of the product line. PCs have become vastly overprovisioned for web browsing and word processing. Unless you are going to play the latest video games you will be more than happy with the cheaper machines. They are also smaller, lighter and more silent.

 

4 - Don't worry too much.

 

The better companies have no-hassle satisfaction guarantees, which means you can buy a machine, use it heavily during hte first couple of weeks to run it through whatever you intend to use it for, and then decide to get your money back if you made a mistake.

 

5 - Batteries.

 

Laptop batteries die easily. If no-cord usage is important to you then look at the price of replacement batteries. To prolong battery life make sure to only plug your new machine in when the battery is empty, and to unplug it as soon as the battery is fully charged. I have killed Sony and Gateway batteries by keeping laptops plugged in all the time.

 

6 - Networking.

 

One USB port is all you need for DSL, which admittedly costs $$ per month. If you go to the UW then you can use the free Internet access but will want an internal modem in the machine. If you intend to use it in an environment with a wireless network then consider getting a machine with an internal wireless network interface card. If you want networking without a cord then you have to get the wireless NIC.

 

7 - Ergonomics.

 

Continual use of a laptop keyboard and mouse will kill most people's wrists, elbows and shoulders. Thankfully you climb a whole lot so all you have to do is make sure you do something for the opposing muscles and you might be just fine - but if you want to be safe, and will spend hours and hours in front of the computer, then make sure you can easily plug in at least an external mouse.

 

8 - Form factor.

 

The most important thing for me is that the machine is small, light and completely silent. You won't find a laptop that doesn't heat up a lot.

 

9 - I'd be looking at a Dell Latitude or an Apple iBook myself.

 

Cheers/Stefan

[icegirl]

I Love my Tibook G4 (laptop), have not had any problems. UW does have some reasonable deals if you go in and check out their "hot deals" sheet at the checkout counter. it's usually on "last weeks" models, or ones they ordered too many of before the newer cooler color came out.

 

have used/owned both PC and Mac for years, and now choose to own a mac.

 

Macintrash

[allthumbs]

i thought a laptop was for my girl to sit on ... what's the world coming to?

[chris_w]

I suggest a Dell over HP or gateway. I have been buying dell for 3 years and have no problems with them out of the box. Can't say that for apple or gateway, and I am a mac fan. I even bought dell refurb laptops and have had no problems with them. We had older gateway laptops and they kept acting up and some of the plastic connectors kept breaking off.

As for an apple laptop it cost $1600 (apple price) for an ibook with a 14inch screen (I don't suggest going any smaller) and their resolution is usually low (1024X76). The apple doesn't come with office where the dell laptop does. A $100 difference.

 

For $300 less you can get a dell P4 1700mhz with office and a better screen.

 

Chris

[Attitude]

I recently bought a new HP laptop at Best Buys. Works fine. There are a lot of good deals in the $1000 range. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. Check the ads.

 

I've only heard bad experiences buying reconditioned computers.

[CascadeClimber]

9 - I'd be looking at a Dell Latitude or an Apple iBook myself.

 

Look at me, I figured out the quote thing.

 

Dell has good product. Not without problems, but good. Easier to deal with than the HP-Compaq monster, and much more likely to exist in three years than Gateway and Micron.

 

I buy Dell for my clients, I buy Dell for my business, and I buy Dell for home. But If I didn't have to interact with the rest of the electronic world, I'd own a Mac.

 

Wintel may not have the best product(s) in a pure sense, but they are, sadly, the best solution in most situations today.

 

-L

[jon]

Loren, my friend, get some help.

 

I think the iBook would be a good choice. I've got a G4 Tibook as well and they are a little expensive but well worth it.. Granted I could probably do almost everything I do on it as I would a PC, but here's the catch.

 

I've been working in a heterogenous network environment for about 4 years now with Win9x, WinNT, Win2k, Solaris, Red Hat, MacOS9, and MacOSX, all networked with webservers running and expensive instruments connected sharing data. I'm not a network or computer administrator, I'm a scientist, which means I want to spend the least amount of time as possible fucking around conflicting IRQ and missing DLLs and the most time doing my work. This is even more so at home, I want to be able to connect to the internet, upload pictures or video, not spending an hour trying to find some stupid driver from a company that no longer exists or stopped supporting a product they just released. PCs have their place, you can build one really cheaply if you know what you doing, they are generally better for gaming and certain, specific business tasks.

 

Unfortunately there is this common misconception that you cannot exists in the business world with a Mac. It is simply not true (sorry Loren). In fact the networking on a Mac is so good now you can network it quicker and easier to a windows machine then trying to get two windows machines to talk to each other. I can take my Mac, plug it into a network anywhere without having to touch a thing, and have automatic access to the network and the internet. I go to a friends house, I pull their plug for their DSL and put it into my Tibook and just open the browser, it is that easy. The speed issue is another misconception. People make a big fuss over Mhz. Seriously do you really need a 2Ghz processor to surf most internet sites or use Word? Unless you type 4000 works a minute a 200 mhz works just as well. I am going to hell just for how many times I've sworn well trying to get our windows machines working at my work. If it weren't for my work I would never touch a windows machine again.

 

I've had my Tibook for a year and have not crashed it once (and I'm good at crashing computers), in fact now that I think about it, I think I have only rebooted and shutdown a total of like ten times. That's would be an impressive number for a server let alone a laptop.

[CascadeClimber]

Hackmeister, you're working in a heterogenous environment, which is the exception, not the norm. You can't plug you Mac into a Windows 2000 Domain and logon without some configuration work. Sure, you can probably pick up an IP address from a DHCP or BOOTP server and load web pages, but that won't get you access to permission-restricted network resources.

 

On an average day my laptop is attached to 4-6 networks (wireless and wired, Win2k and WinNT domains), without rebooting or any other such hassle. Thankfully, all OSes have gotten more robust and user friendly in the last few years.

 

I was a Mac evangelist for years. I gave up not because of anything Apple did (though they did and do lots of stupid things), but because of Office 4.2 for the Mac, which was Windows code running in an interpreter. It crashed the machine over and over and I couldn't get any work done. Damn MS. I understand that the latest version of Mac Office is nice, but what happens when you need to use an Access database?

 

As with most things in life, the bottom line here is this:

 

Opinions are like assholes: Everyone has one, and everyone thinks their's is the only one that doesn't stink.

 

 

-L

 

Oh yeah, I agree 100% on the mega/giga/terra/google-hertz overhype. Unless you are doing major number crunching, as in video rendering, you don't need the latest, greatest, most fastest wonder widget with the highest number. And, a 1Ghz CISC (Intel et al) processor is not as fast (in most cases) as a 1Ghz RISC (Mac) processor.

 

Now, isn't there some ice to climb by now?!?

[allthumbs]

Gnarly posts guys

[scot'teryx]

I agree with the Dell users

I have a Dell Inspiron 4000 thats about a year old and have had no problems with it (with a stable OS - win 2000 pro) and an older Dell Dimension XPS 6000t, and my newer dimension 8100. I have also purchased many of the refurbished computers for friends and clients as well with no grievances.

 

The dont have integrated components, so you can always upgrade w/no problems - compaq, Hp, and gateway do integrate most of the time.

 

As far as Mac products go, they are probably good as well, but I have tried not to make the switch thus far and have remained victorious.

 

Dell also has the free shipping once in awhile, and has a sweet bundled setup now that included a flatscreen monitor.

 

Good luck

[MntnrMichael]

You can get more for your money if you get a Dell. I got one this summer, and did a great deal of research. My family has had over 6 Dells pass through our door, and we have never had a major problem, when I had problem, Dell was very good about correcting it.

[chelle]

Thanks everyone for the input. I ended up going with a Toshiba notebook. A little more than I wanted to spend, but oh well it should last me a few years. And I can play DVDs when it's raining out while on climbing trips.

 

A mac would have been fully plug&play, but I already own PC software...

 

Cheers!

[jon]

You can't plug you Mac into a Windows 2000 Domain and logon without some configuration work.

 

Actually that is not true. Before you needed third party software for that but now it is standard in OS X. It works quite well. I can access all documents on a Win2k Active Directory Domain just like a PC could, ironically with less configuration then setting up an XP box.

 

but what happens when you need to use an Access database?

 

That is a small problem, with one solution being using FileMaker Pro across your network or running it on the Macs with ODBC. I actually have to hand it to M$ for delivering a better Office suite to the Mac then the PC.

[iain]

Jon, I have even more respect for you now. The popular opinion about Macs these days is so notoriously-uninformed it is sickening. Mac OS X is an incredible triumph in operating system design. It is a breath of fresh air in the industry, so far ahead of the latest Microsoft bullshit. My dad now runs the same platform on his iMac that serves up some of the biggest, most mission-critical web sites in the world, and he barely knows how email works. He is a computing novice and is in love with it. I jockey code for a living and I am in love with it. Can't go wrong there. A PC-compatible laptop was purchased in this day and age, because of compatibility issues? It's saddening. Macs support networking with any platform right out of the box these days.

[SEF]

I’m sure that ehmmic will be happy with her PC since she is used to PC’s, and already has software for that platform. Makes sense.

 

I will say, that as a Mac TiBook owner with bias, I am with jon. I love OS X. It is so damn seamless with any networks that I have encountered (mostly Windows NT), and with peripherals. And so damn stable. With the old Mac OS's, the crashing of one app would bring the whole system down and require a reboot. No longer true. M$ Internet Explorer, the least stable app that I use, remains buggy and prone to crashing once or twice a week, but it effects nothing else.

 

Look at any computer satisfaction survey. Mac's typically top the list. Dell, though, is not usually far behind.

 

I bought a digital camera recently. It came with a CD of software that the salesman told me was needed to install on whatever computer that I wanted to use with the camera. I used the CD as a drink coaster instead. I neither installed nor configured anything. First time I connected the USB cord from camera to the Mac, I got a polite little dialog asking if I wanted to download the dozen pictures I had on the camera.

 

Let me know what happens when you do that with a PC.

 

I also confess that I’ve taken this machine with me on road trips. Plugged into an external sound system (I plug into my van's stereo), the 15.2-inch widescreen LCD TiBook must be finest laptop on which to view DVD movies.

 

It also works great with M$ Office.