I need a laptop

If i do get the macbook and put windows on it will it run JUST like windows. I mean it is then esentially a windows computer then, right?


yeah, it is. but if you buy from apple they charge a lot :(

if you want the best deal, using something like fatwallet.com and waiting for a good deal on a dell laptop is pretty cheap, or getting an amd64 laptop on rebate from best buy/staples/office depot/circuit city...

about once a month you can get either a $500 intel (celeron - crap processor that'll seem slow) or amd (sempron, a bit better), or about 750$ amd 64 laptop... all of which require rebates to get the full savings (200-300$ that you get back 4-8 weeks later :/ ).

dont forget though if you do buy a mac and put windows on it apple will not help you at all.

circuit city has a amd64 15.4" 1gb ram laptop for 780$ this week (no rebates i believe).

I built a HP on their web site like last weekend with 2 gigahertz duo core processing and 2 gigs of RAM. It was only like 1600$ it was a badass notebook. If I get one, I'm getting an HP.

BSB, www.cyberpowersystem.com

Daseal showed me this site a while back and you can get a dumbed down AWESOME bare bones PC and put your own components in it. You only really need Apple if you're planning on doing any type of graphic design or video editing. The new machines are great, they gave us some spec machines to test here and they fly, however everyone knows the problems that Apple has. I'm not biased because I have to use both everyday, so my advice is to NEVER listen to someone who says you should never buy a Windows machine because some people are up Apple's ASS.

However, if your school recommends Dells (meaning they will work on them for you when they break) I would go with the D620 Latitude. I buy those for all of the users I support here and they all love them. I have bought them for the President of the University and all of the Deans. Make sure you get one with the dual core because it'll use less battery and be crazy fast. Also, you might want to ask your school if they can put a base image on it after you get it because Dell loads all sorts of stupid shit you don't need. You could spend hours cleaning off crap that Dell loads in addition to doing the enhancements that your school SHOULD have done in their image.

Go with a PC for price. You'll never need the Apple and it abilities. If you do go PC go ahead and get one of the Dells the school offers. They'll probably be the best deals and you'll actually get support on campus for them. I'd be dubious of the on campus Apple support. There aren't tons of people who know enough to be a quality support tech on Apples.

In the long run the Dell will be cheaper as long as you take some care of it and keep crap off of it that will shorten it's life.

Right, also whoever mentioned to get the bare machine and install 3rd party parts is right. Just get the bare minimum amount of memory and then buy some for WAY cheaper than what Dell offers. I think it's 512 MB minimum right now. Also, I would get it with 1 DIMM of 512, you pay 10 bucks more but it allows for greater expandibility later. No one really needs over 1 GB of RAM. The price versus performance drops considerably.

BSB - you should be able to buy discounted microsoft software (O/S, Office, Visual Studio, etc) at the bookstore. Don't quote me, but I think it's around $5-10/disk...so WinXPPro would be $10-20. When I was at Salisbury, they just stared the MSEA (Microsoft Enterprise Agreement), and I was paying around $5/disk. Then at some point while my sister was there, they were giving the students free copies.

As far as laptops go, the Apples are really nice, but if you are doing mostly PC based stuff, I'd go with a Dell. If you were going to do any graphics work, then I'd consider an Apple.

Right, make sure you get the media with your computer so you can reformat that bitch and load ONLY the good stuff.

Thanks a lot. SOmeone else told me today to look at the D820. What is the difference between the D620 and 820. I think it is just down to these and the apple. The apple is just so sexy. i mean, some people might use the headphone jack for other things. Look at it but really I don't even know what apples do much less do I need one. I can get a dell cheaper and do all that stuff and make a super computer too. I don't know anything about computers mind you so when I do end up buying this thing in august I will need help. You guys will have to tell me what type of stuff I'll have to put into it later. I like the sexy apples though.