Shopping for new laptop

Hairy Lime

Hairy Lime

Well-known member
My old Sony VIAO finally bit the dust and it's time for a long overdue replacement.

I'm looking at Macs and coveting the 17" Macbook Pro, but am wondering if I really need that much computing power. I don't do my own editing and will primarily use the computer for watching footage, writing scripts, and surfing the web ... as well as watching the occassional DVD while traveling.

Any advice as far as which model to get and what options to add?

Thanks!
 
While in the states I was given a nice Toshiba Satellite. (Birthdays are great!) Prior to that I had a Dell Latitude. I would recommend either one of them.
 
if you are getting a mac and can wait a couple of weeks, I would suggest not getting one until after their annual conference ends on Aug 11, in case there is a price drop or new product announcement. for what you have described, you definately don't need a pro version. you might want to consider getting a refurbished model off the apple store web site (after aug 11).
 
I just dropped my second Dell laptop in like ten years on the floor. A lot of people ***** about them, but I have never had any problem with them at all. I did everything on it from writing software to shooting with DV rack, to editing in Vegas. And it was nothing special. I put about a gig of RAM in it, but that's it.

If you are using it for what you say, I would go with something simple like that.

but if you want to get powerful, you can also look at an IBM thinkpad, which is one of the best laptops made. Those suckers kick ass.
 
if you are watching dvds on the road, my 12" powerbook g4 can get through return of the king without dying. battery life rocks. if you don't need editing power, id go with the sexy black macbook, instead of the pros.
 
I too am in the market for a new mac laptop. My G3 Pismo (which is what i'm on right now) has served me well. 6 YEARS! wooo. Time to retire it though and I'm looking into the low-end MacBook. Although I would love the black macbook, the $400 price difference isn't worth it to me. $150 for the black paint job, $50 for 20 more gigs of hard drive space, I doubt if there is noticable difference in 1.83GHz or a 2.0GHz chip and I already have an external 12x Dual Layer DVD burner. I'll use my money on maxing out the ram to 2gigs. But damn, that black case is nice. Have you felt it? :love4: Matte finish. I got some of that black 'for plastic' paint that has a real nice texture, i could just spray that sucker down. :violent5:
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I should wait out the August 11th date to get a good price? I really want/need something now. Waiting 2-3 weeks while I have work to do doesn't seem like much of an option.
 
I have a 13" MacBook...the very cheapest base model with an Intel processor. I run FCP on it with no problems...I haven't tried Motion or any of the other programs, but FCP is flawless on the MacBook. I also have a Dual 2.0 G5 Tower, and the speed difference is not really that noticeable.
 
From what I've read in the mac forums it might be pushing it to run Motion on the MacBook as it is very videocard needy. Since the videocard is built in to the intel chip it share system ram, which is why maxing out your ram is (to me) more important than DVD burner or black finish. I look forward to installing my upgraded FC Suite Universal on the macbook and editing on the go. I'll save the Motion stuff for my trusty Dual 867 G4 and ATI 128 card.
 
It doesn't sound like you need a whole lot of laptop to do what you say you want to do. I'd say pretty much anything you see at a local store will do.
 
I'd go Dell for support and cheap price!
Click to expand...

While I have always been happy with Dell's business support, in recent years it's support for consumers/individual purchasers has been terrible, in my view.

You end up talking to someone in south Asia who may/may not know anything about your particular problem.
 
Joe, I had the same problem when I was in Austin last month. I might have been 20 miles from Dell's headquarters but I couldn't get an actual person on the phone. The automated computer operator kept asking questions over and over. I kept yelling "NO!" into the phone and "OPERATOR" to try and get a real person to pick up. Then, finally, I got someone but they were in India and couldn't answer my question. They said, "May we refer you to our website." I tried 5 other phone numbers for Dell and each one involved speaking to an automated operator and was a dead-end. I don't think anyone actually works at Dell. But their AI Robots sure do make a fine computer. :)
 
PK Gillock said:
Joe, I had the same problem when I was in Austin last month. I might have been 20 miles from Dell's headquarters but I couldn't get an actual person on the phone. The automated computer operator kept asking questions over and over. I kept yelling "NO!" into the phone and "OPERATOR" to try and get a real person to pick up. Then, finally, I got someone but they were in India and couldn't answer my question. They said, "May we refer you to our website." I tried 5 other phone numbers for Dell and each one involved speaking to an automated operator and was a dead-end. I don't think anyone actually works at Dell. But their AI Robots sure do make a fine computer. :)
Click to expand...

Hmm, that might be the secret of these major corporations-- they are human free!:shocked:
 
I don't know about Dell's support, but I was just checking out their site, and they've got pretty good deals on laptops. I've been browsing for a while (gateway, toshiba, etc) thinking of upgrading, and it looks like dell is actually the cheapest.
 
I'm categorically opposed to Dell, because that's what we use at work.

Rational?

No.

Internally valid?

Yes.

I'm debating the 13" Macbook or the 17" Macbook Pro ... opposite ends of the Mac spectrum, I know, but those are my two top choices right now. I'm sure the cheaper one will win out unless someone gives me a really compelling reason to go big.
 
It's hilarious to me that even though you told peeps you want to get a Mac, everyone's response here was trying to sell you a Dell.

Good luck with your purchase. :thumbsup:
 
The irony is not lost on me, assuredly.

I thought Mac users were cultish, but now I realize it's the Cult of Dell!
 
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