Customs - Buying in the states?

Button

Going to the US in 6 weeks and at present am saving to buy laptop,
am almost decided on:

http://tinyurl.com/7z3mp with 1 gig of RAM

want something for general use, storage of photos music etc, surfing occassional downloads, this will be my first venture into using a Mac, (obviously have experimented and played with it)
really like the user friendly approach to everything, am less of a technical computer user, so like the practicality of the different software suites etc..

Can I ask how anyone else found the transition from a pc to a mac?

has any one had any problems with bringing a labtop back in to the country from abroad - particularily the states, did you just discard all the packaging etc?

Thanks in advance

bullhammer

Button wrote:

Going to the US in 6 weeks and at present am saving to buy laptop,
am almost decided on:

http://tinyurl.com/7z3mp with 1 gig of RAM

want something for general use, storage of photos music etc, surfing occassional downloads, this will be my first venture into using a Mac, (obviously have experimented and played with it)
really like the user friendly approach to everything, am less of a technical computer user, so like the practicality of the different software suites etc..

Can I ask how anyone else found the transition from a pc to a mac?

has any one had any problems with bringing a labtop back in to the country from abroad - particularily the states, did you just discard all the packaging etc?

Thanks in advance

I bought laptop in Florida a couple of years ago.
Got rid of the box etc....
Stuffed all the cds etc in my case.....
Bought a laptop bag and put it on my shoulder all the way home........
No questions asked................

You shouldn't have any problems..................
Good Luck

irlrobins

jsut make sure it's charged up and run a few times before hand. That way if they ask you to turn it on it won't show "Running OS X for the first time" or whatever. Personalise it a lil bit, change wallpaper or something...

Duffman

I've never heard of anyone being stopped by customs in Dublin Airport. I flew back from the states at christmas with 2 brand new, boxed digital cameras, boxed ipod and loads of clothes that were clearly brand new.

The easiest thing to do would be the carry it in a laptop bag if you're worried. Alternatively, wrap your boxes and mark them as presents.

chickalacka

i don't know how this applies to laptops, ipods etc, but don't forget the power supply in the states can be different from europe. also if tv card is included that is different also.

sendic

chickalacka wrote:

i don't know how this applies to laptops, ipods etc, but don't forget the power supply in the states can be different from europe. also if tv card is included that is different also.

i bought mine in the states a month ago. got it home no bother.

most laptops will take anything from 110 to 240V AC. you can buy a plug adaptor (not a voltage convertor) for less than a tenner or you could just cut of the american plug and wire it into an irish three pin. check the voltage rating in the laptops AC convertor and if you do take off the american plug, check what the US colouring system is for earth, live and neutral, its different to here.