Buying a new laptop

blooper

Just Looking for advice on the best laptop to buy. Basically I just want one for internet & E-Mail, gaming & music, where I can buy it & approx price. Thanks

Dr.Sanchez

I was in the same position as you last January after my last laptop decided to "give up" on me.

My last laptop was a Sony Viao. I had bought it about two years ago for €1400 which seemed like a good price at the time. However, within 6 months of buying it I noticed laptops with better spec coming on the market and at a cheaper price. The spec was:

Processor: 1.66Ghz Core 2 Duo
RAM: 1GB
Hardrive: 120GB
Operating System: Windows Xp Media Center

You can get a laptop nowadays with twice the spec for €800. I spent a lot of time browsing and considering what my next laptop would be. After a couple of weeks I decided to settle on a Macbook.

When you buy a laptop/Pc your actually buying from multiple companies. You buy the operating system from Microsoft, the laptop itself from Sony/Hp, anti-virus from Norton etc. Plus you have to go through the bother of uninstalling all the trail programs, installing updates and forking out for anti-virus programs when you first take it out of the box.

When you buy a Mac however, your buying everything from Apple. The operating system and laptop are both manufactured by Apple so the work together seamlessly and rarely, if not never crash. Their not prone to viruses like windows laptops are and you don't need to uninstall ANY trail programs when you take it out of the box. Basically you just turn it on and away you go. My spec is:

Processor: 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4GB
Hardrive: 320GB
Operating System: Mac OS X Leopard

I paid €1800 for it but you could easily get one for a lot less, it just depends on what your needs are. You would need one with the spec as high as mine if your just using it for internet, email and music. If your going to use it for gaming, video/photo editing then I suggest one with the spec in around the same as mine.

Trust me... Once you go Mac, you'll NEVER go back!

Hoped this helped.

Alanstrainor

00Blaine00; Laptops are always getting better, so it doesn't surprise me that your laptop's spec was being surpassed after 6 months! That shouldn't worry you/make a difference, as so long as your laptop does what you want it to do then happy days, as that's all that matters. The OP specifically mentioned games, so i'd say that throws the MAC out the window.
OP you need to decide your own budget, and define what you mean by "games" as that's a very vague statement, do you mean solitaire? Or GTA IV etc?

Tea_Bag

00Blaine00 wrote: »

You can get a laptop nowadays with twice the spec for €800.

agreed, seriously, shop around. avoid Dell at ALL costs.

i found this
http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/nexus_overview.php

the other day, and for the specs, its an amazing price, and can be modified to suite your needs. ie, if your not into serious gaming, save money by getting a lesser graphics card in the spec's.

00Blaine00 wrote: »

I paid €1800 for it

thats rediculously expensive for what you're getting.

00Blaine00 wrote: »

Trust me... Once you go Mac, you'll NEVER go back!

OP did mention that he wants it for gaming, which, no matter how you look at it, is not effective at all on a mac. running a virtual box with windows just to play a game is sooo inefficient.

Dr.Sanchez

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The OP specifically mentioned games, so i'd say that throws the MAC out the window.
OP you need to decide your own budget, and define what you mean by "games" as that's a very vague statement, do you mean solitaire? Or GTA IV etc?

Yeah he did mention games which there isn't a wide selection of for Mac, If the OP wants it for games then I'd suggest NOT getting a laptop but a desktop instead.

Tea_Bag

Alanstrainor wrote: »

00Blaine00; Laptops are always getting better, so it doesn't surprise me that your laptop's spec was being surpassed after 6 months! That shouldn't worry you/make a difference, as so long as your laptop does what you want it to do then happy days, as that's all that matters. The OP specifically mentioned games, so i'd say that throws the MAC out the window.
OP you need to decide your own budget, and define what you mean by "games" as that's a very vague statement, do you mean solitaire? Or GTA IV etc?

ah beat me to it.

Tea_Bag

00Blaine00 wrote: »

Yeah he did mention games which there isn't a wide selection of for Mac, If the OP wants it for games then I'd suggest NOT getting a laptop but a desktop instead.

http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/nexus_overview.php + mouse FTW

StopNotWorking

Tea_Bag wrote: »

OP did mention that he wants it for gaming, which, no matter how you look at it, is not effective at all on a mac. running a virtual box with windows just to play a game is sooo inefficient.

http://www.apple.com/games/

Apple can play games, hell the only thing I play a lot is CoD4 and thats available on a mac. Either way if you are looking to play games then a laptop is not the right place to look at all.

Also someone said to avoid dell.. why? The new studio range are looking real nice, and I for one have never had any issues nor heard of any issues with dell laptops I or my friends own.

Devil5434

I bought my laptop a few months back, its an acer and I bought it from argos up north cuz its cheap.
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001501&langId=-1&searchTerms=6930&Submit=GO+%3E

thats the link for it and so far I'm really happy with it, runs the top games with no problems such as dawn of war 2, fallout 3, GTA IV (on low specs for obvious reason), Emipre total war (on medium-high settings), Prince of persia, Civilization 4, call of duty world at war etc (haven't tried crysis yet but I'd say it should be able to run on medium settings)

At the time my laptop costed me €650 so specs like that for €650 and this was a few months back, so was a good deal.

stainluss

blooper wrote: »

Just Looking for advice on the best laptop to buy. Basically I just want one for internet & E-Mail, gaming & music, where I can buy it & approx price. Thanks

great little site here.
unreal laptops for around €500.:D
average ones for about €200-€300:pac:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/

Dr.Sanchez

StopNotWorking wrote: »

Either way if you are looking to play games then a laptop is not the right place to look at all.

I agree with you 100% on that, Even if you do buy a laptop with a mouse like Tea_Bag stated, Pointless!

And I for one have never had any issues nor heard of any issues with dell laptops I or my friends own.

The only thing I'v heard thats wrong with Dell/Ailenware is their customer service but your bound to have problems with ANY companies customer service now and again.

StopNotWorking

Oh god don't bring alienware into this!

hiss hiss* unclean! hiss*:P

Dr.Sanchez

StopNotWorking wrote: »

Oh god don't bring alienware into this!

hiss hiss* unclean! hiss*:P

Haha Alienware is owned by Dell

StopNotWorking

Yeah they bought them recently right? Either way I only really dislike them because of the disgusting desktop case designs.. they are all the same ugly chubby bloated overly rounded crappy cases! Just bigger or smaller with more or less bloody lights :mad:

DHFrame

I don't know what your budget is but I think it's well worth investing in an Apple Macbook or Macbook Pro. Now, these are expensive but they ar'nt gonna go in the bin in 18 months time which we did with a Dell Laptop and an Acer. We've (my wife and me) had Apple Macbooks for a long time now and they do seem to last forever, still getting long battery times after a year etc...We had an old Macbook and now the new Aluminium Unibody version because I am a Supergadgetfreeknerd.

DHFrame

StopNotWorking wrote: »

http://www.apple.com/games/

Apple can play games, hell the only thing I play a lot is CoD4 and thats available on a mac. Either way if you are looking to play games then a laptop is not the right place to look at all.

Also someone said to avoid dell.. why? The new studio range are looking real nice, and I for one have never had any issues nor heard of any issues with dell laptops I or my friends own.

I would like to add that any PC Games can be played on Mac using Bootcamp to run any version of Windows perfectly. Afterall, the new Mac are essentially PC Laptops now. : )

Dr.Sanchez

StopNotWorking wrote: »

Yeah they bought them recently right? Either way I only really dislike them because of the disgusting desktop case designs.. they are all the same ugly chubby bloated overly rounded crappy cases! Just bigger or smaller with more or less bloody lights :mad:

True, they have 4 or 5 different desktop models and theres absolutely no difference in the case design whatsoever, a friend of mine bought one of their laptops ands its a massive ugly plastic thing.

DHFrame wrote: »

would like to add that any PC Games can be played on Mac using Bootcamp to run any version of Windows perfectly. Afterall, the new Mac are essentially PC Laptops now. : )

Ah yes, I forgot about that, I actually have Windows Xp on my Mac, I can run both operating systems side by side too. XP actually runs better on the Mac that it does on a Pc!

StopNotWorking

A mac is a PC :P

Same CPUs,GPUs,MoBos,RAM and probably much more. Windows would run as well on a mac as any other computer. Only difference I can imagine is since it isn't being used as often as windows on a normal machine. It remains that little bit snappier

Dr.Sanchez

StopNotWorking wrote: »

A mac is a PC :P

Slight difference. Everything else is pretty much the same, RAM and stuff. Operating system surpasses Windows any day though.

StopNotWorking

I highly doubt anyone is using a brand-name IBM Personal Computer anymore. I was reffering to the common term PC.

Since Apple went with intel its become nearly impossible to tell the two apart hardware wise. Strip an apple laptop down of every label. Leave it as the intel CPU, FoxConn MoBO, Generic RAM, Nvidia GPU and you would never tell it apart from another laptop with the same specs from Sony or the like.

I've never had a chance to use OSX, I tried to get it running in a virtual machine and I will eventually run it on my lenovo S10 as a hackintosh to try it out. All of my friends who have tried it said they hated it, too different, too weird to them. Hopefully I can approach it with a more open minded opinion.

Dr.Sanchez

StopNotWorking wrote: »

I highly doubt anyone is using a brand-name IBM Personal Computer anymore.

Tis a little outdated alright!

I've never had a chance to use OSX, I tried to get it running in a virtual machine and I will eventually run it on my lenovo S10 as a hackintosh to try it out. All of my friends who have tried it said they hated it, too different, too weird to them. Hopefully I can approach it with a more open minded opinion.

I switched over from Windows myself, It just takes a little getting used to. What I did notice was that something that would take 3 or 4 steps to do on Windows would only take 1 or 2 steps on OSX. Take uninstalling a program. In Windows you need to go into the control panel etc. On OSX you just drag the program to the bin and thats it.

DHFrame

StopNotWorking wrote: »

I've never had a chance to use OSX, I tried to get it running in a virtual machine and I will eventually run it on my lenovo S10 as a hackintosh to try it out. All of my friends who have tried it said they hated it, too different, too weird to them. Hopefully I can approach it with a more open minded opinion.

I use both Windows and OSX and I think they are ultimately very similar. There a few things that are different good and bad. The main difference to me is that OSX doesnt run very deep in terms of Architecture and flexibility but on the otherhand it doesnt need to because everything works quickly and effectively. It would be nice to see a few more software companies supporting OSX, e.g. Autodesk Studio Max does not run nativley in OSX which is my main peice of software.

I have just installed Windows 7 Beta via bootcamp on my Macbook and it's running excellently. It's a vast improvment on XP and Vista.

For the future I would like to see some big changes, new ideas to Operating Systems. They have been the same for over 20 years.

Tea_Bag

00Blaine00 wrote: »

I agree with you 100% on that, Even if you do buy a laptop with a mouse like Tea_Bag stated, Pointless!



The only thing I'v heard thats wrong with Dell/Ailenware is their customer service but your bound to have problems with ANY companies customer service now and again.

i meant games + mobility just to be clear.. I use a desktop to play my games too, and there is no good reason to use a laptop instead...

gimme5minutes

00Blaine00 wrote: »

I was in the same position as you last January after my last laptop decided to "give up" on me.

My last laptop was a Sony Viao. I had bought it about two years ago for €1400 which seemed like a good price at the time. However, within 6 months of buying it I noticed laptops with better spec coming on the market and at a cheaper price. The spec was:

Processor: 1.66Ghz Core 2 Duo
RAM: 1GB
Hardrive: 120GB
Operating System: Windows Xp Media Center

You can get a laptop nowadays with twice the spec for €800. I spent a lot of time browsing and considering what my next laptop would be. After a couple of weeks I decided to settle on a Macbook.

When you buy a laptop/Pc your actually buying from multiple companies. You buy the operating system from Microsoft, the laptop itself from Sony/Hp, anti-virus from Norton etc. Plus you have to go through the bother of uninstalling all the trail programs, installing updates and forking out for anti-virus programs when you first take it out of the box.

When you buy a Mac however, your buying everything from Apple. The operating system and laptop are both manufactured by Apple so the work together seamlessly and rarely, if not never crash. Their not prone to viruses like windows laptops are and you don't need to uninstall ANY trail programs when you take it out of the box. Basically you just turn it on and away you go. My spec is:

Processor: 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4GB
Hardrive: 320GB
Operating System: Mac OS X Leopard

I paid €1800 for it but you could easily get one for a lot less, it just depends on what your needs are. You would need one with the spec as high as mine if your just using it for internet, email and music. If your going to use it for gaming, video/photo editing then I suggest one with the spec in around the same as mine.

Trust me... Once you go Mac, you'll NEVER go back!

Hoped this helped.

€1800 for that? You can get a Windows laptop with the same specs for less than half that price these days.

Dr.Sanchez

gimme5minutes wrote: »

€1800 for that? You can get a Windows laptop with the same specs for less than half that price these days.

Do us all a favour and READ the thread before you make another stupid post like that again.

gimme5minutes

00Blaine00 wrote: »

Do us all a favour and READ the thread before you make another stupid post like that again.

What's stupid about it, I read the thread and you basically recommended him to shell out twice as much as he needs to for those specs just so he can have a Mac sticker on it. Like guys paying over the odds for ipods when other mp3 players of the exact same spec are much better value, the only stupid thing I can see is people buying into Apple's marketing and paying much more than they need to.

Dr.Sanchez

gimme5minutes wrote: »

What's stupid about it, I read the thread and you basically recommended him to shell out twice as much as he needs to for those specs just so he can have a Mac sticker on it. Like guys paying over the odds for ipods when other mp3 players of the exact same spec are much better value, the only stupid thing I can see is people buying into Apple's marketing and paying much more than they need to.

If I bought a Macbook, and you bought a Windows laptop (Same spec) at the same time, I can guarantee you that 3 years down the line my macbook will be running twice as fast as your laptop. Same with the ipods, I'v had mine for the last 3 years, still going strong.

I own both a Windows desktop and a macbook, trust me you'd know the difference within the first week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgzbhEc6VVo <<< That video sums it all up!

gimme5minutes

Only apple product I ever owned was an ipod nano, my first mp3 player, and it got scratched to sh*t in no time and cut out completely after a few months. I think ipods are a huge case of style over substance, I was warned by a friend beforehand not to buy it as he had a creative player that cost way less and provided longer battery life than the ipod. Sadly those were the days before I stopped being taken in by companies that spent a massive amount of their budget on advertising.

That said, I have used Macs/Mac laptops before and, unlike the ipods, I think they are excellent. Only problem is you are paying way over the odds for what you are getting. If they were similarly priced, or priced slightly higher than a comparably specced pc/pc laptop I would pick the Mac every time. Unfortunately there is a huge mark up in them, presumably to make back some of the advertising money.

Alanstrainor

This thread has gone so far off topic that the OP has been scared off. And i can only see this thread resulting in more bans/infractions.