Laptop Recommendations For Someone Who...

[Camu Mahubah]

Doesn't Know Jack About Computers!

Okay so I cannot for the life of me get the ports on my HP Pavilion to function. So Monday I am going to Rapid City and turning her over to some pros.

I thought I'd stop by BestBuy and pick up a new laptop while I am there.

We burn CD's. She does anyways. Of course we surf the web. I play Playstation and Wii so games are a bonus not a need. We want a big screen. We want a good processor and memory. We are extremely computer illiterate so I don't wanna have to upgrade. I don't need a supercomputer just one comparable the one I already have. She wants a Mac. I do too. Is this advisable? I know they cost a bunch but if I could pick up a Mac laptop for around $1500 I would jump on it right now! That is if I can still use my HP printer and Kodak digital camera with it.

I was looking at this one...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9107398&type=product&id=1218024601724

Is this a good one?

We were really looking forward to getting an LCD TV but now that I cain't get the ports to work on this HP I am thinking I can still use it in the living room while the new laptop will be in the study hooked up to the printer and digital camera. Maybe I should just pay the money and get this one fixed but something tells me I should buy a new laptop. Well the wife says to anyways. She isn't as hyped as I am about a new TV. We don't really watch TV(mainly the TV is used for videogames)but a laptop with functioning ports is a must for work and play. Mostly play, BITOG, checking the weather, burning cd's, internet banking, digital photos, printing stuff for her dad's business, not to much.

We have an HP Pavilion 3000 with AMD Turion with ATI. I don't know all the specs but one time my buddy came over and clicked up something and showed me the specs. I don't know how he did it, but he said we had a fairly good laptop. It was $799 three years ago at BestBuy.

Do I need to learn more about computers before I buy another or can I just buy a Mac and be happy?

Or Should one wait until October when the new OS comes out for Macs?

I have to buy at BestBuy. 18 months interest free! I ain't shopping at Wal-mart or anywhere else. So which do you recommend?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=abcat0502000&type=category

You guys have been such a big help to me lately with the router and port problems I thought I'd might as well drag you along for the ride. I am starting this journey completely frustrated and my goal is to end up mostly satisfied, but I know I will fail if left to my own devices. I bought a brand new car without cruise control for example!

If I mess this up the wife will probably never let me make a decision concerning money again! So help a brother out!

And I would like to go ahead and pre-Thank everybody who is gonna make a recommendation! Thank Yall!

 

[ZZman]

What are you going to use it for?

Gonna carry it around like a laptop or use it like a desktop?

That Apple isn't bad but could use more RAM. 1 gig is not much now. 13.3 screen is kind of small.

**Apples are outrageous. I could get 2 really nice Windows laptops for the same price of some of those.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

It is gonna be used like a desktop. I think I have 15 inch screen now. Not sure. I'll get out the measuring tape in the morning.

 

[peterr]

My capsule summary advice for people is just watch Best Buy weekly sales for about three weeks. When they put one of the less expensive Toshibas on sale, buy it.

Any computer sold today is massive overkill in terms of CPU for anything other than the most demanding stupid waste of time games. And if gaming is your thing, don't use a laptop.

If it breaks within 18 months, it is probably worth fixing. Longer than that throw it out and buy a new one.

 

[Cutehumor]

that's the only thing about buying a mac, it's more expensive and it's not as powerful. 1 GB of ram for $1500? what a rip. you could get a 4 GB laptop for half that much. Don't put all your money in buying a laptop now, the rapid city may fix your pc ports.

 

[tropic]

Max out the RAM, and you're looking at a peppy little laptop. The price tag hurts a bit--you're paying for the Apple name, and you're also paying extra for its reasonably small size. This is a good buy for someone looking for a carry-about. Not so great for a desktop replacement.

But if the missus likes it, it's probably money well spent.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
that's the only thing about buying a mac, it's more expensive and it's not as powerful. 1 GB of ram for $1500?

The link he provided shows a price of $999. Still kind of expensive for what it offers.

 

[StevieC]

I would say buy a Toshiba brand because I have had nothing but good things to say about them both from the ones I have owned and the ones I sold when I had my computer company...

OVERK1LL has recently turned me on the ASUS brand of routers, which I have been impressed with and he says their laptops are just as good, so maybe try that brand?

I would stay away from: ACER, COMPAQ, GATEWAY, Some lower end DELL's. (HP is excellent, Compaq's parent company)

 

[uc50ic4more]

1) Think about the OS more than performance. Someone here said they could get 2 Windows laptops for the price of one Apple (?!) - This is a perfect example of this thinking. First off, Apple's products are more expensive for any given amount of performance, *but they work*. There is no bloatware, no deceiving "trials", no required antivirus, no required anti spyware, no required firewall. Would you rather have 2 laptops that run an insecure, poorly designed, hard to use operating system, or one laptop that is properly designed?

You use the operating system, NOT the computer, and any and every laptop made today will perform sufficiently for your needs. Getting caught up in specs is for people whose understanding is limited to specs, and it is a never ending way for marketing departments to reliably and insatiably attract your money.

2) Computers themselves are cheaply made, expendable commodities. *The computer is not the thing of value* Your *data* is valuable - Your photos, documents, videos, emails, etc. are the value. I cannot suggest strongly enough that your budget be divided (not equally) between a capable machine that can do the things you need it to do, and a *backup solution* like an external hard drive or an online storage service.

 

[firemachine69]

Just buy a four-port USB PCI card (any no-name brand will do), if your Windows is at least up to SP2, it should pick up and install the drivers, if not it's pretty straight-forward (if the instructions aren't clear message here and I'll guide you along).


The Mac environment is nice, but the first time your wife buys a NON-REFUNDABLE software box (for Windows only, of course) and cracks it open, you'll be the on on the hook my friend as to why you purchased a Mac!

 

[Crashbox]

Yesterday I spent some time looking around my dv8000 to try to find what could prevent the USB ports from functioning but I didn't get too deep into it. However, HP does have a PC health gizmo that I accidentally stumbled upon yesterday while running as an administrator; I think it requires online access but if you have it on your '8000 it's certainly worth a try if you haven't already. If your USB port IC's are glitched it should indicate some kind of problem... Hopefully it's just a driver hiccup though.

As for new laptop PC's, I've been looking around myself just for kicks but no recommendations here except having a screen at least as large as your '8000!

 

[Throckmorton]

Try Newegg.com. There may be people in your town who can custom build a design for less. Try looking at the free newspaper that's available at all the restaurants. That's usually where they advertise.

 

[JHZR2]

I love my macbook pro 15". The smaller macbooks are great too. They are a bit more expensive though.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
that's the only thing about buying a mac, it's more expensive and it's not as powerful. 1 GB of ram for $1500? what a rip. you could get a 4 GB laptop for half that much. Don't put all your money in buying a laptop now, the rapid city may fix your pc ports.


Maybe macos does not need more than 1gb to operate properly... ever think of that?

XP and vista 32 bit dont even make full use of 4GB RAM, so what is the point? To feel good?

For routine use, Ive seen no benefit to running 1GB vs. 4GB of ram in XP pro - and I have laptops set up both ways. Vista is still too iffy for my liking, though I have a Vista lapop too. It needs 4GB +.

 

[firemachine69]

General rule of thumb:

If you can't expressly point out why you need a Mac, then don't buy a Mac. Don't be sucked into the computer-SUV phenomenon, e.g. buying a vehicle meant for hauling the boat (in this case, a Mac for serious video and photo editing), when all you need is a sub-compact (a $399 laptop at Best Buy is all you will need).


Originally Posted By: JHZR2

For routine use, Ive seen no benefit to running 1GB vs. 4GB of ram in XP pro - and I have laptops set up both ways. Vista is still too iffy for my liking, though I have a Vista lapop too. It needs 4GB +.


Setup a ram-drive in XP, and be prepared to be amazed.

 

[hate2work]

Wait a few weeks and BB will have another sale, which always includes a few laptops. This last sale included a 15inch Asus with Vista and it had 3g of memory for only $399. I should have bought one just for fun, but I didn't.

Vista is now a decent OS, but it needs a lot of memory, so look for at least 3g of ram, and also see if you can add more.

Don't buy a Mac, it's like being left-handed. Everywhere you go, people will tell you "it doesn't fit".

Good luck!

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: hate2work
Vista is now a decent OS, but it needs a lot of memory,


Well, if that isn't a contradiction!

Originally Posted By: hate2work
Don't buy a Mac, it's like being left-handed. Everywhere you go, people will tell you "it doesn't fit".

Good luck!


Examples?!

 

[StevieC]

My cousin has a MAC and is very computer illiterate, the stuff that it enables him to do is amazing... I regularly have to fix things for him that he has screwed up and I have to say I like the system. I just wish the systems were cheaper (no I don't want a Hackintosh), and they were more like PC where you could expand them and build them into what you want instead of buying a "Pretty" piece of Furniture that is a computer.

I also don't like that you can't get copies of software for MAC as easily as PC. Both legit and pirated. (Not that I do such a thing).

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: hate2work
Vista is now a decent OS, but it needs a lot of memory,


Well, if that isn't a contradiction!

Originally Posted By: hate2work
Don't buy a Mac, it's like being left-handed. Everywhere you go, people will tell you "it doesn't fit".

Good luck!


Examples?!


Please tell me, what is the contradiction? The fact that Vista is now decent has nothing to do with the fact that it's a memory hog. It needed lots of memory from the beta release.

I take it you're not left-handed, right? Go try and find a pair of scissors, or a baseball glove, you'll get your answer.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: hate2work
Please tell me, what is the contradiction? The fact that Vista is now decent has nothing to do with the fact that it's a memory hog. It needed lots of memory from the beta release.


My comment was a half joke, hence the winking emoticon:

Often, though, "RAM hogs" are only caching anything and everything to make best use of however much RAM is present. I can get Apache to make just as short work out of 2GB as 256MB, for example... This is a good thing!

However, any general use (ie. NOT medical, scientific, weather or media) software that requires copious amounts of RAM indicates lazy programming, and/ or a graphics system that is ridiculously hungry (in Vista's case, where they were trying desperately to afford the user the same polished user experience as Apple, and thinking that all you need to do to do that is have flashy colorful graphics)... Try using Word 97 on Windows 98, then Word 11 or 12 or whatever it is out now on Vista and tell me which is faster and more reliable.

"It needed lots of memory from the beta release."? I don't even know what that sentence means. If you mean that Vista, from it's inception, has been resource hungry, that just tells me that they were at no point able to improve on the inefficiencies present in the clunky beta(s).

I admit that I may be biased against Vista and Microsoft as a whole, but that bias is borne of experience.

But more importantly than any of that, though, was the winky emoticon:

It indicates jest and camaraderie.

Originally Posted By: hate2work
I take it you're not left-handed, right? Go try and find a pair of scissors, or a baseball glove, you'll get your answer.


I am not a southpaw, and that is obviously affecting my ability to comprehend what doesn't "fit" when using a Mac. I've used Windows from 3.11 to the abominable Vista, Macs from the abominable System 7 to 10.5.6 and Linux based systems from kernel version 1.6 on up to 2.6, in everything from day-to-day pedestrian activities like emailing and cropping photos, to high end 3D and compositing. 15 years of 12 hours a day has forged and re-forged these opinions:

1) Windows is a poorly designed, poorly implemented, insecure, marketing and accounting department-driven, bloatware and trialware loaded piece of consumer rip-off garbage. Always has been, probably always will be. I feel bad for the undoubtedly very, very talented people there who are trying to write good software. Cheaper? Absolutely.

Having said that, for specific purposes like editing video, audio production, etc., for years I used Windows systems that worked fairly well; almost as well as a Mac at times; in that the OS almost got out of my way.

2) Macs are, uh, "exclusively" priced, well designed, robust, easy to use systems that encourage you at every juncture to spend even more money using their perfectly integrated but entirely proprietary peripherals and services. Macs are easy for day-to-day tasks, and nearly impossible to bugger up (or customize).

But they *fit*!... And they work, and they're reliable, and they're secure, and easy to operate. Grandma kinda easy.

3) Linux based systems, if you have the time and effort to expend to set it up properly, and if you choose a distribution that fits your needs, and if you research your hardware thoroughly enough to ensure compatibility, and if you do *not* require software to do professional media production work, is the easiest, most secure, most reliable system to *use*.

---

For the OP, being computer illiterate, I cannot possible fathom how anyone with experience with different OS's would not recommend a Mac *assuming* that the OP is willing to pay the considerable Apple premium for a more polished, less bloat and trial-ware riddled product. They just work. If budget is a concern, then for Pete's sake please consider buying a laptop from Dell pre-loaded with ubuntu. It's easy, it removes all of the burden of configuration, and it's easy easy easy to use.

The machine is not the thing you use. The software is what you use.