So we've done these threads before...but now I need to pick you all's brains...

WANTED: laptop for less than $1,000, primarily web surfing, photo/vids, and occassional use by kids for schoolwork.

I'm not a gamer. My primary passion would be photos & I'd like to make cool videos as well (especially those photo montages so I can send them on disk to family).

SO - there's the whole "MAC vs PC" debate. Depending on who I speak to, I'm either told that I have to get a MAC, or that I should save my money and get a good DELL.

I've never used a Mac. I have had good experiences with DELL.

Then there's SONY and Toshiba making good laptops as well.

What does the Org say...?

My last two computers have both been Sony Vaio and I've been very happy with both of them. After doing extensive research I find that they're a notch above all the other brands. And if you're serious about your photography you should pay a bit extra for their Premium Screen. It's the only perfect laptop screen out there (with proper black, and no tinge). No other brand comes even close.

my sony vaio died and lost me a shit full of memory's, since then im a mac man and seriously you will never go back to pc ....still it's your money and hindsight is a beautiful thing..."wink"

Get a Sony, Acer, ASUS or HP machine running 64 bit Windows 7 with at least 4GB of RAM and either an i5 or i7 processor and you'll be golden.

Check out this page, you can't go wrong with any of the machines listed here.

http://www.bestbuy.com/si...cat0500000

This machine in particular is a GREAT deal.

http://www.bestbuy.com/si...Id=4566459

PS. Fuck a Mac!!! lol

[Edited 2/18/12 15:25pm]

Once you go Mac, you never go back.

Militant said:

PS. Fuck a Mac!!! lol

[Edited 2/18/12 15:25pm]

come on, a mac is so user friendly....why go laptop?....if i were you i would get an iPad2 it's like your ipod but"seriously real" and under 500 quid.

ps. Fuck militant, everyone else does.....

funkmunki said:

ps. Fuck militant, my mother does.....

fixed that for you.

u need 2 take your time amd choose wisely

I think I've said this before on here.

Got a Macbook Air 11" 6 months ago (4gb ram).

Best purchase ever!

Love everything about it.

Soooooo petit and light, yet powerful enough to edit movies on if you're into that kinda thing.

The web is a breeze.

Gestures on the trackpad! I'm so fast on this thing, zipping around here, there and everywhere with swipes of my fingers. The future.

Whenever my friends pick my computer up to load something on the net, they're green with envy at it's size & weight or lack there of.

Very happy.

Militant said:

funkmunki said:

ps. Fuck militant *****************

fixed that for you.

no need for that, you can say what you want about me im only pissing about, you know that.

funkmunki said:

Militant said:

fixed that for you.

no need for that, you can say what you want about me im only pissing about, you know that.

I didn't.

Apologies. There's a handful of people on this board that insist on taking shots at me all the time, so I can't always tell who's joking around and whose a member of the anti-Militant brigade

Militant said:

funkmunki said:

no need for that, you can say what you want about me im only pissing about, you know that.

I didn't.

Apologies. There's a handful of people on this board that insist on taking shots at me all the time, so I can't always tell who's joking around and whose a member of the anti-Militant brigade

accepted...normally i would have flown into a tirade of abuse but it didn't seem like you to be like that so iv'e waited until you came back on. It's so easy to misinterpret situations online, im glad we put it to bed straight away....

nd33 said:

PurpleJedi said:

nd33 said:

I think I've said this before on here.

Got a Macbook Air 11" 6 months ago (4gb ram).

Best purchase ever!

Love everything about it.

Soooooo petit and light, yet powerful enough to edit movies on if you're into that kinda thing.

The web is a breeze.

Gestures on the trackpad! I'm so fast on this thing, zipping around here, there and everywhere with swipes of my fingers. The future.

Whenever my friends pick my computer up to load something on the net, they're green with envy at it's size & weight or lack there of.

thanks! I should spend some time at the Apple store and check the Macs out in detail.

Very happy.

I'm overseas so didn't look at the US price on the model I have. It's actually US$1199 so it's slightly out of your price range. I still can't recommend it enough though for the extra 2 hundy!

Their base version is US$999 but I didn't even mess with that one because I wanted 4gb ram and 128gb hard drive. Keep in mind the hard drives are smallish size but that's because they're SSD flash memory. You wouldn't believe how fast the SSD drive makes it feel! Def worth the downsize IMO. Just have a USB hard drive on hand if you need large files stored. You prob already have one...

nd33 said:

I'm overseas so didn't look at the US price on the model I have. It's actually US$1199 so it's slightly out of your price range. I still can't recommend it enough though for the extra 2 hundy!

Their base version is US$999 but I didn't even mess with that one because I wanted 4gb ram and 128gb hard drive. Keep in mind the hard drives are smallish size but that's because they're SSD flash memory. You wouldn't believe how fast the SSD drive makes it feel! Def worth the downsize IMO. Just have a USB hard drive on hand if you need large files stored. You prob already have one...

I own a 500GB USB drive for storage. I cannot believe how relatively inexpensive storage has become.

I walked into the Sony store and the Apple store at the mall and frankly, was overwhelmed. Didn't want to mess with a salesperson for help b/c I'm not ready to buy today.

At the same time...clicking on Militant's link to Bestbuy...is the Mac really worth TWO Samsungs?

That's where my indecision comes in.

PurpleJedi said:

PurpleJedi said:

At the same time...clicking on Militant's link to Bestbuy...is the Mac really worth TWO Samsungs?

No, absolutely not. You're paying double the price for the same, or even lesser, hardware.

Picture the scene - think about what you actually USE your computer for. Like most people, you probably spend 90% of your time within the browser.

Well, the best browsers around are Chrome and Firefox. These both work faster on Windows. Fact. Flash still dominates the web (although it's *slowly* getting phased out in favor of HTML5) and Flash is notoriously unstable on Mac's.

You'll get way better hardware for the money if you buy a PC system. And as someone that is intimately familiar with both Windows 7 and Mac OSX, there's zero difference between the operating systems for most computer users. Chances are you'll run the same applications on both - Chrome browser, Skype, etc. And you mentioned pics and vids, well, Picasa is far better (and cross-platform) than something like iPhoto which is Mac only.

Buy the Samsung and spend the rest of the money on something cool, or a shitload of booze, or a tablet, or a sick camcorder

Militant said:

No, absolutely not. You're paying double the price for the same, or even lesser, hardware.

nd33 -

Militant -

Seriously though...thanks for the input.

I'm going to have to find someone who has a Mac that I can borrow and see what the hype is all about.

Like Militant mentioned, I primarily use the browser. BUT, I'm really into the pics and I HAD been told that a Mac is best for that (my buddy's ex wife is a potographer and she swore by Macs). But I've never used Picassa either.

I have about 2 weeks before my tax refund comes in and I am forced to make this choice.

Mac Book PRO.

nd33 - did you read my post? I didn't mention ONLY hardware, but it obviously is a factor. I also detailed why I don't think OSX is a better OS than Windows 7.

If you go even further, there's less software and hardware support for OSX overall.... fact. And a lot of commonly used applications are inferior on OSX, such as Chrome and Skype.

Jedi, I actually use both. My cousin uses a custom built Hackintosh that he built himself... for about $1200 he built a machine that is more powerful than any Mac you can buy, and if you COULD buy a Mac that powerful Apple would charge you over $5000 for the privilege. Did I mention that Apple machines are overpriced?

Anyway, that machine is a custom configuration built to run OSX without it being Apple-sanctioned hardware. It runs beautifully and that's the machine we use in the recording studio. He uses OSX because he's been a Mac user since the 90's and isn't familiar with Windows. But even he wouldn't buy Apple hardware any more, hence why he built a machine himself.

If OSX was infinitely better than Windows 7, it might go a little way into justifying their ridiculous prices. But it isn't. In fact it's inferior in a lot of ways, so like I said, buy one of the machines I linked you to and spend the rest of the money on something else.

Militant said:

nd33 - did you read my post? I didn't mention ONLY hardware, but it obviously is a factor. I also detailed why I don't think OSX is a better OS than Windows 7.

If you go even further, there's less software and hardware support for OSX overall.... fact. And a lot of commonly used applications are inferior on OSX, such as Chrome and Skype.

Jedi, I actually use both. My cousin uses a custom built Hackintosh that he built himself... for about $1200 he built a machine that is more powerful than any Mac you can buy, and if you COULD buy a Mac that powerful Apple would charge you over $5000 for the privilege. Did I mention that Apple machines are overpriced?

Anyway, that machine is a custom configuration built to run OSX without it being Apple-sanctioned hardware. It runs beautifully and that's the machine we use in the recording studio. He uses OSX because he's been a Mac user since the 90's and isn't familiar with Windows. But even he wouldn't buy Apple hardware any more, hence why he built a machine himself.

If OSX was infinitely better than Windows 7, it might go a little way into justifying their ridiculous prices. But it isn't. In fact it's inferior in a lot of ways, so like I said, buy one of the machines I linked you to and spend the rest of the money on something else.

All I'm saying is that since getting this Macbook Air, it's been a very satisfying experience.

This thing is a work of art, inside and out. I love it!

Just picking up the shell, it oozes class. Oh and Graycap, screw a Macbook Pro. Those ginormous bricks are so yesterday. It's the Air, baby!

Oh and another thing, this computer is virtually silent, with no moving hard drive. The fan only ever seems to come on when loading a flash movie LOL.

nd33 said:

Militant said:

nd33 - did you read my post? I didn't mention ONLY hardware, but it obviously is a factor. I also detailed why I don't think OSX is a better OS than Windows 7.

If you go even further, there's less software and hardware support for OSX overall.... fact. And a lot of commonly used applications are inferior on OSX, such as Chrome and Skype.

Jedi, I actually use both. My cousin uses a custom built Hackintosh that he built himself... for about $1200 he built a machine that is more powerful than any Mac you can buy, and if you COULD buy a Mac that powerful Apple would charge you over $5000 for the privilege. Did I mention that Apple machines are overpriced?

Anyway, that machine is a custom configuration built to run OSX without it being Apple-sanctioned hardware. It runs beautifully and that's the machine we use in the recording studio. He uses OSX because he's been a Mac user since the 90's and isn't familiar with Windows. But even he wouldn't buy Apple hardware any more, hence why he built a machine himself.

If OSX was infinitely better than Windows 7, it might go a little way into justifying their ridiculous prices. But it isn't. In fact it's inferior in a lot of ways, so like I said, buy one of the machines I linked you to and spend the rest of the money on something else.

All I'm saying is that since getting this Macbook Air, it's been a very satisfying experience.

This thing is a work of art, inside and out. I love it!

Just picking up the shell, it oozes class. Oh and Graycap, screw a Macbook Pro. Those ginormous bricks are so yesterday. It's the Air, baby!

Oh and another thing, this computer is virtually silent, with no moving hard drive. The fan only ever seems to come on when loading a flash movie LOL.

Lol..........Air are nice as well.

nd33 said:

Militant said:

nd33 - did you read my post? I didn't mention ONLY hardware, but it obviously is a factor. I also detailed why I don't think OSX is a better OS than Windows 7.

If you go even further, there's less software and hardware support for OSX overall.... fact. And a lot of commonly used applications are inferior on OSX, such as Chrome and Skype.

Jedi, I actually use both. My cousin uses a custom built Hackintosh that he built himself... for about $1200 he built a machine that is more powerful than any Mac you can buy, and if you COULD buy a Mac that powerful Apple would charge you over $5000 for the privilege. Did I mention that Apple machines are overpriced?

Anyway, that machine is a custom configuration built to run OSX without it being Apple-sanctioned hardware. It runs beautifully and that's the machine we use in the recording studio. He uses OSX because he's been a Mac user since the 90's and isn't familiar with Windows. But even he wouldn't buy Apple hardware any more, hence why he built a machine himself.

If OSX was infinitely better than Windows 7, it might go a little way into justifying their ridiculous prices. But it isn't. In fact it's inferior in a lot of ways, so like I said, buy one of the machines I linked you to and spend the rest of the money on something else.

All I'm saying is that since getting this Macbook Air, it's been a very satisfying experience.

This thing is a work of art, inside and out. I love it!

Just picking up the shell, it oozes class. Oh and Graycap, screw a Macbook Pro. Those ginormous bricks are so yesterday. It's the Air, baby!

Oh and another thing, this computer is virtually silent, with no moving hard drive. The fan only ever seems to come on when loading a flash movie LOL.

Actually, those super-thin laptops freak me out. I need to feel as if my machine won't fold in half or collapse if I set my phone on top of it.

nd33 said:

I think I've said this before on here.

Got a Macbook Air 11" 6 months ago (4gb ram).

Best purchase ever!

Love everything about it.

Soooooo petit and light, yet powerful enough to edit movies on if you're into that kinda thing.

The web is a breeze.

Gestures on the trackpad! I'm so fast on this thing, zipping around here, there and everywhere with swipes of my fingers. The future.

Whenever my friends pick my computer up to load something on the net, they're green with envy at it's size & weight or lack there of.

Very happy.

I was talking last night to a friend who'd been thinking of getting one but had heard that the Macbook Air has a tendency to get hot. That also made me wonder about the fan having to work hard. What's been your experience on that score?

PurpleJedi said:

nd33 said:

All I'm saying is that since getting this Macbook Air, it's been a very satisfying experience.

This thing is a work of art, inside and out. I love it!

Just picking up the shell, it oozes class. Oh and Graycap, screw a Macbook Pro. Those ginormous bricks are so yesterday. It's the Air, baby!

Oh and another thing, this computer is virtually silent, with no moving hard drive. The fan only ever seems to come on when loading a flash movie LOL.

Actually, those super-thin laptops freak me out. I need to feel as if my machine won't fold in half or collapse if I set my phone on top of it.

This is like a super moulded unibody metal frame. You seen the terminator? It will destroy your prissy phone, bro...

deebee said:

nd33 said:

I think I've said this before on here.

Got a Macbook Air 11" 6 months ago (4gb ram).

Best purchase ever!

Love everything about it.

Soooooo petit and light, yet powerful enough to edit movies on if you're into that kinda thing.

The web is a breeze.

Gestures on the trackpad! I'm so fast on this thing, zipping around here, there and everywhere with swipes of my fingers. The future.

Whenever my friends pick my computer up to load something on the net, they're green with envy at it's size & weight or lack there of.

Very happy.

I was talking last night to a friend who'd been thinking of getting one but had heard that the Macbook Air has a tendency to get hot. That also made me wonder about the fan having to work hard. What's been your experience on that score?

Haven't had any probs with that myself. I sometimes lay mine on my bare chest when I'm in bed to watch a movie (mine has i5 processor, I think if you get the i7 upgrade it may get hotter as it uses more power).

They might get hot if you're watching flash movies online though, I'm not sure. The reason I say that is because that seems to be the only time the fan comes on (when loading flash things).

I'm watching movies off hard drive and it's completely silent and cool. The hard drive doesn't have any moving parts as it's SSD.

PurpleJedi said:

nd33 said:

All I'm saying is that since getting this Macbook Air, it's been a very satisfying experience.

This thing is a work of art, inside and out. I love it!

Just picking up the shell, it oozes class. Oh and Graycap, screw a Macbook Pro. Those ginormous bricks are so yesterday. It's the Air, baby!

Oh and another thing, this computer is virtually silent, with no moving hard drive. The fan only ever seems to come on when loading a flash movie LOL.

Actually, those super-thin laptops freak me out. I need to feel as if my machine won't fold in half or collapse if I set my phone on top of it.

Or if you sit on the bloody thing, lol!

Don't know how the laptop market is over there (cheaper, I imagine! ), but I've always thought that although Macs are a bit overpriced, the imbalance is not quite as pronounced as it initially appears. It seems to me that you can certainly find a lot of budget-friendly options if you simply want a straightforward PC laptop, but when you start to compare Macbooks against Windows PCs that are similar in spec and quality of design, it evens out a bit more - even if Macs probably do work out more pricey in the final analysis. They're unrivalled as objets du désir, though, so if you know you're buying it because you want A Beautiful Thing in addition to something functional, it becomes easier to rationalise the overspend.

nd33 said:

PurpleJedi said:

Actually, those super-thin laptops freak me out. I need to feel as if my machine won't fold in half or collapse if I set my phone on top of it.

This is like a super moulded unibody metal frame. You seen the terminator? It will destroy your prissy phone, bro...

OK then...I may have to sneak some damage at the Apple store and see if you're right...!