Computer ordered...ok deal?

[lordofduct]

Go get a Macbook Pro. Best laptops you can buy if you want something premium. It will play most modern games with Windows installed. Best of all you get to use the far superior OS X. If you are into music creation Logic Studio is ridiculously cheap (mind blowingly cheap if you know somebody with access to the Higher Education discount).

Yeah but that's really only if you know someone that deals with the IT stuff at a school or something... furthermore a school that uses Mac.

Or is Mac now offering student discounts? (comparable student discounts that is)

[Niode]

Yep, if you are a student (or faculty for that matter) at a registered school with Apple then you can get a discount on all Apple products excluding certain software and ipods/iphones. The discount is pretty hefty too, I got my Macbook Pro through the HE discount and it was considerably less.

If you do know somebody, a friend of a friend or whatever it's definitely worth looking into since there is no limit to the amount of stuff you can buy, just have a valid student/faculty ID. So you could easily get somebody else to get it for you.

[Octopod]

Hmm. The problem I see with that is that I am in school for IT and most things seemed to be focused on PCs and MS.

[lordofduct]

@Octopod - well if you can get a macbook for cheap enough (as hardware goes my only complaints on Mac is price, but with a hefty enough discount... that's no longer there) it CAN be a PC.

hardware wise they are pretty much identical in architecture. Just install Windows on the machine.


OS wise it's a heaping pile of garbage (opinion), but as you even stated... MS is what you want, so just install it. I'd suggest removing OSX all together unless for some reason you want to abuse your intellect in that manner.


My only concern is I just went to Macs website and logged in the student discount section and hardly saw any comparable discount. I built a Macbook Pro 17" and the difference in price in the end was a mere 60 dollars... but maybe I did it wrong or something.

[Jrecee]

Anybody have experience with velocity micro? They've got a top rated pc on cnet. . . I need a new pc for video editing (with sony vegas)

[Limewater]

and I want as large a screen as possible.

I don't think there is any way I can say this without coming across as a total jerk, but believe me when I say that I have your best interest in heart.

If you are not a photographer or artist, and you plan on actually using your laptop for laptoppy stuff and not just as a smaller desktop, you really don't want more than about a 14.1 inch screen. Machines larger than that are bulky, heavy, generally cumbersome, and absolutely no fun to lug around. I say this as someone who has used laptops as his primary computers for the last nine years. I hear this as well from others who use laptops a lot.

If you need a big screen, plug your laptop into an external display.

[Jrecee]

^^

I agree with that. You can get a 22" monitor for $150. In laptop form an extra few inches will cost $150 easily. And you'll still have a sub 20" screen, and the hassle of carting it around.

[Octopod]

Ok. So I am now thinking maybe buy a cheap laptop for school and a new desktop for games and stuff. Maybe I will try to build the desktop, it would be good for me I think.

[lordofduct]

Ok. So I am now thinking maybe buy a cheap laptop for school and a new desktop for games and stuff. Maybe I will try to build the desktop, it would be good for me I think.

I would definetely say do this.

My buddy bought a maxed out laptop for gaming and work. He hates the thing, it runs hot, the battery dies in about an hour, and the thing cost an arm and a leg. Worst is it became outdated very quickly and is difficult to upgrade. Desktops upgrade very easily... even when new processor seats or controllers change, you end up only getting a new mobo and processor (possibly RAM... possibly). Where as the laptop comes with all kinds of needed changes that usually won't fit into the laptop resulting in getting a whole new laptop.


Personally I don't own laptops. I'm usually with in feet of a desktop no matter where I am. I have never been out of my house, and not near a computer, and said to myself "you know, I wish I had a high powered computing device to do something on." Most anything I'd want to do I can do on my cell phone (call someone, or simple google).

School may be different I guess... but I spent 13 years in primary and secondary school. And 2 years in college. Never once did I really want a computer for any of it.... that couldn't wait for when I got home (and that was only in college that I needed it at home).



Really I think laptops are useful only for those who don't have a consistent dwelling to call home. Business men who travel, truck drivers, homeless art fags who live in their car, etc. That and minimalist livers who don't want power, i.e. my mom who lives in a small efficiency and would only use a PC for word processing, or my girlfriend who lives with her mom and spends most her time at my house, again only using it for listening to music and surfing the interwebs.... heh, Mac users... no wonder mac sells mostly laptops!

[MrPopo]

I have to agree with Duct on this one. My girlfriend in college had an Alienware laptop, and we found that the thing started to require a fan constantly pointed at it so it wouldn't overheat. And I personally have never needed a laptop for my personal business. My work does provide me a laptop, but I mostly use that when I'm oncall. When I'm home I need something that can connect to the network using the VPN, and lugging around my work desktop isn't exactly a good idea.