Posted on 11/04/2009 7:32:27 AM PST by American_Centurion
My daughter a HS Junior is doing really well in school. I am planning to buy her a new laptop for school. She currently has a Dell 13" XPS that has been ok, but the battery has been replaced twice, the CD/DVD will currently only play CDs and it is getting slower to start up.
So I start looking and I know she wants a Mac because they are cool, I however am not a Mac fan. Not that there is anything wrong with Mac, I have a slowly dying PowerMac G5 Dual that has a nice monitor I use for Aperture, but it is on its last legs. I also look for Windows 7 PCs, I use Lenovo Thinkpads for work and know they are rock solid, sturdy, and long lasting. My old T40 is 5 years old and still runs like it did when I first got it. I now work on a T400 and it is a great machine.
Here is what I found:
That's what I have on this brand new HP PC.....I'm struggling to find a Win 7 compatible printer tho; I want one that will install completely from the install CD, and not have to bother with downloading some driver adjuster.
That is a good buy. I’ll look at it.
Particularly disk systems. That is the dirty little secret no one tells you about. Anything that windows does is all eyewash i.e. Bull Scat I'm retired now but spent fifty years in IT datacenters They all need periodic maintenance All computer systems require periodic maintenance.
managing IBM op/syss; Bell Labs Unix© op/syss.
and 5000 windows server network systems.
The Mac is worth much more than $700 extra. Especially if she is away at college.
I can give you any number of reasons, but here are just a few.
1. You do not need anti-virus software. On my PCs, this is $50 per year because I always look for the bargain-basement price. If she is away at college, she may get suckered into just getting the “update” when her subscription runs out — at least $80 on your credit card right there. The first year is free with a PC, but the remaining 4 years of life will cost you $200-400.
2. On the rare occasions when something goes wrong with my Mac, I call them up and they either answer the question right there on the phone, or they tell me to take it to a Mac store, where they fix it. Period. Every time I have tried to call for tech support with a PC, the computer maker tells me it is a software problem with Windows and the Windows guys want a credit card number just to talk to me, then they tell me it is a hardware problem. I have never been able to get the hardware guys and the software guys on the same line at the same time. Do you really want your daughter to go through this at college?
Apple makes both the hardware and the software and can’t pass the buck. Go ahead, put a price on that. Think about tuition, living expenses, etc. and then figure out the cost of 2 or 3 days down time chasing a computer problem.
Bookmark
Just make sure your daughter does not want to use the labtop for gaming. I think the T6600 is powerful enough for most applications but you may want to double check that..
1. Free Anti-virus. Avast, AVG, and Comodo right off the top of my head. These work and are not $50/year.
2. Problems/support. The Lenovo comes with 2 years in-home warranty. Two years from now, I’ll take a wild guess that $700 will pay for a whole lot of tech-support and out-of-warranty repair. Something I’ve never needed with the other Lenovos I’ve used for the last 5 years.
Not convinced by your argument the Mac is really worth $700 more. Don’t see it.
I’ll check on the gaming. She’s a console kid, PS2 and PS3, but that’s when she can get it away from the little brothers. Who knows what ultra-cool-must-play game her friends at college will get her into.
Periodic maintenance makes sense. I still don’t get why Mac doesn’t schedule the maintenance or even tell you that it might be needed. Especially considering the Ads tout “just works” perpetually.
Most windows users have thrown away If you want make the G5 new again Disk Warrior will cost money but is the best. Re-building the disk iNodes is best done standalone via DVD. I have a Mac Pro w/ Aperture and LightZone In addition I have a five year old 17" PowerBook The wife loves her 20" Intel iMac. The only working windows in the house The fact that you have not done any maintenance
on a five year old machine is a testament to the op/sys.
more than two machines in five years
or a geek loaded it with Linux.
disk utility=> repair permissions.
This is no cost as disk utility is part of the op/sys.
and Photomatix for photography.
libertynetworkDesign
It has been just upgraded to Snow Leopard.
running Leopard for presentations.
This is being typed on a 17" iMac with Leopard.
is a Acer One XP 10" netbook
cost $299 plus $75 for a new battery
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Is Disk warrior for sale at the Apple Store? The way the G5 has been freezing up I don’t want to risk a download.
How is it dying?
How is it dying?
Greedy corporate types are denying it health care!!!
More and more frequently the machine freezes on the pinwheel of death. It will not recover from it, you can not force quit the application and you can not restart the computer without a hard shut off.
It used to work for a couple of hours before it would start this, now you might get 20 mins of work before that #@!$%^@$# pinwheel shows up.
Recently, maybe two weeks ago, I got what must be Apples version of the Blue Screen of Death. Said something to the effect of this computer must be restarted, an unrecoverable error has occurred. I’ve only seen that once.
Thanks. The photos I have in Aperture are easily worth $100 bucks to get it working.
The new Macbooks also come with the new battery that is supposed to last 5 years I believe. More importantly in the short term, it lasts around 6 hours on a charge (or so).
I agree that everything that can be done on a Mac can be done on Windows, however, on a Mac it is almost always easier. How much not being frustrated is worth I don’t know, but it seems worth a lot to me.
Lenovos have a solid reputation, good systems. I’ve helped a family member buy one and she’s still happy.
I didn’t get the pics. Can you give me the models and specs you chose? I’m pretty familiar with both sides.
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