Best laptop for first year University

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dazzla
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Dazzla

Dazzla

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I have a friend who's starting University this fall (I may too), he's in the Arts program and was asking me whether he needs a laptop or not, and if he does which to go with.

To be honest, I have no idea what you learn in arts, all I could suggest was "buy a Mac", but I decided to ask you guys first.

You guys fill me in and I will let him know! :)

Update: Mac or not Mac?
 
Well a mac is expansive and its better for him to get a pc.

Also ask him what he is gonna do in the class.
 
He’s an art major – I’ve never known an art major who didn’t have a Mac.
 
I don't really know what you do in Art, exactly, but presumably it's more Mac oriented. Of course, it depends how much he wants to spend. I'm guessing a PC could do what he needs it to, but obviously it'd be easier with a Mac if the course is mostly Mac software based. I don't know, I'm assuming. My point is, aim for the OS that the course recommends, but I doubt it's as black and white as 'not Mac, not possible'.

nick09
Well a mac is expansive
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Oh yeah, Macs do cover a large area.

and its better for him to get a pc.
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Absolutely. PCs are regardlessly better in absolutely every way. And y'know, they don't cover such large areas.

Yeesh...
 
Dont buy a mac, many uni networks dont support it and its a pain to sort out by anyone around (like people in hall, mates) if it goes wrong whereas most people not how to fix windows related stuff. Plus they are expensive.

Many people buy Dell laptops as they are reasonably priced and offer enough power to run your photoshop stuff. You could also go with the cheaper Vaio's and Toshibas... stay away from Samsung and Acer because I know mates who have had constant problems.

Personally I would buy an Asus eeePC, its cheap, looks like a mac book and will most likely run all the stuff you need. Im hoping to get one soon as I only have a PC.

Actually if space isnt a concern get a small factor PC (like micro atx, shuttle sized) and you money will go a lot further. 90% of students who go to uni buy a laptop then find it just always sits on a desk so there not real need for portability.

Robin
 
Sage
He’s an art major – I’ve never known an art major who didn’t have a Mac.
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As far as I know by what you mean he's into creating paintings? :p What exactly do art majors learn? Isn't it mostly like English and writing?

Laptops aren't as expensive as they used to be, a beefy PC Laptop is roughly $900 CAD, and a baseline "decent" MacBook is around $1100. Is AppleCare going to be worth the huge price tag? Or is the 1 year Apple warranty enough.

Is there a optimum setup you would recommend or is the baseline just fine?
 
Robin.
Dont buy a mac, many uni networks dont support it and its a pain to sort out by anyone around (like people in hall, mates) if it goes wrong whereas most people not how to fix windows related stuff.
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In all of my classes, nearly half of the students who have laptops have Macs (I realize that doesn’t mean half of all students at my school have Macs, but it’s still significant), and almost all of my professors have Powerbooks or MacBook Pros. And if you visit the IT department at my school, they’re almost entirely running iMacs. This is a normal UC, not some school that’s in bed with Apple – their market share is absolutely skyrocketing amongst universities, and any university would have to be absolutely backwards to not support students with Macs.
 
I hate to sugget it... but a Dell Vostro would probably be good here. It's cheap and will do what he wants it to do. I just feel that he would be spending unecessary extra cash on a Mac when he could do the same for less, especially if he only uses it for uni purposes. Unless, of course, he needs to use software specifically used on a Mac.
 
Well so far I think what Sage suggested has stuck in my mind. I realize that I've always thought that most Artsy students used Mac's, after all isn't that what there most famous for?

and I do believe Apple has some sort of student discount? At this point I'm guessing the best thing for him would be a base MacBook $1149 and AppleCare $299, roughly $1600 after taxes etc.
 
I think base MB is $1050 with a student discount. Plus, you get a free iPod touch with one if you purchase this summer, so you can flip that on Craigslist for a couple hundred.
 
Your right. There is actually a significant difference in price. $1050 for the MacBook, and $218 for AppleCare adds up to around $1400 after taxes, including a free iPod Touch. How long does this offer last? I'm guessing till the end of August?

If I get accepted into the same program, looks like I will be buying one too! :D
 
You want to get into the same program but don't know what you're going to learn?

Anyways, I'm glad this thread was made, it's helped me some too.
 
Arts is the easiest faculty to get into stepping out of high school. Basically alot of kids use it to step into University and then attempt to transfer to a different faculty. I can do a degree in Arts and pursue a career in Law... the options are endless.

I don't have a huge idea on what you learn in Arts itself, yeah that is dumb on my part. :p

Edit: One more thing, do you guys think a laptop is necessary for first year? I've heard that you don't really even need it for first year classes...
 
Dazzla
Your right. There is actually a significant difference in price. $1050 for the MacBook, and $218 for AppleCare adds up to around $1400 after taxes, including a free iPod Touch. How long does this offer last? I'm guessing till the end of August?

If I get accepted into the same program, looks like I will be buying one too! :D
Click to expand...

A baseline Macbook is $999 for me. :odd: Applecare can be purchased up to a year from the date you buy the MB. It's supposedly best to buy Applecare on eBay for half of what Apple will charge you. Also, you have to pay for the Touch, after the mail in rebate its free (besides the tax you paid on it). That offer is going on until September 15th (purchase date), with another month to claim the rebate IIRC. I'd wait until July 14th to order, as the new Intel chipset is going to release with a bit of a CPU boost and a few other minor things. Keep an eye on www.macrumors.com for info on that update and join their forum in case you have questions.


And I just realized I've become a little Apple-obsessed and I don't even have mine yet. :eek:

Edit: Also, I consider this to be a MUST BUY if you end up with a Mac.
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
 
Eric.
A baseline Macbook is $999 for me. :odd: Applecare can be purchased up to a year from the date you buy the MB. It's supposedly best to buy Applecare on eBay for half of what Apple will charge you. Also, you have to pay for the Touch, after the mail in rebate its free (besides the tax you paid on it). That offer is going on until September 15th (purchase date), with another month to claim the rebate IIRC. I'd wait until July 14th to order, as the new Intel chipset is going to release with a bit of a CPU boost and a few other minor things. Keep an eye on www.macrumors.com for info on that update and join their forum in case you have questions.


And I just realized I've become a little Apple-obsessed and I don't even have mine yet. :eek:

Edit: Also, I consider this to be a MUST BUY if you end up with a Mac.
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
Click to expand...

Yeah a lady got her mac back because of that program!
 
Eric, thanks for the information. I'm in Canada so I'm guessing the US/CAD prices still don't reflect the high value of our dollar right now. School won't begin until early September so there's tons of time to decide and wait to buy the computer. So far it looks like MacBook with discount is the best bet.

btw I got my acceptance letter this morning. :)
 
For the Arts, including music Mac is a better system.
For "conventional" majors a PC is better, if only for the simple fact that most school computer labs are PC equipped, and any media becomes easier to transport from "home" to lab.

AS far as laptop vs. Desktop: I would probably go laptop if you plan to live in the dorm.
In most dorms space is at a premium. For the most part Laptops have caught up with the avg desktop for data storage space and operation speed. The weak link tends to be the battery. But keep the thing plugged in, buy a good printer, and it will have a much smaller "foot print" on your desk than a standard Desktop.
 
I know graphics and media students tend to benefit from Macs but not art students from what I know.

What are the issues with word processing documents with Macs and PC? Easy to transfer across or read-me only?
 
ExigeEvan
I know graphics and media students tend to benefit from Macs but not art students from what I know.

What are the issues with word processing documents with Macs and PC? Easy to transfer across or read-me only?
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There aren't really any. Assuming you use Office for Mac, it's pretty much seamless. If you use iWork (Apple's own office software) it's a little bit different, but not massively. It'll read, edit and export .doc files (as well as PDFs, actually). The only real problem that I can think of is the slight difference in fonts, but other than that it's minimal.
 
I won't be living in the dorm, I will still be living at home. As for transit I want to drive but the route is atleast a 20-30 minute drive without traffic. But I'm expecting heavy traffic in the mornings so make that 40-60 minute drive. :irked:

The first Apple Store around here opened in downtown Vancouver a few weeks ago, so I'll be giving that a checkup soon.
 
Been looking around and having a tough time justifying spending the extra money for a MacBook.

I can buy a 17" laptop with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5550 1.83 GHz, 3 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 320GB 5400 rpm HDD, CD-RW\DVD±RW dual-layer combo drive, for $990 after tax, and I don't need to buy a warranty (Costco).

The MacBook is 13" screen, 1GB of ram, 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120GB HDD, CDRW\DVD ROM for $1050 + $218 + tax = $1445.

I cannot justify spending $500 for OS X, I'm going to be on a tight budget considering school isn't exactly cheap. Persuade me to pay $500 for OS X. :p
 
Dazzla
I can buy a 17" laptop with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5550 1.83 GHz, 3 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 320GB 5400 rpm HDD, CD-RW\DVD±RW dual-layer combo drive, for $990 after tax, and I don't need to buy a warranty (Costco).
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Building one as close to your specs as I could (see attached zip), I came up with $893 + tax for a Dell Vostro 1700.
 
Dazzla
Been looking around and having a tough time justifying spending the extra money for a MacBook.

I can buy a 17" laptop with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5550 1.83 GHz, 3 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 320GB 5400 rpm HDD, CD-RW\DVD±RW dual-layer combo drive, for $990 after tax, and I don't need to buy a warranty (Costco).

The MacBook is 13" screen, 1GB of ram, 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120GB HDD, CDRW\DVD ROM for $1050 + $218 + tax = $1445.

I cannot justify spending $500 for OS X, I'm going to be on a tight budget considering school isn't exactly cheap. Persuade me to pay $500 for OS X. :p
Click to expand...


I'm not going to persuade you to go for OS X if you're not excited by it, but I am going to persuade you not to buy a 17 incher if you're planning to actually carry it anywhere. It might seem light compared to say, a Ford Taurus, or the Golden Gate Bridge, but anything that's too heavy will just break your back day to day. Seriously, the top of my priority list for a laptop that has to be carried around is weight. Not to the degree that you're sacrificing everything else (ie not one of those underpowered teensy ones), but I'd sacrifice a giant hard drive for a pound off the weight. 2 inches won't be any sort of advantage.

...not on a laptop screen anyway.


Oh, and what brand?
 
Yep, if there's even a little chance of needing to carry the laptop around, the 17" laptops are annoying since they are pretty heavy, despite how much nicer they can be. My 15.4" is heavy enough!
 
That laptop is 17", but yeah I'm not going to buy a 17" laptop, I'm just using the specs to compare. The brand name is Acer I believe.

I've thought about it and its pretty much upto Apple Care. If anything happens to the laptop like hardware wise will I get good service from Apple or will I be stuck in the dark?

If I bought a PC laptop from Costco, I know I could return it 6 months later with no questions asked.
 
Apple Care? Well, I haven't had any problems or got into the extended warranty yet, but essentially it's just as good as any other warranty. I bought mine over the 'net from Apple directly, so if mine goes wrong I take it to the nearest official Apple repair type place (conveniently right behind my local supermarket) and they sort it out.


As for costco, the likelihood is that if something goes wrong in 6 months time, it won't be as simple as a free replacement. They'll have it repaired, sure, but they probably won't replace it on the spot when it's over a few weeks old. At least, that's how it is over here. And because Costco or whoever probably don't do repairs in-store (or at least aren't authorised by Acer to do more than stick some new RAM in it within the limited warranty) it'll be sent off to the manufacturer for repairs. It's never quite as simple as handing it over and them handing you another one. Unless it dies within the exchange period.

Essentially, Applecare is just like any other warranty.
 
Costco has been great with there warranties for me; I exchanged my PS3 after 5 months because it stopped playing a few of my games. They exchanged it on the spot.

I think I will end up buying the MacBook with AppleCare online.
 
I went to my Apple store for a visit today, and well I picked up a base MacBook! I will probably pickup AppleCare in a few months, until then 1 year should be sufficient.

It's amazing how fast it is! It's all so different compared to my XP world. The baby is charging right now, I love it!!

Do you guys have any must have apps and stuff I should look into? Whats the best MSN client?
 

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