Best laptop for first year University

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dazzla
  • 37 comments
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Woo! Welcome to the club! For MSN I used Messenger for Mac. It is missing a few features, like audio/video chat, drawing, games, but it still has the basics and that's all I need. I believe most Mac users around here use a program called Adium, I'd say it's worth checking out. Don't forget to check out some of the cool Widgets in the Downloads section of Apple's website, there's some very useful and fun Widgets in there.

I think the more experienced Mac users will have some more, better suggestions than what I have, so watch out for them!
 
Heh, congrats on the new Macbook, and yes, welcome to the club. :p
For MSN I use Adium, which is quite a nice little open source app, also supports AIM and Yahoo and a whole assortment of other IM services etc etc.
 
I have to add something: Pearson math textbooks and the classes that use them sometimes require that you use this stupid program called MyMathLab. It DOES NOT WORK on anything except IE. It's really lame. So, just to be safe make sure you get IE on your system somehow... either through emulation or whatever.

That, or just don't give that publisher/class your money. :)
 
Dazzla
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.
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My suggestion is for your friend to wait until he gets a feel for what is needed before buying a laptop. It's quite possible for an art major to not need a laptop at all - in which case I would suggest a desktop.

On the Mac vs PC argument, I'd say it depends entirely on what you're intending to use it for. If you want to be able to use command-line applications, write software, but still want a laptop, I'd say mac. Otherwise a laptop should probably be a PC (for someone who is reasonably computer literate). In desktops, for someone who is slightly computer challenged and needs the unix command line - go Mac. Otherwise PC. If it's a dedicated computer that will be used for software or number crunching (ie: not gaming, tax preparation, or powerpoint), doesn't have need of many peripheral devices, and the user is fairly computer literate, go linux.

Edit: In fact, I think I'm going to make a thread about operating system advantages
 
Yeah Linux is a good alternative. I use Ubuntu on my parent's PC and I like it. I like the fact that if I need to run any windows programs I can use wine to run it and I think I'm just gonna use Ubuntu on a Laptop that I will get after I'm done working this summer.

But everyone is free to try what they want.
 
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
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You need to get the upper tier macbook to be honest. But the main differences:

Better battery on the mac (and any notebook with a smaller screen). The average lecture is 3 hours long. If you're like me, you will be typing your notes. That 17 inch notebook will barely last 3.

Smaller = portable. I used to walk 1.5 kilometers each day with a 5 pound laptop in addition to textbooks. 17 inches will hurt your back.

big screens are easier to break - it goes back to portability. You have a 17 inch piece of glass on your shoulders.

OSX has significantly better RAM usage. It's a laptop - you want to minimize the amount of time the hard drives spin. OSX does that better than Windows XP. Windows XP does that better than Vista. That notebook is probably vista.

If you don't want the macbook, get the Dell XPS M1330. Lovely laptops and an excellent value for the power the put out.


One major thing to note: Apple notebooks are generally $50-100 cheaper than comparably specced notebooks from Dell/other brands when there is a hardware refresh. IE, when Apple releases updated hardware.
 
Danoff
My suggestion is for your friend to wait until he gets a feel for what is needed before buying a laptop. It's quite possible for an art major to not need a laptop at all - in which case I would suggest a desktop.

On the Mac vs PC argument, I'd say it depends entirely on what you're intending to use it for. If you want to be able to use command-line applications, write software, but still want a laptop, I'd say mac. Otherwise a laptop should probably be a PC (for someone who is reasonably computer literate). In desktops, for someone who is slightly computer challenged and needs the unix command line - go Mac. Otherwise PC. If it's a dedicated computer that will be used for software or number crunching (ie: not gaming, tax preparation, or powerpoint), doesn't have need of many peripheral devices, and the user is fairly computer literate, go linux.

Edit: In fact, I think I'm going to make a thread about operating system advantages
Click to expand...
He will wait until early September before making his purchase. I however bought mine!

I will probably be doing a major in a business program. 👍
 

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