Apple or Other for LAPTOP PURCHASE????

[dr150]

My laptop just died on me.

Apple lappies look very well built but they're expensive and I don' know how well they'll take to my PC MS Word, Excel and Adobe documents.

I'm basically looking for a lappy 15" or bigger.....that has enough power to game well and watch videos.

Basically if I buy a PC laptop, it has to have some of the great features of the Apple (i.e. light, thin, sleek, powerful).

Budget is not a concern, but I'm looking for top while giving me great performance.


If you guys can hash out recommendations....................

 

[Ness]

Originally posted by: dr150
that has enough power to game well..

Umm, with an apple, you won't be gaming much at all.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: dr150
My laptop just died on me.

That sucks.

Apple lappies look very well built but they're expensive

They are both well-built and expensive.

and I don' know how well they'll take to my PC MS Word, Excel and Adobe documents.

The Mac versions of Office and Adpobe products will work jsut fine with files created on a PC.

I'm basically looking for a lappy 15" or bigger.....that has enough power to game well and watch videos.

The Powerbooks have enough power to game, but the selection of games for them is smaller.

Basically if I buy a PC laptop, it has to have some of the great features of the Apple (i.e. light, thin, sleek, powerful).

They're hard to find - you can't really get a comparable laptop to the powerbooks for less. Look at the IBM T41, you can get most of the same features, but it's even more than the powerbook.

Budget is not a concern, but I'm looking for top while giving me great performance.

If budget is not a concern, I'd be pickingf from a 15" powerbook and an IBM T41. The only other laptop I'd consider is Toshiba's Tablet convertible model, but it's less powerful.

If you guys can hash out recommendations....................[/quote]

For what it's worth, I'm using an IBM T21 right now, and My last laptop purcase was an Apple iBook. IBM and Apple are the only two compnaies I'd buy laptops from, with the possible exception of that Toshiba tablet.

 

[digitalsm]

How well is well? Comparable to a desktop?

How much do you want to spend? $1500-$2500? $2500-$3500?

 

[Anubis]

emachines makes an A64 lappy that can be had for less then 1500

that will game nicely

 

[monk3y]

If you want gaming... I don't think it's right... but otherwise, I think they're perfect.

 

[Jingleheimer]

If your post was exactly the same but without "enough power to game well", I'd say buy the Powerbook. That's what I'm using. I've tried to game on it and I can, but I'd rather game on something else. All things else, I love my Mac.

 

[DaWhim]

i will love to have a powerbook. but it is hard to let for the t41 or t42

 

[0roo0roo]

the apple laptops let you do what u need to do on a laptop. as for gaming on laptops, neither pc/apple laptops are really optimal for gaming

 

[dr150]

Guys,
How about these?

They look pretty sleek and powerful ala Apple?........

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: dr150
Guys,
How about these?

They look pretty sleek and powerful ala Apple?........

They're fine, if you don't mind hauling around a laptop that may push 8lbs.

 

[Description]

Originally posted by: dr150
Guys,
How about these?

They look pretty sleek and powerful ala Apple?........

They aren't as thin or powerful as the PowerBooks, hardly a contending recommendation for one with no budget restrictions.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
the apple laptops let you do what u need to do on a laptop. as for gaming on laptops, neither pc/apple laptops are really optimal for gaming

Thats just not entirely true these days.

The Radeon Mobility 9700, is comparable to a Radeon 9600 Pro, just slightly slower than a 9600XT. Not the top of the line, but still good.

 

[Anubis]

Budget is not a concern, but I'm looking for top while giving me great performance.
If you guys can hash out recommendations....................

what what what

buget no concern

well then surf on over to www.voodooPC.com and grab one of their lappys, the best ones 5000$ can get you

and they look 100x better then thoes stupid white ibooks and powerbooks

 

[digitalsm]

VoodooPC Envy 360

Pentium M 1.7Ghz(comparable to a 3Ghz P4)
1GB RAM
60GB 7200rpm HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128MB
DVD R/RW
802.11 G
Win XP Pro

~5.5lbs, 1.1" thick.(same as the 15" PowerBook).

~$3300.

If you want to go overboard, you could upgrade to the 2Ghz Pentium M for ~$500 more.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
the apple laptops let you do what u need to do on a laptop. as for gaming on laptops, neither pc/apple laptops are really optimal for gaming

Thats just not entirely true these days.

The Radeon Mobility 9700, is comparable to a Radeon 9600 Pro, just slightly slower than a 9600XT. Not the top of the line, but still good.

yes but its questionable if u should buy a laptop with that kind of power. esp if you want portability over power. better to spend the extra money on a home system that won't depreciate so quickly

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: digitalsm
VoodooPC Envy 360

Pentium M 1.7Ghz(comparable to a 3Ghz P4)
1GB RAM
60GB 7200rpm HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128MB
DVD R/RW
802.11 G
Win XP Pro

~5.5lbs, 1.1" thick.(same as the 15" PowerBook).

~$3300.

If you want to go overboard, you could upgrade to the 2Ghz Pentium M for ~$500 more.

pffft why get a pentium M when you can get a A64?

Envy M860 A46 4300+
60gig 7200 HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128
DVD r/rw
802.11 g
Xp Pro

3500$ so it weighs 8lbs

the m855 weighs less and can take a 3200+

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
the apple laptops let you do what u need to do on a laptop. as for gaming on laptops, neither pc/apple laptops are really optimal for gaming

Thats just not entirely true these days.

The Radeon Mobility 9700, is comparable to a Radeon 9600 Pro, just slightly slower than a 9600XT. Not the top of the line, but still good.

yes but its questionable if u should buy a laptop with that kind of power. esp if you want portability over power. better to spend the extra money on a home system that won't depreciate so quickly

You can get a little over 4 hours with it. If you wanted to add say 2.5lbs, you could multiply that by 6 with the purchace of a Electrovaya PowerPad.

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: digitalsm
VoodooPC Envy 360

Pentium M 1.7Ghz(comparable to a 3Ghz P4)
1GB RAM
60GB 7200rpm HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128MB
DVD R/RW
802.11 G
Win XP Pro

~5.5lbs, 1.1" thick.(same as the 15" PowerBook).

~$3300.

If you want to go overboard, you could upgrade to the 2Ghz Pentium M for ~$500 more.

pffft why get a pentium M when you can get a A64?

Envy M860 A46 4300+
60gig 7200 HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128
DVD r/rw
802.11 g
Xp Pro

3500$ so it weighs 8lbs

the m855 weighs less and can take a 3200+

Uh the 360 is 5.5 pounds and 1.1" thick. thats ALOT lighter and THINNER. Not to mention the 360 has twice the battery life.

Dothan is quite the CPU. Its really no wonder why Intel is scrapping their desktop CPU lineup in favor of the Pentium M.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: digitalsm

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: digitalsm
VoodooPC Envy 360

Pentium M 1.7Ghz(comparable to a 3Ghz P4)
1GB RAM
60GB 7200rpm HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128MB
DVD R/RW
802.11 G
Win XP Pro

~5.5lbs, 1.1" thick.(same as the 15" PowerBook).

~$3300.

If you want to go overboard, you could upgrade to the 2Ghz Pentium M for ~$500 more.

pffft why get a pentium M when you can get a A64?

Envy M860 A46 4300+
60gig 7200 HDD
ATI Mobility 9700 128
DVD r/rw
802.11 g
Xp Pro

3500$ so it weighs 8lbs

the m855 weighs less and can take a 3200+

Uh the 360 is 5.5 pounds and 1.1" thick. thats ALOT lighter and THINNER. Not to mention the 360 has twice the battery life.

Dothan is quite the CPU. Its really no wonder why Intel is scrapping their desktop CPU lineup in favor of the Pentium M.

i know its one hell of a CPU but id still take a a64 lappy seeing as money doesnt matter, my buddy has a Dell with a 3 GHz p4 in it with a 17in wide screen 1940x1200, its sweet and 8lbs isnt that bad put it in a back pack and yo udont even know, hell i caarry my back pack with my camera stuff in it everywhere and 1 of my lenses weighs like 6 lbs, total prob 15lbs of stuff, i dont even notice it


and i dont know anyone that has a laptop that is away from a power plug for more then 2 hours at any 1 time

 

[BaboonGuy]

The Laptop I want to get, any comments?

It's the ZT3000 series laptop (1.3" thin, 6.5 lb.) Does that config look any good? 15.4" Widescreen, I need to get the 1920x1200 because of the stuff I am going to be using it for.

OP: This is in my mind the best sleek/power/battery life overall PC laptop on the market now. You should probably take a look at it.

 

[777php]

IBM T42p, avaiable in 14" and 15" versions.

 

[slydecix]

Originally posted by: BaboonGuy
The Laptop I want to get, any comments?

It's the ZT3000 series laptop (1.3" thin, 6.5 lb.) Does that config look any good? 15.4" Widescreen, I need to get the 1920x1200 because of the stuff I am going to be using it for.

OP: This is in my mind the best sleek/power/battery life overall PC laptop on the market now. You should probably take a look at it.

You can get the same exact notebook (except Compaq instead of HP) from that hpshopping site for 250 bucks less

 

[addragyn]

dp

 

[addragyn]

Umm, with an apple, you won't be gaming much at all.

Huh? The selection isn't the biggest but that doesn't mean it's nonexistent.

http://www.insidemacgames.com/

- - -

Apple lappies look very well built but they're expensive and I don' know how well they'll take to my PC MS Word, Excel and Adobe documents.

Office 2004 was recently released. Many people say MBU(Mac Business Unit) pus out a better version of Office than their Windows peers.

By Adobe documents I'm sure you mean PDF otherwise just use the correct Adobe app. Preview will open PDF & EPS. It kicks Acrobat Reader right in the nuts. It's faaaaaaaaaassstt! Plus great searching capabilities. OS X also give you the option to "print" to a PDF file (or fax) as part of the OS wide print function. Works for instant messages,, web pages, everything you can print. Viewing PDFs in Preview has made my life a little smoother. Quartz 2D is PDF based.


I'm basically looking for a lappy 15" or bigger.....that has enough power to game well and watch videos.

A 1.5GHz G4 with 512K L2 and a 128MB Radeon 9700M is not slow. You can definitely get faster stuff on the PC side. But I find the PowerBooks to be *very* well balanced packages. I'm sure Apple could make an 8lb G5 desknote that got 90 minutes of battery life. Know what I mean?


Budget is not a concern, but I'm looking for top while giving me great performance

Go for the top 15" or 17" 1.5GHz then.
Grab that 128MB VRAM upgrade.
You're getting SuperDrive, AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, and Backlit keyboard standard.
Do the "1GB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 SO-DIMM" upgrade.
Upgrade to the 5400rpm drive.
I recommend you try .Mac (it's discounted) and consider a second AC adaptor.
Checkout the iSight if you want to do video chat.
A Bluetooth keyboard and mouse can be nice to use while the PB is on your desk, same with a stand, 2.

Then for kicks pop in some more RAM.

For any videos QuickTime can't handle use VLC.

That or a ThinkPad would be my recommendation.