Which notebook for college?

M

mjohn1378

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2002
Messages
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I am buying a new notebook for my wife as she has decided finally to go to college and I have narrowed it down to a few choices.
She wants light, portable, and good for gaming and long battery life..
She wants either a 14" pc or 13.3" mac (15.4 is too big and smaller then 13.3 is too small)

Which of these would you get?
I wrote the list in (model | price | Gfx card | CPU | Weight | Gfx card speed ranking) format

Asus N80Vn-A1 | $978.99 | NV 9650M GT | T5800 | 5.7lb | 31
Lenovo T61 | $1,299.99 | ATI HD3470 | T8300 | 5.4lb | 88
Lenovo ThinkPad T400 (2765-T6U) | $1,199.99 | ATI HD3470 | P8400 | 5.0lb | 88

I also got her to consider macbooks..
I told her she could have both windows and osx on the same laptop and she would be better prepared.
She really liked that thought.

Macbook 13.3" Black | $1,149.99 | Intel GMA x3100 | T8300 | 5lb | 132
Macbook 13.3" White | $1,099.99 | Intel GMA x3100 | T8300 | 5lb | 132
Macbook 13.3" Al/Black | $1,294.99 | GeForce 9400M | C2D 2.0ghz | 80
Macbook Air 13.3" | $1,349.99 | Intel GMA x3100 | C2D 1.6 | 3lb | 132

I am currently thinking either the T400 or one of the macs.
 
I'm a huge Mac fan, so I'd say the Aluminum MB. OSX is awesome and if there's a need for Windows it can handle it better than most dedicated PC laptops...
 
Not trying to start a flame war as i do enjoy some Mac models, but explain to me how a Mac notebook with the same hardware could run windows better than a non Mac running the same hardware, that makes no sense.


I love Asus notebooks and have had a ton of them, I really like the N80, it reminds me of the old W3J, I think that N80 will fit her bill nicely although since it is a rather powerful notebook the battery life might not be the best, but if you do go the Asus route just pick up a 2nd battery and your set.
 
I have a MBP and my dad has a Gateway with almost the same specs. His computer was about $200 cheaper, but the MBP has a better Vista "Performance Score". 5.1 vs 4.5! Aren't computers licensed to run Windows supposed to run it better?

Also, OSX isn't 5% as susceptible to viruses or spyware as PCs. And one other point, buy a Mac, use Bootcamp, and install XP instead of Vista! Unless you like slow and annoying...

^^I believe both of your computers run XP for a reason, right?
 
LOL I am a MBP user and I can tell you that a Mac does not run Windows faster than a PC with similar specs. In fact the boot time of the Mac will be higher. Now that is not to say there is no merit in buying a Mac. I for one like the look of it, and OSX is definitely nice. However I do prefer Linux over both OSX and Windows. That said OSX is easy to use and the base model AluBook offers pretty good performance/$ especially considering it has a decent GPU. However the LCD on it is unbearable for me. Not because of the glare but because of the ridiculous vertical viewing angle and color inversion due to that.

p.s. Vista runs plenty fast on my MBP even in Fusion...
 
Alright, so you have both sides of the argument, now let's look at tech support...(this is not me being racist at all, just looking for ease and understandability)

Apple: All are english speaking and based in the US
Almost all others PC makers have you call to India, etc...

Apple also has an extended warranty that is great! (You can get it on Ebay for cheap)
Most others you can only get the manufacturer's warranty if you order from their website.

And yes, Mac does start up Windows just as fast...I don't have times but my Unibody MBP (2.4ghz, 2gb, 250gb, 9400gt/9600gt) keeps up with my PC (XP, C2D 2.66, 4gb, 320gb, 8800gt).
 
I would get the T400. Lenovo/Thinkpads always rate very high in build quality and customer service.
 
coledog188 said:
Alright, so you have both sides of the argument, now let's look at tech support...(this is not me being racist at all, just looking for ease and understandability)

Apple: All are english speaking and based in the US
Almost all others PC makers have you call to India, etc...

Apple also has an extended warranty that is great! (You can get it on Ebay for cheap)
Most others you can only get the manufacturer's warranty if you order from their website.

And yes, Mac does start up Windows just as fast...I don't have times but my Unibody MBP (2.4ghz, 2gb, 250gb, 9400gt/9600gt) keeps up with my PC (XP, C2D 2.66, 4gb, 320gb, 8800gt).
Click to expand...

It does not matter where you call. If they solve your problem, then it is all good. Also just because Apple has US based support does not mean they do a good job. I've talked to good ones and bad ones. As for warranty Apple does not offer any warranty against accidents. Also most manufacturers allows you to extend your warranty for a set cost, just like Apple. It is foolish to do otherwise as warranty generates the most $$$. It does not matter where the notebook was bought. Nearly all notebook manufacturers allow the transfer of warranty. Actually Apple is worse in this area as it is a PITA to transfer AppleCare.

p.s. I have no clue why Windows start slower in Boot Camp. Maybe someone else does or better yet fix my problem. It is just simple observation from the Macs I have. Both my MBP and AluBook takes 30 seconds or more to get to the Vista booting. After that it is fast.
 
Asus has a 2 year warranty plus the 1st year covers accidental damage. So, no need to buy an extended warranty...it comes with one!
 
visionviper said:
I would get the T400. Lenovo/Thinkpads always rate very high in build quality and customer service.
Click to expand...

Very true, if I were to buy a PC laptop I would definitely go with a Lenovo. I still have a 800mhz P3 IBM laying around that runs XP and works great!

lixuelai said:
It does not matter where you call. If they solve your problem, then it is all good. Also just because Apple has US based support does not mean they do a good job. I've talked to good ones and bad ones. As for warranty Apple does not offer any warranty against accidents. Also most manufacturers allows you to extend your warranty for a set cost, just like Apple. It is foolish to do otherwise as warranty generates the most $$$. It does not matter where the notebook was bought. Nearly all notebook manufacturers allow the transfer of warranty. Actually Apple is worse in this area as it is a PITA to transfer AppleCare.

p.s. I have no clue why Windows start slower in Boot Camp. Maybe someone else does or better yet fix my problem. It is just simple observation from the Macs I have. Both my MBP and AluBook takes 30 seconds or more to get to the Vista booting. After that it is fast.
Click to expand...

Well, the Vista's boot times have always been a bit slower, XP is what Leopard's Bootcamp was built around so drivers and such probably work better.

Also I've bought and sold a bunch of Macs with Applecare and the warranty just goes with the computer, no transferring as far as I've noticed. You just need to have the seller give you the paperwork confirmation as proof (read some number to them).

k. olsen said:
Asus has a 2 year warranty plus the 1st year covers accidental damage. So, no need to buy an extended warranty...it comes with one!
Click to expand...

Nice! Too bad they don't have any real full-size laptops, so far they're only good at making netbooks.
 
I'd recommend the Lenovo T400, then the ASUS in the first list. The aluminum MacBook gets a distant third.

Lenovos are built better, pure and simple. If it's not abused, it'll last you longer than anything else on the list, MacBooks included. I've not been at all impressed with Apple build quality or reliability in their mobile machines for a while now.
 
Oh! Derr...I think I forgot! I had seen them intro them on Engadget.

They look sweet...still love Lenovo for a PC though!
 
The only notebook I'd buy besides an Apple product is a Lenovo.

I'm sure you've already checked, but make sure her school allows Mac.

You'd be surprised that some schools don't. Even though Apple is a PC.

If they sell Apple products at the school, then you're okay.
 
persisting1 said:
The only notebook I'd buy besides an Apple product is a Lenovo.

I'm sure you've already checked, but make sure her school allows Mac.

You'd be surprised that some schools don't. Even though Apple is a PC.

If they sell Apple products at the school, then you're okay.
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Great point!

If she's going for any type of computer degree then avoid the Mac. Most professors are platform specific and that platform is Windows with emulation software for Linux if needed. (at least that was my prof...)

Also Lenovo is one of the most "paid for by school" brands out there. Apple is also a few colleges, but those are more of the arty schools (no wonder!).
 
wow

you can buy a used thinkpad on here for $250 and save yourself $1,250...
 
I just ordered the mac-book aluminum 2.0 GHz from B&H.

I paid a little more then from mac mall but she will have the mac-book sooner without ridiculous overnight shipping charges. (I always get packages in one day from B&H. with ground shipping).

We were told to bring her laptop in during orientation next week so they could get her onto the campus wireless net..

If the school does not allow mac I may have a problem as I didn't know there were schools that disallowed mac. I hope her school (keystone in la plume, pa) is one of the schools that allow mac.

If they are one of the schools that disallow mac I wonder if they will allow her to run windows only on the mac-book since as I see it at this point a mac-book is not much more than a PC with a proper TPM module that runs the osx platform.

She is taking up criminal justice with a minor in forensic biology. The school seems to have a fairly strong art program so lets hope for the best. .
 
mschlottfeld said:
I just ordered the mac-book aluminum 2.0 GHz from B&H.

I paid a little more then from mac mall but she will have the mac-book sooner without ridiculous overnight shipping charges. (I always get packages in one day from B&H. with ground shipping).

We were told to bring her laptop in during orientation next week so they could get her onto the campus wireless net..

If the school does not allow mac I may have a problem as I didn't know there were schools that disallowed mac. I hope her school (keystone in la plume, pa) is one of the schools that allow mac.

If they are one of the schools that disallow mac I wonder if they will allow her to run windows only on the mac-book since as I see it at this point a mac-book is not much more than a PC with a proper TPM module that runs the osx platform.

She is taking up criminal justice with a minor in forensic biology. The school seems to have a fairly strong art program so lets hope for the best. .
Click to expand...

Some schools encourage PCs over Macs because of special programs that they require. For example, we use a slightly modified Cisco VPN client to connect to the campus network when we're off campus so that we can get to campus resources such as the library for research. They do not have a version that works with 64bit Vista released to the student body so far. This is a strange example, but I'm just trying to say why they would favor one over another: program compatibility.
 
Yea, for a while the Cisco network at SUNY IT, where i go, didn't support Leopard. It was Cisco's fault for not testing their secure software during the testing faze before the release of Leopard. They came out with the update now but it was annoying in between.
 
Macs are a giant tend at my school (University of Houston). They sell them at the campus computer store and the Honors College has them in every room. If your wife isn't computer savy and a mac will work for her than she might want to go that route. OSX is noob friendly, that why most of my friends have them. If not grab a Lenovo they are great machines. Another option would be Fujitsu (they make really good PCs).
 
Also, check if your school has a laptop program. They may require you to purchase the laptop of the schools choice.

I know at my Biz school it is like that. You must purchase the laptop they have available. Also law school is like that too.
 
Good news.
The mac is accepted at the school.

Was told that for some programs in the IT field that vista is preferred but cant she just run vista on her mac for those classes?
 
Apart from being a bit slow to load on my MBP Vista runs perfectly on it. In fact I often just run Vista inside OSX via Fusion. Very handy with Unity mode. You should get 4GB of RAM however if you want to use Fusion with Vista.
 
lixuelai said:
Apart from being a bit slow to load on my MBP Vista runs perfectly on it. In fact I often just run Vista inside OSX via Fusion. Very handy with Unity mode. You should get 4GB of RAM however if you want to use Fusion with Vista.
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+1:)
 
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