Laptop brands?

[Krista]

I'm going to invest in a laptop.. mostly for my scrapbooking and to take on the road with me. Any brands I should stay away from? Anything that I MUST have in it? Is a $700 laptop worth getting or will it just break down in 13 months?

thanks

[Mikey]

We travel with ours quite a bit and use a gps program with it in the car and for that we needed to get an adapter to plug it in to the cigarette lighter.  If you don't use it in the car that much then you won't need the adapter.  Both laptops are from Dell and have been trouble-free.  One laptop is about four-five years old and the other five-six years old.  Both recently had memory upgrades but that's all we've done to them.

[happyoutsidegirl]

Get A Mac Book!!!!!! You wont regreat that it cost a bit more but Mac's have far less trouble and virouses.

[-Greg-]

X2 on the macbook. You will pay a little more ($1100 to start), however the piece of mind and ease of use will more than make up for the extra cash. Just a couple of pros are: No anti-virus software needed, no extra programs to buy, an operating system that is as stable as can be, and as user friendly as you can imagine. Photo's are easy to find, adjust, post, etc. I could go on and on, however in the end it will be you who decides how much your time is worth (Vista learning curve, re-starting, de-fraging, keeping you anti-virus/spyware up to date, making sure any additional software you purchase is vista friendly, hoping your printer/scanner etc. is compatible). Good luck with your search, and if you do get an opportunity, drop into a apple store and check them out!

www.apple.com


Greg

[happyoutsidegirl]

Here is some stuff my son sent me. It's a compairison. When I was in NY I actually got to go in the huge all glass Apple store and ride in the glass elivator, and play with a lot to the toys in there. It's way cool! They have all kidns of things set up for you to play with. boy was I in heaven But the sad part was I didn't have the funds to get me a Mac Book then. :'( Sure was convincing tho. And my kids use them, love them with 0 problems!
There are less than 60 Mac specific viruses in total whereas there are well over 50,000 Windows viruses in existence, with about 250 new ones appearing every month. (Source: Harvey Norman Advertisement, Advocate Newspaper, 29 May 1999)

Viruses are a nightmare to Windows PC users, requiring the installation of expensive virus detection programs costing about $100 - $200 a year and the weekly download via the internet of virus updates for proper protection.
Further, virus detection programs themselves can significantly degrade computer performance and stability.

By contrast, most Mac users simply install an elegant freeware virus detection program called 'Disinfectant' which, because it is so simple and has such a tiny virus database to keep track of, causes no known computer performance or stability problems.

[-Greg-]

Happyoutsidegirl, just fyi, that information was pre UNIX/OSX, that pertained to the old OS9 operating system. The anti-virus software that is sold for mac is in my opinion, simply not needed. I have 5 macs in my house, all have zero antivirus software programs installed, and all have been that way going on 5 years. Here is a link to one of many articles on the subject:

http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/antivirus-applications-do-you-need-them/

Greg

[happyoutsidegirl]

sorry, I'm a computer nurd not Geek. But it mostly still applies for today. My son is pretty up on tec. and wouldn't give me info that isn't pertanent!

[CoolShades]

Krista:

 At the end of the day its still a PC world.  There are a lot of good deals out there, but I would look for:

1. Dual core technology
2. At least 2 GB of ram
3. At least 160 GB hard drive

The Toshiba Satellites in our area have been heavily discounted an are within your price range, but I have been happy with Dell, Compacq, HP and Toshiba notebooks.  I usually go through one every 1-2 years at work.

[El Jefe]

Just as a word of caution, I run a help desk for a major university, this latest round of trojans/downloaders tore through PC and MAC alike. We had some serious issues and it took my staff two days to recover and they are highly qualified MAC and PC techs. No one is immune.

Just don't wan't people to get a false sense of security.

That said you won't find an Apple for 800 dollars that is powerful enough to do much if at all. I use a Dell D-620 ATG, Dell has THE BEST BAR NONE customer service. Yes there will always be the occasional horror story but I deal with hundreds of laptops and they have yet to do me wrong. If you buy a PC platform buy a Dell.

Andy

[Krista]

Thanks everyone my preference was a Mac, but one of the main programs I use in scrapbooking is not designed for Mac unfortunately and it is one of the main reasons why I am getting a laptop.

I ended up getting a Toshiba Satellite ... and got an extended warrenty that when/if my HD DVD drive goes, they will replace it with a Blueray drive...  I don't watch a lot of movies anyway and the only reason why \i got this particular version is becuase it was the same price as the one down that didn't have the HD drive.  Only thing I don't like about it currently is the caps lock button is a lot bigger than the shift button and its driving me a little batty. But then I'm used to typing on an ergonomic keyboard so that's probably part of it.  Anyway, thanks for all your help... really good to see all the different opinions out there.  i also talked to my baby brother who helped me with a lot of it as I felt that I was going in pretty blind.

Thanks again!