Laptop Recommendations
 

I'm thinking about buying a laptop for writing and gaming. I'm looking to spend up to 1K. We have a Mac Desktop at home, but I'm thinking of going with a PC. But I'm on the fence about that.

Any recommendations PC or Mac in my price range?

I also want a new one. My friends have suggested used or refurbished ones, but it's time to treat myself to a new laptop. I've had a couple of hand me downs and they were totally outdated...

Must be able to play RCT2 and RCT3. (I'm addicted.)

:)

As a mac fan, I love my iBook, and if I could find a good excuse to upgrade, I'd get the new MacBook. The MacBook Pro is even more powerful (NA has one), but since both of them are new, they both have Intel chips. The MacBook is basically good to go out of the box, though I'd probably recommend a purchase of Microsoft Office if you need a good word processor or spreadsheet app. RCT3 has been ported to the Mac OS already, and if you need to play RCT2, you can use an app like Parallel which allows you to run Windows on your mac (simultaneously, as opposed to dual boot). There's another app on the horizon (as in very very soon) that will allow you to run Windows apps without even installing Windows at all.

Solid OS, sexy design, cool bundled integrated apps (iMovie, iDVD, Mail...), the ability to run Windows if you need to.... I'd go with the Mac.

... and the other addicts said "HI, Brad!"

I should watch what I say. I said I played RCT3 on MC and then someone sent me a link to one of their parks. Holy sh!t. It was amazing. It was Disneyland but RCT3 style. My parks look like absolute crap compared to that one. I mean, I have a hard time building line queues and people are building Splash Mountains and all! Holy shamoley!

I'm getting better, though.
:)

I'm constantly amazed at the inventiveness of that community. Check out the community forums available from the website if you've the time. RCT3 has quite a few supah-genius park designers out there.

I'll agree with Mousepod except that you don't need to blow several hundred dollars on Microsoft Office when you get get OpenOffice.org for free. OOo reads and saves all MS Office formats, and natively uses the new standard OpenDoc format.

If you want to play games on a computer, here's what I recommend:

1. Don't get a laptop
2. Don't get a Mac

Now if by "games" you mean Tetris, solitaire, or simple games like that, then a Mac is fine. But if you want to get into any "serious" gaming, PC is totally the way to go. Sorry Macolytes, but the Windows platform is light years ahead of Macs when it comes to game development.

The other issue deals with control. Again, for simple games, a touchpad or that nipple button/joystick thing can be okay. But if you're going to play complex games, you need a full keyboard & mouse (or fully-functional joystick, as appropriate) combo.

Good call, Andrew. I forgot about OpenOffice because I get the full Office suite for $150 as a school employee. BTW, if you're a student, teacher or staff member - it's a pretty great deal.

ALIENWARE!

(only because it has a cool alien on the lid. The quality and pricing is no longer worth it).

I don't do any gaming, but I LOVE my MacBookPro. It was so easy to transition from my PC and it's is easy to use with many many many features. I added on MS Office suite for $149 - they allow you to sue the educational discount when yo buy a new system.

I have a 17" monitor that is easy to read and they keyboard is so great to type on. I love it.

I buy our laptops for designers in my office. I always try and buy them from Costco if I can. I usually spend about $1200 or so - and can get a computer that's not bottom of the line but nowhere near what I would consider a gaming computer. I'm guessing they would run RCT2 fine and might need to have the settings scaled back a bit for RCT3. I like buying from Costco because of their 6 month return policy. For any reason, bring the laptop back and get cash or exchange on the spot. I've found that, generally speaking, if there's something wrong with the laptop, it turns up pretty quickly. We've had them that didn't come with a sound card, a 2 that had the screens just shut off and never come back on.

I think you're going to have a hard time finding a laptop that's powerful enough to run all the games and that's under $1000. You get more for your money with a desktop of course, but it sounds like you don't want to go that way.

I would take the specs of the game that takes the most spec's-wise and use that as your guide when looking around... and not the minimum but the recommended.

BTW - you can't look at Costco online and see what computers on in the store. They are entirely different online/in store. You can't usually even call them and ask what they have either. You have to go in and see for yourself.

I've bought Gateways before, but have had trouble with both of them after the warranties ran out. We've had a bunch of Toshiba's - which run well but really really hot. We've got a bunch of HP's - which are compaq and um.. I forget their other brand, but I really like them. Their customer service has recently returned to the USA and it's done them world of good. Either that, or they've hired people with no accents and a step up in service level.

Betty,
I think Costco is a good way to go. We love Costco.
I'm going to check out ours this weekend and see what they have. Their return policy totally rocks.
Thanks.


We can get a pretty good deal on Microsoft Office from Harvard. Not too worried about that.

Hmmm. Thinking, thinking...

Here's another vote for a MacBook.


SzczerbiakManiac, Macs can run Windows natively now, so your gaming arguement is moot. I installed XP to dual boot with OS X on our school's MacBook Pro. It preforms better than the new Dells with Pentium 4's and a gig of RAM that the school provides.

I STRONGLY suggest you get at least 1 GB of RAM no matter what laptop you get. It makes a HUGE difference in preformance.

If you or Ralphie are enrolled in any major college or university (even for one class), you probably qualify for an education discount. With mine, I can get a MacBook with the following specs:

1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512
60GB Serial ATA drive
Combo Drive (DVD Reading and CD Burning)
Keyboard/Mac OS
AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth (Wifi)
Built in Webcam
Remote Control

for $1,139, shipped for free to my door. A laptop from Dell with the same features:

XPS M1210 Intel® Core™ Duo proc T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache)
Operating System (Office software not included) Genuine Windows® XP Professional
A/V Communication Package Integrated Webcam and Mobile Broadband Antenna
Memory 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
Video Card Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Hard Drive 60GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
Optical Storage Device 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Sound Options Integrated Audio
Wireless Networking Cards Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) No productivity suite- Corel WordPerfect word processor only
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) Norton Internet Security™ 2006 Edition 15-months
Primary Battery 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Hardware Warranty 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support


Total? $1,622. That's $500 more than the MacBook, and it's pretty much the same hardware inside!

Keep in mind you would also have to add video editing software (if you want to do that). That's free on the Mac.

To heck with all that mumbo jumbo. Save yourself some bucks and get one of these:

Another vote for the MacBook here.

(Long time, no post, I know. But I like that you guys talk about other stuff besides nothing, so I'm gonna try and visit more often. I miss it.:snap: )

And check newegg for prices on RAM before you upgrade with your order.

I only clicked on this thread, because I thought the title said "Lap Dance recommendations"

So, do you have any?

datamem.com also has some pretty good deals.

I'm a fan of crucial.com for RAM, too.

I have 5 computers (including my laptop and Jornada) but am thinking about switching to the MacBook. My son has to use one for school, and I'm tired of not being able to help when he asks questions. I probably wouldn't do this without the option of the dual boot or parallel method for retaining Windows, though! I'm very nervous and feel like I still need convincing. Off to the Apple store to have a little look-see in a minute...

Apple has released Boot Camp, which allows you to dual boot into either Mac OS X or Windows XP or Vista.

In addition, there is Parallels Desktop, which allows you to run Windows inside Mac OS X through virtualization.

Both run Windows natively, but Parallels can't take advantage of 3D Graphics acceleration, so Boot Camp is your best bet if you want to play games.

And mousepod, Crucial is great, but I can't stand their prices. I just got a gig of additional RAM for our iMac G5...Crucial quoted me at $150, but Datamem (the place I linked to earlier) sold it to me for $100 :)

Disneyfan, point well taken. I will certainly check Datamem next time.

By the way, there's a program on the horizon called Crossover, which will allow Intel Mac users to use Windows apps without having Windows at all! Yay!

Crossover looks like a great product, but according to the web site, it says you can only run certain applications, which kinda sucks.

Hopefully the Steve Jobs Keynote on Monday at WWDC will introduce Leopard with Virtualization.

Also recently released is TransGaming's Cider, which will allow Windows programs to access the Win32 APIs from inside OS X.

Or instead of on the horizon, try Cider now. :D

Well, I just discovered that through my new job, we get discounts at Dell. my roomie's new 1500 laptop can be mine for about 900........let's talk temptation! Fortunately, no spare money to play with right now.

Just make sure it doesn't explode ;)

Wise counsel! But, my Dell desktop has never caused me one iota of trouble. So, who knows? Right now, anything new is pure fantasy, truly, no money to play with!:(

Does yours make a rattling sound? I have an old Dimension 8250 that uses some weird fan attatched to a huge green plastic dam. Whenever I turn it on, it rattles like crazy. I've tried everything...kicking, duct taping the entire thing to the case, cleaning the fan...nothing works. I can't even replace the damn thing because of the way its attatched to the green dam thing. Apparently a lot of people with my model have the same problem...

Yeah, the fan rattles. I cured it by proping the front end of the tower up about an inch. Believe it or not, it worked. Mine is a Dell 8200 and other than that minor annoyance, has given me no troubles. Nothing like my old HP Pavillion.

I am the proud owner of a new laptop.
It's a PC. (We have a Mac Laptop already...)
It's a hp pavilion dv8315nr.
It's black.
It has 100GB.
It does a lot of fancy things.
I have done about 1% of what it can actually do for me.
Hee hee.
I love it.
:)


RCT3 looks great on it...