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 I've had a couple of hand me downs and they were totally outdated...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.