[Pedro]

Ive been meaning to get a laptop for awhile now as dont really have the space for my computer desk anymore in my room.

Im not really up on these new Intel core's but im looking at this one here

http://www.technoworld.com/HP_Pavilion_DV6-2106EA_WA052EA/60614/product.aspx

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Spunkey the Monkey]

Well this is very non specific, you want a laptop ok we have established that, what we now need to know is what you want it to do.
Will you be using CAD or heavy photo-editing.
Will you be playing games on the laptop if so what type? Comanad and Conquer, or the latest FPS modern warfare, etc.
Is the laptop just for browsing, and internet use?. If so this is overkill.
How big is your Corn collection? will you want to burn it to DVD/Blu ray or use external storage or the internal storage?

 

[Pedro]

Well this is very non specific, you want a laptop ok we have established that, what we now need to know is what you want it to do.
Will you be using CAD or heavy photo-editing.
Will you be playing games on the laptop if so what type? Comanad and Conquer, or the latest FPS modern warfare, etc.
Is the laptop just for browsing, and internet use?. If so this is overkill.
How big is your Corn collection? will you want to burn it to DVD/Blu ray or use external storage or the internal storage?

Sorry, my bad.

Ive got afew games but really most of them are C&C games which i dont play. I do alot of web browsing and play alot of music.

I think the only concern i had was because i have no experience with Windows 7, im not sure what specs i need to ensure the laptop runs smoothly and quickly.

Bluetooth is a must along with memory card readers and 4gb ram.

 

[Spunkey the Monkey]

Well that is a very nice laptop, but its overkill for what you want you could pay ?450 for what you want and it would still do all you need Windows 7 runs nice on 2gb lots better on 4gb.
Personally if i was to spend that much on a laptop i would be getting a MacBook Pro. Yes the specs will be nowhere near that, but you will get a better OS, a whole list of apps that are good (ILIFE) and hardware that pretty much does not devalue, buy a Mac Book Pro now for ?750 and in 3 years it will still be worth 500-600 that laptop in 12 months will be worth a sherbet dip.

 

[Pedro]

Well that is a very nice laptop, but its overkill for what you want you could pay ?450 for what you want and it would still do all you need Windows 7 runs nice on 2gb lots better on 4gb.
Personally if i was to spend that much on a laptop i would be getting a MacBook Pro. Yes the specs will be nowhere near that, but you will get a better OS, a whole list of apps that are good (ILIFE) and hardware that pretty much does not devalue, buy a Mac Book Pro now for ?750 and in 3 years it will still be worth 500-600 that laptop in 12 months will be worth a sherbet dip.

Hmm, tell me more about Macs. Ive got no experience with these.

 

[Spunkey the Monkey]

Well that is a very nice laptop, but its overkill for what you want you could pay £450 for what you want and it would still do all you need Windows 7 runs nice on 2gb lots better on 4gb.
Personally if i was to spend that much on a laptop i would be getting a MacBook Pro. Yes the specs will be nowhere near that, but you will get a better OS, a whole list of apps that are good (ILIFE) and hardware that pretty much does not devalue, buy a Mac Book Pro now for £750 and in 3 years it will still be worth 500-600 that laptop in 12 months will be worth a sherbet dip.

Hmm, tell me more about Macs. Ive got no experience with these.

[/quote]

Well a Mac is essentially exactly the same as a PC hardware wise, except for a few fancy on board systems similiar to a bios.
You can install and Run Windows on Mac hardware along with the Mac OS and have multiple boot.
Essentially the operating system is completely different but similiar to windows. (MS copied there windowing system)
The Mac OS is designed to be super simple and reliable, so for example installing some software in Windows its put cd in and run setup program that then hides loads of info in a registry, and dll's in hundreds of directory's, etc and when uninstalled leaves lots of crap around, here is how to install a program on a mac download application, drag to applications folder double click working. To uninstall delete the icon from the apps folder done.
The mac comes with a shed load of software for example Iphoto, Itunes, Iweb, IDVD, Garage Band, etc
Iphoto is amazing if you have many photos you can tag a picture like on facebook, and it then works out an algorithm for facial recocnition and will search for pictures of that person not only of now but as far back as birth and display them under there name.
Idvd you can make professional DVDS, etc Garage band is used in music production at a professional level, the list goes on.
Web wise there is several browsers available
Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Camino, etc
Video it comes with Quicktime that allows to do some editing, etc its a full 64bit os and very fast does not become fragmented and slow down over time
My MAC is hardware wise is ancient T7200 2ghz (i did upgrade to this cpu as it was a 1.5ghz not that it was slow but i wanted a 64 bit cpu) cpu and 2gb of ram but outperforms my better machines after 4 years running i have had 0 issues with the OS never had to fix or reinstall and now since the newer OS came out my machine takes 24 seconds to boot and be usable.
My mac mini cost me £450 4 years ago and now sells on ebay for £350-400.
Would i replace mine no no nead it does everything i need

Best bet is pop in to the Apple store and have a play they are really friendly and ask all you like
Then save a few quid and buy one as a student if you have a friend, etc or get a refurb apple are anal about there refurbs and come with 12m warranty anyway

List of stores http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/

 

[Pedro]

Well that is a very nice laptop, but its overkill for what you want you could pay ?450 for what you want and it would still do all you need Windows 7 runs nice on 2gb lots better on 4gb.
Personally if i was to spend that much on a laptop i would be getting a MacBook Pro. Yes the specs will be nowhere near that, but you will get a better OS, a whole list of apps that are good (ILIFE) and hardware that pretty much does not devalue, buy a Mac Book Pro now for ?750 and in 3 years it will still be worth 500-600 that laptop in 12 months will be worth a sherbet dip.

Hmm, tell me more about Macs. Ive got no experience with these.

[/quote]

Well a Mac is essentially exactly the same as a PC hardware wise, except for a few fancy on board systems similiar to a bios.
You can install and Run Windows on Mac hardware along with the Mac OS and have multiple boot.
Essentially the operating system is completely different but similiar to windows. (MS copied there windowing system)
The Mac OS is designed to be super simple and reliable, so for example installing some software in Windows its put cd in and run setup program that then hides loads of info in a registry, and dll's in hundreds of directory's, etc and when uninstalled leaves lots of crap around, here is how to install a program on a mac download application, drag to applications folder double click working. To uninstall delete the icon from the apps folder done.
The mac comes with a shed load of software for example Iphoto, Itunes, Iweb, IDVD, Garage Band, etc
Iphoto is amazing if you have many photos you can tag a picture like on facebook, and it then works out an algorithm for facial recocnition and will search for pictures of that person not only of now but as far back as birth and display them under there name.
Idvd you can make professional DVDS, etc Garage band is used in music production at a professional level, the list goes on.
Web wise there is several browsers available
Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Camino, etc
Video it comes with Quicktime that allows to do some editing, etc its a full 64bit os and very fast does not become fragmented and slow down over time
My MAC is hardware wise is ancient T7200 2ghz (i did upgrade to this cpu as it was a 1.5ghz not that it was slow but i wanted a 64 bit cpu) cpu and 2gb of ram but outperforms my better machines after 4 years running i have had 0 issues with the OS never had to fix or reinstall and now since the newer OS came out my machine takes 24 seconds to boot and be usable.
My mac mini cost me ?450 4 years ago and now sells on ebay for ?350-400.
Would i replace mine no no nead it does everything i need

Best bet is pop in to the Apple store and have a play they are really friendly and ask all you like
Then save a few quid and buy one as a student if you have a friend, etc or get a refurb apple are anal about there refurbs and come with 12m warranty anyway

List of stores http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/
[/quote]

Excellent! thats helped me alot. I'll go and take alook as you say.

Thanks.

 

[Alex Robinson]

PS the NEW MacBook pros will be out on Tuesday/Wednesday with the new core i5/i7 processors.

Also I think spunky forgot to mention but all your existing pc stuff like command and conquer will still run, with the help of virtualbox or parallels, which let's you subtley run Windows at the same time as OS X.

For those open to change, the transition period between Windows and OS X will take a week or so until you are 90% au fait with it.

 

[Gixer]

Pedders make sure you try before you buy.

If your used to PC's then macs can be extremely frustrating.
Me Mrs was determined she wanted a Mac, so i installed the Mac operating system on her laptop.

1 week later she no longer wanted a Mac.

Without getting into the mac/PC is shit stuff, Macs aren't for everyone so get a really good try before you hand over the cash.

Also worth mentioning is windows 7 is by far the best operating system MS has produced, and if you want to run the Mac OS you can just install it on a standard laptop anyways and avoid paying the Mac tax.

Cheers
Mark

 

[Alex Robinson]

In addition you can return any Apple laptop for 14 days after purchase no charge (although I think that comes under your statutory rights anyway)

also whilst gixer is correct that you can create a 'hackintosh' it's a shit idea for three reasons

1) In terms of stability it isn't a true representation
2) VERY FEW laptops actually have the necessary hardware for a seamless experience, you'll generally find either you can't change screen resolution, or wifi doesn't work or sound doesn't work
3) Any update is liable to completely fuck the entire system over

It is only for the very geeky anyway!

I'm not prepared to get into the whole debate either, suffice to say I find Mark (technology wise) VERY unopen to change, and I'm not saying that to troll gix, you are a relatively pessimistic person! Your still knowledgable though! Anyway try a MacBook for a fortnight within that fortnight you'll either love it or hate it!

P.S one final thing you will draw the eyes of far moar ladies in starbucks with an Apple logo on the back of your machine than TOSHIBA (not saying you'll score or anyone would really care but the will go oooh)

P.P.S - whilst I agree win 7 is the best thing to come out of ms since win2k it is still REGISTRY BASED. Which quite frankly is a killer, it means inevitable slowdown and the necessity to format the computer every 9-12months to keep it running optimally!

 

[Goldfish]

P.S one final thing you will draw the eyes of far moar ladies in starbucks with an Apple logo on the back of your machine than TOSHIBA (not saying you'll score or anyone would really care but the will go oooh)

For all the wrong reasons.

 

[Alex Robinson]

As i've told you before Daev, if they think you are ghey, they will TRUST you and then you can nob them.

Why do you think I went for the '5'

 

[Goldfish]

With me, the ladies fall like dominoes anyway. I don't need them to assume I'm a botter.

 

[Alex Robinson]

Ladies and gents, the new Macbook Pro's have arrived, although pedders they may not be to your tastes

Looks like the 13" (which you would probably have gone for) are for the time being stuck with Core2Duo processors. (but 10 hour battery life)

Rumour has it they will be updated to i5 come WWDC in June (I suspect the delay is due to them trying to sort and adequate cooling solution)

 

[Daddy Cool]

 

[Pedro]

Ladies and gents, the new Macbook Pro's have arrived, although pedders they may not be to your tastes

Looks like the 13" (which you would probably have gone for) are for the time being stuck with Core2Duo processors. (but 10 hour battery life)

Rumour has it they will be updated to i5 come WWDC in June (I suspect the delay is due to them trying to sort and adequate cooling solution)

Yeah the screen size is slightly too small unfortunately but ill hold out for more news before i comit to anything.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Alex Robinson]

Nee bother! The bog standard 15 is the way to go if you've got the spondoolies then!