something under a grand, mostly used for music movies and downloading pictures to (large file transfers for photo shoots so i can have my assistant (read fiancee) dump my card while i fill up the next one.) doesnt have to be superfast cause i wont be like gaming and such, but i want something nice, durable (i'm accident prone) and preferrably with built in wifi cause i hate those cards that stick out and stuff. ugh.

so any suggestions, or someone have a laptop they want to unload? perfectly willing to get a used laptop as long as it hasnt been abused.

do many laptops come with a firewire port?

The Macbook comes with Firewire, you might be able to find one used on ebay or craigslist or similar. The base model costs just over a grand in the apple store.

macbookmacbookmacbookmacbookmacbook

for the love of god. i'm not a trend whore or a mac hater. i just do not enjoy the mac experience. i work with them at school all the time, and if i had one of my own i'm sure i could get used to it, but i'd rather have a windows machine.

when you say movies, do you mean HD movies?

no just like dvds and or downloaded media.

+1 for macbook, sorry.

He want something for less than a grand, not three grand. Still, sweet little PCs.

macbook

Thinkpad, preferably one with a shock-sensor.
Only thing more durable is a toughbook.

I've heard that you can get a MacBook with just windows on it and not even MacOS. I don't know much about that, but maybe you could look into that.

I didnt pay Three grand for mine. AND i got the Macbook pro.


And yes, you can install windows on it. Boot Camp lets you set up a partition really easy and then all you have to do is install windows. It took me maybe 10 minutes at most to set up boot camp.

.

Get one of those new ultra portable ones. They're pretty rad.

So install windows on it.

get a cheap HP laptop from Costco. bring a coupon.

my dell 1525 is nice. the mother of my children has one too. both run vista. no problems at all.

core 2 duo 5250, 2gb ram, 160gb hdd, intel graphics.
mine has 4 usb, 1 firewire, s-video, vga, 2 headphone, one mic, one sd slot, hdmi, rj-45 and rj-11. it says it has spdif also but i don`t see the port for it.
i paid $799 plus tax. they`ve come down a bit now.

oh, and for what you get, it`s HALF the price of a mac. but for an extra $700 you can be cool just to surf the web, look at your pics and listen to your music. sounds like a good deal to me.

my dell e1505 is afflicted with "gimp hinge", which means the screen does not want to stay up very well even with the screws tightened up as much as possible. This is a problem with the 1505's and Dell won't do anything about it. I'd watch out for the whole 1500 range if I were you, just in case.

yeah, we've had a few people with those in the shop, i put those paper washers that you used to have to put between motherboards and the screws to mount them in and it made it a lot better.

Yea I paid the extra $700 just to be "cool"

Or I paid the extra money for the build quality, software it comes with, awesome windows support, the fact that i dont have to worry about amazing things like the BSOD

Move over, boys. This is how men do it.

FUD. all FUD.
i haven't had a blue screen in a year or two on 5 different comps, three running vista and 2 running xp.
software is software. to each his own but other than garage band what does a mac come with that i can't get a comparable ap for listening to music, uploading pics and surfing the internet on vista?
quality? i know there are more than a few mac horror stories out there but when you only have 6 or 7% of the market, they're a lot less prevalent.

FUD?

And as for quality Im talking about build quality / ease of use.


Im not saying windows laptops suck, but neither do Macs :p

I get it. Linux is big, clumsy and unusable for everyday applications.

<3

FUD = fear, uncertainty and disinformation.

I don't see it. Sorry.

I have a mac and a PC... why would I be spreading disinformation?

Didn't we already go over how the Macbook is a completely different category of laptop than your budget-marked generic Dell crap?

we did.
1 - i still don't believe it. i love my dell.
2 - he's asking for a sub $1000 laptop for pics and music. there isn't a mac on the planet less than $1000 (except for the mini and that comes with 0 peripherals (read monitor)), and any old $500 laptop will do what he wants it to.

I've seen some Sony laptops on for decent promotional prices recently. What's the quality like on the VAIOs these days?

to rationalize having spent a ridiculous premium for small, trivial things like "build quality" and pre-installed software. own up to the fact that you bought a macbook because it looks pretty. i've owned 3 laptops over the years (HP, Dell, Lenovo/IBM), and none of them have broken down due to build quality. if your laptops are getting broken, it means you are abusing them. there's no need to spend a $300 premium just so you can hold a laptop by its screen.

Edit: If you're a current Windows user, I'm sure there's nothing that really compels you to make a switch to the Mac OS, in which case, my recommendation stands: look into HP, or Dell, for the best value.

Err I'm pretty sure the reason people buy macbooks is the OS...

People like mb anyway.

Connection, I've had my vaio for about a year now and I've not had anything wrong with it in the slightest, it all seems pretty damn sturdy. Then again I've not really had another laptop to compare it to before.

surfing digg, found this. lol. this is what i'm talking about. i just don't get it. i've got a very good laptop that does everything i, and 50,000,000 other users want it to do just fine, for half the price.
oh, and i have a very good mp3 player with more features, same capacity that is expandable, larger screen, (creative zen) for 33% less too. :/

[img]http://davetaddeo.com/images/ipod classic.jpg[/img]

I wish I had an Italian-leather sofa to go along with my Apple products.

Okay, we already went over this and you don't believe it? What kind of answer is that? That's like saying you don't believe the Earth is round. It's not a matter of belief, it's a matter of fact.

Your laptop is not the same category as the macbook, and attempting to say that your laptop is somehow a cheaper version of a macbook. The reason it is not is because YOUR laptop is in the budget line, the range where laptop parts are the cheapest. As you get bigger, or smaller, the price ramps up. This is why the macbook costs as much as it does, because it is in the category of a "subnotebook", something your 15" monstrosity does not fit into. It weighs less, screen size is smaller, it's thinner, and still keeps all the performance that your laptop has. THIS is why the macbook costs that much more. Going from 15" (the most common size laptop by a huge margin) to a 13" really is that big of a deal.

Also, the MacBook is not comparable to other Apple products, unlike the other products the MacBook is actually sensibly priced. Especially with educational discount (-$100).

I hate the Macbook because I refuse to adapt to the keyboard, I have a personal distaste for Mac OS, and the black design is exclusive to the high-end model and the white design is unfavorable to me. In other words, everything subjective about it I dislike. Grr.

Oh and Matty I think Evad is just pointing out that hardware wise (excluding the screen size/weight/form factor), Macbooks are priced higher than other laptops with comparable specs.


Also, my 2 cents: ThinkPads are awesome if you don't really care how they look. Lenovo's 40% off deal for shareholders (and anyone who knows a passcode) is ending soon (in a few days). If you want to get in on it, here's the deal: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=838546

For example (a model with comparable specs to the mid-tier 2.4Ghz White MacBook):
ThinkPad X61 12.1"
Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
Vista Basic (Ew I know)
1 GB RAM
120GB HD
2.7 lbs

would be
From: $1,435.00* Sale price: $914.81* Total savings: $520.19
Not great but pretty decent considering the original price.


[Also if you don't want to use the Shareholder site, here're instructions for CPP instead: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showpost.php?p=12139869&postcount=178

Whatever. I didnt buy a mac so i could be "cool" at starbucks or whatever bull**** you think.

Now that you cant make the "no right click" or "no games" jokes is that what youre really going to resort to?

I got a macbook pro for a bunch of reasons. I worked with macs every day at school and it was convinient to be able to have a reliable platform to use instead of worrying that a format conversion might not work. Ive had enough trouble with my desktop to worry about my laptop not being 100% reliable.
Oh and personally I like OSX for a laptop. Its much quicker (interface wise) and convenient than windows had been. (I also have windows on this so dont bug me about that)

But whatever. I dont care what laptop he gets.

Makes sense. My bad.

ahh yes... now i remember properly what you speak of cool matty. you're right, we did go over that. the 13" form factor vs. the 13" form factor etc.
i lost the details in the fog of steve jobs disgust that floats in my head. that happens a lot when someone brings up apple.

i'll shut up now.









apple sucks