<p>Way to answer the same question twice, buddy.</p>
<p>I didn’t refresh my page to see your answer Bluesfella. Yes you pay more for apple’s hardware; however, you also get more. Find me a windows laptop that weighs 5.5 lbs gets 9 hours of bettery life, made of single slab of aluminum, has a magnetic power plug into computer (it’s minor, but small details matter to some people), is less than 1" thick, has a huge trackpad made out of glass so your fingers slide perfectly on it, and more. The truth is, apple’s hardware is top notch for their laptops. No, they airnt the most powerful gaming machines in the world, but that is not what they are being marketed as. Apple’s desktop, Mac Pro, is what I think is way overpriced. But the only people who need mac pros are researchers and extreme graphic designers (rendering HD Video). All the other macs (laptops, imac, and mac mini) have sufficient power to accomplish almost anything most people would use. Go to the Mac store and open up every program on the 13inch core 2 duo macbook pro. Everything will run perfectly, not stutter at all.<br>
And yes Windows 7 is a big improvement over previous iterations of the OS, but it still requires more power to run than OSX. I also bet the Aero interface won’t work too well on a Pentium 3. </p>
<p>I have been a windows user my entire life (and still am!). I think it works well, but it doesn’t offer the level of efficiency that apple computers have. It is more popular mainly because of its price (especially in enterprise). I don’t blame businesses though. If I ran a business I would go with the cheaper solution too. I used to be exactly like you; stubborn. I used to think windows was the best way to go. I am definitely an above average windows user. BUT, I started researching OSX and I have concluded that it IS the better operating system. If you read reviews, most people agree that snow leopard is better than windows 7. It really does “just work.” There are ZERO viruses and most programs that the average person uses are all on there. The experience that apple brings to the personal computer is second to none.</p>
<p>It is a moot point for me to list all of the reasons why OSX is better than Windows because no matter what I say you will inevitably try to counter it. The truth is that you just don’t understand. Before you try to criticize OSX and say that Windows is better, take the challenge. Go and buy a used mac mini off ebay for like 400$ and try it for yourself. Some minor things about the user interface will annoy you for about a week because you are so used to using windows (happens to almost any hardcore windows user such as myself). I can almost guarantee that you will love your “under-powered” mac mini. It doesn’t need all the super duper specs to run everything smoothly. Once again the software is more efficient. I know you will not buy a mac, but you cannot criticize something that you have never used (and I don’t mean briefly at the apple store, I mean you actually need to have one for at least a month).</p>
<p>Windows makes better gaming machines, Apple makes better everyday computers. Doesn’t matter what you or I think, Apple is a highly successful company. Apple’s current stock value and 1st quarter earnings are enough to prove their success.</p>
<p>If you like Windows more, use Windows. Personally, I will be using both. This is what freedom is all about anyway.</p>
<p>Bluesfella:
ballpark? Unfortunately the less the better, but I know it will take more than a base model. The archi. profession is currently decimated, and income is very tight.</p>
<p>So I decided to “customize” a Mac mini on the website to match the specs my year old HP has. Obviously with a year in between and Apple’s choices it’s hard to get exact matches. The CPU I got was slightly better, the graphics card I purchased separately is much better, and mine has less/slower RAM. </p>
<p>And the Mac mini costs about $550 more - or a little over twice as much (compared to a computer that was bought last year). The ratio evens out a little if you throw in equal monitors, and you would also have to spend ~$15+ for a mouse/keyboard (or $100 for what Apple offers).</p>
<p>^ Ya but you pay for stuff like the smaller size and apples OS</p>
<p>one day im going to buy a Mac book pro because it looks so nice and i want to try osx</p>
<p>Thanks for the previous answers.
When will I be able to use 64 bit browser with flash player? on windows</p>
<p>Well, I’ve used Macs quite frequently, and I prefer Windows. So buying OSX doesn’t seem like a good $650 investment.</p>
<p>I’m looking to spend maybe 700ish on a laptop but less it better. I want to bring it everywhere so it should be light. I’ll be downloading things, watching movies, listening to music, surfin’ webs, emailing, typing, but nothing too heavy. Another important thing would be battery life because I don’t want to lug around a power cord. Right now I’m looking at an ASUS UL30A-X5 w a 13.3" hd widescreen, a 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo , 4GB RAM, and a 500GB Hard Drive. Battery is good and it’s less than 4 pounds, all for $600.</p>
<p>Will those specs work for me? For live HD video streaming? I won’t have a desktop, so should I stay away from netbooks? Any better suggestions?</p>
<p>@funk: I have the exact same laptop myself and I have no issues with it whatsoever. I watch DVD-quality movies on it as well via my external harddrive, and the battery life lasted me around 10 hours when I was using a harddrive and 10 hours 30 minutes now that I switched to a Solid State Drive :)</p>
<p>great, it seems like an amazing deal</p>
<p>Mhmm, what do you think of the Alienware M11x? I was considering getting this as it had great portability and battery life as well as a decently powerful CPU/GPU. Screen is a bit small for long use but I was going to buy an external monitor to set up in my room as well. </p>
<p>Is the Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 going to work for 4 years? It’s somewhat of an old processor, although it saves a lot of power (the i7s drain a crapload of battery). </p>
<p>Also is a 256GB SSD upgrade over 250GB 7200rpm HDD worth $500? Specifically, does SSD really give a noticeable performance boost that might warrant getting it?</p>
<p>-The Alienware would be a good model if you must game on your laptop, but keep in mind if it ever breaks down, you have to deal with Dell, as Dell owns Alienware. Personally, there are other gaming laptop manufacturers I’d look at over Alienware, but it’s still a decent machine nevertheless.</p>
<p>-That depends on what your needs are. If all you’re doing is watching videos, playing music, web surfing, and homework, then it will last you all four years. If you want to game though, you should consider an i3 or i5 instead.</p>
<p>-It depends on your uses and your SSD. The biggest performance increase you’ll see is with programs and the operating system, not with small files like pictures or music. Also, if you’re going to get a SLC or other low-end SSD, it’s really not worth the money. If you have to get an SSD, you should go for a high-end model with TRIM. Personally though, I’d keep the harddrive, because again the performance increase will only be noticable with games and programs. At the same time, $500 is an extremely steep price, and if you have the Alienware the battery life will still be a bit horrible even with the SSD.</p>
<p>For gaming the only thing I really need is it to be able to run Starcraft II at high-ish settings without stuttering. I’m not really into FPS’s and other more hardware intensive stuff. </p>
<p>Also the battery life is about 6-7 hours with integrated graphics switched on, so I wouldn’t call that horrible. Maybe you’re thinking of the M15x/M17x, which have like 70 minutes battery life?</p>
<p>Would an SSD help keep a laptop cooler, since there’s nothing inside rotating 7200 times a minute? Or is that not noticeable at all. </p>
<p>Mhmm, do you have any other suggestions then, preferably under 1200 USD?</p>
<p>I’m just trying to expand my tech knowledge:</p>
<p>Why do people use/like linux? Can it be faster?</p>
<p>What’s a kernal?</p>
<p>Have you ever ran OSX on a PC? Why do people want to do it now that there’s W7?</p>
<p>I can answer some of these questions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The kernel is the core component of an operating system. It does things like:</p>
<p>1) manage memory
2) decide what programs should be running (scheduling)
3) interact with devices like your network card and your keyboard
4) provide services for user programs running on the computer (system calls)</p>
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</p>
<p>It doesn’t cost any money and there’s a lot of free software for it. I don’t know how well it performs compared to Windows.</p>
<p>I have a question: one of my students asked for a recommendation regarding either two laptops or netbooks. She and her twin sister need computers. Their mom would like to get each of them their own but has a budget of around $700 total. Their are considering two netbooks because the girls only will need it for email, MS Office and Internet. Personally, I think netbooks are a waste of money, but I have a bigger computer budget than they do. Do you have any recommendations as to the best laptop or netbook pair they could get? Thanks.</p>
<p>I use Linux because it’s open source and stable. If something doesn’t work, I can go in and fix it myself (provided that I have the ability to), whereas you’re stuck with the vendor if you have an issue with something closed-source. Also, because of the nature of open source, development is fast and you always get the latest features very soon after they are conceived.</p>
<p>In comparison to Windows, I’d have to say that performance is equal. I mainly use Linux for it’s flexibility and design. It’s nice that everything’s modular, and how the OS is actually much simpler to understand. Thus, if you want to do some way-off cool tricks, it’s much easier to figure it out on Linux vs Windows. The CLI makes coding much easier, and the much more secure access controls means that I can pretty much relax about viruses. Linux gets you the stability of a Mac with the price of the PC. All you have to do is overcome the learning curve. I suggest you give Ubuntu or Linux Mint a try if you want to explore further. It’s free, and if you have issues adjusting, you can always reinstall Windows.</p>
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</p>
<p>It’s not a waste of money if it does everything you need it to do, well. If both a netbook and more powerful laptop is essentially equal in terms of word processing / email, I’d actually say that regardless of price, the netbook is better suited for the task for a college student because it’s more portable. That means, I’d actually pay <em>more</em> for the netbook than the regular laptop. Now, if a netbook just doesn’t perform as well as you’d like, then get the laptop. I have friends who only have netbooks, and they can’t tell how the performance differs from a regular laptop, because they can’t utilize all the power of a regular laptop. I even have one friend who just carries a netbook in her (relatively-large) purse.</p>
<p>For netbooks, like laptops, they’re basically all the same hardware in different shells. I recommend something based on the Pineview platform, which is Atom N450 or N470.</p>
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<p>Yes, 2^32 is about 4 billion which is where you get the 4 GB limit. That’s only a virtual memory limit though. A 32-bit operating system can use additional memory through schemes like bank switching and global sections. Some of Microsoft’s operating systems may support this.</p>
<p>Whats the cheapest powerhouse laptop I can currently buy?</p>
<p>I am on the computer nearly every second of free time I have (and it’s a lot), and I do pretty much everything on it–gaming, photo editing, video editing, programming, whatever else I feel like doing. Dedicated graphics card and large hard drive are a must.</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh yeah, I’ll be doing computer engineering if that changes anything</p>
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</p>
<p>yeah, all of intel’s processors since the pentium pro can address 64GB of physical memory using intel’s PAE feature</p>
<p>Which is better, Carbonite or Spideroak?? I’m trying to decide and can’t figure it out. Thanks!</p>