<p>but they’re much better. is this really a statement, lavinci?</p>
<p>By that standard, “but they’re much better” isn’t “really a statement” either.</p>
<p>I have a macbook pro and I believe that you are paying for the OS rather than the machine itself. </p>
<p>2GB of ram on a macbook can run better than 4GB of ram on a windows laptop because the OS knows how to utilize and run programs with the amount of ram available</p>
<p>Why can’t you bring both a Laptop and a PC to school? That way you can separate work from play and take advantage of the massive storage capabilities of the PC and the convenience of a laptop.</p>
<p>I love my PC and my dad just bought me a new Laptop (which combined together are still less than a cheap macbook). Hopefully my university doesn’t have a problem about it.</p>
<p>lavinci: also take into account that your MBP is using DDR3 SDRAM, which is 2x as fast as DDR2, which might be what’s in the PC. And you’re paying more for the shiny computer and Apple logo than anything, since you can buy Leopard by itself.</p>
<p>And as far as operating systems go, Win7 is going to close the gap considerably, at least from what I’ve seen of it.</p>
<p>TheMan777, you don’t have to bring a whole desktop set, if that’s what you meant. Just get an external drive and a monitor/other peripherals (if you want) for your desk. Keeps it simple and you won’t be confused by multiple drives if you backup your laptop onto the ext drive.</p>
<p>Overall, would u guys say macbooks have a long life? I plan to get my macbook upon entering as a freshman in college, but i also plan to enter law school or graduate school, do you guys think a macbook could last possibly 7 years or would i need a new one during those seven years? Thanks!</p>
<p>Most computers will be tired after four years, not because they fail, but because the demands placed on them by the computing world constantly increase. I wouldn’t expect any computer to “last” seven years in this regard.</p>
<p>We have bought seven Mac laptops over the past eight years (for three people) and only one had a failure (DVD drive quit).</p>
<p>It would most likely ‘last’ 7 years in the sense that it will still be operational if you don’t beat it up too much. However, 7 years from now, it probably won’t be able to fulfill even simple duties like browsing the internet.</p>
<p>I’d say a reasonable life for a mac laptop would be around 3 or 4 years, that’s how much time I got out of my Macbook before I upgraded to a shiny new macbook pro a few weeks ago :). Higher end models will probably last you even longer, so go for the best you can afford in terms of power. I’d recommend the high end 15" MBP as its pretty powerful without being too bulky to carry around for most people.</p>
<p>I have an HP desktop from 7 years ago that, other than for a malfunctioning CD drive, works just fine. The only real problem I ran into was XP building up cruft over the years and coming to a literal standstill, but ever since I installed Linux on it a few years back, it’s been running just fine for web browsing, etc.</p>
<p>My 4 and a half year old HP is also working fine (though it has been upgraded recently so that I can play games). It came with a malfunctioning hard drive though.</p>
<p>It’s been several years since systems got so powerful that older systems and newer systems don’t have much of a difference when it comes to doing most tasks, such as web browsing, word-processing, watching videos, etc. So, the difference mainly lies in tasks that do use the extra power, namely: encoding music/videos, gaming, simulations, number-crunching, virtual machines.</p>
<p>With that said, it still is fun to have a modern, powerful computer around. I personally recommend the route of going with a desktop + netbook. After all, the total cost is still less than one good laptop (eg. Thinkpad T500 /w 40% off). However, the 2.6lb netbook is easily portable, and my i7 860 desktop is more powerful than any laptop you can currently find, regardless of price. The netbook is powerful enough to do the stuff I really need to do while on-the-run, and if I need to do computationally-expensive things, I wait until I get back to my apartment.</p>
<p>I used to have a Thinkpad T500, and while it was an excellent laptop, I eventually got tired of it. It was supposed to be good all-around, but as I decided to do more virtualization and code compilations, the performance was becoming a real issue. I also got tired of carrying 6lb uphill on a regular basis. Yes, it’s not that heavy, but it still makes a noticable difference.</p>
<p>As for Mac vs. PC vs. Linux – you will usually be most satisfied with what you’re used to, unless there’s something that seriously irks you. For example, everybody I know who uses Linux did so because they got tired of having to defend their Windows systems from viruses/adware. Similarly, the Macs usually correspond with how people got tired of customer service from all the PC companies and found Apple to be much better in that aspect. To be honest, I don’t see much of an argument for Windows other than tradition, but I’m extremely biased. :P</p>
<p>No offense to the OP, but I would say people need to stick to what they actually know about in regards to posting guides, I think I’ll write a guide about OSes, desktop vs laptop, etc. etc. next week, people planning on going into programming, art, etc. take some of these generalizations people make worth a grain of salt. I wish people would stop talking about things they aren’t certain about.</p>
<p>here’s a few examples:</p>
<p>“Additionally, there is 0(and I literally mean 0) Viruses for the Mac.”
Wrong. There are plenty for Mac, it’s just they rarely are ever deployed because there is little advantage due to the number of users, and with the increasing number of users, the number of viruses will as well. Furthermore, for your information at a hacking competition last year, the first computer to fall was a Mac running Safari, and it was done in 5 seconds.</p>
<p>“Needless to say, if your studying programming, it’s going to be on a PC, so don’t buy a Mac.”
Wrong, I’m a computer science major senior and work in a major research lab, half of us are Mac users, including myself.</p>
<p>There are plenty of other examples, but I will stop angrily contradicting them and write a comparison article myself, not only between Windows and Mac, but also the most popular Linux distro.</p>
<p>While I appreciate the effort from the OP to help the community, it hurts the community to spread incorrect information to the masses.</p>
<p>I’m probably bringing my desktop HP computer that is almost 5 years old and a new laptop to college. 
Just in case one crashes, I’ll have the other. Laptop is convenient for out-of-dorm use.</p>
<p>Anyone else feel like Dell hired marketing drones to invade CC? Random names that just signed up, no posts outside of the few they have on CC Computers advertising dell, and they all are the only ones who use post titles…</p>
<p>aha big time</p>
<p>yeah, that last post by stevman22889 is so obvious</p>
<p>The thread really irks me, Desktops aren’t a slight improvement in performance over laptops, they simply blow laptops out of the water(especially dollar for dollar). Laptops also have poor reliability in contrast to desktop systems</p>
<p>If anything laptops are merely sufficient for basic tasks. But as it has been said nothing beats a Desktop+Netbook(or laptop) combo for a college student who needs a powerful system to fall back on.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Some people don’t have room for desktops though or they don’t have money for both a laptop and a desktop, but still need a laptop for mobility purposes.</p>
<p>As someone who uses both a laptop (UL30A) and a desktop (Q9550/GTX 260/4GB DDR2), I definitely agree that desktops are both more powerful and more reliable, but even then a desktop might not be a viable option for some people.</p>
<p>Only a small percentage of users actually need super powerful computers, so desktops aren’t really essential. They do have better tech specs, but hardly anyone actually needs that much. Thus, laptops are better in many cases, since they have enough power and provide portability.</p>
<p>Laptops only have “enough power” for students who require high performance systems if they are also</p>
<ol>
<li>Big, bulky, heavy</li>
<li>Very, very, very expensive</li>
</ol>
<p>If all you do is dick around on facebook and write papers a laptop is fine, but that’s not what every major requires you to use a computer for. $500 desktop can have roughly 2.5x the performance that a $1000 laptop has when you build it yourself. This means you could potentially buy a laptop and a desktop for the same budget and have the high performance when you need it and a laptop to work around campus on less demanding tasks.</p>