<p>What is it exactly that makes Apple laptops so popular?</p>
<p>What are you going to use it for? If you are gaming the IBM would be a poor choice because of it's lack of a good graphics chip. However if you don't game then the IBM would have the best build quality of the three. Asus makes Macbook Pro's so those aren't exactly bad either but if I weren't a gamer I'd go for the IBM. If you really want a 17 inch laptop with a good graphics chip I'd look no further then the HP nx9420. (17", x1600, dual core). Plus it has a fingerprint scanner like the IBM! and a number pad also!</p>
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Who said you have to run Windows on a Thinkpad T60?
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<p>common misconsception made by some mac fans for whatever reason - it would be mildly amusing to inform him/her what OS X is based on</p>
<p>one might say that it is a common misconsception that mac users don't know what osx is based on... ;)</p>
<p>yes, there are alternatives to windows and osx. i suggest linux (linspire and yellow dog are nice & easy). luckily there are many companies who now offer versions of linux that are very user friendly with solid performance & security. if i didn't love tiger, i'd be using linux.</p>
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What are you going to use it for? If you are gaming the IBM would be a poor choice because of it's lack of a good graphics chip.
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<p>Actually, the better models of the T60 aren't too bad. One review had it running Doom 3 with medium settings...</p>
<p>Yeah... I was really hyped up about the MacBook Pro... and it's definitely a great machine... however, it's best that you just build your own. Try these specs. I'd be happy to help you with the setup. In fact, I just built my own recently... and it's working amazingly. Before building, however, I purchased a decked out MacBook Pro... and I love it. I think it's great and fast... but there are things that it cant do that a windows PC can. like... viewing videos on safari. You'd need to download firefox and a couple of extensions to make it work. (which is what i did)</p>
<p>eh... I think you shouldn't go for an alienware. They do charge a lot for something that shouldnt be priced so much. </p>
<p>To be perfectly honest... Go with a Dell Notebook. They're stable. Alienware and Lenovo are kind of... murky right now... and the Macbook Pro's a Mac. I have nothing against Mac's but... eh... its a big change... if you're a big PC user.</p>
<p>Also... the 17 inch mac is hard to bring around. The 15.4 inch was hard enough to fit into my backpack because it's widescreen. Imagine the 17 inch. =/ Sure... it sounds great... but it'll be more fragile than you want it to be.</p>
<p>If you want to... you could go ahead and build your own... like tooya mentioned earlier.</p>
<p>Go with these... AMD processor of course ;-)</p>
<p>MoBo - Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe
PSU - Asus 550 Watt
CPU - FX-57 (faster than the dual core FX-60 that just came out and it's about $500 cheaper.
GPU - eVGA 7900GTX 512MB
Casing - Koolance PC4-1024SL </p>
<p>The casing that I suggested has watercooling build in. It's incredible. My tower is always at 70 degrees... it's incredible. Unfortunately, it doesnt come with the waterblocks for the CPU, RAM, HD, GPU or the Northbridge (which you dont need because the MoBo has a special cooling unit for it.) but you should just go ahead and buy those from the koolance website as well. It'll get you to about 3500 bucks... but it's great =) This... as you probably noticed... is the maximum you can get. You can always tone it down a bit. I'd be happy to help you install things too.</p>
<p>G'luck.</p>
<p>I'm getting a Lenova Thinkpad (my school gives it to me) I have no idea what model it is but its worth around 3000~, probably excessive lol.</p>
<p>The T60 is better for a college student. It is better built than the MacBook Pro or Alienware. MacBook Pro is decent but you pay money for style rather than ruggedness. Avoid Alienware unless you want some really bad customer support. As for T60 not good for games, the MacBook Pro is even worse due to really crappy drivers from ATI. The T60 can be bought with a X1600 which is the same GPU as the MacBook and you can use the latest ATI windows driver. </p>
<p>Btw T60 doesnt have old hardware.</p>
<p>These are the specs for my T60:
<a href="http://www.wfu.edu/technology/reference/thinkpad/t60/specs.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.wfu.edu/technology/reference/thinkpad/t60/specs.html</a></p>