Recommendations Please

[Jonathan Miller]

Well, I’m very happy with my fleet of Macs. I also have a PowerBook, and my wife has an iBook.

Keep in mind that you can probably get an Apple at a discount through your school, as well as educational discount on Apple software.

This time of year Dell and the like usually have “back-to-school” discounts for people exactly in your position.

If you’re starting from scratch, the software will probably be a larger investment than the computer itself. No matter what platform you’re going to go with, check for any discounts you may qualify for.

As for the Mac laptops: My PowerBook has been a real champ. It works so well it’s hard to believe. My wife’s iBook is really sweet, though, and it just looks so cool. It’s also MUCH cooler to the touch than my PowerBook, which gets so hot it’s most likely makeing me sterile.

I just bought a new iBook for a client Friday. The 14″ with the 1.42 GHz G4 in it. These days, if I didn’t need the Gigabit Ethernet of the PowerBook, I’d get the iBook. The price/performance sure is hard to beat. The PowerBook does have a killer screen, but hey, you’re probably not making a living at motion graphics yet, so save your money on the iBook. Then, it won’t be so painfull to replace it with an Intel based PowerBook in a couple of years. 🙁

Oh, and if you go for a Mac, BUY THE APPLECARE EXTENDED WARRANTY!!!
Just do it. Period. If your computer breaks down (they ALL do, PC or Apple) call Applecare, they’ll overnight you a box, place the computer in the box, send it back to Apple (it’s pre-payed) and then they’ll overnight the computer back to you. I’ve done this several times, and it has always taken less than 48 hours from sending to receiving. Worth every penny.

Good luck!

Jon
TreeLine Productions
Fort Collins, CO USA

[Aindreas Gallagher]

I posted on my new wee laptop a week or two ago, from a pc perspective, mac fan & all as I am. I got a dell 6000 15.4 widescreen, for the price (1174 euro) the spec was murderous: 1600 x 1050, 60 gig 5400 drive, 64MB radeon (or i think its radeon), 1.6 pentium.m (which is weirdly fast). Bottom line being, in a comparative AE test with a dual 1ghz quicksilver at work, the dell lappie was nearly Two And A Half times faster rendering the promo. Which would have pretty serious implications for the powerbook, whose architecture is roughly of the same vintage as the g4 workstation. The dell’s a bit heavy, there’s no osx, but xp’s pretty alright, (window management & responsiveness gets a bit irritating). Depends, I suppose, on how much horsepower you need, versus the overall experience? Not too mention price. That dell significanty outperforms for roughly half the price..

hth

A