Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners OT: Notebook computers

My son wants me to buy him a labtop or notebook computer for his college work. I have no idea what to buy as far as brand, model, etc. I'm sure some of my axiom lovin' friends can answer this question for me. I'm trying to keep the purchase in the $1500 or less range. I'm lost in a labtop jungle. HELP!

What is the predominant platform at your son's school? (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.)? If there is no preferred platform (and if he's not doing anything that involves computers directly, like programming), you might want to consider the Apple iBooks. There's the 12" model and the 14" model, with various processor speeds. They're really well built (very sturdy), and the operating system is quite good these days. Of course, if he's into games, you'll probably want to look at a PC laptop. Also, which OS does he prefer? In any case, you should make sure you get (or can get) education pricing for whatever you buy. You'll save a couple of hundred dollars.

What school does he go to?

If you head to the student store on campus, many offer good deals on PCs and Macs to students. Also some have pretty good service as well.

-curtis

Windows. He has professed a disinterest in Apple. He'll probably want Windowsxp home. He's looking for a desktop replacement.

At least get him XP Pro. XP Home kind of bites.

Agreed on the XPPro. But be warned, machines pre-loaded with XPPro are much more expensive than PCs pre-loaded with XPHome. XPPro is targeted at business users that have more cash to spend.

Also, if you buy a machine with XPHome, and then load XPPro, getting service from the company that sold it to you may be difficult.

-curtis

Dude get a Dell!!!

Why:
support
very competitive
whatever is lowest speed. Even that is fast enough to do all his college work. You spend extra just on DVD, CD burner and upgraded video card. Do you want him to play or WORK!!

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&kc=6V419&l=en&oc=5100cs&s=dhs

Check out this site, I got a laptop from them that I'm using for college, and it's the finest computer I've ever had.

http://www.velocitymicro.com/category.php?cid=3

Otherwise, I'd get a Dell Inspiron. Stay away from Compaq and HP laptops, I've never had one that worked.

Steve

You mentioned he's looking for a desktop replacement. What specifically is he intending on doing with this computer? Does he know what his major will be? How much travelling with it will he be doing? How long we'll he be away from a power socket?

Toshiba, IBM, Dell and Apple would be where I'd focus my interest. I also really like the very slimmed down Sony's but Sony is quirky and they're "desktop replacement" models aren't terribly competitive. I also tend to believe that if you want a portable computer, the focus should be on portability and not a perfect replacement for a desktop. You can get very powerful laptops that will pretty much do anything a desktop can but their battery life is non-existant and they're heavy as hell.

Talk to the school's bookstore, though. Most colleges have cut deals with one provider or another and they will be significantly cheaper than any normal purchase.

He's going to be an art major(graphic design). He wants to use it to draw stuff. And, of course, he wants to play games and watch DVD's. I don't know if I want to foot the bill for that, though.

Most graphic designers still use and prefer Macs. Something worth considering.

Yeah, he might be better served getting a Mac. However, I doubt that an iBook is going to fit the bill very well. If you can stretch to a low end 15" Powerbook, that might work better for him.

I'm not an artist, but I'd expect doing graphic design on a 12" screen would suck. You'll also want a crap load of RAM in order to keep large format images in memory while working on them and a decent size hard drive to store all the po^H^H artwork he's going to be generating.

DVD playback is available everywhere but gaming on the Mac is still a worthless proposition. But like you said, you may not want to pay for that anyway.

I agree that a laptop is not the best solution for graphic design. If that's the only option you're considering, make sure to get one that supports an external monitor, so he can add one on later.

Other reasons not to get a laptop is that they're not really upgradeable, and they're easy to steal. Something to consider for a college-bound kid.

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Most graphic designers still use and prefer Macs. Something worth considering.

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Apple just announced the new PowerBook G4 family TODAY. I love my own little 12" slab-of-aluminum computer.

Oh, and don't forget the Wi-Fi (the PowerBook/iBook has the Wi-Fi antenna built-in to the display casing).

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Oh, and don't forget the Wi-Fi (the PowerBook/iBook has the Wi-Fi antenna built-in to the display casing).

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Antenna, yes. You still need the little module which is an option in their online store. I know you probably know this, sushi, but not everyone may.

Semi is correct as usual. My point was just that there is no antenna protruding from the PC card, which doesn't look nice but also might break during the "daypack abuse." A tiny little benefit of the Apple laptops. ...Or, is it a norm also in the Wintel laptops these days???

Oh, and another Mac advantage that I strongly feel these days is the Safari web browser! It provides not only a super-fast web rendering but the best implementation of tabbed browsing and bookmark mechanisms that I've ever seen in any platform. The OS-wide on-the-fly spell checking is working right in this very text window on the Axiom forum page. A highly engaging, efficient tool.

And current viruses (since PC based) are unaffected on MAC systems.
But if his school studies pre-req a PC based system then that can be tricky.

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Oh, and another Mac advantage that I strongly feel these days is the Safari web browser!

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I wouldn't call it an advantage at all. I'd call it catchup, finally bringing the Mac into the latter half of the 20th century with a decent browser.

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And current viruses (since PC based) are unaffected on MAC systems.

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You know, in all my time working with computers, very extensively, I've never in my life been infected by a virus. Common sense is the best weapon.

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I wouldn't call it an advantage at all. I'd call it catchup, finally bringing the Mac into the latter half of the 20th century with a decent browser.

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Oh? Am I missing something? Does the Wintel have a much better browser than the IE, which, in my opinion, is mediocre at best. At the very least, I know I can work MUCH faster and more efficiently with the Safari, from day one, than with the Wintel (or Mac) IE.

[WARNING: This is not a Wintel/Mac war. It is strictly about web browsers. ]

sushi, I'm using a PC laptop at work right now (it basically runs the Axiom forum exclusively...). It has "Intel Centrino Mobile Technology", which is basically AirPort. The laptop has an integrated antenna.

sushi, many savvy PC folks use Mozilla (or a derivative thereof). It features tabbed browsing and ad-blocking.

Still, I prefer Safari to all other comers, even though it doesn't render some pages properly. For example, when I use Safari to check my HHMI e-mail via the Exchange 2000 web interface, I get a lot of overlapping text on some e-mails. This may just be an issue with Microsoft only thinking about compatibilty with their own browser, though.

I see... so a built-in WiFi antenna is at least getting to be a norm on the Wintel laptops.

I haven't used the Mozilla derivatives on the Wintel computer, but if they are anything like its various Mac counterparts, they are, well... no better than IE, IMO. To me, Safari is just in a different league. But I agree with the IE-only mindset/attitude of a good majority of web page designers -- essentially, all other browsers have to bend the "standard correctness" in order to behave like IE.

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This may just be an issue with Microsoft only thinking about compatibilty with their own browser, though.

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Gee...you really think so?

For the most part, web designers have to make sure that their pages work with the most common browser...IE. Which is the main reason I use it. I used to use Netscape all the time...until it was bought by AOL. Now I use IE all the time...because it works.

I've recently (the last ~2 months or so) been using Mozilla - and in my opinion, it is MUCH better than IE. Its only flaws: Its not finished so it does have some problems (invalid script bugs and what not), and certain web pages that launch games (WWII Online and There come to mind) wont work from it, and the most frustrating part - its a PITA to get any plug-ins to work.

Just my .02

Safari sucks at rendering pages properly, though it's certainly better than most of the other Mac browsers.

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But I agree with the IE-only mindset/attitude of a good majority of web page designers

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Safari is actually worse at supporting standards than IE and Moz derivatives and it's still slower.

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essentially, all other browsers have to bend the "standard correctness" in order to behave like IE.

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Read this:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/003/software/mac/browser/mac-browsers-1.html

IE is pretty much the worst PC based browser out there for functionality, but it gets used by most people anyway for compatibility reasons or just because they don't know they have other options. I've played with Mozilla and will try it again as they update versions, but it just annoyed me that pages wouldn't load so I'm back to pop up filled IE (unless I'm using a pop up blocker at the time, which work with varying degrees of success it seems).

Speaking of popup blockers -- If you're using IE on the PC, I highly recommend installing the Google Toolbar. It features a very effective popup blocker, among other handy tools.

I was just going to recommend the google toolbar. It works flawlessly to block popups and it offers Google goodness in every window.