Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Help/advice wanted

Before I go into some other posts I want to make (notably my Movie Tavern experience, and a combined Nawab/Tequila Rose/Trellis roundup review), I would like to ask for some advice on technology purchases.

I will sometime in the not-too-distant future be in the market for a new computer. My ThinkPad T60's 4 year service warranty through the school will be running out not long from now, and anyway it's displaying some problems that may be hardware related (debating whether taking it into IT would be helpful or if they will just reformat my hard drive - again - which was done a couple weeks ago and didn't help some of my problems). Anyway, the battery is shot and since the battery's so expensive (approaching $200!) I'd rather just stick it out til I get something new.

Enough of the preface, let's get into what I need advice on. I've come up with a few different options for what to get when I move on from the ThinkPad (hint: not a ThinkPad). My first option is to get a mid-range laptop. The problem right now is of course VISTA which I will not tolerate - I'll wait for Windows 7... or switch to Mac. I have thought about getting a MacBook but they are of course a good deal more expensive than your average laptop. Another idea which I like at the moment is to get a 2-computer system of a netbook [which still have XP!] (in the $300-$400 range) and a desktop (of the under $500 range). I know you can get a decent netbook and desktop for those prices (which adds up to, coincidentally, the mid/upper-range laptop area). I was also glancing at the Mac Mini + a netbook though that would be a bit more $.

I guess some additional things you might want to know in order to advise me would be what functionality I require. Alright. I am a traveler and hope to travel a lot in the next year or so. A netbook would seemingly fulfill my photo-uploading, web-surfing, and blogging needs for traveling and be really portable. I also want something for photo and movie editing (I have photoshop, just need something to run it), and possibly some gaming though that is less of a concern. I like my comps to be fairly fast and with a decent amount of memory, ability to last well, and with good functionality.

So, to recap, here's the combo options:
1) a mid/upper range Windows laptop [as long as Windows 7 is better than Vista]
2) a MacBook
3) a netbook + a Windows desktop
4) a netbook + a Mac mini

I would really love to switch to Mac, it's just hard to commit since I've been raised on Windows, plus Macs are just so much more expensive. So, if you have any advice on which of those options sound best, and then what laptop/netbook/desktop/Mac is the best for what I want there, let me know!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, haha, that's pretty much IDENTICAL to my position - Think-Pad's shot, need something new (although the 'mobility' I want from a laptop is more like, ability to curl up on the couch with it and not mess with cords, rather than 'taking it to China' or something like that...)
I wound up ruling out the Mac option and deciding to wait and get a nice, cheap, streamlined HP with Windows 7 - but then, I don't do that much in the way of photos/multimedia. (Unless facebook counts?!) That would probably be the only reason I would consider a Mac.

Well, that's my super-subjective two cents, anyway. Good luck! ;-)

Jen Laceda | Milk Guides said...

I'm a hardcore Windows user who switched to Mac recently. So far, I love it!

Jen Laceda | Milk Guides said...

Oh yeah, and I took my Mac on her 1st press trip through Israel and survived!