(no subject)

[mllelaurel]

So. My laptop is a piece of shit. It won't play DVDs anymore. It freezes up when faced with anything more challenging than a pageful of plain text. It won't defrag completely.

Conclusion? I need to buy a new computer stat, before I can't access the internet anymore and thus am rendered incapable of buying said new computer.

Discuss.

Basically, I need to know what laptops qualify as non-shitty. My bare qualifications are: DVD player/burner; able to connect to the internet; more harddrive space than my current 55 gigs.

I'm none-too-fond of the Mac interface, but if I'm given assurances that Macs are less likely to break the hell down, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Cheap would be nice, as I need an external harddrive and/or an ipod to move all my junk onto. I can't think of another way to transfer it from one harddrive to another, but then I'm no expert.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I'm a great big fan of flash drives for moving junk. Or a good Firewire drive, which is what we use for backups.

I'm a giant Mac junkie, and have been since about 1988, so I'm pretty useless in terms of comparison shopping. I've had many fewer breakdowns on my machines than my Windows brethren, but I also know people for whom Macs have just broken in amazing ways with amazing frequency. I think Macs are more in tune with the vibe of the owner than Windows boxes. :)

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

Flash drive! I used to own one of those, at least. The real question is, can I find it?

I'm thinking it may well be time to test my compatibility with a Mac. My luck with all things technological has never been good (or even decent) - maybe I just don't have the right rapport with PCs. Who can say?

[fandom-me.livejournal.com]

I have to say based on my own experiences (with a PC laptop and mac desktop) that Mac has been waaaay more reliable than the PC. And the Mac is older.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

That's definitely encouraging.

[fandom-me.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a mac laptop, I'd seriously suggest leaning toward a power-book. My father in law uses one and they're pretty out of this world.

What I WILL say about macs, that's not real hot, is that I'd stay away from imacs/emacs/all in one desktops. They tend to have monitor issues and that can be a bitch.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely looking for a laptop, seeing as how it has to travel with me to Vermont. What's the approximate price range on the power-books?

[fandom-me.livejournal.com]

From about 1100.00-4000. *G* Depends on the bells and whistles. You can get what you want for under 2000, definitely.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that. I'm not looking for anything particularly fancy. Just something for internet, movies and paper writing.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I will say that both my iBook and Akycha's have had one major hard drive breakdown each, the first ones that either of us have ever had with Macs (like I said, I've been using Macs since 1988, when I worked in the Apple/Mac classroom at college, and I bought my first doorstop used in 1992 or so, and she's been using them since she inherited sepdet's doorstop somewhere around '93 or so). I've owned my machine since, um, 2002 or 2003, and Akycha's is a 2004 model. The breakdowns happened around the same age in both of them, and they were both entirely covered by standard AppleCare, so make sure you get AppleCare! And an external hard drive for backups will save your hide in the possibility of the breakdown.

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, tech help is invaluable. I just hope they're good at explaining things to total newbs like me.