Buying a new laptop...Where should I buy it from?

[provenlogic]

to say I don't know much about computers is laughable.

Oh i dunno, i think i know a little more than you... Have you noticed my sig? Oh well, i'll spell it out in clearer terms:

Computer Science, B.S.
Graphic Design, B.A.
(PC) Game Art and Design, B.A.

Haaave a nice day.

 

[provenlogic]

A lot of MACS come PACKED with media software already installed... out of the box you can make music, make movies, keep photos organized...

Yea if you're 12 and wanna make a kewl teeniebopper myspace page...

 

[tiptoer]

Oh i dunno, i think i know a little more than you... Have you noticed my sig? Oh well, i'll spell it out in clearer terms:

Computer Science, B.S.
Graphic Design, B.A.
(PC) Game Art and Design, B.A.

Haaave a nice day.

I'm guessing an emphasis in the B.S.

I'm 24 and have similar degrees actually. the only difference is my degrees are not 20 years old. Shake the dust off and then come back to the forum! My point earlier was not to get your control top in a bunch, it was simply that it is a trend that older "Computer Science Experts" hate MACS... and its hysterical that you'd call yourself a Graphic Designer and use a Dell! I'd be hard pressed to find a college or institute that would grant me such a degree and NOT be using MACS. Where do you live? Mississippi?

And as for the sense of humor...I've been laughing the whole time! Trust me!

 

[trawler69]

Oh what fun rattles flying everywhere. Perhaps we owe Aflute04 an apology for the hijack but it was fun to see Proven provoked on a bad day while noelie did his more statesman like attacking form of defense. It is true that I am indeed an old fogey and I have converted to the Mac after years working with pc's. They are not for everybody, I am not a gamer though I can run windows if I want. The original Idea was to dual boot or use parallels but I have now found that all the software I want is "freely" available on the Mac.

The decision was not made lightly, I did a lot of research and talked to a lot of people, Macs are not cheap. It has paid off for me and has saved me countless hours of frustration. There comes a point where scanning for malware, reinstalling applications, partial system crashes, total crashes, long reboots etc. becomes tedious as does this narrative so I will end it and scarper before I hit by a flying rattle

Edit: Damn I've just realised I have done just what I said earlier I wasn't going to sorry

 

[justarg26]

hey aflute!

can you tell your Dell`s specs? maybe adding more RAM (like 1Gb) can make it work faster and you dont need to buy a new one

 

[provenlogic]

I'm guessing an emphasis in the B.S.

I'm 24 and have similar degrees actually. the only difference is my degrees are not 20 years old. Shake the dust off and then come back to the forum! My point earlier was not to get your control top in a bunch, it was simply that it is a trend that older "Computer Science Experts" hate MACS... and its hysterical that you'd call yourself a Graphic Designer and use a Dell! I'd be hard pressed to find a college or institute that would grant me such a degree and NOT be using MACS. Where do you live? Mississippi?

And as for the sense of humor...I've been laughing the whole time! Trust me!

AHHHH a mediocre mind... Well, no one said they were in short supply.

A. i'm 24 dude, check my profile... or better yet, look at the left of my post genius.
B. my CSC (that's computer science, thought i better spell it out for you) degree is from 2005, as is my graphic Design degree, and my Game Art and Design degree is from 2006.
C. I'm a young computer science expert and i hate Macs
D. i never said i use a Dell, but i do happen to own a Dell laptop, serves me well. As for my main workstation, i built that myself.
E. Funny i call myself a graphic designer? Ok, who works for a major PC gaming company doing 3D modeling a graphics development, raise your hand...?

No one?

OH WAIT, THAT'S ME!

F. Don't insult the south.
G. I got my graphic design degree AND my game art and design degree from esteemed Art Institute of Pittsburg (that's in Pennsylvania in case you didn't know)
H. You won't find many PROFESSIONAL 3D modelers that will touch a MAC, no, will even go near one. WHY? BECAUSE they don't make PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE like that FOR MACS genius.
I. MACS SUCK HUGE DONKEY BALLS.
J. You've got a pretty big mouth for a newbie who's been on this site for all of a month.

 

[tiptoer]

AHHHH a mediocre mind... Well, no one said they were in short supply.

A. i'm 24 dude, check my profile... or better yet, look at the left of my post genius.
B. my CSC (that's computer science, thought i better spell it out for you) degree is from 2005, as is my graphic Design degree, and my Game Art and Design degree is from 2006.
C. I'm a young computer science expert and i hate Macs
D. i never said i use a Dell, but i do happen to own a Dell laptop, serves me well. As for my main workstation, i built that myself.
E. Funny i call myself a graphic designer? Ok, who works for a major PC gaming company doing 3D modeling a graphics development, raise your hand...?
F. Don't insult the south.
G. I got my graphic design degree AND my game art and design degree from esteemed Art Institute of Pittsburg (that's in Pennsylvania in case you didn't know)
H. You won't find many PROFESSIONAL 3D modelers that will touch a MAC, no, will even go near one. WHY? BECAUSE they don't make PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE like that FOR MACS genius.
I. MACS SUCK HUGE DONKEY BALLS.
J. You've got a pretty big mouth for a newbie who's been on this site for all of a month.

I'll admit that I got you and someone else confused... sure... I didn't realize you all were not used to heated discussions. I have this discussion all the time at work and with my partner. I'm a MAChead and I own it! I HIGHLY doubt that the person who originally posted this wanted a computer for 3D Graphics, nor do I. Use what you want, I don't care... I was simply giving my two cents.. and yes.. sometimes I pitch in a little extra... I have a very big mouth and don't intend to shut it. I never meant to be rude and most everything I say is accompanied by sarcasm. I also don't shit all over ALL Non-Macs. I just hate Dells.

I came in here to talk about computers and not to defend my self... but I'm not a looser sitting at home either. I work in Graphic design/Marketing creating marketing material for a little company called Hershey. Also, I too went to the Art Institute (not Pitt, York) and live in PA. (So i know where it is) I am very passionate about what I do and smetimes get a little carried away! I don't usually let people get to me or walk all over me just because they have been there longer.

Hope not everyone hates me, cuz really I think you all are pretty cool... even if your fogey's!

 

[mike_n_herrin]

WOW what a thread. time to take a caffine free diet coke break

aflute...i'll step into the mac vs pc debate and throw out another option (but keep reading for that ). your Dell got pretty good reviews here: http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_Inspiron_5150/4505-3121_7-30418693.html

if the specs on that one reviewed at Cnet are the same as your's, i don't see any real reason that it's running slow, unless there is spyware, virus, malware, or some bloated software that is hogging a lot of resources. do you know how much memory your's has?

Ok, so here is the alternative. Please try a linux live CD on your laptop and see how well it runs. Something like Knoppix is my favorite, but t-rex would recommend trying Ubuntu. Both have Live CD versions that boot and run off the CD and do nothing to your hard drive. You can install ubuntu easily if it recognizes all your hardware and your microsoft (NTFS) partitioned hard drive (that's where all your data is right now). there might be nothing wrong with your laptop per say and with another operating system it might work just fine. since you are considering going MAC i don't think you have anything to lose by trying it. you can download ISO images of the CDs/DVDs and then burn them to a CD/DVD, if you don't know how to burn an ISO image (it's some what different that just burning a data CD) just let us know. you can also often pick up live CD version of linux operating systems at book stores in the most recent linux magazines.

you can take a look at various linux operating systems here: distrowatch.com
you can download here:
1. Knoppix: http://knoppix.com/ (click the download button, and then pick the ftp or http server that is closest to you geographically)
2. Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

again once you download them, you'll need to burn the dowloaded ISO file to a CD/DVD.