laptop advice

The new iBooks are very good though and you can always use virtual PC to run your PC only apps.

i have a qu abotu soundcards for laptops. i have a laptop, it is quite basic, about 3 or 4 yrs old. not very powerful, i use it in bars to dj from. i plug it into the pa. i bought an external soundcard for it but it started cutting out during playback - little milisecond (but noticable) blips every few minutes. i think because the power supply of my laptop wasn't strong enough to hold the soundcard as well.

i need the sound output of my laptop to be louder. is there a program that can boost the sound of mp3s, by say about 15%, but retain the quality? failing that, how about another type of soundcard but with a power supply of its own? can anyone recommend one?

and even failing that, i might buy a new laptop thingy to use. are ibooks good and reliable for live music? i have v little money to spend, how much could i get one for? are they good 2nd hand?

thanks

Need a new computer and want to buy a laptop. I want it to be pretty powerful and super-dependable (need to be able to DJ with it) but I cannot afford nor do I particularly want an Apple. I got a Dell 5 years ago but it broke after 2 or 3 years and I refuse to even consider them again. So in 2010 what laptop brands are generally recommended?

sounds like you want a lenovo thinkpad

As far as I can tell, the list of manufacturers of reliable, high-quality, well-designed non-netbook laptops is:
1. Lenovo
2. Apple
and if you go for option 1 you're probably going to wind up with Windows on your computer which I guess you might be ok with and apparently Windows 7 is moderately non-terrible and actually can connect to wireless networks and shit, unlike previous versions of Windows.

And if you really can't afford the $999 rock-bottom entry fee for an Apple laptop, you're probably not getting a particularly great Wintel laptop either, in terms of build quality and not-weighing-as-much-as-a-fucking-tank-quality.

I greatly prefer Windows for a variety of reasons (yes I know it's stupid, whatever).

And of course I could afford $999 for a rock-bottom Apple laptop but why would I want a bottom-of-the-line Apple laptop? I am under the impression that for the same amount of $$$ you can get a fairly better Windoze machine than an Apple one.

because osx rips windows 7!! I have both on my mbp and never ever boot into windows unless I have to.

refurbished MacBook is 850:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

not a world of difference between the entry level MacBook and the MacBook pro.

any hardware difference will be canceled out by the fact that windows sucks and is inefficient

I know osx is like a bajillion times better but I have been using Windows since I was like 10, and I know it inside and out, and all the programs I like run on it (and not always osx), and I have used osx hundreds of times in the past 5 years in the univ computer labs and I still prefer Windows :/

Also try to avoid refurbs like the plague; have had nothing but bad exp in the past.

Also I have a Zune, which I very much like, which I simply cannot use with an Apple.

Cheap windows laptops mainly suck because they are chunky, heavy, ugly, and unpleasant to use. Seriously. You'll be using this machine all the time; if you get a cheap one, you'll hate it and feel like a tool because it will weigh nearly six pounds and the keyboard will suck and all the other crap that goes along with a $500 laptop. At the very least, don't order a laptop if you have no idea of what it's like on the outside.

Oh I have no intention of purchasing a cheap laptop. I am looking to spend probably $1000-$1500 I think

apple refurbs are different because they go back to the factory, get checked out by techs and then are sold as refurb'd. they come with the 1 year warranty and you can buy applecare for them and all that. the biggest difference is that it might come prescratched, other than that it should be the same as buying new.

don't mean to be 'that apple guy', sorry. $1000-1500 could also buy you a nice sony vaio maybe? I still feel the best option would be to buy a mb or mbp & install windows on it.

oh everyone on the planet but me is "that apple guy", and I think if I could afford more than $1500 I would seriously consider buying a MBP but I just can't bring myself to settle for something so entry-level as a plain old MB when I can get bigger and better Windows machines for the same price. I could see if my mom could get a discount through her work, though.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC371LL/A?mco=MTgwOTc2ODA

this is the current gen 15" MBP at $1500, ship it to delaware for no tax

thinking back, I guess my friend liked to use toshiba laptops and found them to be pretty reliable. also panasonic. maybe fujitsu?

I'm dubious that you'd really need that powerful a PC to DJ. If you're offloading the soundcard duties to an external interface, I suspect that its the memory access/bus speed that is limiting, not the CPU. I've had no glitches toying at home Traktor Duo on a SU9300 chip (dual core consumer ultra low voltage), which benchmarks twice the speed of an Atom, but about 1/3 that of the laptop bleeding edge.

Win7 is stable running Traktor, but XP still edges it out system overhead-wise for gaming and such.

I've been looking a PC friendly mixers lately and seems like having a firewire/1394 port (which my laptop lacks) remains a consideration for some outboard gear you might come across.

Where are things at with PC laptops nowadays? I am totally out of the loop in terms of what's a good specification or where various worthwhile price points may be. Can anyone help fill me in a little? Thanks.

Windows 7 is moderately non-terrible and actually can connect to wireless networks and shit, unlike previous versions of Windows.

?

Also laughing that OSX is somehow leagues better than Win7 when they're both as bad (or good) as each other in reality. And I mainly use a Mac.

>Where are things at with PC laptops nowadays?

For respectable Windows 7 performance then you want to be looking at 3/4GB of RAM and at least a Core 2 Duo or equivalent processor; most of the newer consumer laptops are starting to get variants on the Core i3 and up, which are also fine for most purposes. Hard disk space is pretty much dependent on what you'll be doing with it, but consider 250GB a minimum (although for data/file storage a large external HDD is the way to go). A reasonably specified laptop will cost you about £500+ , although places like Currys etc often do decent deals. I buy a lot of notebook PCs at work and for reliability we have the least problems with Toshiba and Samsung kit - the least reliable (by some margin) are Sony and their lower end stuff is very poorly specified for the money.

If you can stretch to it, then you'll not regret the money spent on any MacBook; I'm typing this running XP on a bog standard MacBook and they are excellent machines in most respects with great build quality - being able to easily dualboot between Windows and MacOS can be very useful.

Thanks very much Bill, that's very useful.

yeah if money's not a big issue, any of the macbooks will do nicely as a windows computer than runs OSX

craigslist is loaded with 2 year old macbooks for like, $500, at least around the bay area; which is surprising to me. That's a pretty good deal, depending on how robust you need your machine to be.

How does this one look?

http://www.johnlewis.com/230986939/Product.aspx

The memory & HDD look good for the money, just wondering about the processor...?

A last minute change of heart/mind has got me thinking that as a (heading towards professional) photographer I should really get a Mac.

+1

yep get a mac.

Any sage advice on Macbook Pros?

The 15-inch 2.53GHz with 500GB looks like the one to me...

thats what my friends wife has. loves it. wish i could afford a mac.

I think some people on this board have gotten recent MBPs. for me, I always get the one with the largest amount of VRAM, since that's nonupgradeable. everything else you should be able to diy (ram, hard drive).

I would wait a few days though as there's a apple laptop update event thing on the 20th.

Yeah, a MacBook Pro is pretty unfuckwithable tbh, although they *are* expensive. Bear in mind that there's some good discounts for Education buyers, so if you know someone eligible (students, teachers, university staff etc) then might be worth them buying it on yr behalf.

Also if you'll be using it at a desk lots then if you can stretch to an external display, kybd and mouse your body will thank you for it.

co-sign dayo re see what happens after the update event.

Thanks very much.

What usually happens after an update? Do prices on currently available stuff tend to drop?

no, currently available stuff gets replaced asap by the new updated stuff, you should wait so you'll get more computer for the same amount of money (if the MBP gets updated)

another option would be to buy refurbed from the apple online store, you can usually save $1-300 off the price and it's practically the same as a new mbp. (it receives a factory check-up to make sure everything's okay, comes with the same 1 year warranty, eligible for applecare. bout the worse that can happen is you get it pre-scratched, which will take some of the pressure off, as you won't worry about scratching it, as somebody's already done it for you!)

That makes sense, thanks.

The UK refurbished offerings seem to be pretty slim on the ground.

I do have a couple of possible avenues to explore for discount though...

If I do this, the MacBook would become my main computer, as my current PC desktop is rather old and slow and it would be a long long time before I could afford to replace that with a Mac, especially if I do buy a MacBook.

I wonder if I could hook up a MacBook to my current mammoth CRT?

tomorrow will probably be a macbook air update but yr probably better off with a pro, doubt they'll be mucking about with those till next year

you can use the education discount, on the page it gives you the choice of institution pick the bottom (generic school) option, they never check

get a displayport -> VGA adapter and you can run the laptop into your monitor

i am very happy with my pro so far.

My sister is a teacher and I have a whole host of friends who work at local Unis and schools, so I can always go that route as well for slightly more legitimacy.

i prefer life on the edge

You're taking up too much room otherwise.

my friend recently bought a mbp, it died on him suddenly one day. turned out to be bad RAM. be careful. get the applecare, it's worth it

my own mbp story is I opened mine up to reinstall the thermal grease (incredibly nerdy and non-necessary thing to do.) vacuumed around while I had the thing open. ended up vacuuming a few resistors off the board. still works great, can't figure out what if anything is wrong with it. (knock on wood)

(I also stupidly did not get applecare)

the macbook i got before the pro was a regular black macbook.

died twice. instantaneously gone with no hope for hard drive recovery.

yeah, definitely get Apple Care, and definitely don't open it up, ever, unless you're a super nerd who really knows what you're doing

Sorry dayo, but I laughed.

you people don't deserve nice things, how can you treat your macbooks so badly

on the plus side my mac runs like 10 degrees C cooler than it used to, but that seems to have ended recently with the newest adobe flash update

fucking flash

Are Apple not good for servicing faults even without the AppleCare?

Jesus are these things ever expensive.

they gave me a free macbook battery no questions asked, that's the only problem i've ever had

"Then along came my daughter, who is 4 months old now. My wife started complaining that I was spending too much time at the home-office with my desktop, not spending enough time with my daughter. She couldn't find time to use the desktop as well, as the baby needed constant attention. So I decided I needed to get a laptop so that I could watch TV, watch my daughter and browse all at the same time. "

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3118

If I plan on taking my laptop out of the house is there any reason not to buy a matte screen? Fingerprints + tons of glare seems totally not worth the added brightness and contrast, even if I will be watching video on it. Also what processors are good?