CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Hey Guys,

I have a computer-purchasing dilemma. I'm getting a laptop soon, and I really want to use it for basic-school stuff, some gaming, etc. you know normal stuff. But I've decided that I'm going to go with either an

1.42 GHz 14" iBook with 60GB HD and iWork '05 preinstalled with a DVD±RW/CD-RW drive


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It's a moot point what the G4 is equivalent to, because Apple is going Intel probably Q1 2006. If you can wait until the beginning of next year, your iBook is probably going to be Intel based, and then it won't matter what the equivalence is.

Even speaking as a Mac freak, I think calling the 1.42GHz G4 equivalent to a 3GHz Intel (presumably a P4) is overly generous. I'd say it's more competitive in the 2.4 or 2.6GHz range, but not more than that, even maxed on L3 cache. Also, keep in mind that you will only get that performance if you enable Highest in the System Preferences, and that will drain your battery quicker.

If you really do need to buy it now, then the question of Mac vs PC is really what you're asking. My bias is pretty obvious and you should find out what your particular school and major uses. There are still a great number of college art and music departments that strongly advise getting a Macintosh, and PC users are typically at a disadvantage. Similarly, many economics departments have standardized on PC-based products, and you have to have a PC emulator if you intend to use a Mac in that environment. If you want a good all-around computer, I wouldn't ever buy a PC again, but you'll get plenty of "I hate Macs" here too.

I prefer the mac but check with your school, since some majors require certain programs that are not availiable (in my knowledge) for the mac, such as AutoCAD and Microsft Visual Basic.

My other note is that I suggest another company other than Dell for your computer, especially in the laptop department. I know a lot of people who are dissatisfied with their Dell LT's performance (I personally nearly hucked one out of a moving car because of slowdown and hardware issues). Also remember that most PCs are more likely to catch viruses and worms, and school networks (if you are living on campus) get shut down and manually reactivated a port at a time. Having a Mac could get your port reactivated faster, since it's exempt, as opposed to getting the PC debugged by IT staff personnel before they reactivate your net port.

I also suggest swinging for a powerbook, not an iBook, but thats a personal preference.

You'll probably get a lot of poorly researched, ill informed posts on both sides of this one (not to imply the above are such), so I'll try to give you sound advice. I work in IT for a local school, so I know what I'm talking about when I say this, "Compairing the most recent hardware/software - most students with Macintoshes do not have problems with their computers; most students with WinTell boxes do."


For me personally, I'm one of the self-proclaimed mac nerds here, for a lot of reasons that you won't care about. Suffice to say, I have ALWAYS been a Windows fan - until I tried the newest Macintosh. Apple gave me enough reasons to switch, and I will never go back to Windows. If apple colapses, I'll got to linux or BSD.

For YOU, I think it boils down to a couple questions:

1. How much time will you spend on it?
2. Will you be playing Multiplayer games?

For question one:
If you are going into computers as a major, or wanna spend a lot of time on it, get a PC. It's that simple. You WILL spend more time on it, whether you want to or not. If you just want something to relyably type papers on, then get the mac. There are *very* few viruses and virtually no spyware. You can get MS Office (if you can turn in assignments via email, this is the format they will be required to be in) for both, so that's a moot point.

For question two:
If you want to play games with other people, the PC is the way to go - though I should point out that laptops (mac OR pc) are NOT good gaming platforms. The repetitive action is not good for them or you.


Anyway, there you go.

If I were making this decision, I'd go with Dell, but I'm just biassed .

well, that's the thing, I'm leaning more towards mac for reasons of which are:

1) it will be less likely someone will have another iBook, therefore it will be more easier as to find out who stole it.

2) if I really wanted a PC I could spend about $250 for VirtualPC (a PC emulator)

3) The widgets

While I will play games on it, I don't really plan on playing any multiplayer games or MMORPGs. But I will be spending a lot of time on it for papers and such. Plus, since I do want to go into the computer field I could do #2 until I get enough money to get a 2nd laptop.

And besides some pros and cons of each OS, which is better? XP Home, XP Pro, or Mac OS X Tiger?

As far as gaming goes, if you're determined to play nothing but the latest games, you don't want a Mac. Mac games lag about 6-8 months, if they come out at all. A lot of my friends in graphic arts use a Mac for their professional work, and a PC for games (or a console). On my Mac, I play a lot of emulator software, and since Macs can use Unix tool chains, there's a lot of ported Unix emulators for it -- in that sense, the Mac is very current and sometimes more so.

Also, I think even PC users will agree that XP Home is worthless. It has a number of arbitrarily crippled features (especially with system control and the Windows Explorer) and is not worth the pennies you'll save. If you must go with XP, you should get XP Pro.

WinXP Academic version only comes in Pro anyway.

Yes, but he hasn't said if he's getting it through the college bookstore or not, so he should be cautious about what he ends up with through the usual retail suspects.

I work in computer repair so I can tell you one bit of personal experience:

I have never heard more serious complaints about tech support than I have heard from Dell customers. Sure, I hear complaints about every company. But I have heard substantially more about Dell.

So my advice is to steer clear of them. If you wish to buy a PC, look into Sony or Toshiba.

Apples are really nice computers and I don't see a whole lot of them in the shop. Of course, they don't sell in anywhere near the amount that PC's do, so there is that to consider. But in general a quality product and fairly secure against viruses and spyware which plague so many computers these days.

No matter what you buy, get an extended warranty of some kind. If you take a laptop to a shop to be repaired, you will end up paying around $200 on the low end. If your system board goes, which is far more frequent with laptops than it is with desktops, it can easily be so expensive as to make it better to just buy a new laptop altogether. So it is a good idea to get as much warranty coverage as you can when you buy.