Macbook or PC notebook for design student?

21

I definitely wouldn’t get a Dell if you are going to go the PC route (as the majority of my job is replacing their complete crappiness with something slightly less crappy like Lenovo). The only difference b/w Mac and PC is the users and the way the OS looks, both OS suck because of their ludicrous competition, secrecy, closed-source and total focus on looks over functionality. The two party system thing doesn’t work in any realm.

Mac’s are more responsive, load less items on startup, have Apache pre-installed (sweet), better comes-with software and yes, seem to have the design field captivated. They also make basic system administration a f’ing nightmare with CTRL + APPLE + F9 + X + T + HOME + “Spin around three times” to reset the pram and nvram so your OS doesn’t continuously crash. Or you can go talk to a Mac “Genius”, who is not going to be pretentious at all, and will definitely be a genius. In my experience, Macs tend to crash out of the blue (spinning rainbow of death), I used my then-top-of-the-line G4 Powerbook to do mobile recordings with a gang of ridiculously expensive equipment and software, and I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to stomp on it for 10-36 minutes when it crashed out of nowhere, with no error message.

PCs are well supported, mostly stable (depending on Windows version you run), easy to administer and fix yourself, and most of all CHEAP. Not as in “cheap, piece of crap”, but closer to the actual cost of the parts and software. You are not paying for the brand (at least not as much as Mac). PCs break a lot, they don’t blue screen that much (no more than Mac), there are a lot of crappy vendors (such as Dell, Compaq) out there, Vista kind of sucks, plus Macs and their OS are much more fun to look at, which being a design person, you probably are interested in. It all makes sense to me now…

LINUX, FTW!!!

No matter which way you go, you will be happy, pissed and excited at some point. What you should care about is processor speed/# of cores, installed RAM, firewire, DVD/HD burner, DISK SPACE (though that can be fixed later), Motherboard quality, and how helpful support is.

22

i love how completely false this is with respect to OS X:

“total focus on looks over functionality.”

its the other way around, total focus is on functionality, they just have the perfectionist sense of design to make their functionz look good

23

[quote=actionAction;2343776]I definitely wouldn’t get a Dell if you are going to go the PC route (as the majority of my job is replacing their complete crappiness with something slightly less crappy like Lenovo). The only difference b/w Mac and PC is the users and the way the OS looks, both OS suck because of their ludicrous competition, secrecy, closed-source and total focus on looks over functionality. The two party system thing doesn’t work in any realm.

Mac’s are more responsive, load less items on startup, have Apache pre-installed (sweet), better comes-with software and yes, seem to have the design field captivated. They also make basic system administration a f’ing nightmare with CTRL + APPLE + F9 + X + T + HOME + “Spin around three times” to reset the pram and nvram so your OS doesn’t continuously crash. Or you can go talk to a Mac “Genius”, who is not going to be pretentious at all, and will definitely be a genius. In my experience, Macs tend to crash out of the blue (spinning rainbow of death), I used my then-top-of-the-line G4 Powerbook to do mobile recordings with a gang of ridiculously expensive equipment and software, and I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to stomp on it for 10-36 minutes when it crashed out of nowhere, with no error message.

PCs are well supported, mostly stable (depending on Windows version you run), easy to administer and fix yourself, and most of all CHEAP. Not as in “cheap, piece of crap”, but closer to the actual cost of the parts and software. You are not paying for the brand (at least not as much as Mac). PCs break a lot, they don’t blue screen that much (no more than Mac), there are a lot of crappy vendors (such as Dell, Compaq) out there, Vista kind of sucks, plus Macs and their OS are much more fun to look at, which being a design person, you probably are interested in. It all makes sense to me now…

LINUX, FTW!!!

No matter which way you go, you will be happy, pissed and excited at some point. What you should care about is processor speed/# of cores, installed RAM, firewire, DVD/HD burner, DISK SPACE (though that can be fixed later), Motherboard quality, and how helpful support is.[/quote]

Frankly, all I see in this thread are Mac people going on and on about the awesomeness of macs and OSX (especially) and then the people who say Dell sucks.

That’s not the point of this thread…the OP wanted some advice on what’s a good notebook for him/her. In that light, I’d suggest either going to a notebook dedicated forum like notebookreview.com because you’ll get the most “unbiased” responses from then.

However, IMO I believe the macbook is utter crap, especially at its price range. I agree with Temp and Anoglr that the Dell M1330 is a very good option as well, I think your looking at paying no less than $1,300 for a decently speced laptop anyway. Here’s some options you may consider, the m1330, the Asus F8 series, HP’s dv2700 series. Frankly, you probably want to compromise on power and portability, meaning you should go with a 14.1 laptop, as they still have enough power to run demanding programs, but still don’t weigh 6-7 pounds.

24

Yea, what theros said, ^5

:lol:

25

hehe, thanks again. I’ve pretty much sworn off Dell due to previous bad experiences, but am looking around at all my options. Theros, thanks, I’ll check those out.

26

[quote=fasterthanlight™;2343790]Yea, what theros said, ^5

:lol:[/quote]
bias, what bias? :slight_smile:

@ftl, in context I wasn’t describing Macs in particular (and “total” was an overstatement), just saying that computers in general could be a lot better than they are presently if there wasn’t so much concern about unnecessary bells and whistles (which they all have). Yes, Macs are designed well, look nice, work pretty nicely, all that jazz. I will liken it to the fact that we could all be driving water powered cars right now if the transportation industry would switch their focus to something more worthwhile.

@theros, yeah, there are some good Dell computers, I just don’t see a lot of the good ones in business settings (other than our servers). The truth is I have replaced countless Dell failures, that’s not bias, it’s shoddy parts and workmanship. I will also concede that their tech support is good. [COLOR=Silver]because it has to be, dell sucks!!!

[COLOR=Black]Sony Vaio are solid computers, great support, kinda costly (brand name). HP are definitely worth looking into, I have an HP 2.6 quad core and it’s great. MacBook Pro are really great computers, if you can afford it, it’s a good investment. Good luck![/COLOR]
[/COLOR]

27

Crap, I was just checking the clearance section of the Apple online store. They had previous generation MBP’s listed for 1,359. Came back to look, and suddenly they were 1,499! Refreshed again, and now the cheapest is 1,699. Dangit

I could swing 1,359 for a macbook pro. It’s inching up towards the $1,800 dollar mark that’s too much for me.

28

Keep in mind that the refurbished stock varies quite a bit. It can be worth your while to keep an eye on it, and watch it for a couple days when you do decide to buy.

29

[QUOTE=Stratification;2343823]Keep in mind that the refurbished stock varies quite a bit. It can be worth your while to keep an eye on it, and watch it for a couple days when you do decide to buy.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I was checking out the refurbs and clearance models, and was shocked to come across a new (previous generation) 15" macbook pro, 2.2ghz, 2gb ram, etc for 1,359. Then minutes later it was gone. dammitdammitdammit

30

Crap. Found it, still available, but just not showing on their website. The link in my History still works. Unfortunately now is not the time. I just don’t have the $$ right this second. Would have come to $1,454 with tax.

31

Frankly, even with Macs (which hold their value really well)…I still would hesitate to buy it used. Buying used electronics is something I just cannot endorse…

32

Refurbished is not used. Refurbished means something that was returned with a small issue (that has since been checked), or returned unopened. They’re typically checked more thoroughly than new purchases and come in as-new condition. I’ve purchased several Apple refurbished products and been very happy with them.

33

[quote=fasterthanlight™;2343609]And for design purposes, OS X is where its at, you’ll be spending have your time cursing windows, and half your time having your workflow slowed down by bad UI if you went the PC-way

OS X !!! its made for people like you and me![/quote]
I’ve done a bunch of design on Windows and have never cursed it. Whenever I try to load Photoshop on a Mac, it either 1) Takes twice as long as it would on a PC or 2) Crashes. I seem to have a knack for making Macs crash/freeze, while I’ve only been able to freeze Windows once. I would say go for the PC, you get a bunch more bang for your buck. And in my opinion, the Mac workflow is almost exactly the same as a PC. The whole “design on a Mac is so much better” is a big pile of bull stool.

34

[quote=jokun;2343818]Crap, I was just checking the clearance section of the Apple online store. They had previous generation MBP’s listed for 1,359. Came back to look, and suddenly they were 1,499! Refreshed again, and now the cheapest is 1,699. Dangit

I could swing 1,359 for a macbook pro. It’s inching up towards the $1,800 dollar mark that’s too much for me.[/quote]

If you’re not looking to buy until August, keep looking at the refurbs at apple.com. Availability constantly changes and it’s a great way to get something like a MBP for less $. I have purchased 2 Macs that way in the past 4 years and both have been great.

35

[QUOTE=Theros;2343868]Frankly, even with Macs (which hold their value really well)…I still would hesitate to buy it used. Buying used electronics is something I just cannot endorse…[/QUOTE]
Actually, it wasn’t a refurb or used. It was a leftover model from the previous generation. The last new model rollout was, what, April? This was a new model of what they were selling up until that time. 2.2ghz instead of the new 2.4, a smaller hard drive, and no multi-touch, but still new.

36

Used electronics is a no no

37

As long as its using an Intel CPU, then your all good. I don’t think you’d be picky about hard drive space or GPU.

38

[QUOTE=actionAction;2343776]LINUX, FTW!!!

No matter which way you go, you will be happy, pissed and excited at some point. What you should care about is processor speed/# of cores, installed RAM, firewire, DVD/HD burner, DISK SPACE (though that can be fixed later), Motherboard quality, and how helpful support is.[/QUOTE]

My primary machine is Debian GNU/Linux, my work machine is CentOS Linux, and my MacBook Pro runs FreeBSD.

With that said, do not run Linux as a design student. I’m reasonably comfortable in GIMP, and I use Inkscape, but the tools available simply do not compare in this field, unfortunately. PhotoShop, despite what *nix users like myself want to believe, still easily overpowers any free software and stuff like Flash are not easily run under *nix systems (WINE just won’t cut it if you use this stuff every day).

I love *nix systems, but they are entirely inappropriate for use by a design student.

39

[quote=Jeff Wheeler;2344707]My primary machine is Debian GNU/Linux, my work machine is CentOS Linux, and my MacBook Pro runs FreeBSD.

With that said, do not run Linux as a design student. I’m reasonably comfortable in GIMP, and I use Inkscape, but the tools available simply do not compare in this field, unfortunately. PhotoShop, despite what *nix users like myself want to believe, still easily overpowers any free software and stuff like Flash are not easily run under *nix systems (WINE just won’t cut it if you use this stuff every day).

I love *nix systems, but they are entirely inappropriate for use by a design student.[/quote]

Yes, totally agree. Linux is great for everything else (almost)…

You really run FreeBSD on your laptop? Do you ever use OSX and why not use just Debian again?

40

I don’t mess with that stuff. Just give me any old mac or pc operating system out of the box.