In the near future I will be in the process of purchasing a computer for school uses as well as music "doodling", downloading, etc... What brand do you prefer? When is the best time to purchase this brand of computer? And whom should I purchase it from (ex. Wal-mart, best buy, directly from company)? Anything will help!!

I have a MacBook Pro and while John may talk smack, he knows that Apple is where it's at. I would highly recommend ANY apple laptop. Yes they are a bit more costly in the beginning but they more than pay for themselves just a few months down the road when a PC is falling apart and a Mac is just as fast as ever!

Being a life-long Windows guy, I will have to admit that I'm mostly into them for familiarity (and the fact that they're wider-supported by the small programs I love to use). However, I will admit that Macs are better built, and they hold up better over time. the only downsides to a Mac are 1) they are the minority and 2) when they break, they don't just freeze, they die a horrid and irrevivable death.

I'm at my wits' end with my current laptop though, and I'm pretty sure my next notebook will be a Mac . . . however, I will be using a partition and installing Vista on the second partition when I get a Mac.

Yeah... Mac is what I was looking at, but I don't want it just cause I don't want to have to learn how to learn how to use a new different style of computer.... (I think made that understandable)

Wow John, I thought you hated Macs! lol Clearly I misjudged! The only mac I WOULDN'T recommend is the MacBook. The reason for this is because the lack of a video card. I'm not a hardcore MLG gamer but I still like having the piece of mind that my video card is there as soon as I need it because I do run Windows XP and while I'm running both OS's ( ) I tend to want to play a flight simulator in XP. I wouldn't be able to do that if I had no card... Other than that almost every product in the Macintosh/Apple computer line is darn near perfect! [IMO]

Just my 2¢

--------------------------------

To add onto my previous post....



Buy the extended care warranty, you will undoubtedly need it at least once. I've had my MacBook Pro for about a year and a half and I've had to repair little things here and there but I highly recommend the Extended care warranty, just for the piece of mind that you're taken care of should anything happen.


You have six hours to edit your posts. Don't reply to yourself unless those six hours have passed. C'mon now, Chris, you should know better

Obviously I've never been computer shopping (for real) so.... when is the best time to buy? At the start of a school year or during the Christmas holidays

I'm sure either way the price will be somewhat reasonable!! Not like it really matters that much