[malcolm347]

This may be too broad of a question but what type(brand/model etc) of laptop should I get(pc or mac) for the puposes of music movies and surfing the net for less than $1000 ?
I have a gaming pc for that pupose so Im looking for a laptop for those reasons. Thanks for the help !

Malcolm

[mduell]

Apple iBook 12" if you don't mind the small screen or Dell Inspiron 6000 if you want something a big bigger.

[thephotodork]

i'd agree with mduell. get the 12" ibook. nice machine for basic applications.

[malcolm347]

Thanks, any more ideas ? anyone ?

[chabig]

I would recommend the 12" iBook too. They're very nice machines.

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by malcolm347

This may be too broad of a question but what type(brand/model etc) of laptop should I get(pc or mac) for the puposes of music movies and surfing the net for less than $1000 ?
I have a gaming pc for that pupose so Im looking for a laptop for those reasons. Thanks for the help !

Malcolm

If you should decide not to buy the ibook, have a look at thinkpads or sonys. You can find something for less than 1000$. My experiences with dell quality and support are so bad that I would not recommend to waste money on this (sorry mduell). Especially Thinkpads are among the best you can buy.

What does music movies mean? Making or watching? For watching you can use any used notebook with a PIII or better, or any Powerbook with a G4. Thus you might get 1st class quality for little money.

But an ibook is definitely a great value for your money.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by I was David B.

If you should decide not to buy the ibook, have a look at thinkpads or sonys. You can find something for less than 1000$. My experiences with dell quality and support are so bad that I would not recommend to waste money on this (sorry mduell). Especially Thinkpads are among the best you can buy.

No need to be sorry, I'd say the same thing about Sonys. I've actuall been impressed with Dell lately, but that's probably because I bought a business laptop with business support from the small biz store instead of the home store.
Thinkpads are great laptops (even after the recent sale to Lenovo), but the only Thinkpads near $1000 and clunky and outdated.

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by mduell

No need to be sorry, I'd say the same thing about Sonys. I've actuall been impressed with Dell lately, but that's probably because I bought a business laptop with business support from the small biz store instead of the home store.
Thinkpads are great laptops (even after the recent sale to Lenovo), but the only Thinkpads near $1000 and clunky and outdated.

We have an Institude full of Latitudes under business conditions from Dell.

I indeed have no personal experiences with cheap Thinkpads. I use a T40 myself. But I have read a couple of very qualified reviews and the R40/50 usually get the best results among the <1000$ notebooks. They are a little bit outdated thats true, but look at the iBook: Its a nice computer but by no means high end.

Also a research about how cutomers like the support for their notebooks shows apple and ibm at the first places whereas dell is far behind. Our experiences with dells 24 hours in house reair service is not worth the money.

Both together makes thinkpads worth a thought even the cheap ones.

[pete]

I would HIGHLY recommend a Thinkpad if you go for a windows machine. I've been using one for several months and have experience with them before too and they are simply amazingly robust machines - despite the monster that is XP. I also think IBM support and warranty is really good.

Good luck

[mduell]

Originally Posted by I was David B.

Also a research about how cutomers like the support for their notebooks shows apple and ibm at the first places whereas dell is far behind. Our experiences with dells 24 hours in house reair service is not worth the money.

Consumer Reports disagrees with you. For laptop repairs and reliability, they rank them: Toshiba, Apple, IBM, Sony, Dell with a spread for those 5 of 2% and a note that differences of less than 3 points are not meaningful.

A friend of mine has a Dell laptop with 3-year onsite and Complete Care. Around 3PM he was coming back to his room after class and dropped (more like flung, somehow) his laptop on the ground, busting the LCD. Called Dell, and by noon the next day they had a tech onsite replacing his LCD (covered under warranty). I'd say that's worth the $300 he spent on the warranty; with many other companies, he'd be mailing it in (2, 3, 4 days?) and shelling out the money to have it fixed ($300, 400, 500?).

[photoeditor]

That's amazing warranty support from Dell, mduell. I've been pretty impressed with Apple over the years (they have yet to take longer than three days from me putting it in the mail/dropping it off at a store to me getting it back), but that really goes above and beyond.

[pete]

I really think you should go with a mac - perhaps a used powerbook G4 15"? I say this after constant struggle with my windows xp thinkpad. XP, although perfectly fine when working, seems much more prone to glitches than macos x. For example, for several weeks now, after I logged in to my thinkpad, it would take several minutes before the taskbar appeared and I could the use the system. The machine also didn't always go to sleep, nor did it wake up always. After hours of trying to figure this out yesterday, I finally discovered what was 'wrong': I had used WAP-SPK and the machine was trying to connect during that time. Once I removed that it is completely back to normal again. There's no reason in the world why this should happen but apparently it's quite common. I don't know much, nor do I really want to, about the underpinnings of XP, but in my very limited use of the system I've had numerous frustrating glitches that I know would not have happened on the mac. And I use it only for basic things.

Go with a mac and save yourself the pain of Windows XP.

Good luck.

Pete