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I go off to college later this year and I've been looking at laptops. I can't decide between a Macbook with OS X Leopard or a HP notebook with Vista. Any suggestions? My budget is $1,200 - $1,500. I'm not going to be gaming on it; just office programs, email, photo editing, and some molecular imaging programs because I'm going into Chemistry. I need it to last through all or part of my graduate program too (6-8 years).

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wulfshelmut wrote:PC all the way.

Macs are for fruity art types that like to design graphical art on thier computers,also pizza flyer adds.LOL

true, in my film class all we use is mac's and i personally dont like them that much...so i would go with a nice pc

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KillerSniper, I am a recent college grad from a few years ago...go with the MacBook because it is more insulated from viruses and trojans. Only thing you have to worry about is phishing but that can change. Plus if you are a student, you would get a discount on MS Office for the Mac which is $150.00.

Check to see if your college will have a computer lab. If you need to use a Windows PC, you could just use that in the computer lab of your campus.

If you do not want to buy MS Office, Google has a free word processor program online, free excel, and free powerpoint stuff. Those three are things that you will need in college. The Google Doc software would allow you to send your professor an attachment using a pdf or .doc file. More and more college profs are willing to collect homework electronically.

But my advice to you would be to wait until you know what you need.

What are you planning to major in?

Pac-Man, Galaga, and New Rally-X: Ageless classics!
I'm a college student myself, I know that money is tight. I would definitely go with a PC laptop. A pretty good HP laptop will run you about 800. That includes more RAM and space than an overpriced mac which run at past 1,000 dollars. Also, you can upgrade your laptop in future years. Mac hardware and software is very limited. It is also pretty easy to avoid viruses, you just have to have common sense and not install any programs you're not sure of.

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Out of those options, the Mac. But I would recommend something with XP.

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TiredOfSex wrote:I'm a college student myself, I know that money is tight. I would definitely go with a PC laptop. A pretty good HP laptop will run you about 800. That includes more RAM and space than an overpriced mac which run at past 1,000 dollars. Also, you can upgrade your laptop in future years. Mac hardware and software is very limited. It is also pretty easy to avoid viruses, you just have to have common sense and not install any programs you're not sure of.

Your PC can install those kind of nasty stuff without you knowing it. Schools do have firewalls but those firewalls do not keep EVERY malicous stuff from getting to the school's network. With a Mac, you don't have to really worry about that happening. The bad thing about hooking your PC up to the school's network is that it is much more likely to have an idiot student open an e-mail with some virus in it. In this case, the more expensive Mac is the better buy.

That is why I recommend a Mac if it is possible.

Pac-Man, Galaga, and New Rally-X: Ageless classics!
I_IS_SPECIAL wrote:Out of those options, the Mac. But I would recommend something with XP.

Good thinking there...I don't think many colleges are willing to give M$ their money to upgrade to Vista.

Pac-Man, Galaga, and New Rally-X: Ageless classics!
Don't buy anything over 14.1 inches. Since you'll probably be hauling it around at school get something light, portable, and with a good battery life.

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From my experience, PC. I had to use a mac for one big paper, and it turns out it needed to be emailed. Long story short, it got messed up trying to go from mac to PC, was a huge disaster, and I never touched one again. The next year I wrote a research paper by hand just to avoid it (long story why I couldn't use a PC).

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BURNTRBR44 wrote:KillerSniper, I am a recent college grad from a few years ago...go with the MacBook because it is more insulated from viruses and trojans. Only thing you have to worry about is phishing but that can change. Plus if you are a student, you would get a discount on MS Office for the Mac which is $150.00.

Check to see if your college will have a computer lab. If you need to use a Windows PC, you could just use that in the computer lab of your campus.

If you do not want to buy MS Office, Google has a free word processor program online, free excel, and free powerpoint stuff. Those three are things that you will need in college. The Google Doc software would allow you to send your professor an attachment using a pdf or .doc file. More and more college profs are willing to collect homework electronically.

But my advice to you would be to wait until you know what you need.

What are you planning to major in?

Biochemistry. I'll need some power to display huge DNA sequences. I also want something that is well built and a good quality so it will last.

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