Who knows about laptops?

[rendal]

I know the "Mac vs PC" has been talked about thoroughly on here, but I don't know much at all about laptops, so I'm wondering if anybody has any recommendations on specific laptops (make/model). I'm starting dental school in a few months and want to get something that will last four years if I take care of it and don't corrupt it with "movie streaming" sites and things of that nature. I'm also not trying to break the bank. I'm looking to spend under $1,000 including the addition of Microsoft Office and such things. Any recommendations?

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[I want to go to there]

Check to see whether or not your school includes a laptop in your fees and what softwares they give you. I would go with either Lenovo or Acer, i5, ~4gb ram, good battery life, ~13 in screen, and whatever hard drive size you want. You can get a solid one for school for around $500 or less on newegg that includes ms office.

If you think you might want to play games or watch "movies" on it on your free time, also get a nice 24'' monitor to hook it up to. For games, go i7, good graphic card, and 8gb ram.

 

[cacajuate]

"Movie streaming sites"

Just stick to name brands with a 4+ gigs of ram and you will be fine.

 

[krikey]

I read about one lady that said in dental school 90% of the students had MacBooks. She went onto say once you use a macbook you won't be able to go back to a Windows computer. I recently got my first Macbook Pro and I agree. I always thought the MacBooks were like a fad but after getting one, now I know why people like them. Yes they are expensive but you get what you pay for. It really is a high quality piece of equipment. My absolute favorite feature on the Macbook are the hand gestures specifically being able to use 2 fingers on the touchpad to scroll down on a page. It is very useful and I don't need a mouse at all. There are many other hand gestures you can use but that one is my favorite. I have some windows laptops and I catch myself trying to use 2 fingers to scroll down the page heh. The reasons to get a macbook are numerous so I'll just point some more out that I like. If you own an iPhone you can actually use your macbook to send text messages over your phone. You can also sync your notes to each device as well as your iPad if you have one. You can also put the screen of your iPhone or iPad onto your macbook and record it if you'd like. Another advantage is spyware. I work in IT, and I am constantly removing spyware and malware from people's computers. 99% of the peoples computers are...you guessed it windows laptops. Malware for the most part is designed to infect windows systems...MacBooks simply have nowhere near the amount of spyware or viruses. It's like night and day. I bought myself a macbook pro for around 2k. However with your budget you could easily get a new version macbook air 13.3 for $829 off ebay. Lastly I'd like to mention one advantage of the macbook air over the macbook pro is battery life with the air getting 12 hours vs around 8-10 for the pro..Speaking of the macbook air, I just bought one for my girlfriend. Trust me, if you get a mac you won't want to go back to a windows laptop. Good luck!

 

[I want to go to there]

I read about one lady that said in dental school 90% of the students had MacBooks. She went onto say once you use a macbook you won't be able to go back to a Windows computer. I recently got my first Macbook Pro and I agree. I always thought the MacBooks were like a fad but after getting one, now I know why people like them. Yes they are expensive but you get what you pay for. It really is a high quality piece of equipment. My absolute favorite feature on the Macbook are the hand gestures specifically being able to use 2 fingers on the touchpad to scroll down on a page. It is very useful and I don't need a mouse at all. There are many other hand gestures you can use but that one is my favorite. I have some windows laptops and I catch myself trying to use 2 fingers to scroll down the page heh. The reasons to get a macbook are numerous so I'll just point some more out that I like. If you own an iPhone you can actually use your macbook to send text messages over your phone. You can also sync your notes to each device as well as your iPad if you have one. You can also put the screen of your iPhone or iPad onto your macbook and record it if you'd like. Another advantage is spyware. I work in IT, and I am constantly removing spyware and malware from people's computers. 99% of the peoples computers are...you guessed it windows laptops. Malware for the most part is designed to infect windows systems...MacBooks simply have nowhere near the amount of spyware or viruses. It's like night and day. I bought myself a macbook pro for around 2k. However with your budget you could easily get a new version macbook air 13.3 for $829 off ebay. Lastly I'd like to mention one advantage of the macbook air over the macbook pro is battery life with the air getting 12 hours vs around 8-10 for the pro..Speaking of the macbook air, I just bought one for my girlfriend. Trust me, if you get a mac you won't want to go back to a windows laptop. Good luck!

Personally, I don't think few nice features justify the double the cost of PC with a similar specs. I think you can get those a lot of those features on your PC with some free or cheap softwares. If you so choose, you can buy a good anti-virus/spyware programs for like $30 when they go on sale and get protected as long as you don't do something stupid with your computer. I use free virus/spyware/junk removal programs and my computers still perform very well. Heck, this laptop I'm using is from Acer and I bought it in 2007. It still performs well for just everyday use, watching movies, etc. I got it connected to my TV in my living room with surround sound speakers, it's been amazing piece in my multimedia setup.

 

[BrazilianRider]

Personally, I don't think few nice features justify the double the cost of PC with a similar specs. I think you can get those a lot of those features on your PC with some free or cheap softwares. For $800, you can get a If you so choose, you can buy a good anti-virus/spyware programs for like $30 when they go on sale and get protected as long as you don't do something stupid with your computer.

Agree, plus, god forbid your battery starts to go south on a Macbook where you can't just buy a new one and switch it out...

 

[SableFire]

I've got the surface pro and absolutely love it! The computer is great and OneNote is truly amazing! The keyboard is surprising nice and responsive along with being backlit and the touchpad is also very nice. And if you like the two finger scrolly thing that was talked about with mac the surface pro does that also and hey its a touch screen also which can be super awesome! Macs might be nice but I don't think the price justifies the advantages. Only downside to the surface pro is battery life is tops 8 hours depending on use. I can get 3-4 hours of intense gaming out of it which isn't all that bad

 

[I want to go to there]

Agree, plus, god forbid your battery starts to go south on a Macbook where you can't just buy a new one and switch it out...

If you break something, it's also way harder and more expensive to fix on your own. Rams and HDD are also much easier and cheaper to upgrade on PC. A lot of games and programs are more compatible with PCs than Mac as well.

 

[FeralisExtremum]

My absolute favorite feature on the Macbook are the hand gestures specifically being able to use 2 fingers on the touchpad to scroll down on a page.

This is a feature on like...every laptop, ever. On a Windows laptop you just have to turn it on in the touchpad settings if it isn't active by default.

 

[krikey]

Personally, I don't think few nice features justify the double the cost of PC with a similar specs. I think you can get those a lot of those features on your PC with some free or cheap softwares. If you so choose, you can buy a good anti-virus/spyware programs for like $30 when they go on sale and get protected as long as you don't do something stupid with your computer. I use free virus/spyware/junk removal programs and my computers still perform very well. Heck, this laptop I'm using is from Acer and I bought it in 2007. It still performs well for just everyday use, watching movies, etc. I got it connected to my TV in my living room with surround sound speakers, it's been amazing piece in my multimedia setup.

I was just like you once...sadly you won't understand unless you experience it yourself.

 

[kenny878]

Haha movie streaming sites. That struggle

 

[rev_rend]

Go try out a Surface Pro with One Note.

I have a cheap HP Stream right now. I bought a refurbished Bamboo Capture pad and pen to try out with One Note. It's totally changed the way I take notes and study. I went and tried out the pen with One Note on a Surface Pro 3 recently and it's even better. I'll definitely be getting one before school starts.

 

[BrazilianRider]

I was just like you once...sadly you won't understand unless you experience it yourself.

My girlfriend has a Macbook and I hate it. It adds a few convenient hand gestures but that's about it. I feel like a PC is much more straightforward with less fluff. Unsurprisingly, people have different opinions.

 

[rev_rend]

My girlfriend has a Macbook and I hate it. It adds a few convenient hand gestures but that's about it. I feel like a PC is much more straightforward with less fluff. Unsurprisingly, people have different opinions.

I had one years ago and I found it to be just okay. My dad has a couple macs and I use them fairly regularly when I do his books. Again, I think they're just okay.

 

[DentalDoge]

A few questions. Is this going to be your daily driver? If so, you're looking at very close to $1000 laptops for named brands and $1200+ for Apple. Luckily, there are other ways to get Microsoft office :wink: :wink:

I am a little biased against Macs simply because their "upgrades" are waaaaaay overpriced. Though the base model MBP and MBA are great values.

Im a techy so I've messed around with all kinds of new techs. I will say this, Macs are great computers. But theyre just that, computers. In my experience, Macs and PCs inherently do the same things.

Macs will come in a better looking package, more user-friendly (idiot-proof), and customer support. But all of these will come at a premium, especially if you want to accessorize or upgrade (seriously, a replacement charger is like $80, I can get my windows tinted for that much). I think all the "features" are great, but frankly it doesnt really justify a $1500 machine. If you want to have Apple to do all the thinking for you (in terms of repairs) and have the money to pay for it, go with Macs. It will save you alot of time and headache in the coming years.

PCs .... kind of hard to generalize these since there are so many brands. But vaguely, most of them are very customizable. You can switch out most laptop parts when they break and are easily self-serviceable. Obviously, they will run Windows and Windows 10 when it comes out in a few months. But if you dont mind googling and fixing things yourself, you will save hundreds of dollars.

I personally recommend Surface Pro line for the unparalleled handwriting capabilities. Be warned, you will be paying a premium and unlike most PC laptops, Surface Pros are very nonself-serviceable machines. They are as hard to crack open as a MBA.

 

[rendal]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I actually currently have a MBP that I've had for over 4 years but it's been giving me problems recently. Maybe because I dropped it a couple of times hehe. I've been looking at PC's because I'm looking for something cheaper, and I've used non-Mac computers and found them to be just as user friendly and pleasant as my MBP. I've been looking at some Toshiba and Dell makes that I like so I'll probably get one of those. Like many have said, I'm sure any computer will get the job done. I'll just do a bit more research to try to get the most bang for my buck.

 

[DentalDoge]

This is my own opinion...


But there isnt a word in the English dictionary that can describe my hatred for Dell.
So stay away from that.

 

[Greyangel6]

I have both MBA and a PC and an iPad 4. I use the MBA for school because it's pretty light, slim and has a good battery life. And the MBA has laptop functions that sometimes the iPad cannot cover. The iPad is for classes that require more drawings and hand-written notes (some of my professors like to put lots of pictures on their slides and just talk about them so hand-writing the notes and be helpful in organization versus typing). I can airdop all notes into the MBA for when I study so it's pretty useful. The PC is for when I need to do more stuff that require higher processing power, like Dreamweaver, PTS, video-editing, possibly CEREC, etc.

In terms of pricing, I think Apple products do offer some nice features, stable hardwares, and a bit of good look but at a very steep price, which is the reason I used every student discounts, every coupon to reduce the cost and I do think it's worth it.

 

[I want to go to there]

This is my own opinion...


But there isnt a word in the English dictionary that can describe my hatred for Dell.
So stay away from that.

I don't like Dell either, but I heard their products have improved a lot and their new laptops are actually very good.

 

[ajj70]

I read about one lady that said in dental school 90% of the students had MacBooks. She went onto say once you use a macbook you won't be able to go back to a Windows computer. I recently got my first Macbook Pro and I agree. I always thought the MacBooks were like a fad but after getting one, now I know why people like them. Yes they are expensive but you get what you pay for. It really is a high quality piece of equipment. My absolute favorite feature on the Macbook are the hand gestures specifically being able to use 2 fingers on the touchpad to scroll down on a page. It is very useful and I don't need a mouse at all. There are many other hand gestures you can use but that one is my favorite. I have some windows laptops and I catch myself trying to use 2 fingers to scroll down the page heh. The reasons to get a macbook are numerous so I'll just point some more out that I like. If you own an iPhone you can actually use your macbook to send text messages over your phone. You can also sync your notes to each device as well as your iPad if you have one. You can also put the screen of your iPhone or iPad onto your macbook and record it if you'd like. Another advantage is spyware. I work in IT, and I am constantly removing spyware and malware from people's computers. 99% of the peoples computers are...you guessed it windows laptops. Malware for the most part is designed to infect windows systems...MacBooks simply have nowhere near the amount of spyware or viruses. It's like night and day. I bought myself a macbook pro for around 2k. However with your budget you could easily get a new version macbook air 13.3 for $829 off ebay. Lastly I'd like to mention one advantage of the macbook air over the macbook pro is battery life with the air getting 12 hours vs around 8-10 for the pro..Speaking of the macbook air, I just bought one for my girlfriend. Trust me, if you get a mac you won't want to go back to a windows laptop. Good luck!

I can 2 finger scroll on my PC. My notes sync with my Android phone via Dropbox or other apps. I can text from my computer, and do that often. I have antivirus so no spyware, etc...plus I'm not stupid enough to go to unknown sites . For 2K, you can buy 3 PC's. Not knowing your computing needs after dental school, I'd hesitate to put that kind of money into a laptop, but that's me.

 

[dentalstudentprospect2]

Over the past few years, I have slowly but surely transitioned from being a die-hard pc enthusiast to an apple fanboy. I've built numerous custom gaming pc's and have had alienware and other expensive pc laptops brands. Pc's are great and all but since I don't have time to play games or have the need for processing intensive programs, I have found macs to be much better for my needs. Sure, there are programs that can make a pc do everything a Mac can do and more but the experience and quality of macs are leagues above any pc I have used. due to the lack of customizability, I like to think of macs as more of an appliance (and a damn good one at that). But I wholeheartedly agree that once you go mac, you can never go back!

 

[Ollivander]

For $2-3K I'd rather get a suped up PC than a Macbook. I'm talking about 16 GB of RAM, all SSD, 17 inch screen, a 4th gen i7 core processor, a nice video card, the works. Macs are way too expensive for the product you're getting. Everyone is just buying it based on how easy they find navigating on it to be in addition to all of their friends having one. You take your Mac and I'll take my PC that has 3-4x the hardware specs.

 

[Faux]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I actually currently have a MBP that I've had for over 4 years but it's been giving me problems recently. Maybe because I dropped it a couple of times hehe. I've been looking at PC's because I'm looking for something cheaper, and I've used non-Mac computers and found them to be just as user friendly and pleasant as my MBP. I've been looking at some Toshiba and Dell makes that I like so I'll probably get one of those. Like many have said, I'm sure any computer will get the job done. I'll just do a bit more research to try to get the most bang for my buck.

Are you still using a macbook pro 2011 too? Whats wrong with it exactly? There was a recall recently.

For $2-3K I'd rather get a suped up PC than a Macbook. I'm talking about 16 GB of RAM, all SSD, 17 inch screen, a 4th gen i7 core processor, a nice video card, the works. Macs are way too expensive for the product you're getting. Everyone is just buying it based on how easy they find navigating on it to be in addition to all of their friends having one. You take your Mac and I'll take my PC that has 3-4x the hardware specs.

Kind of pointless getting a supped up PC for dental school.

 

[Ollivander]

Kind of pointless getting a supped up PC for dental school.

I agree. I'd be doing it for other reasons. I was just comparing a Macbook to a PC of the same price.

 

[Faux]

I agree. I'd be doing it for other reasons. I was just comparing a Macbook to a PC of the same price.

I'm looking into keeping my old macbook and buying a 60 inch TV instead

 

[YouHadToBeThatGuy]

If you're willing to take about 2 hours of your time you can get everything you want for minimal cost. I have no comment on the legality of this here information.
1. Buy a relatively cheap non-Apple laptop with a quad core processor (pref. Intel i5-i7, 8GB RAM)
2. Remove harddrive from back of laptop and install Solid State Harddrive (SSD)
3. Torrent the Apple OS and install on your laptop with driver set
4. Congratulations, you now have a non-Apple, Apple computer that works better than a Mac, and costs a quarter of the price.

 

[EasTexan]

Whichever make/model you choose, be sure it has a SSD hard drive and not an old-school spindle or hybrid drive. The response time of SSDs blows traditional hard drives out of the water. Response time is what makes your computer feel "fast". In order of importance if I were buying a laptop today: SSD > RAM > Screensize > Processor > Peripheral Connections.

 

[dentalstudentprospect2]

If you're willing to take about 2 hours of your time you can get everything you want for minimal cost. I have no comment on the legality of this here information.
1. Buy a relatively cheap non-Apple laptop with a quad core processor (pref. Intel i5-i7, 8GB RAM)
2. Remove harddrive from back of laptop and install Solid State Harddrive (SSD)
3. Torrent the Apple OS and install on your laptop with driver set
4. Congratulations, you now have a non-Apple, Apple computer that works better than a Mac, and costs a quarter of the price.

Goodluck finding drivers that will be 100% compatible with your laptop

 

[DentalDoge]

Goodluck finding drivers that will be 100% compatible with your laptop

You mean, good luck finding a laptop that will play nice with OSX. OSX are notoriously difficult to install on non-Apple flashed hardware.

Source: Tried to build a hackintosh.

Whichever make/model you choose, be sure it has a SSD hard drive and not an old-school spindle or hybrid drive. The response time of SSDs blows traditional hard drives out of the water. Response time is what makes your computer feel "fast". In order of importance if I were buying a laptop today: SSD > RAM > Screensize > Processor > Peripheral Connections.

But 100% SSD's. Doesnt matter what computer you get, just make sure it comes with an SSD.

Like i said before, the biggest complaint I have with Apple is not their computer, I personally think most of their computers are brilliant, it's the "upgrades".
To elaborate on my previous point, a $2000 MBP doesnt even have a graphics card. Pretty sure all of the money goes into that 224 ppi 15" screen and intel cpu. THEN, they charge you $500 for a GTX 750m, a $150-$200 card. For comparison, you can buy a top of the line GTX 980 for around $600.

If it was me, I'd get the same spec'd laptop and spend the extra grand on a 30" 4k UHD monitor (yeah you read that right)... or booze.

 

[krikey]

MacBooks have PCIe-based flash storage which has better performance than SSD. More than likely the average user won't notice a difference but it's worth mentioning.

http://create.pro/blog/storage-option-best-mac-pro-hdd-ssd-flash-storage/

It really is the little things that make Apple stand out...for example the power adapter that connects to the laptop is also a magnet so it snaps in. The feel of the keyboard on the macbook pro. I've always been around non apple laptops even the expensive ones and I can tell a difference. You just get a nice quality product with Apple. You would be doing yourself a disservice going the cheaper route in this regard. Buy a Macbook and you won't look back!

 

[Digitalangel]

is the new surface 3 worth looking into? (not pro)

 

[DentalDoge]

MacBooks have PCIe-based flash storage which has better performance than SSD. More than likely the average user won't notice a difference but it's worth mentioning.

http://create.pro/blog/storage-option-best-mac-pro-hdd-ssd-flash-storage/

It really is the little things that make Apple stand out...for example the power adapter that connects to the laptop is also a magnet so it snaps in. The feel of the keyboard on the macbook pro. I've always been around non apple laptops even the expensive ones and I can tell a difference. You just get a nice quality product with Apple. You would be doing yourself a disservice going the cheaper route in this regard. Buy a Macbook and you won't look back!

"It really is the little things that make Apple stand out"
Or so they want you to think ... that's marketing at work. And Apple is damn good at that.

Flash Storages are SSDs but SSDs arent Flash Storages. Pretty much every SSD out there is flash based now and theyre all pretty much the same speed. Not that you need that kind of performance for browsing facebook and youtube anyways. For the record, SP3 also has a magnet on the charger ... never thought those were a feature, what's wrong with a regular plug in charger? The keyboard is so-so, much like every other keyboard once you use a keyboard with Cherry MX Red switches.

And how the hell can you discuss 'features' without bringing up the trackpad ... one of 2 things Apple has done exceptionally well (and they know it).

is the new surface 3 worth looking into? (not pro)

Depends, it's not meant to be a laptop but more of a auxiliary to desktops daily driver. Like iPads.

Obviously, no sweat for normal academic usage (facebook and youtube hehe).

 

[krikey]

"It really is the little things that make Apple stand out"

And how the hell can you discuss 'features' without bringing up the trackpad ... one of 2 things Apple has done exceptionally well (and they know it).

Cause I brought it up earlier =P

To each their own...It wasn't marketing that convinced me. Some people just won't be convinced...oh well..your loss =D

 

[DentalDoge]

Cause I brought it up earlier =P

To each their own...It wasn't marketing that convinced me. Some people just won't be convinced...oh well..your loss =D

You just said you liked the 2 finger scrolling, which really isnt really that special. Never mentioned the accuracy, precision, and quality of the trackpad which I think is the biggest feature.

When you have used as much tech as I have, you'll find that every computer has its flaws if you poke hard enough. EVERY computer is inherently the same, put the same specs on each machine and it will perform, regardless of the company that assembled it for you. I just dont like people spouting misinformation.

Here's the bottom line, computers are computers, pick your favorite OS and your favorite form factor, and use it.

/r

 

[krikey]

You just said you liked the 2 finger scrolling, which really isnt really that special. Never mentioned the accuracy, precision, and quality of the trackpad I think is the biggest feature.

/r

I didn't bring up the other touchpad features (accuracy, precision, quality) you mentioned because compared to a 600 windows laptop I have I couldn't really tell a difference. Well I take that back...the quality of the touchpad does feel better...You're correct I should have mentioned that. However I believe the 2 finger scrolling was so useful to me, that I thought I would let others know about it. After using that feature I really find it hard to go back to a regular laptop. So for me it IS special...for you I guess not. To each their own.

You said you've been around tech a lot...well so have I...all my life =D

I stand by what I said...2 finger scrolling is very useful and will always be special to me...I realize not everyone will think so, but this guy does x10!

 

[rendal]

Are you still using a macbook pro 2011 too? Whats wrong with it exactly? There was a recall recently.



Kind of pointless getting a supped up PC for dental school.

Yeah it's a 2011. It's often slow to start up and it has a hard time connecting to and staying connected to the internet. It'll usually show that it's connected but won't be able to load webpages. I've tried all of the Mac solutions to fixing it and nothing has seemed to work. Applications also take a long time to open up and they will frequently quit unexpectedly.

What does the recall apply to? I would love to take advantage of that if I can.

 

[Faux]

Yeah it's a 2011. It's often slow to start up and it has a hard time connecting to and staying connected to the internet. It'll usually show that it's connected but won't be able to load webpages. I've tried all of the Mac solutions to fixing it and nothing has seemed to work. Applications also take a long time to open up and they will frequently quit unexpectedly.

What does the recall apply to? I would love to take advantage of that if I can.

The recall is for GPU related issues.

Is your computer like that all the time? no matter the router? If so, it sounds like its your wifi card(forgot proper term). They do sell those individually as a USB attachment.

Look on amazon for a BearExtender Turbo High Speed 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi Adapter for Mac OS X


If your computer is slow to boot up, it could be the hard drive and its possible its starting to fail. I recently installed an SSD drive, it took less than 5 minutes and its a night and day difference. My school offers an option to keep your laptop instead of buying a new one. With an SSD and extra ram(8gb vs 4gb), I have no reason to upgrade my macbook.

Look on amazon for a Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5-Inch Internal Solid State Drive and youtube an installation video.