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| | #1 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008
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Hey everyone, My PC is really slow, and because I spend a lot of time working on my computer, I can't afford that... so I'm planning on getting a Mac (laptop). Can you guys make some recommendations? (Price range around $1200 or less) What are the best computers for IM purposes? Thanks! |
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| | #2 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Seattle, USA.
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I can't recommend a certain computer but I will say that you should look into having 2 monitors though. I just got my 2nd one and I must say it makes some things easier. My two cents.
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| | #3 |
| I have a lame list. War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: One Second into the Future
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If you want a Mac laptop under $1200, your only option is the 13" white MacBook starting at $999. Unless you look for an older, used MacBook or MacBook Pro. |
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| | #4 |
| Read Product Reviews Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: USA.
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I have completely switched to laptop and a 22-inch display. For $1200, you will be able to buy both, unless it is a Mac. Mac is expensive. A 15.4-inch Macbook pro will be more than $1,500. You can get a Mac for $1,000. Unless there is a compelling reason to buy a MacBook, you can go with a HP, toshiba, or sony with 4GB memory and 250GB hard drive for $800.
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| | #5 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009
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I am using a mac, and I can't say enough good things about it. It may be more expensive, but I cannot recommend a windows system to anyone after using the mac. It is not perfect (nothing is), but I spend so much more of my time doing what I need to do versus doing what the computer needs to do. Check the prices at a University bookstore if there is one near you. I bought mine there at a good discount, and they told me it was no problem that I wasn't a student. |
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| | #6 |
| Advanced Warrior Join Date: May 2008 Location: Western Canada
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Spend some time researching and tracking Mac computers and prices before you make that final decision! Then take the best deal you can find and re-negotiate an even better deal using that information... It's the start of February 2009, locally & online all businesses need business and consumers have the upper hand and the opportunity to wheel and deal! Even with internet marketers... ![]() Here's a good research resource to help get your Mac research started... Mac Prices: Current Mac & iPod prices, bundles & reviews; Updated Daily Dave |
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| | #7 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA.
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Check out Dell's website (if you're still considering PC), they slashed their prices pretty heavily.. also there are always Dell coupons available to get even over $500 off the price! Just google "dell coupons" and "dell coupon codes" Get 4 GB of ram and 7200 rpm HDD, T9200 CPU and you're set for a fast life! |
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| | #8 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008
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Dell. Bleh. The best computer company in the U.S. and thus the world is one you've probably never heard of, unless you listen to talk radio, which is the only place they advertise. visioncomputers.com In short:
I've owned Dell, Gateway, Acer, HP, Compaq and a few others, as well as my own privately built machines. I usually build my computers now, but if I ever had to buy one again it would be a Vision. Hands down. |
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| | #9 | |
| Warrior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Malaysia
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HTH | |
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| | #10 |
| Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Atlanta GA Metro Area, USA.
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Remember that most desktop IM software is written for the PC, not the Mac, so that should be part of your consideration. You can buy a serviceable PC desktop for under $300, usually a refurb but sometimes new. If your current PC is out of date or acting up that's an inexpensive route to go. Later, when you get a Mac laptop, you can use Remote Desktop to control the IM software you have on the desktop over your home network. |
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| | #11 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Melbourne
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I very recently bought an iMac and love it. The issue I've had is with a couple of programs I use not being available for Mac..so I have to work from both computers which slows me down a little. I think next time I'd buy a Mac lap top to have that extra flexibility of where I work. So if you use certain programs a lot then it would be a good idea to check their availability for Mac.
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| | #12 |
| HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: American Fork, Utah, U.S.A.
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If you need Windows on a Mac, I recommend VMWare Fusion. It's amazing! Used it for about a year at an old day job and loved it.
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Brandon Doyle http://doylesoft.com Simple, effective, and affordable software. Knowledge Base software. | |
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| | #13 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009
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| I can second the advice on VMWare Fusion. I have it, and I am running three different operating systems on it (Windows, Linux, Solaris). This is really great for testing out my web pages as they are seen from other systems and browsers. What I have found though is that as time goes on, I need it less and less (but it is still great to have around).
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| | #14 |
| Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008
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Build your own. Seriously, take some time and learn. You can literally save thousands. I just built a PC a couple of months back and paid $3,000 for it. I priced the same computer on dell (and they didn't even offer all the parts I use, and it came to $6,200). It all depends on what you need. |
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| | #15 |
| Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2008
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I am just wondering if you have thought of getting a laptop running on Window instead of a MacBook. They can be very inexpensive in comparison to the Mac.
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| | #16 | |
| Not Jr. Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: LA, CA, USA.
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most current PCs are good enough for most work in IM. however, you need: 1. good anti-virus & spyware; 2. enough memory, 2G memory performs much better than 1G memory on the same PC & configuration; 3. defrag HD regularly, and before defrag, make a backup; 4. again, backup regularly. 5. a pro version OS is better than a home version; $1200 is enough to buy a powerful laptop with a 22' LCD (of course, you need shopping around). In many cases, it is not your PC does not have enough power, it is because you are not using it correctly. No matter how powerful your PC, if you do not protect it, sooner or later, it will be very slow again because of virus/spyware, or, all kinds of services that are running in the background of your PC while you may not need them at all. for Mac, the problem is: most IM software runs on PC. you can use vmware to simulate windows, but you will still get problems here & there sometimes. david Quote:
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| | #17 |
| Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008
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The problem with Mac for me is that I can afford the expense, but it's a steep learning curve and not all the software is mac compatible. It's an unpleasant but true fact that the rest of the business world runs on PC, which I found out the hard way by using a Mac for graphics and PC's to run the rest of the business. Very complicated and confusing and more work than it was worth. I gave up finally and have a great old G3 that collects dust because I'm convinced that it must have been me that was doing something wrong. I think that the suggestion of the dual monitor is excellent. Triple monitors would be even better! You can do this with old, unused laptops as well as traditional flat panel screens. One thing that I found is that a laptop for me is a second computer. I need a full keyboard and other 'stuff' that can't readily expand out on a notebook. I also found that it wasn't as easy to upgrade. I just bought a hard drive and moved everything onto it from the c drive on the PC, the idea is to clean up the old hard drive and then only have the operating system on it. Seems all that IM stuff is clogging up the works! This may be a less expensive solution for you while you're still looking, and you can always use another hard drive later. |
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| | #18 |
| Warrior Member Join Date: Dec 2008
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Hi JCW Before you buy Have you tried cleaning up your computer? Do a search on Google for CCleaner, IT'S FREE down load it and install it. Once set up you will see a list on the left menu, check the boxes under advanced called Old Prefetch data & Custom Files and folders: Old Prefetch Data, I bet you got at least 300MBs of cr-- in there, same goes for Custom files & folders. Under Tools check your registry and clean it up. Make sure you back up first... Try it and you will see your computer running a lot faster: Ken-g |
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| | #19 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008
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Hey everyone, Thanks for all the good tips. I'm actually a student, so I will be checking out our bookstore here. I don't want to deal with a PC anymore -- my last three PCs have just ended up being slow -- so that's why I'm looking to buy a Mac. |
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| | #20 | |
| Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
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Just for future reference I will say that over time with windows you WILL have to eventually reinstall the whole operating system to get back the speed you once had. I don't take care of my windows machine that well at all (don't defrag or do many scans at all), but I have learned that if it feels slow it's easy to just restore the system. This is something I do about every 12-18 months and it's no big deal to me. | |
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| | #21 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008
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Hmmm, maybe I should give this a try... how do you restore the whole system?
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| | #22 |
| Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
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| System restore disks should have come with your system (or possibly an application to burn your own). This will wipe out your data on your hard drive and restore the system to just like the day you bought it, so back up everything first before doing so.
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| | #23 |
| Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: , , USA.
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Learn how to build your own, and then piece it together yourself. You'll get a better computer, for literally half the price. The system I'm running now was about $1200 usd, and is comparable to a $2800 store-bought pc, and most stores or boutiques don't offer the level of pc I have currently. People bitch about compatibility with windows, and how much better it is for mac. What they aren't telling you is that there are thousands upon thousands more programs built for Windows than Mac. Macs are good machines, but you are paying a LOT for glitter and design. I would STRONGLY recommend you learn how to put together your own pc. It's not hard at all and will outperform anything for the cost. |
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Money isn't real, George. It doesn't matter. It only seems like it does.
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| | #24 | |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009
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What will actually help you speed up your system is to first back up any documents you have on the system. Make sure that you have all original CD or DVD media for any applications you have, including the windows install disks. When you are sure you have everything, then you erase the computer, and re-install windows. After re-installing windows, let it catch up on all of the system updates and patches, then re-install all of your applications from original disks. By doing it this way you make sure that you get clean registry entries for everything . After installing the applications, then you can restore your documents. This process is basically the same as buying a new computer, but if your computer performed well when you bought it, there is no hardware reason that it can't perform that well again. | |
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| | #25 |
| HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jan 2009
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I just got a new Sony Vaio and i love it, i use a dell before.
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| | #26 |
| Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: London, United Kingdom.
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I brought an old compaq base unit from Ebay for 40 Pounds(UK) and added some more Ram.The computer has been running without any problem for the past two years. Windows is essential for business because so many programs are written for it. I use windows xp rather than vista because it is running so well I don't want to change anything. |
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| | #28 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009
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You said it's no big deal to restore your computer. Have you found a simple time saving solution for having to reinstall all of your programs such as Dream Weaver and Photo Shop? I'd love to know more about how this helps lengthen the life of your computer and protect your files and keep your hard drive working longer if in fact that is what you get besides a fast running computer. Thanks. Denise Lorraine |
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| | #29 |
| Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009
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Could someone explain to me the way they are using 2 and 3 monitors? Is it necessary for a certain line of work or would it benefit everyone who uses the internet if they only knew the benefits? Also...do you have to buy an adapter to hook up more than one monitor or how do you do that? Thanks. Denise Lorraine |
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| | #30 | |
| Warrior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Malaysia
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If you don't want to clutter your work desk just buy a video card that has dual ports. Google around and you can find a video showing you how. | |
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| | #31 |
| Warrior Member |
If you are using a dell, some dell models allow you do do a restore that reloads all the original settings automatically so you don't have to spend hours reinstalling all the software that came with the suites. I know that the Optiplex Line does NOT have this feature. (Sigh.) |
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"as long as the candle burns, one can accomplish."
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| | #32 |
| Flyin' Low & Slow War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008
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Just wondering if anyone uses an external/internal hard drive (any drive besides the c drive) to run programs such as Photoshop, Vegas etc. What is your experience and what type of drive are you using? |
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| | #33 |
| Flyin' Low & Slow War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008
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As far as computers go I use both Mac and PC. I really like the MAC operating system but from a bang for the buck perspective the PC comes out on top. IMHO what it really comes down to is which machine makes you more productive because in the end that's what it's all about. Kevin |
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| | #34 |
| Active Warrior Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: not San Diego
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Lenovo or Vaio. Everything else pales in comparison If you are brave put Ubuntu 8.10 on the Lenovo and you will wonder why you ever used windoze. |
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| | #35 |
| HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: U.S.
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Dell. Hardware is hardware. The processor in a dell is the same as a processor in a gateway, or sony vaio. The difference is going to be when it breaks and you need to get it fixed. They all break. Dell warranty will have them come to you instead of you going to them or sending your machine off. And depending what warranty you get, it will cover pretty much everything but you taking a ball bat to the unit.
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