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Need a high quality laptop for under $2000

cookoutdeac said:
Everything else is impressive, especially dat battery life, but this is pretty standard (and actually a bit slower than you'd see in a Win8 computer) for anything with an SSD in it these days.
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I'm coming straight from a T410, so you should definitely take my hardware knob slobbing with a grain of salt. I do have a lot of experience with Windows 8 (non-touch) and though I don't hate it as much as some, I love Mavericks so far, especially with its Airplay functionality.

Sent from my C6606 using Tapatalk
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
I'm coming straight from a T410, so you should definitely take my hardware knob slobbing with a grain of salt. I do have a lot of experience with Windows 8 (non-touch) and though I don't hate it as much as some, I love Mavericks so far, especially with its Airplay functionality.

Sent from my C6606 using Tapatalk
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Roger. It's defs a nice machine, and after looking at the prices of comparative PCs they really aren't so far off these days as to make them cost prohibitive if you're already in that range. I think PH is probably making the right choice for his needs.
 
PhDeac said:
I'm going to follow Wellman's lead and go with the Mac. The deal I get will determine which one.
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Every time another PC user is drawn into the dark side, we move a little closer to the zombie apocalypse.
 
My only issue with the Air and MBP 13" is lack of a discrete video card. I'd like to get an MBP 13" and have better gaming framerates.

I don't really want a 15" laptop again. 13-14" is my preferred size(!).
 
bym051d said:
My only issue with the Air and MBP 13" is lack of a discrete video card. I'd like to get an MBP 13" and have better gaming framerates.

I don't really want a 15" laptop again. 13-14" is my preferred size(!).
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That and the low res screen are really it's only drawbacks. I've heard that Asus makes the best laptops for gaming

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Longtime PC guy. converted to Mac about 6 months ago and I will never go back. I work in the tech industry so I understand the issue about not wanting the "noisy brick". there is a definite learning curve but it's not massive. I;d also encourage you not to store much on whatever you get. Invest in Google Drive or some other cloud storage mechanism for a modest monthly fee (free if you don't store huge files) I can't stress enough how much simpler my life is being able to access documents from my mac, wife's pc, my iphone or ipad.

Use every dollar to go Mac, get some accessories like time machine for back up etc.
 
Stories like these encourage me to go Mac. Placing my order tomorrow. Price has been the issue with Macs so I'm using your taxpayer money to buy one. Thanks.
 
bym051d said:
My only issue with the Air and MBP 13" is lack of a discrete video card. I'd like to get an MBP 13" and have better gaming framerates.

I don't really want a 15" laptop again. 13-14" is my preferred size(!).
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What is the advantage of the video card?
 
cookoutdeac said:
Almost entirely for gaming, the integrated stuff works just fine for everything else these days.
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Yep. Discrete video card will provide better settings / framerate for games.
 
Good call with the Mac. I made a platform jump (was a PC loyalist for decades) and bought a Macbook Air a few months ago. I love love love it.
 
cookoutdeac said:
Probably the main reason it's lasted so long/still feels snappy, that's not an insignificant upgrade especially since it gave you (presumably) a clean slate. My gf's MBP is about 2.5 years old and is starting to get a little sluggish and hangs up pretty badly every now and then. I think it's still fine but will eventually need some love via an upgrade like that and a fresh OS install in the near future.
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Yeah, didn't mean to sound like an SSD upgrade is minor - it turned a 2 minute boot time into 20 seconds and programs that used to launch in about 45 seconds are almost instant now. I just meant it was cheap - the drive was $100. The clean slate helped some but I don't find OSX bloats like Windows does - to be fair I have very little Windows 8 experience but am in the tech industry so I know XP/Vista/7/server very well. I mostly was just pointing out that while you spend more on a Mac, there are little things they don't skimp on that matter. Like in this old thing, they used newer eSATA drives which is the only reason it supported a modern SSD 4 years later. The touchpad is glass, not plastic, so it doesn't decline. The wireless chip was 5ghz compatible. They put cameras in the screens very early on, use magnets for the power plug so it never breaks, and the batteries are much higher quality than most other laptops. So 4 years later it still lasts 4 hours on a charge and a $100 upgrade was enough to make it impossible for me to talk myself into upgrading. And I love buying new tech stuff...

Of course, all the new ones are fairly difficult to upgrade, so that could be a minus. But everything's heading that direction pretty much.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
Longtime PC guy. converted to Mac about 6 months ago and I will never go back. I work in the tech industry so I understand the issue about not wanting the "noisy brick". there is a definite learning curve but it's not massive. I;d also encourage you not to store much on whatever you get. Invest in Google Drive or some other cloud storage mechanism for a modest monthly fee (free if you don't store huge files) I can't stress enough how much simpler my life is being able to access documents from my mac, wife's pc, my iphone or ipad.

Use every dollar to go Mac, get some accessories like time machine for back up etc.
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I totally agree with this post. I converted to Mac about three years ago, pay $50 year for extra iCloud space and we have the time capsule set up at our home which is also connected to iCloud. Suffice it to say, my iPad air has more computing power than most PC's. Once you start to save files outside of your main device, what's the point in having a standard PC laptop?

I'll also say that my wife has a MacBook Pro and I have the MacBook Air. We disagree on which one we like better, but if you're mobile and not doing design work on something like Ai or some of the other crazy shit she has on her machine, then a MacBook Air is an incredible piece of machinery. Once you buy Office for Mac, you can basically do anything else that a PC can do and 10X as much in general...
 
I'm still rocking my MBP and Mac Mini from 2010 and 2009 (respectively). Upgraded the hard disks and RAM and they run as well as they did the day I bought them. I think it's one of the strongest selling points for a Mac, the longevity.
 
scooter84 said:
Then something is clearly wrong with it - and it is in the software - not the hardware - guaranteed. Which model did you buy?
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My immediate thought was hard drive...

I would absolutely not buy a laptop with anything other than a SSD now that they are reasonably priced. I worked for IS while at Wake and that was far and away the most common issue.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
Longtime PC guy. converted to Mac about 6 months ago and I will never go back. I work in the tech industry so I understand the issue about not wanting the "noisy brick". there is a definite learning curve but it's not massive. I;d also encourage you not to store much on whatever you get. Invest in Google Drive or some other cloud storage mechanism for a modest monthly fee (free if you don't store huge files) I can't stress enough how much simpler my life is being able to access documents from my mac, wife's pc, my iphone or ipad.

Use every dollar to go Mac, get some accessories like time machine for back up etc.
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whoa whoa whoa

wife?
 
Hijack, anyone have a good suggestion for a cheap wireless mouse to use with a Macbook?
 
Not a hijack. I think someone mentioned one early in the thread.

If I had balled up and gone with the Mac five years ago, it would have been cheaper than my 2 laptops in that time.
 
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