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Need a high quality laptop for under $2000

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.

I don't disagree, but think it's pretty funny when twice now the longevity has been mentioned for devices that received significant upgrades to their hardware. The fact that the new macbooks are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform upgrades on doesn't help in this department.
 
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.

I've made this argument many times. My parents are always saying "we can't afford a Mac" then they buy 3 terrible $400 laptops in 5 years and constantly annoyed by them.

It does suck now that you can't even upgrade RAM in the new machines as it's soldered onto the boards to save space. But if you really have to upgrade these days, just back it up to Time Machine, wipe the machine, sell it on eBay, then buy the better one. The resale is so high it's not all that risky.
 
I've made this argument many times. My parents are always saying "we can't afford a Mac" then they buy 3 terrible $400 laptops in 5 years and constantly annoyed by them.

It does suck now that you can't even upgrade RAM in the new machines as it's soldered onto the boards to save space. But if you really have to upgrade these days, just back it up to Time Machine, wipe the machine, sell it on eBay, then buy the better one. The resale is so high it's not all that risky.

This is the problem. If you buy a comparably priced Windows machine, it will last just as long. You can really milk a laptop if you know what you are doing. I'm on year 5 of my Wake issued Lenovo. I haven't upgraded a thing on it, either.

The resale thing is nice, though.

eta: My Wake laptop was probably < $600. I guess I should say that if you aren't electronically illiterate, you can make almost any machine last.
 
This is the problem. If you buy a comparably priced Windows machine, it will last just as long. You can really milk a laptop if you know what you are doing. I'm on year 5 of my Wake issued Lenovo. I haven't upgraded a thing on it, either.

The resale thing is nice, though.

eta: My Wake laptop was probably < $600. I guess I should say that if you aren't electronically illiterate, you can make almost any machine last.

The whole "cheap" Wake laptops thing is exaggerated. The retail price point for the last 4 or 5 generations of Wake thinkpads has been a grand or more.
 
This is the problem. If you buy a comparably priced Windows machine, it will last just as long. You can really milk a laptop if you know what you are doing. I'm on year 5 of my Wake issued Lenovo. I haven't upgraded a thing on it, either.

The resale thing is nice, though.

eta: My Wake laptop was probably < $600. I guess I should say that if you aren't electronically illiterate, you can make almost any machine last.

Exactly! It drives me nuts when people buy cheap PCs and then complain about them and then switch to Macs, paying way more, and then rave about them. It you want to compare apples to apples then buy a top line PC first.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon compares very favorably with the MacBook Air, for instance.

Of course I realize that no matter how awesome our hardware is, and it is awesome, it is still dependent on Windows... which is too bad.
 
The whole "cheap" Wake laptops thing is exaggerated. The retail price point for the last 4 or 5 generations of Wake thinkpads has been a grand or more.

I'm the farthest thing from a Lenovo basher, but I don't believe my laptop cost more than a grand in 2009. Not a chance.
 
Even I will admit that the Wake kids that were there when they were giving out R-model ThinkPads got kinda screwed. Ever since they have been giving out T-models, those are really good machines.
 
Even I will admit that the Wake kids that were there when they were giving out R-model ThinkPads got kinda screwed. Ever since they have been giving out T-models, those are really good machines.

:tear:
 
eta: My Wake laptop was probably < $600. I guess I should say that if you aren't electronically illiterate, you can make almost any machine last.

Note that I mentioned my parents. If you know what you're doing with a Windows system, this is definitely true. I have a home theater PC upstairs that's a pretty old chipset and not big on memory, but I have a leaned-out version of Windows 7 on it and I've disabled every stupid thing on it that's wasteful. It's pretty solid and will last a while.

It's just that a LOT of people fit into one of two categories:

1) Not computer literate enough to wipe all the shit that comes with a standard Windows install
2) Value their time too highly to sink that many hours into preventing Windows bloat

Caveat that I don't know Windows 8, maybe the new revision is the answer. I'd actually argue that at the top end you can more easily eclipse Macs with a Windows notebook minus display quality. I'm just saying the number 1 argument I hear is "why would I pay $1,000 for 2.0 ghz 8gb ram on Mac when 2.0ghz 8gb ram on Windows is $400." This is the way people who say things like "I don't care what it is, I just want a computer" think. So I think it's a bummer when those people end up paying more over a 4 year span for Windows stuff with a lot of added frustration - especially when those that do get convinced often talk about how much more they enjoy using a Mac in general.

Plus I get less phone calls from family members with techy problems if I can talk them into a Mac, so it's partly selfish.
 
So you're still in St. Pete?
 

Ha, guess I should have read the entire thread. Anyone have any suggestions for something a little cheaper? <$40 would be great. Christmas gift budget is starting to get stretched a little thin.
 
So the MacBook Pro 15" with 16 GB RAM is over my $2000 budget. Is it too much of a drop down to get the MacBook Pro 13" with 8 GB?

Getting it customized may make procurement a hassle.
 
So the MacBook Pro 15" with 16 GB RAM is over my $2000 budget. Is it too much of a drop down to get the MacBook Pro 13" with 8 GB?

Getting it customized may make procurement a hassle.

Is the 13" with 16GB not in the budget? I'd do either that or the 15" with 8GB.
 
Is the 13" with 16GB not in the budget? I'd do either that or the 15" with 8GB.

The base 15" model upped to 16gb is just a bit over $2k with the Educational discount.

The mid-range 13" could get you a 512G hd instead of a 256G hd, plus the 16gb ram for under $1,900.

If you've played around with the 13" and you can live with that screen size, I'd get that one for the form-factor alone. Very easy to lug around. Mavericks has some pretty advanced memory compression features for background apps - 8GB goes a long way with that OS - 16GB is extremely future-proof. I'd decide whether you can live with the smaller screen first. I have good eyesight so upping the res doesn't bother me at all, so for me the 13" is just about my ideal laptop.
 
The base 15" model upped to 16gb is just a bit over $2k with the Educational discount.

The mid-range 13" could get you a 512G hd instead of a 256G hd, plus the 16gb ram for under $1,900.

If you've played around with the 13" and you can live with that screen size, I'd get that one for the form-factor alone. Very easy to lug around. Mavericks has some pretty advanced memory compression features for background apps - 8GB goes a long way with that OS - 16GB is extremely future-proof. I'd decide whether you can live with the smaller screen first. I have good eyesight so upping the res doesn't bother me at all, so for me the 13" is just about my ideal laptop.

Yeah that's exactly what I was trying to say, was just weird his "drop down" was a 13" with only 8GB when the advantage of that size is you could afford the memory upgrade.
 
Does the $2000 cover any additional items like port replicators (docking stations) and such?

How often do you use just the laptop without connecting an external monitor/keyboard setup?
 
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