Computer advice?

[colby]

I don't know that it's worth $260 to get 2 more GB of RAM and a slightly faster processor. 6GB is still pretty good, and it's not like you're going to be playing fancypants computer games or doing massive graphic design. If you can upgrade the RAM later, you can always increase longevity that way and spend the money when you feel a need (computer feels slow or needs change).

The backlit keyboard is nice to have, I really like mine and miss it when I don't have it. Slot vs. tray, not a huge difference. Battery life can matter if you go a long time between being able to plug in, but not so much if you're often near a plug.

We use Dell laptops at work, have not had many problems, but that could be luck of the draw, they are all under 2 years old. My husband has two Sager laptops, they are not a major brand but Sager/Clevo are responsible for building laptops under other names so it's kind of like going factory direct but still getting support. So far so good there.

On the Mac, I haven't had any problems with viewing powerpoint presentations with Office, but sometimes giving powerpoint presentations can be fun. If your department/school is standardized on Windows I might not want to stray so that I don't waste time on technical support issues, though, unless you have built in technical support (self, spouse, good friend). You can run windows side by side with Mac OS on a mac, but then you have to pay for a windows license on top of it.

Good luck... computer shopping is more overwhelming than bike shopping.

[Owlie]

I don't know that it's worth $260 to get 2 more GB of RAM and a slightly faster processor. 6GB is still pretty good, and it's not like you're going to be playing fancypants computer games or doing massive graphic design. If you can upgrade the RAM later, you can always increase longevity that way and spend the money when you feel a need (computer feels slow or needs change).

The backlit keyboard is nice to have, I really like mine and miss it when I don't have it. Slot vs. tray, not a huge difference. Battery life can matter if you go a long time between being able to plug in, but not so much if you're often near a plug.

We use Dell laptops at work, have not had many problems, but that could be luck of the draw, they are all under 2 years old. My husband has two Sager laptops, they are not a major brand but Sager/Clevo are responsible for building laptops under other names so it's kind of like going factory direct but still getting support. So far so good there.

On the Mac, I haven't had any problems with viewing powerpoint presentations with Office, but sometimes giving powerpoint presentations can be fun. If your department/school is standardized on Windows I might not want to stray so that I don't waste time on technical support issues, though, unless you have built in technical support (self, spouse, good friend). You can run windows side by side with Mac OS on a mac, but then you have to pay for a windows license on top of it.

Good luck... computer shopping is more overwhelming than bike shopping.

Yeah, at least with bikes you can tell that they're not going to work with a test ride!

The $60 difference between systems 2 and 3 I'm looking at is for an extra 2GB of RAM. The better processor is standard; what you're paying for with system 2 is the fact that it's lighter and thinner, I'm guessing.
There's a $200 difference between 1 and 2, even with the better graphics card option selected for 1. I'm guessing it's for the size of the thing, backlit keyboard, and wider variety of internet connectivity options and memory card reading.

[westtexas]

I will admit I didn't read all the thread, but I thought I would mention - have you looked into education discounts? Apple offers one and I believe it's somewhere between 10-15%. It's how I got my new macbook. As long as you attend a university you can use it and they don't require verification (at least, they didn't for me, but I used mine to buy three computers during my 7 years of post highschool study).

Edit: Ah, I see Miurenn is on top of things already as usual!

[Realgone]

I am a MAC fan as well and you can download a free office Suite from openoffice.org that opens up PowerPoint, excel and the other office programs and work on them. Get the free download and try it out, not sure if the shortcuts and key commands are the same, but it is a great office suite thT opens tons of programs. You can also run both Microsoft OS and MAC OSX Lion on a MAC if you go that route. I made the switch many years ago and will never go back. No viruses, no spyware, love it!

[colorisnt]

Dell really used to be my go-to. I do graphic design and use lightroom for photography in my spare time, so I am picky about machines.

My old Inspiron notebook is still going strong somewhere in Europe with my ex boyfriend. It's 7 years old now. Unfortunately, all attempts to upgrade the RAM failed and it was just futile. The programs I needed to use would not work on 512 mb of ram. Other than that, it was a GREAT PC.

When I buy again, I will get a cheap refurb and get something from either Acer or Asus probably. HP has enough issues. Sony's Vaio line is very expensive, but generally high quality. Macs are good quality machines but they don't run the programs I need like oh... STATA and Windows.

I would go to Linux if all my computer programs were compatible. I'm a computer nerd, so that sort of thing doesn't bother me- neither does tinkering.

[badgercat]

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop that I used during most of my undergrad (2005-2008) ,which still runs fine, though I use it very infrequently since a new laptop was my graduation/heading off to grad school present from my family. I got a MacBook, but that's not really relevant--I'm not going to try to convert anyone here. They're darned expensive, and while I love my Mac, if it died tomorrow I'd probably replace it with a PC for sheer affordability.

Anyway, my mom got a new Dell laptop a couple years ago, and it had problems right out of the box. Spontaneously trying to eject CDs that weren't there, adjusting the volume all on its own, etc. I think Dells just aren't made like they used to be. *waves cane in air*

I have an Asus netbook that I got a little over a year ago because I was tired of hauling my MacBook around campus every day (and stressed that my primary computer was spending so much time outside of my house, perched on narrow classroom desks, etc). I run Win7 on it and have been quite happy with it, but I can't speak to what Asus's "full-sized" machines are like.

[colby]

Horrible problems with my Dell Lattitude 531, mostly an engineering issue. The cooling vents are on the bottom. The thing gets so overheated. I replaced the hard drive at 3 years because I had so many other problems, and it didn't really help. We're thinking it may be a motherboard issue. Yuck. Currently using 8 year old gateway laptop, has new hard drive and battery. Both crashed prior to the Dell purchase. Much higher quality machine than the Dell.

Dell laptops do seem to get hot and have just-adequate cooling. If you don't run your laptop all the time or don't live in a hot climate, things work better. I have heard others surprised at how hot their Dell laptops run after using other brands.

That said, I have had problems with my MacBook's fans failing and then the hard drive failing, so I guess nobody's perfect