New Lap Top advice

[Shake1]

I use both. She will be very happy with the Mac.

[Mofo]

Well looks like y'all made the choice for me, thanks Green Screen

[Starman]

One thing you might want to think about is the size of the screen. A 17" is nice if you want to keep it stationary, but is bulky and not so convenient to move around. I don't like a 17" as a true "laptop".

We bought a 17" for our daughter for college 2 years ago, now she would prefer a 14", just for the mobility factor.

Maybe something to consider.

[HoustonHunter40]

Mofo...

Unless you're talking heavy, intensive photo work, graphics, etc... do NOT go apple.

They are great for that, but expensive considering what you're talking about doing.

Honestly...I'd go with the laptop you can save money on, and upgrade the memory. Look for a processor at 2.4 GHz or higher, and a good video card and you're set.

You can upgrade RAM and the HD easy and cheap man.

go find a laptop for 400-600 and spend a couple hundred when you NEED to and leave the 1500+ mac's to the graphics pro's.

Invest the money you'd spend on a mac in a savings account....or gold

thats my $0.02

[visdata]

I have many toshiba's with bumped up ram as Houston says and they run everything I need such as mapping software, graphics software, database etc... so unless you have a special need for a mac (or want to add to the cost just to say you have a mac) get the lower cost toshiba (windows 7 not vista) and spend the leftover money on hunting/fishing.


my 2 cents

[dieter]

Switched to a Mac about a year ago and never looked back. I do run Windows on it in parallels when needed for business applications. Got my wife a MacBook Pro for Christmas (without Windows). She's never been happier with a laptop. My computer support for her is about 10% of what it was in the pre-Mac days. The up front cost is more, but it wouldn't surprise me if I spent less over the life of the laptops. Apple software upgrades are a lot less expensive than Windows upgrades.