Assistance Required

[soup]

i have had the same laptop for at least 6 years now and ive saved up enough for a fancy new one

basically all im going to use it for at uni is typing up essays and playing games. ill also be using it to draw things, but i don't know if its worth investing in a mac (considering ive only ever used pcs)

in fact, i am not at all sure what to avoid and what to look into purchasing.

having spent very little time here, it is already blatantly obvious you all know a lot more than i do about stuff like this
so if you have any recommendations or could point me in the right direction i will love you forever.

[Evelynn]

I'm not too familiar with macs myself so I asked Lance and here's what he offered:

"If you only plan on writing up essays and doing work for school that does not include things like video editing and graphics rendering type of work, then a mac really isn't necessary. In my personal experience, the mac is great for that kind of stuff, but it lacks in the "gaming" department. This can be fixed with a partition to place windows on it to play the windows only games, but that is just extra work and maintenance, and it can be annoying when things go wrong.

My suggestion is that if you don't plan on using a mac for the tools for music creation or video editing, stick to buying a windows, as they can pretty much do the same thing, but you can get better hardware for cheaper outside of the mac store."

[rtil]

what's your budget looking like?

[soup]

I'm not too familiar with macs myself so I asked Lance and here's what he offered:

"My suggestion is that if you don't plan on using a mac for the tools for music creation or video editing, stick to buying a windows, as they can pretty much do the same thing, but you can get better hardware for cheaper outside of the mac store."

eyy thank you kindly that makes a lot of sense. if configuring it is also going to be a hassle then yes i think ill just leave them be

what's your budget looking like?

aroundabout £600-ish

[rtil]

if you're willing to build, here's a list of parts in your price range that would make a fairly powerful modern gaming machine. i'm assuming you already have things like mouse/keyboard/monitor/OS. a copy of win 7 these days runs another $90-some, unless you can grab a student copy. if not, i would look for machines that have at least Intel i5's and GTX 650 with 8GB ram as a minimum. here's a list of GPU performance and prices as well as a similar chart for CPUs. if you're in the UK you can't take advantage of a site like Newegg where builders in the states buy most of their parts online, but i'm sure there's a UK equivalent, i'm just not aware of it.

[CoolDrMoney]

apple is a shit company if I could have went back in time and not gotten a mac I would've

If you like spending a lot of money on things just because its apple then go ahead. The only way to fix your apple is with apple specific products and they charge through the nose for em. They make faulty hardware just so you have to continually go to their stupid fucking apple store to get it fixed, ensuring you stay a customer. They are bullshit and I hate them.

On the other hand, its always useful to be familiar with different OS'. But you'll probably pick up on how to use one during the course of your education anyway.

[redmongoose]

don't get a mac

do what rtil said and build your own

[bd648]

ive owned a mac for roughly 6 years and have loved it to death.
dont buy one.
when i say i have loved it to death i mean it. i have had to replace so many parts in it its not even fun to do anymore. from a build quality perspective macs are little better than big pieces of weak plastic. they will break if you plan to carry them around all day. from a software perspective i love snow leopard but everything aside from the OS is hard to find. it took me ages to find a decent irc client and as far as i am aware it is the only one for a mac. i recently got a good laptop and god damn do you see the difference in quality of the build. apple products are more than anything a niche. if you dont intend to use them soley for things like music, video editing, and writing then you would be much better off with a pc. while a lot of the programs can be run thru something like wine or crossover the mac just simply does not have the hardware to handle it. even the top end macbook pro cant run a game as well as a midrange laptop.
if you are like me and actually enjoy the apple OS then you can always build a hackintosh and load both OSs onto it so you get the best of both. but whatever you do dont get a bloody mac.

[soup]

if you're in the UK you can't take advantage of a site like Newegg where builders in the states buy most of their parts online, but i'm sure there's a UK equivalent, i'm just not aware of it.

first off thank you ever so much for the information, it was extremely helpful. having some specs to base things off meant i could actually decide what was competent and what wouldnt cut it. using the parts list you sent and after doing a bit of research ive put together what should hopefully be quite a powerful machine, considering yes there are quite a few uk based sites like newegg. found some good ones that will assemble it for me, and even overclock and edit factory templates

apple is a shit company if I could have went back in time and not gotten a mac I would've

If you like spending a lot of money on things just because its apple then go ahead. The only way to fix your apple is with apple specific products and they charge through the nose for em. They make faulty hardware just so you have to continually go to their stupid fucking apple store to get it fixed, ensuring you stay a customer. They are bullshit and I hate them.

On the other hand, its always useful to be familiar with different OS'. But you'll probably pick up on how to use one during the course of your education anyway.

yeh i really dont understand the appeal, in the space of a month everyone in my year at school bought one. none of them are doing anything vaguely related to composing music or rendering work, so what the heck was the point
they kind of just fuck about on garage band for a bit, and then ignore me when i ask them why they still didn't have flash installed

don't get a mac

do what rtil said and build your own

rtil had really good advice, and i certainly do not think i will be getting a mac yes

ive owned a mac for roughly 6 years and have loved it to death.
dont buy one.
when i say i have loved it to death i mean it. i have had to replace so many parts in it its not even fun to do anymore. from a build quality perspective macs are little better than big pieces of weak plastic. they will break if you plan to carry them around all day. from a software perspective i love snow leopard but everything aside from the OS is hard to find. it took me ages to find a decent irc client and as far as i am aware it is the only one for a mac. i recently got a good laptop and god damn do you see the difference in quality of the build. apple products are more than anything a niche. if you dont intend to use them soley for things like music, video editing, and writing then you would be much better off with a pc. while a lot of the programs can be run thru something like wine or crossover the mac just simply does not have the hardware to handle it. even the top end macbook pro cant run a game as well as a midrange laptop.
if you are like me and actually enjoy the apple OS then you can always build a hackintosh and load both OSs onto it so you get the best of both. but whatever you do dont get a bloody mac.

the only reason ive had my laptop for so long is because its pretty sturdy. there were plenty of times where, against my best intentions, ive dropped it. if the mac is just going to fall apart just sitting on my desk then it really isnt for me.

i think what you said about them being a niche is true, the only people i know that have them got them for christmas from a parent that doesnt really understand computers/ they had more money than sense/ bought one because everyone else did.
accidentally deleting files from peoples macs is the only experience ive had with the apple os so i think ill just leave it and stick with what i vaguely know

[rtil]

just make sure that if you do overclock that you watch the temps. but if you get that aftermarket cpu cooler i listed overclocking won't be a problem.

[slack]

don't get a mac

do what rtil said and build your own

apple is a shit company if I could have went back in time and not gotten a mac I would've

If you like spending a lot of money on things just because its apple then go ahead. The only way to fix your apple is with apple specific products and they charge through the nose for em. They make faulty hardware just so you have to continually go to their stupid fucking apple store to get it fixed, ensuring you stay a customer. They are bullshit and I hate them.

On the other hand, its always useful to be familiar with different OS'. But you'll probably pick up on how to use one during the course of your education anyway.

bingo

[GhostingFish]

If this is your first time building, it would be worth it to watch some videos on youtube about building computers. Though it really isnt that hard, it just builds confidence in ya when you do get down to building it. Good luck

[basketweaver]

did you buy it yet?

if not, Lenovo has a really affordable gaming laptop series that you can find here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/

I'm not sure if you can order it from the UK, but the Lenovo Ideapad Y400 is so much value for what you purchase. It was going quite cheap a month or so ago.

[soup]

again thanks for all the help everyone, turns out i have more job money than expected, so i'm actually now looking at some things with i7 processors and GTX 670 O:

yeh ghostingfish it would certainly be a first time trying to do something like this. im certainly going to get the custom build made for me, but i was also aiming to slowly modify my old laptop and bring it as up to date as i can. kinda like a side project thing while im away at uni.
that way i guess ill understand how it all works a little better, can afford to muck up, and hopefully ill have 2 fancy laptops at the end of it all. but heyhey thanks anyhow

and yo basketweaver not quite yet. i was stuck between two options, but those lenovo offers are looking pretty cool, so im actually bringing those into consideration as well now thanks!

[rtil]

my major quip with pre-builts right now is they're all windows 8. i have limited experience with it but whenever i do come across it is someone asking me how to turn all the metro shit off.

[basketweaver]

my major quip with pre-builts right now is they're all windows 8. i have limited experience with it but whenever i do come across it is someone asking me how to turn all the metro shit off.

it's true. i ended up installing windows 7 on my lenovo computer. it was kind of a hassle, but this laptop is extremely sweet.

[soup]

stumbled across more money, plus basically going  away gift for uni, arrived a day or two ago

GTX 675, i7 processor, everything runs super smooth
i am having lots of fun

[rtil]

welcome to the pc master race, here is your fancy hat and pepper spray to keep away the console peasants