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Computer Shopping-

Yeah stay away from Staples, particularly their extended warranty. I sent my computer off because the floppy drive stopped working, and it took 3 months to get it back and I had to fight for that. They wanted to settle with me and offered me $190 for a $1500 computer. I finally got my computer back to find out that now the CD/DVD drive doesn't work, and I had to fight with them again to get it fixed. It was a huge ordeal, with 3hour phone calls to the warranty center, countless trips to the Staples store locally, and letters and emails back and forth. My recommendation: don't go to Staples, and don't buy their extended warranty! (I did manage to get every penny I paid for the extended warranty back in the form of store credit at least, although even that took quite a bit of doing).
 
Whatever you do, avoid the big box stores like Staples, Futureshop/Best Buy etc.  They're crap. 

I picked up a dell back in September for just under 1300, 2.8 ghz, 40 gig hd (now I have a 160 external), CD-RW and DVD, 512 RAM.  I've had no complaints.  Although I don't use it for high end stuff like games and such. 

As for mac, I've been using them lately at school, my Spatial Archaeology prof has just recently put in a lab with around 10 G4s, and over a terrabyte of storage space; its quite the beauty actually.  The Macs work great, especially with the high end GIS and the like programs that we run.
 
Well I know that Alienware makes some pretty high-end fancy looking stuff, but they're a total scam. You can get the same system for nearly half the price elsewhere.
The computer I have now is one that was built for me by my brother and it's a pretty decent system, and if I were to buy another PC, I would go the same route.

I've pretty much quit playing games on PC because of the fact that it seems you have to update your computer everytime a new game comes out. Funny how nVidia has ties with most game release huh?

The bottom line is that i've never heard a horror story from Mac really, and well PC's are PC's. They're cheap machines built to break down and be upgraded time and time again just to manage day to day things on them. Not to mention the days on end spent updating definitions over and over so some 18 year old kid can hack half the continent in one shot.

I think i'm going to go with Mac, I love the iLife Suite, as far as software bundles, it leaves Microsoft in the dust and is super easy to learn and use. Besides, Bill Gates has enough of my money.
 
GerryCan said:
I think i'm going to go with Mac, I love the iLife Suite, as far as software bundles, it leaves Microsoft in the dust and is super easy to learn and use. Besides, Bill Gates has enough of my money.
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Use Linux and don't support Bill Gates =D
 
Oh and I forgot to mention, if you're using a mac you can always buy the Vitural PC programme which allows you to run most PC programmes.

 
Why buy a Mac with OSX, when you can buy a PC for less than half the price, and run Linux on it?
 
Never used linux before, never even seen it nor do I know any of the advantages/disadvantages.

Care to inform?
 
It's all together uneccessary for most users.

Not great at running multiple programs if I remember it correctly takes ages to get used to and the majority of people running it (I did say majority not all the people, before you cats pounce) are compsci students who 'enjoy' that sort of thing.

 
well, Linux and Mac OSX are based on the same basic operating system.  That's why OSX was such a big deal when it came out, because it was the first Macintosh operating system to run on a *nix kernel.  Which means that OSX will run linux programs and linux should run OSX programs, so compatibility-wise they should be the same.  Best thing about linux is you can try it out without installing it to your hard-drive; do a google search for "knoppix".  You can download it free of charge, and it runs off of a CD.  No installation required.  Once you get more comfortable with it, you can install it to your HD.
 
Che said:
Not great at running multiple programs if I remember it correctly
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Actually it's far more stable than windows (which I assume is your comparison): that's one of it's better features.  You can even change the "niceness" of applications to have them run at different priorities.

48Highlander said:
Best thing about linux is you can try it out without installing it to your hard-drive; do a google search for "knoppix".
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I started with Knoppix, but now use Gentoo (not really for beginners, though): Ubuntu and VidaLinux are becoming popular choices.  Check out distrowatch.org if you want to know more.
 
Yes I know knoppix isn't the best thing out there.  For anyone looking for ease of use, best bet is Lindows or since they changed the name it's now "Linspire".  Deffinitely the easiest and most windows-integrated of the various types.
 
My 2 cents:

-If your gonna be doing word processing I'd get a floppy drive to save them on.
-I'd suggest XP Professional, I find it more stable than Home Edition
-Check out the optical mouses from future shop (or other similar stores) and see if you can find one you like more, you can save money here
-Don't get a monitor from Dell, its cheaper to buy one somewhere else
-Don't get speakers from Dell, same reason as above
-and finally, if you are wanting to play games, never ever, ever get an intigrated video card, I'd suggest something like what I have: Geforce4 Ti 4200 8X.
-512mb of RAM is fine for playing games, thats what I have and I can play 99% of games without a problem.


I have a dell 8200 and I find that its great. Its super easy to install stuff in (it opens like a breifcase) and I have barely any problems with it. The Geforce8 Ti 4200 8x is great, it wasn't that expensive and it has some serous power, bettering out some super expensive video cards.
 
48Highlander said:
Yes I know knoppix isn't the best thing out there.  For anyone looking for ease of use, best bet is Lindows or since they changed the name it's now "Linspire".  Deffinitely the easiest and most windows-integrated of the various types.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I was agreeing with you that Knoppix is a good "first choice" (and also comes in very handy when you bork your system 'cuz you think it's a good idea rebuild your kernel  ;) ) ... I tried Linspire about a year ago, and found it too Windows-like for me: amazing how easy it is for the "average" user (+ all that software).

If anyone needs a monitor, I see Tiger now has a 17" LCD for $227!!!  :o  http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=167
 
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