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Buying new laptop, Need help!

Hey everyone,

So, I'm looking to buy a new laptop for music production and for when I go off to college next year. I narrowed my choices down to the last two.

Lenovo Ideapad U260
or
MacBook Pro 13" i5 (Base Model)

If you guys could search these up, and help me out, that'd be awesome. The MBP is a little above my budget and I'd have to lend money to go it. Let me know if its worth it or if I should just go with the U260.

Thanks!

Get an older model MBP from the Apple refurbished store

There's a refurb MBP for 1019.99. I can get a new MBP for 1099.99

Plus, if I buy new, I can head down to a store in Oregon and pay no sales tax. If I buy refurbished from online, I have to pay sales tax. The refurbished one will come out to be more than the new one...

quote:

Originally posted by Anakratis There's a refurb MBP for 1019.99. I can get a new MBP for 1099.99

Cross check all the specs (hard drive, ram, ect) and keep an eye on what's up there. It gets updated all the time. Not everything is an incredible deal, but they usually update with good stuff periodically. Not sure where you're looking but there's a 13" up there right now for $899.00.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/F...mco=MjEwNzU2Nzc

Also the stuff in the refurbished store comes with the full 1 year warranty and you can buy applecare if you want.

EDIT:

quote:

Originally posted by Anakratis Plus, if I buy new, I can head down to a store in Oregon and pay no sales tax. If I buy refurbished from online, I have to pay sales tax. The refurbished one will come out to be more than the new one...

Yeah do that then. Fuck sales tax.

Erm I must have missed that one. But is an MBP really that much better than a PC laptop? The U260 I can get for 799.99

At least get a Thinkpad, the Ideapads are toys. And just, this is my own personal experience but I had a middle of the line Thinkpad, paid about $800 for it and was not impressed by the machine at all. It struggled with music production and the video card was complete shit. Intel integrated garbage. It was also flimsy, and here I thought the Thinkpads had a history of rugged design. I think you'd be better off getting one of the higher-end models if you were going to go that route.

Another thing, the Mac laptop is a status symbol and will help you get laid in college. You can also take it into trendy coffee shops without shame.

if you can afford it (really u must afford it because its not really worth it tech wise) get the mac. if not build yourself a PC. half price, better specs, lots of noise and cables and shitty OS, but still a great computer. While Mac has OSX+Logic = a dream. The question is what purchase can you live with? If the mac make you suffer dont do it.

quote:

Originally posted by Anakratis But is an MBP really that much better than a PC laptop?

no, but OSX is so much better than Windows. Its a shame buying such an expensive hardware just because of some software but thats what the world look likes today. Id get a PC first and find out whether you have a talent or not for this production thing. If you do you can buy a mac later. The common rule of any purchase is this: If you are unsure, step away.

quote:

Originally posted by clay no, but OSX is so much better than Windows. Its a shame buying such an expensive hardware just because of some software but thats what the world look likes today. Id get a PC first and find out whether you have a talent or not for this production thing. If you do you can buy a mac later. The common rule of any purchase is this: If you are unsure, step away.

I like to think I do have talent...at least I hope I do

I have been producing for about 4 years and Windows has been consistently taking dumps on me...I was just hoping Win7 is better...

quote:

Originally posted by meriter Another thing, the Mac laptop is a status symbol and will help you get laid in college. You can also take it into trendy coffee shops without shame.

MBP it is

Wow that lenovo is damn pretty. I'm sort of in the market for a new laptop so that's pretty darn interesting. And it's quite small and portable. Lovely.

I now mostly work on a 10" samsung when on the road, a bit more screen would be nice and that lenovo seems to pack some punch as well!

Where did you find the lenovo for $600? I can only find it for about 1100Euro!

If pc doesn't seem to work for you just get a mac. You can still run Renoise .

quote:

Originally posted by Storyteller Wow that lenovo is damn pretty. I'm sort of in the market for a new laptop so that's pretty darn interesting. And it's quite small and portable. Lovely. I now mostly work on a 10" samsung when on the road, a bit more screen would be nice and that lenovo seems to pack some punch as well! Where did you find the lenovo for $600? I can only find it for about 1100Euro! If pc doesn't seem to work for you just get a mac. You can still run Renoise .

The Microsoft Store online they might be able to ship international, but I'm not sure.

It's almost like they don't want that laptop to sell over here. Can't find the lighter ones anywhere for decent $. Only upwards from a 1000 Euro, and those are in those small weird shops only.

Emailed one of the better shops around to see if they want to order it.

go for the mac, you really won't regret it. I was a die-hard PC fan until I bought a mac so I can use logic...and I haven't looked back since lol.

Once you go mac, you don't go back.

Seriously, just pony up and buy the mac. spend as much as you can right now becuase once you're a broke student , you'll not be able to upgrade anytime soon.

My mate bought the best MBP he could afford at the start of his masters and five years later he's now about to complete his PHD - he uses for all his college work, all his internet shit, as well as his DJ setup (serato), has never done any maintenance on it and it's still going strong to this day.

For my work computer, I'm on a top of the range PC ASUS laptop, only three years old, don't do any audio work on it at all, constant have to maintain it (otherwise it gets sluggish), have reformatted it twice in this period, and I'm about ready to buy a new laptop.

Honestly, get the macbook, max it out with good quality RAM, slap an SSD in there and never worry about performance again (or at least for the next few years).

Oh, and logic is fucking superb.

My macbook pro just arrived! Thanks guys

quote:

Originally posted by Anakratis My macbook pro just arrived! Thanks guys

Couple things...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control

I don't know what model you got, but if it has dynamic graphics switching:

http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus

Firefox 4 automatically switches to the discrete graphics so you'll rock through your battery just with light internet browsing. I actually downgraded to FF 3.6 because of that and Flash crashing constantly.

quote:

Originally posted by meriter Couple things... http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23137/fan-control I don't know what model you got, but if it has dynamic graphics switching: http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus Firefox 4 automatically switches to the discrete graphics so you'll rock through your battery just with light internet browsing. I actually downgraded to FF 3.6 because of that and Flash crashing constantly.

That will learn you for using firefox sooooo 2007 of you.

seriously, I can't understand why anyone would use anything other than Chrome.

Congrats Anakratis! you'll have a lot of fun with that.....

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Once you go mac, you don't go back. Seriously, just pony up and buy the mac. spend as much as you can right now becuase once you're a broke student , you'll not be able to upgrade anytime soon. My mate bought the best MBP he could afford at the start of his masters and five years later he's now about to complete his PHD - he uses for all his college work, all his internet shit, as well as his DJ setup (serato), has never done any maintenance on it and it's still going strong to this day. For my work computer, I'm on a top of the range PC ASUS laptop, only three years old, don't do any audio work on it at all, constant have to maintain it (otherwise it gets sluggish), have reformatted it twice in this period, and I'm about ready to buy a new laptop. Honestly, get the macbook, max it out with good quality RAM, slap an SSD in there and never worry about performance again (or at least for the next few years). Oh, and logic is fucking superb.

I'm on the crappiest 10' netbook and it still runs like i'd expect it to with little to no mainanance, after 3 yrs!

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN seriously, I can't understand why anyone would use anything other than Chrome.

Adblock

quote:

Originally posted by Anakratis My macbook pro just arrived! Thanks guys

\

I just ordered the Lenovo hahaha. Can't wait to get my hands on it. Will be nice to have on the road. The 10" I have now is just a tad too small and I hope 12" will be perfect. 15" gets too heavy and big.

Could only get it from the US. Only the top end models can rarely be found in Europe. All in all with tax and shipping it costs just as much in euros as it did in dollars before. Oh well. Countdown has begun.

Ah, the good old "Get a MAC bro, it's fucking siiiiiiiiiiiick" brigade. If you don't specifically want to use Logic or don't want to use their OS, then go with the Win laptop. Better specs, cheaper, and Win7 shits on Lion or whatever the hell the new one is called.

Either way they will both be decent, but decide on OS primarily.
I've had Dells (and still do) though the XPS which are built more solid than their starter ones.

Re: the Lenovos, I use an older touchpad model for work. Really solid machines and I know their higher end models get good reviews.

Also lol at the "get a Mac to get laid" bullshit. You either know how to get laid or you don't. You don't go into a fucking coffee shop with a Mac and wait for the magic to happen you spastic

You obviously never owned one!

I've read an independent test recently and the test concluded that both perform just about equally on virtually anything - theres a few things either of them do better but it's hardly a relevant difference. The only thing that actually makes a difference is the user experience, which is subjective and differs for everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by meriter Adblock

Available for Chrome. Seriously, there's not good reason not to switch. Chrome FTW.

quote:

Originally posted by Fledz Ah, the good old "Get a MAC bro, it's fucking siiiiiiiiiiiick" brigade. If you don't specifically want to use Logic or don't want to use their OS, then go with the Win laptop. Better specs, cheaper, and Win7 shits on Lion or whatever the hell the new one is called. Either way they will both be decent, but decide on OS primarily. I've had Dells (and still do) though the XPS which are built more solid than their starter ones. Re: the Lenovos, I use an older touchpad model for work. Really solid machines and I know their higher end models get good reviews. Also lol at the "get a Mac to get laid" bullshit. You either know how to get laid or you don't. You don't go into a fucking coffee shop with a Mac and wait for the magic to happen you spastic

no one is doing the mac fanboy thing in this thread. If anything, you're doing the PC fanboy bullshit as we've long proved there the price and spec argument is invalid, when you compare organes to oranges.

Dell are a fucking joke XPS are the punchline. I specced a bunch of dells (30 or varying spec) for a school music department install I did. The PC's lasted less than 2.5 years before 60% of them had major malfunction (hardware issues) and the teacher got a top spec XPS for himself. Battery life was criminal, it weighed a fucking ton, and about 30% of the cost is just for crap like LED lit fans and gay gamer style designs.

Storyteller is absolutely right - there is basically no difference and what difference there is depnds on the user.

For instance, for me, I've built computers from age 8 and probably personally owned close to 25 computers many of which I built myself. I have been a sound engineer for over a decade. I have very little time so what I want is to be able to sit in front of a computer and within seconds being producing music with no hiccups and lots of CPU power. I'm so over tweaking systems for performance and maintenance it;s not even funny, and I certainly don;t need to prove my PC skills anymore to myself. I think many producers are in the same boat and if not they should think about producing more an tinkering less.

I'm not tight but I'm also not made of money so my imac fits me perfectly - 3 years old now, kicked the shit out of it, used it for ever possible thing you could imagine, and still does not flinch when i get in to it with Logic.

You may have a completely different criteria but but honestly, ever producer I've ever known to get a mac, suddenly seems to have a change of priority that means they don;t go PC again.

if youve got the cash get the macbook pro - i use one just for surfing and the odd bit of traktor, you pay a bit extra but i couldnt buy a PC laptop again - even the trackpad alone is just so good

Still my main DAW is windows 7 64 bit - flawless also

Lol if you've got the patience (or a skilled friend) why not just build on from scratch? take 800 bucks down to your closest Fry's or Micro Center or whatever and you can probably build something that will leave both the lenovo and the mbp in the dust...

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