any mac users here? looking for a laptop

[okron1k]

i'm thinking about buying a laptop and i'm leaning towards a mac.

why?

my laptop wont be used for gaming really. mostly just internet stuff and a lot of movie/tv show watching, and i'd like to get a program like microsoft streets and trips with gps so i can use it as a gps as well.

i have a mac mini.. one of the first ones that came out.. and i have to tell you.. i absolutely love osx. i have tiger with my mac.. it came with panther but a free upgrade to tiger because when i bought it tiger just came out shortly after. i have no experience with leopard but i'm sure i'll love it too.

anyway i figure if i get a mac laptop i will still be able to run windows if i wanted to.. where as i wouldn't be able to run osx on non mac hardware as far as i know. and i remember at one point the best performing windows laptop was a mac :P

so that's why i am leaning towards getting a mac.. and the price hit that comes with it :\ but i am not 100% as of yet. i am looking for reasons not to and someone to try and convince me not to.

other than that.. the specs of the mac is the next thing. i want a 17 inch high-res screen... because i am used to using 20-24" screens and i think i will find anything smaller than a 17 kind of awkward.. but then yesterday i was in bestbuy and was looking at random laptops and the 15.4 screens don't seem too bad.. so i am kind of undecided on that as well.

any thoughts here on my situation? i just need a good laptop. and this would be my first laptop purchase.

some things i do want out of my laptop:
-good battery life.. it doesn't have to be amazing, but not something that i will be disappointed about.
-a dvd burner (i decided to get my mac mini without one and i regret it)
-decent performance but not meant for gaming.. just media/internet/gps and besides... gaming on a mac? what's that?? :P
-2gb ram i'm sure would be plenty, the 1gb in my mac mini now is doing the job

i figure, with the mac.. that i could just get the cheapest hard drive and upgrade it myself later, and use an external usb powered hard drive. and like i said.. the 15.4 vs 17 inch screen thing is up in the air.. i have no long term experience with laptops so i am looking to these forums for advice.


thanks in advance

-kr0n

[screwballl]

a few things.... MAC has a very limited hardware compatibility list so if you ever do decide to upgrade the hard drive or video later, you will likely be unable to since they are usually locked into the specific hard drive or series of hard drives that Apple approves. With windows based drives, most companies do have their setup to allow for other hard drives without being locked in.
As for Mac vs Windows... it depends on the hardware inside that determines if you can use boot camp to run both Mac and Windows. Some can and some can't. But on many windows based laptops, you can use the Mac OSX, check out a project called OSx86

[okron1k]

hey thanks for the quick reply!

i am checking out that link now just after i type this.

something that crossed my mind about the laptop is maybe screen size wont matter so much. i am a truck driver so i have it in my truck most of the time and i was thinking i could probably just keep my 20 inch monitor that i use with the mac mini now to use as a second display in the truck. that way i wont really have issues with screen size because 95% of the time i will be using a second display.

but i still want the portability of a laptop so i don't have to carry my screen around with me everywhere like i do now. for example i'm staying at a days in today and i had to lug my screen along with my keyboard and mouse and all my connections with me.

so that might help with my decision making..

-kr0n

after reading the faq on the OSx86 page you linked to.. it seems as tho i would run into a lot of problems here and there with compatability and what not. and one of the main things i like about osx is that i never have a problem. ever.

another thing i am not sure about is getting a normal or glossy screen.. i know i've seen some friends laptops that have glossy screens and they look really nice but i don't know if glare would be a big issue.

[azianai]

and if you do go towards the macs, just remember Mac Book Pros are considered the best notebooks to run Windows XP/Vista lol. I know my buddy actually bought his 17 incher Mac Book pro (cost freaken 2500 i think -_-) and uninstalled OS-X to install Vista Ultimate on it. Can't figure that one out, but its a lot smoother than my DV9500T i got from HP

[MantaBase]

This isn't really the best forum for Mac suggestions. Of course, we welcome the question and frankly I use a Mac daily. And, I find asking Mac questions at a particular Mac forum to be less than helpful as they always try to tell me how cool macs are instead of answering my question. Personal issue I guess.

The only thing I will point out is that GPS options are a bit harder to come by IME for the Mac. So look before you leap on that one. OSX is awesome - as you have experienced. Hardware wise I wouldn't worry to much. Mac is actually pretty good now at supporting most hardware such as harddrives. In fact, a number of hardware choices that say they are not Mac compatible actually are (such as SimpleTech portable USB drives - which work just fine if you reformat to FAT32).

As for the rest, I say just do some research - I'm sure the answers are out there. Battery life for example, should be easy to find.

Manta

[theburan]

A friend of mine got a macbook pro just last week... it looks like a very nice laptop. I don't think you'd be disappointed with it, lol... (hopefully you're still in school, and get the student discount.. not a whole lot off, but it's still normally like 10 percent...).

Now if only apple would release a good tablet pc....

[okron1k]

about the gps.. i was just trying to do some research about it and didn't have much luck..

do you think if i get microsoft streets and trips and run it under an xp or vista bootcamp thing.. it would work fine?

[MantaBase]

I don't know on the bootcamp thing. You might have to venture into a Mac forum for that. I would say yes - but I would personally be sure before I spent my money.

Games and GPS mac is a bit weak on. However, we use our stuff for totally different purposes, so I can't give you a final answer

[JazzyJake]

One key, if you want to upgrade the mac's harddrive, you had better consider yourself a relatively accomplished tech with a set of torx drivers, and a good set of jewelers screwdrivers, (think whia)
ifixit.com
^fix anything mac has worth fixing, and buy upgrade components for it too

It's a lot of work to get into some macs, just FYI
although they are amazing.
And dual-booting is always an option

[Parker]

Originally Posted by JazzyJake

It's a lot of work to get into some macs, just FYI
although they are amazing.
And dual-booting is always an option

Yes, macs are truly amazing.
I took apart my mac mini, even took out the motherboard.
Check THIS thread out over on another forum, I had alot of fun playing around with the mini.
The mac mini is what I'm using now.

Laptops are a little bit hard to take apart....

BTW, I triple boot into Tiger, Leopard and Vista via Bootcamp.
It works great! Very fast too.