On the Dark Side, woah, yeah...

Once again, Katie and I have begun to look into some new computers. Likely a pair of laptops, but not necessarily at the same time. I need one I can use for work and she needs one she can use for school.

As you all probably know, we're both Mac whores, no question about our status in this regard whatsoever. However, for a little bit, I actually considered jumping ship and buying a Windows laptop for myself and a Mac for Katie. Why? Well, price primarily. Macs are not cheap.

Guess what else I discovered? Neither are PCs. Once you get them to a proper performance level anyway.

The thing about Macs is that they are built pretty standard. With one company doing all the design and construction of them, they wind up pretty much the same. Sure, you can tweak with higher RAM and HD space and the like, but it's not at all like when you visit, say, Dell.com and start to build there. I thought for sure I'd be able to save some dimes by building myself a custom laptop. So I tried it out.

Well, I had some things I needed to do with my computer. I needed a working copy of Windows XP. And there isn't a single purveyor of Windows laptops (recognized purveyor anyway) that loads their computers with XP as an operating system. You can pay them to wind it back, as it were, to XP from the dreaded Vista and the quote I got from Best Buy for that was $300 for a copy of XP and $130 to install it. That alone took just about all their laptops up over the $1K mark even before tacking on a service plan. Even the low-end systems. On Web sites where you custom build your laptop, I couldn't even find the option to purchase XP anywhere.

Speaking of low-end systems, if I were to stick with Vista instead, I would need to make sure that my RAM was at least 2 MB and my processor was greater than 2GHz. Anything less with Vista is just pathetic. Sure, I can go out and buy myself a little Toshiba laptop for $599 just about anywhere. But have you tried really taking Vista through the curves using the default system that comes on a computer that costs that little? It may work for less memory intensive apps, but the hogs I use like Adobe Creative Suite 3 ain't gonna play nice here. Vista, by itself, is a system hog and taxes everything you've got beyond belief. So, once I mark higher processor speeds and RAM quantity as needs, I'm up over $1.5K as well. Unacceptable.

The Macs that I'm pricing right now come in well under this mark.

I guess I know what this means... I'm back to the good side of computing. The Apple side. And we're going to buy two Macs. It's just a matter of when now. And it should be soon. The need is really here.

You may as well mark the roof of our house with a giant white Apple.

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kilax

This is not good news for me, I think I'll have to buy a new PC in a year or so. It has to be PC so I can use CAD. Maybe Steven can get a Mac and I can have a PC and we will be one big diverse happy family. Like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Miss Britt

After this Vista crap, I am serrrriously considering going over to a Mac the next time I buy a computer.

Although, I am DREADING the thought of having to relearn how to use a computer. So that's fun.

claire

My PC interlude between Macs was a source of much frustration, so I doubt I'll ever head that way for price again.

I'd like a new iMac later this year (hopefully if they have a sales tax free day), but I refuse to buy one until it comes with more RAM standard than I have now. I'm feeling the OS and Intel chip squeeze though.

John

I've worked in both arenas (Mac and PC) but my day job of the last seven years dictates living on the dark side (PC). I love Macs and I've often thought about buying myself a MAC Notebook, but it's not the device, it's the damned SOFTWARE. In a graphics line of work, having to go out and buy (not to mention update) the necessary software would QUICKLY run into 5 figures. Who can afford to do that? With my employer springing for new and updated tools, the switch unfortunately just isn't worth it.

Penelope

I have a Sony Vaio running Vista that I use for work and home and I was terrified at the thought of Vista - I actually (scared to admit) really like it!
However, it did come in at £850 (around $1700) but my company paid - phew!
My sister is a Mac whore and they have Apple everything - seriously! I do like the Macbook Pro but I'm just so used to Windows.
By the way, you are the first American I know who says laptop and not notebook!

Karl

Well, I say "laptop," too. But yeah, it gets expensive when you want to add a ton of memory and larger hard drives. I swear my next computer will be a Mac. Hopefully that's far down the road, though, because I be broke.

Foo

Make sure you look into a student discount for Katie. Apple store for Education, it has saved me some money over the years. Gotta love being a student and then going into education as a career.

Avitable

Dell sells laptops with XP that are perfectly fine. I bought one for a new employee for less than $700.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/winxp_inspnnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Stacey

My next computer may be a Mac, if for no other reason than everyone I know who has a Mac is madly in love with it. Nobody is THAT infatuated with PCs.

Dave2

I would pay double the cost to stay with Mac if that's what it took. After battling with Vista and dealing with crappy PC hardware for years, I'd say it was money well-spent.

kim

I bought my first mac about the same time my work got vista... learning to use excel on a mac and in vista at the same time was horrid. Other than missing excel pre vista, I love my mac.

kapgar

kilax, should I just call you Angie?

Britt, it's really not as bad to relearn as you might think. It's a pretty quick process and far more intuitive.

claire, you can always upgrade the RAM upon ordering.

John, check with your employer on their software licenses. Sometimes the agreements they have will allow you to purchase cheaper copies of software for your personal use. I know Microsoft does this with Office. I could get copies of Office when I was at my old job for $10 a pop on either OS.

Penelope, I looked at VAIOs until I realized they cost more than Macs. Good thing you got help from work. I can't say "notebook" when talking about a computer. Just sounds weird.

Karl, yeah, work on the job and then we'll help you shop for a Mac!

Foo, oh we plan on it, but thanks for the reminder.

Avitable, I was hoping I could buy newer models and just backstep to XP, but they don't offer that... at least not easy to find anyway. That's a helluva price difference between those two laptop models. Yikes!

Stacey, you betcha we are!

Dave, thankfully it's not going to be double the cost. Winds up a bit less actually. And the peace of mind knowing that it will work is worth several thousand more instead of guessing on Vista.

kim, both at the same time? My condolences. Yikes.

Sheila (Charm School Reject)

I didn't understand a single freakin' word you put in this post. I am completely technologically impaired.

BUT I love my Dell laptop. It came with XP (of course, this was the year before they came out with Vista so I'm not sure about that whole "downgrading" thing) and a million other awesome things. I think we got it for $900, of course I'm not sure if Dell screwed me on the price because, again, I know nothing when it comes to this.

Happy Computer Purchasing!

kapgar

Don't feel bad. I'm not even sure I completely understood everything I said, either. Enjoy the XP. Never get rid of it!

Nilsa S.

Must be nice to have the option. Consider yourself lucky. Me ... I'm stuck with a stupid PC for work and lots and lots of Mac envy.

kapgar

You can always have a Mac at home. That's what we do. I need a PC for work, but we're all Mac, all the time at home.

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