Help a girl out

[twylight]

I need my 'own' computer.

But my dilemma is this: I need a laptop for school and travel, but I also need a desktop computer good enough for gaming without making me a pauper.

Focusing on the desktop I'd *like* it to be under $2,000 at the most 2,200 is my limit.
So several questions:

• Is it possible?
• Mac or PC or Mac/PC
• Buy or Make?
  -If buy, what brand?
  -If make, good brands/prices/etc.
  
  
  
• What specifications/components?

I'd like the Laptop to be fitted out enough to handle a game like Guild Wars, and still be inexpensive. So nothing over $2,000.

For example, is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834114299
a good one?


I am a clean slate, teach me, brainwash me to your ideals.

 

[aptget]

I always recommend building computers, but not if you want a laptop.
Components are harder to find, there is less space, its harder, not as cost effective etc etc
I cant really tell you Mac or PC. Jag will tell you to go mac, thats fine. Your school may want you to get a PC (maybe devry only works with windows haha)
There really isnt a difference between a Mac and a PC anymore excluding operating system. I prefer linux but if it was between OS X and XP I would go with OSX. Although its more expensive. The MacBook Pro is 2000 on the dot.
Again its hard to tell you what to get. If you like OSX get a mac. If you dont think youd ever use it, go ahead and get a PC and run XP.
Actually dont
It sucks massive penis

Actually forget what I just wrote, get the macbook, partition the HD, dual boot linux and osx go open source

 

[aptget]

The laptop you posted is fine, but Id go with Core 2 Duo. Especially with Quad Core coming out.
This is nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834101019
SO is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834117343
same price, first one has bigger screen, second one has better video card
Although I dont think guild wars requires a good setup so its nota big deal

Id go with a MacBook Pro personally, if you can afford it, its only ~200 dollars more.
Although I heard theyve been shipping with 4200 RPM HDs
Choose one good luck

Edit- Dont use a windows OS, nows a great time to switch
XP is literally Bill Gates taking a ****, burning it to disc, and packaging it
Vista is just their attempt to emulate OSX
Both are huge resource hogs, thats why I dont use either

 

[ComicChick]

i got my desktop from dell. i customized it how i wanted, with the features and whatnot that i wanted, and they built it and shipped it. it still works great for me.

and they even have computers that are especially made for gaming and stuff.
they sell laptops too, but i dont know anything about them.

i would recommend going to www.dell.com and try to get a preferred account. it's basically where they give you credit and you pay monthly installments instead of it all at once.

i registered and got $1500 credit on there. The first thing I bought was a flatscreen, which I'm only paying between 15-30 bucks a month for instead of a couple hundred at once. I got a wacom too, and those are the only things i've gotten so far.

 

[twylight]

ComicChick Thanks, I've practically been living on the Dell website, and if I bought a pre-built one it would be a Dell.

I always recommend building computers, but not if you want a laptop.
Components are harder to find, there is less space, its harder, not as cost effective etc etc
I cant really tell you Mac or PC. Jag will tell you to go mac, thats fine. Your school may want you to get a PC (maybe devry only works with windows haha)
There really isnt a difference between a Mac and a PC anymore excluding operating system. I prefer linux but if it was between OS X and XP I would go with OSX. Although its more expensive. The MacBook Pro is 2000 on the dot.
Again its hard to tell you what to get. If you like OSX get a mac. If you dont think youd ever use it, go ahead and get a PC and run XP.
Actually dont
It sucks massive penis

Actually forget what I just wrote, get the macbook, partition the HD, dual boot linux and osx go open source

*blanks out and gasps for air*

 

[ComicChick]

ComicChick Thanks, I've practically been living on the Dell website, and if I bought a pre-built one it would be a Dell.





*blanks out and gasps for air*

i almost did the same thing. i skimmed it and was just like 'screw it' and didn't read the rest. i'm not too good with computer tech stuff like that.

 

[Crooklyn]

In laymen's terms: Get a Mac. The price difference between that and XP/Vista is very minimal. There will be a learning curve if your only experience to computers is Windows, BUT you'll find it's a lot easier to get a hold of things.

I'm a freshman in college, and I just made the switch, been coasting ever since. A lot of my classmatess have been in the same position, and we pretty much have thrown Windows out of our lives and will never look back.

If you need an incentive: no viruses. no adware. no firewall needed. You just get up and running and don't have to worry about your comp getting screwed up.

 

[Man-Thing]

why not just get a killer lap top that can handle gaming? You would come out cheaper than buying a PC that is built for gaming and a laptop that is good enough for school ect.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

i'll build my own desktop and buy a mac laptop.

 

[Drakon]

http://skunkarific.com/

Check out the Dell thing they mention on the front page. [It's a local shop where I actually got this machine from a few years ago]/

 

[aptget]

*blanks out and gasps for air*

You're welcome!

 

[twylight]

why not just get a killer lap top that can handle gaming? You would come out cheaper than buying a PC that is built for gaming and a laptop that is good enough for school ect.

Because the majority of people I've asked have said "There is no such thing as a gaming laptop"

Also, with a laptop, there is no room to add-on to it later on

http://skunkarific.com/

Check out the Dell thing they mention on the front page. [It's a local shop where I actually got this machine from a few years ago]/

I've never had to call support for anything

In laymen's terms: Get a Mac. The price difference between that and XP/Vista is very minimal. There will be a learning curve if your only experience to computers is Windows, BUT you'll find it's a lot easier to get a hold of things.

I'm a freshman in college, and I just made the switch, been coasting ever since. A lot of my classmatess have been in the same position, and we pretty much have thrown Windows out of our lives and will never look back.

If you need an incentive: no viruses. no adware. no firewall needed. You just get up and running and don't have to worry about your comp getting screwed up.

But is a Windows/Mac combo condusive for gaming.

You're welcome!

Thank you, it was just a whole lot to figure out.

 

[Crooklyn]

If you want gaming: Windows, yes. Mac, not so much. If you're highly set on definitely using your pc for gaming, then your best bet would be a Windows machine. Otherwise, I give my full recommendation to the Mac.

 

[aptget]

Gaming is fine on the MacBook, you'll just have to boot into XP.
Or if you are feeling adventurous and want to save 200 dollars you could boot into a Linux distribution and use Wine/Crossover to run Windows applications/games natively.

Although GuildWars doesnt work perfectly using Wine (http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=6551&iTestingId=8538)
So you are better off booting into Windows.

 

[Fran]

Twylight, you can get a great desktop for under $2,000 no sweat.

 

[Malus]

There are a number of reconditioned Mac sellers on the net where you can get a quality refitted Mac at a very reasonable price.

I've spent years using both systems. Windows is fine, but the Mac operating systems are far more "intuitive" in my estimation.

Far fewer viruses out there to infect your Mac as well.

Suffice to say, I think those new Mac ads are both funny and accurate.

 

[twylight]

Thank's... ya'll especially Fran.

I'm torn because my Degree is Graphic Art, so I need a Mac to use that, but on the interm of building my own PC for gaming *Which will be a while, I be a starving student* I need to be able to play my games.

*wishes there was an easy answer*

If I was going for a laptop that could handle GW and CoH, what would I need to look for in it?

 

[Kritish]

I recomend a Toshiba.

 

[jaguarr]

With the ability to dual boot into Windows or run it in virtualization software like Parallels, there's really no good reason to not go with a Mac. They play games well enough and most of the popular games are ported to Mac. For those that aren't, dual boot into your Windows install and play them there. Besides, serious gamers go the console route, anyway. Have you looked to see if GW and CoH are available as native Mac applications, Twy? (I don't know what those abbreviations stand for, so I couldn't tell you.). At any rate, if you're working towards a graphic art degree, it's almost a foregone conclusion that your school and the companies in the field you want to work are going to be using Mac's, so you better learn how to use them at an expert level.

jag

 

[black_dust]

With the ability to dual boot into Windows or run it in virtualization software like Parallels, there's really no good reason to not go with a Mac. They play games well enough and most of the popular games are ported to Mac. For those that aren't, dual boot into your Windows install and play them there. Besides, serious gamers go the console route, anyway. Have you looked to see if GW and CoH are available as native Mac applications, Twy? (I don't know what those abbreviations stand for, so I couldn't tell you.). At any rate, if you're working towards a graphic art degree, it's almost a foregone conclusion that your school and the companies in the field you want to work are going to be using Mac's, so you better learn how to use them at an expert level.

jag

True that at our company we use Macs and Pcs, pc is no problem for me, but using the macs i leave to the other guy haha

 

[aptget]

Guild Wars and City of Heroes?
Windows only Im pretty sure

 

[jaguarr]

Guild Wars and City of Heroes?
Windows only Im pretty sure

Thanks for the translations. So, yeah...dual boot.

jag

 

[wiegeabo]

Laptop, I say go MacBook Pro. It will probably be the best fit for you. I love mine. And I installed Windows as a dual boot, but get MacBook processing power. So you've got a Mac for graphics (for which, as you know, Mac is the superior product) and the ability to run Windows games, all in the same machine.

As for a desktops, I'm leaning to saying get a Mac. But if you only need the power that cheaper desktops provide (say, under $1200-1500), then Dell is probably the way to go. It's usually not worth building your own desktop any more (in the old days, it was a great way to save a ton of money).

But, if you need to do graphics work on the desktop, you'll want a Mac. And then install Windows to play games just like you would on the laptop.


The only problem with going the Mac route and installing Windows is you're going to have to have a full (not upgrade) version of XP with Service Pack 2 for each Mac you're going to install it on. You can expect to pay $250-$300 for each copy.

Or you can pay $30-$50 for Parallels and run OSX and Windows at the same time, but you'll take a performance hit on Windows.

 

[jaguarr]

Actually, I found a full Windows SP 2 install disc with license key on Froogle for $98 when I set my wife's MacBook up with Parallels (I think I paid $65 for that). It actually runs XP faster than my dedicated XP craptop at work. *kershrug*

jag

 

[wiegeabo]

Actually, I found a full Windows SP 2 install disc with license key on Froogle for $98 when I set my wife's MacBook up with Parallels (I think I paid $65 for that). It actually runs XP faster than my dedicated XP craptop at work. *kershrug*

jag

I hate you.