Laptop wanted

[Rocky]

Anyone got a Apple laptop the want to sell pref a 15" was going to get a Dell but with all the trouble my other half is having i would rather stick with a mac

[HardRockCamaro]

Sorry, you'll have to prise my MacBook Pro from my cold dead fingers...

I don't know if you realise it, but used Apple laptops go for big money (handy as it makes the actual ongoing ownership experience cheap).  A friend of mine sold his only 2 weeks ago (sorry, didn't think to ask on here!).

If you want 15" you'll have to buy a MacBook Pro, I can't imagine you'll get one much under £800 used (new they start at about £1400).

If you'll take a 13" screen you can get a MacBook and you might get one of them used for £500 (new they start at about £700).

You will want at least 2GB of RAM really, but upgrades from http://www.crucial.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">www.crucial.com are cheap
Hard drive can easily be upgraded.


Some lingo to look out for:

Superdrive:  DVD-Rewriter drive

Combo Drive:  Writes CD's, but can only read DVD's.

Airport:  Wireless networking card

iSight:  Webcam

AppleCare:  As with all laptops, PC or otherwise, if anything major goes wrong (screen, motherboard etc) they're so expensive to repair that they're basically worthy only of the bin.  The 3 year extended warranty on an Apple product is called AppleCare and it is tranferable.  I'd pay more for that peace of mind.



On a side note, are you around on Tueday as I'll be passing (ish) and could drop that stuff off mid-late morning?

[EDGE]

i just bought a Macbook from the apple refurb store, was £899 reduced to £650 and its MINT, there's not a mark on it...

fantastic value..

this ones for my dad but im SO tempted to buy another for home..

[HardRockCamaro]

John Lewis are doing the original MacBook Air for £880 or so I've heard...

[art b]

my dell's been gr8.........

[EDGE]

Quoting: art b

my dell's been gr8.........

pah

[art b]

meh

[HardRockCamaro]

without actual words...

[Titsy]

Quoting: art b

my dell's been gr8.........

ditto...

[HardRockCamaro]

You're both lucky, mine literally started falling apart within 2 years of daily use, cracks in the corners of the screen bezel, gaps appearing in the seams of the bottom casing etc.
Partly my fault as the one I bought was a heavy SOB and had the latets and greatest gear inside it which was paid for by using v nasty plastic for the casing.  A friend of mine bought a different model at the same time, trading raw performance for better build quality, which is what I should have done but at the time I naively favoured raw spec numbers...


I do like those now Dell Studio models though, and the new coloured Vaio's.

Would be handy for me as a second machine for testing my websites under windows, but then again by the time I've spent decent money on one of them I may as well buy a Macbook and install Windows on that...

[Rocky]

Yeah noticed the prices, the dell works great im looking at the studio 17 for £392 but its the anti virus stuff that makes the computer a pain. I mainly want it just for the internet and doing car ecm's would this be the best bet?

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Rocky

its the anti virus stuff that makes the computer a pain. I

If it comes with norton then Rip it off and stick AVG-Free on there - works really well and is (as the name suggest) free

[Fieldy]

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

www.crucial.com

I have the 1gb machine (works fast enough for me including all my microsoft office stuff on here), however, that sight is saying i can upgrade to 4gb (2x2gb) for £41.

How genuine is that sight and how easy is this upgrade to do?? I have never done any computer upgrading


Oh, and Rocky, stick to the Mac, do yourself a favour.
You can buy my 13" OSX if you like

[Titsy]

Did anyone else notice Apple are really pushing anti-virus software now... I guess it's the cost of becoming mor popular that you are targeted more by virus writers...

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Fieldy

How genuine is that sight and how easy is this upgrade to do?? I have never done any computer upgrading

Crucial's webSITE is very good so if it says that's what you can go to then you should have no issues going to that.

Not sure on Mac's but normally there is an access panel in the base of the machine, or sometime syou need to remove the keyboard, then its simply a plug in module (will only go in one way as well!)

[Roadkill]

I'm a P.C . . . . . but I don't wear a suit . . . . .

[HardRockCamaro]

Quoting: Titsy

Did anyone else notice Apple are really pushing anti-virus software now... I guess it's the cost of becoming mor popular that you are targeted more by virus writers...

No they're not, the article in question was a v old pre OSX faq on their site and someone updated it to correct a link and that gave the file an updated modification date which some journos jumped on thinking it was new advice.  It wasn't.  Apple have since pulled the article to avoid confusion.

[HardRockCamaro]

Quoting: Fieldy

Quoting: HardRockCamaro
http://www.crucial.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">www.crucial.com


I have the 1gb machine (works fast enough for me including all my microsoft office stuff on here), however, that sight is saying i can upgrade to 4gb (2x2gb) for £41.

How genuine is that sight and how easy is this upgrade to do?? I have never done any computer upgrading  

*Very* trustworthy site.
THE people to get to for RAM upgrades.

It's easy to upgrade the RAM, you simply unhook the battery from the bottom and there is an access panel behind.  Simply unclip the old ram stick(s) and click in the 2 new ones.  That's it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651

[HardRockCamaro]

Quoting: Rocky

Yeah noticed the prices, the dell works great im looking at the studio 17 for £392 but its the anti virus stuff that makes the computer a pain. I mainly want it just for the internet and doing car ecm's would this be the best bet?

If you want it to mod car ecu's then go with a Windows based laptop.  MAcs dumped the serial port years ago and some ecm's use software that requires the use of a serial port.  So to be on the safe side I'd buy a PC laptop but make sure it has serial ports as PC makers are also starting to dump them.

Ignoring the ecm's, if you want to use the net and whatnot then the cheapest Apple laptop will be fine, I'd personally try and get an Intel based one which as I say means a MacBook and means going s/hand if you want to get one for under £500...

[HardRockCamaro]

Quoting: Roadkill

I'm a P.C . . . . . but I don't wear a suit . . . . .

An MKB "I'm a PC" ad would be quite funny actually...

[EDGE]

thats annoyingly catchy.....

[Rocky]

Quoting: Fieldy

You can buy my 13" OSX if you like

How much?

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

So to be on the safe side I'd buy a PC laptop but make sure it has serial ports as PC makers are also starting to dump them.

This is getting too technical for me now which ones are serial ports?



As for the virus software the Dell comes with Macfee (not sure on spelling) but we were told to put on Norton which was all fine till we fitted a home hub and the Norton is being a pain.

[ianjpage]

Quoting: Rocky

This is getting too technical for me now which ones are serial ports?

normally 9 pin ports such as:

[Rocky]

This is the one i was thinking of the Dell website has some for more money with better specs but alot of the sites seem to have conflicting specs.

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2030391038.1229084558@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckadeflkmejdjcflgceggdhhmdfoh.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=089763&category_oid=-34118\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2030391038.1229084558@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckadeflkmejdjcflgceggdhhmdfoh.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=089763&category_oid=-34118

[ianjpage]

quite a nice machine - doesn't surprise me about the spec - if you go direct to dell you get to choose what spec you want and customise it to your needs,  If you go through someone like Currys then they would probably have a set spec that they sell, and this would prob be different to another retailers spec of the same machine.

Might be worth looking direct on dell's site at the studio laptops:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn#subcats=laptop_studio&navla=&a=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn#subcats=laptop_studio&navla=&a=