Looking for a New Laptop

[garyahouse]

Talk about feedback. Good grief. Getcher money's worth yet? I run a 13 inch macbook air. It comes standard with a SSD, or solid state hard drive. It is incredibly quick. 13 seconds from cold start to surfing the net. Instant wake from sleep. Bulletproof operating system. No hard drive to crash. No virus protection needed. Solid aluminum and well built. Great graphics and sharp display. Wonderful sound... can you believe that? Hard to believe that this much great stereo sound comes out of this little thing. Great battery life. And the best part, it's sooooo small and lightweight, I love it. Wouldn't trade it for any laptop on the market, period. For reliability, quality, speed, toughness, operating system, standard features, no matter how you slice it, macbook air is the laptop for me.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[Fred W]

Talk about feedback. Good grief. Getcher money's worth yet? I run a 13 inch macbook air. It comes standard with a SSD, or solid state hard drive. It is incredibly quick. 13 seconds from cold start to surfing the net. Instant wake from sleep. Bulletproof operating system. No hard drive to crash. No virus protection needed. Solid aluminum and well built. Great graphics and sharp display. Wonderful sound... can you believe that? Hard to believe that this much great stereo sound comes out of this little thing. Great battery life. And the best part, it's sooooo small and lightweight, I love it. Wouldn't trade it for any laptop on the market, period. For reliability, quality, speed, toughness, operating system, standard features, no matter how you slice it, macbook air is the laptop for me.

Gary

darksider #44

Price? How much do you have into it? You know, for that day when your trunk falls off and your Macbook Air really takes to the air...

You'll want to know to tell the insurance man anyway.

 

[johnny80s]

I recommend Mac. You will be very happy with it.

 

[yamafitter]

Talk about feedback. Good grief. Getcher money's worth yet?

There certainly been a ton of apple sauce spilled over this one. So far results are running 2 to 1 for the Mac. I thought about a cheap netbook but then I would have to then replace my desktop with something that will run the video editing. The problem with that from my perspective is that I like to do a running blog when I'm on the road rather than try a remember details well after the event. My current desktop while state of the art at the time could probably make it onto Antiques Roadshow now. If you think my laptop is slow at rendering video I could use a calander to measure the time my Windows 32bit XP desktop would take. To go the netbook route I'm now looking at buying two computers instead of just one.

If I learned nothing else about computers over the years that once you decide to buy one should go state of the art or don't even bother. None of the local resellers have a MacBook Pro with a SSD drive so I'm going to go into Toronto to the Apple Store and take a thumb drive with some video and see just how long a typical length edited video will take to render. The proof will be in the pudding (apple sauce).

Price? How much do you have into it? You know, for that day when your trunk falls off and your Macbook Air really takes to the air...

Parts don't go flying off my bike. Then again I don't ride a POS Gen 1.

If I'm crashing hard enough that I have to worry about a laptop properly packed and protected, the laptop is the last thing I'm worried about.

 

[yamafitter]

I'm a big Dilbert fan. The reason it is so funny is because it is almost always completely true.

My all time Dilbert favorite:

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states: "Scientists and Engineers can never earn

as much as administrators and sales people."



This theorem can now be proved mathematically: Given:

 

• Power = Work / Time and,
• Knowledge is Power

Substituting knowledge for power, we obtain: Knowledge = Work/ Time

 

If time = money, then: Knowledge = Work/ Money

 

Solving this equation for money, we obtain:

 

Money = Work/ Knowledge

 

Therefore, as knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

 

Conclusion: the less you know, the more you make.

 

[johnny80s]

Just remember the SSDs are smaller and more expensive. If you plan to take lots or all of your files on the road don't go with an SSD. After you buy the laptop fill it with as much ram as it will hold. Don't buy apple ram. It is expensive and there are better deals out there. Remember to get a terabyte back up drive for Time Machine. It will automatically back up your mac. Do it before your trips just in case. If you have a problem you can plug in the drive and restore a file or the entire system.

Enjoy.

 

[Sharif]

Indeed - My MBP 15" has 8 GB of RAM, an SSD, and plenty of terabytes available via USB. It's really a wonderful machine, fast fast fast. I'm pondering an Air instead of an iPad. I have a iPad 2 and a Galaxy Tab, they each do different things pretty well.

What I really want is an Air with a touch screen...

 

[phroenips]

I'm a big Mac fan. I tend to buy a new Macbook Pro every couple of years, but only because I'm the type of person that likes shiny and new things

One of my past Macs, I sold to my sister-in-law. I used it for a couple years, and she's been using it for the past several years, and it's still running strong.

The one before that, I sold to a friend, and she's *STILL* using it. Macs simply last a whole lot longer and have more of a usable lifecycle than PCs

 

[garyahouse]

This is the actual MB air that I own:CLICKY This link won't last forever because it's a refurbished unit. On the Apple website it sells for 899. Mine was 1199 new at the Apple store on Black Friday 2010. The newest ones are available here CLICKY 2 and are significantly quicker than mine. You can get a hundred (or so) dollar discount by buying under "education discount." Any teacher or college student can buy one from APPLE. Similar discounts are available online by buying refurbished... not available at the brick and motor Apple store.

However, I don't do video editing and rendering very often. My hard drive is a 128. That may sound awful in a world of 320-500 gb drives in most laptops, but I keep my pics and videos on my backup drive. It's soooooo easy with time machine. Best back up software ever created, and standard on this computer. Back it up, erase it from this computer, and move on... it will always be stored if I need it again.

Mac vs PC:

One of my favorite features is "FINDER" on a Mac. It's soooo easy to find stuff. It just WORKS. As a teacher, I use macs all the time, and know a good deal about the mac vs pc debate. In addition, two years ago when I spent 25 hours or so researching SSD's vs regular hard drives, I came away convinced that I'll never own anything but. The smaller capacity just isn't an issue thanks to "time machine." I need to store stuff, sure, but I don't need to carry it ALL with me.

Toughness:

mine bounces around in my saddlebags every day. I never shut it off, it's just sleeping. And check this out: it doesn't have a scratch on it. The "case" is incredibly tough. Looks like the day I bought it.

Price:

I never use virus protection. I'm on the computer at least 4 hours every day, and on the web constantly. It's just not an issue.

Depreciation:

ever notice the price of 3 year old Apples? Try that with a PC. I don't plan on throwing mine out 2 years from now like every computer I've ever owned. That's the beauty of the SSD and the overall quality of this machine. Even things like the keyboard and the mouse pad and the hinges and the... oh geez, just go to the Apple store and take one for a test drive.

One note: the AIR doesn't have a CD/DVD drive... I bought a separate unit that plugs in, made for the AIR. It's simple, automatic, and works flawlessly with Apple's software. However, I rarely use it... I do just about everything by flashdrive nowadays. Times are a changing.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[Bounce]

Don't buy apple ram.

Point of order. Buy RAM certified for running in Macs (the timeing requirements are more stringent). Just don't buy ram FROM Apple. I got 8Gb from RAMJet for half of what Apple sells their's for.

As for external storage, avoid USB as it's just too daggon slow in v1 and v2. If you get a refurbed Mac, then Firewire 800 is faster than USB 2.0. If you get a new Mac, then consider something that uses Thunderbolt. the options are fewer and a little more costly but there's nothing out there with faster throughput. If you're doing large-file rendering then you'll appreciate the speed.

Back it up, erase it from this computer, and move on... it will always be stored if I need it again.

if you only have a single copy then there is NO backup. when (not if) that external drive dies, then it's gone. just remember that (where backups are concerned):

(copies of a file v backups)

1 is none

2 is 1

3 is 2 (1 off site in case of fire, flood, etc.)

So, backing up to the time machine drive is a good thing, but a cheapie USB 2nd drive with another backup that you take to work (or where ever) is better. i address the drive failure issue by backing up to a network RAID device. it still doesn't address the lack of off-site storage though.

 

[Fred W]

Man, you Appleheads sure do make them sound great. Of course some of you think a car tire on a motorcycle is a great idea too.

That MB Air Gary linked to isn't nearly as highly priced as I thought it would be, though it is refurbed.

I'm not at all against that, and have been known to buy a current, but refurbed, product to save some coin.

I guess part of the reason that the little netbook PC works for me is that I don't do "lame *** videos", (either on the road, or at home) remember?

 

[jmdaniel]

Talk about feedback. Good grief. Getcher money's worth yet? I run a 13 inch macbook air. It comes standard with a SSD, or solid state hard drive. It is incredibly quick. 13 seconds from cold start to surfing the net. Instant wake from sleep. Bulletproof operating system. No hard drive to crash. No virus protection needed. Solid aluminum and well built. Great graphics and sharp display. Wonderful sound... can you believe that? Hard to believe that this much great stereo sound comes out of this little thing. Great battery life. And the best part, it's sooooo small and lightweight, I love it. Wouldn't trade it for any laptop on the market, period. For reliability, quality, speed, toughness, operating system, standard features, no matter how you slice it, macbook air is the laptop for me.

Gary

darksider #44

+1. The wife has one. I like my iPad better, but use my iMac for anything that needs more guts.

 

[Pepperell]

We have iMacs at the store that display all kinds of music software that people can just walk up to and diddle with (1tb hard drive, 940Gb of demo software!). Occasionally I'll need to reboot one if more than 2 or 3 programs are fighting over the sound card. A few years back we had one that the kids would play chess on that would go catatonic after about 2 or 3 minutes. We also had PC's on display that ran just fine for about 5 years straight. Again, the public had access to these.

I gotta say the cutover from Motorola to Intel a few years back was ugly, as have been some of the OS upgrades.

You might want to look at the Sony laptop offerings; they seem to be a cut above the usual dreck, although not quite at the Mac level of finish.

Basically I can buy 2 pc's and throw one away for the same price as a Mac. And why are they so pokey? I click on something and nothing happens for a couple seconds and THEN the pinwheel starts. What's with that??

And I always feel so left-handed when I use one. Ugh.

Sign me:

Not-A-Fan

 

[RaYzerman19]

I never found a compelling reason to go to a Mac, but then I don't do video editing like you do (yet). I have an Acer 11.6 with good processor and 4 gigs of RAM, and it travels very well and compact. That said, I wouldn't mind a 13" screen, or in your case with the big Givi, you could go 14", yet have a larger monitor at home to dock into. Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista, not as bad as people make it out to be, just got to get used to it. Netbooks don't have the processors and in most cases can't be upgraded to enough RAM to do what you want.

For comparison to Mac pricing, check out an i-5 or i-7 equipped Acer or Asus with as much RAM as it will hold.... minimum 4, but 6 is better. Back up on an external drive, and keep backup copies of files on thumb drives while on the road.

Probably the worst that can happen on the road (assuming off and hard drive parked) is breaking those LCD or LED screens....... use a padded sleeve and put a thin sheet of something between the keyboard and screen so buttons don't rub on it.

 

[phroenips]

...though it is refurbed...

Thanks for bringing this up. After a little research on Apple's refurb process, I've come to the conclusion that they are worthy of an exception to my "never buy a refurb" rule. These machines are probably put together better (now) than brand new ones in a box, simply because they have had a more stringent quality control check and replaced all the bad parts.

Most of the macs I've bought have been refurbs. And you can still get Applecare for not too much more money and extend the warranty to three years. I get Applecare on all my Apple portable devices due to the fact that they see more abuse from being toted around, etc.

 

[yamafitter]

... I don't do "lame *** videos", (either on the road, or at home) remember?

Does this mean that the NERDS Lame *** Film Festival to be held in Stowe, Vermont is now cancelled?? hwell:

 

[johnny80s]

Bounce that was a good point about about the RAM. Yes make sure it is apple ram. I usually buy mine from the Chip Merchant here in San Diego. They are much cheaper than buying from apple.

One thing I never buy is apple care. All it does is extend the warranty and it does cover any type of abuse. I use ifixit.com if I need a part or an upgrade for my macs. They are great to work with and offer all kinds of upgrades. My imac is going on 7 years old and is still my everyday computer.

 

[Fred W]

... I don't do "lame *** videos", (either on the road, or at home) remember?

Does this mean that the NERDS Lame *** Film Festival to be held in Stowe, Vermont is now cancelled?? hwell:

Yep. Totally.

It's been preempted by the NERDS THaPS.

Why watch lame *** videos when you can be out makin' 'em?

 

[Aasland]

eh, I gave up on traveling with a laptop. Now I just bring my Android phone and do all my blogging / email / browsing on that.

I don't do video editing either, but if I did I'd just do that at home on my i7 Lenovo W520. But no way am I dragging that 17'incher around, despite how well-made it is. Crikey, the 170w power supply is 6x bigger than my phone!

 

[Sharif]

the 170w power supply is 6x bigger than my phone!

Indeed - one of the things I've enjoyed mgrating from my W510 (12 GB RAM, decently beefy machine) to my MacBook is the respectively tiny, light power supply!