Thinking of buying a new PC? Decide v. soon

[johnb]

I have spent a fair amount of time this week in PC World, Comet etc because I want to replace my laptop.

My needs are basic and the forerunner is a £400 hp machine with a Quad-Core A8 processor, 6 Gb RAM, 750 Gb Hard-hardrive etc etc. BUT, I noticed a reconditioned Mac-Book pro for a grand that captured my imagination.

Should I move to Apple?

Are revamped machines ok?

Just a couple of points -

PC World, etc are pretty expensive and you can usually get better deals online from the likes of Misco, etc.

What PC World does offer is 'hand holding' but then their own warranty is also very expensive, especially when HP offer their own 'CarePack' warranties which include telephone support. Having said that, for someone who doesn't know much about PCs and wants someone to be at hand to help, PC World, etc is probably worthwhile - at a price.

As for moving to Apple, that is very much a personal decision but bear in mind there will be a learning curve and do some research before you decide.

Edit: If you do decide to go for the HP laptop - do check out the online reviews of the machine before buying. (After having had a very good experience with my now 7 year old IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad I would probably check out their current ThinkPad laptops if I was buying - but that is just my own personal slant.)

[Nick Armstrong]

I noticed a reconditioned Mac-Book pro for a grand that captured my imagination.

Should I move to Apple?

Are revamped machines ok?

I endorse what RM says (although I've never bothered with partitioning etc and Windows... but then I have access to Word on my office's PC system). I had an old Compaq PC at home, and as I say we have Dell Pcs at the office. I hate the way Windows works. The moment I got my first Mac it felt like coming home.

Make sure you have a proper warranty. You won't look back.

BTW with the launch of the new ones last week, one would anticipate some good MacBook Pros coming on the used/reconditioned market soon. Even un-used ones from the previous 'release' are sliding in price - e.g. here's the smallest (13") at John Lewis with £150 off...
http://www.johnlewis.com/231442343/Product.aspx

[Frances_iom]

My needs are basic and the forerunner is a £400 hp machine with a Quad-Core A8 processor, 6 Gb RAM, 750 Gb Hard-hardrive etc etc..

and there is in that machine probably more than 100x the computing power that put men on the Moon! - personally I stick with cheaper hp laptops, usually adding a larger harddrive if necessary, and install Linux (Mint - latest is v13 but I'm still using v11 ) - usually no problems with hp + intel CPU/onboard graphics but then I have no interest in games ,DVD watching etc- for email I still use a low power win98 box running on a small via card!

[Nick Armstrong]

bear in mind there will be a learning curve

I found it a very shallow, quick and pleasurable curve, eliminating all the aspects of computer use that were a pain in the hard drive with PCs...

[Resurrection Man]

Beef Oven, you may find this link worth reading http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

[amateur51]

Beef Oven, you may find this link worth reading http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

That's a very reassuring & helpful site, Resurrection Man - many thanks

[Beef Oven]

Beef Oven, you may find this link worth reading http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

Cheers Rez, I will give it some dedicated time later

[Nick Armstrong]

That's a very reassuring & helpful site

I'm sure most bank managers might think apple.com website anything but, as far as their clients were concerned, in terms of temptation to spend. Maybe that's what bank managers want... lots of lovely interest from overdrafts and loans

[Anna]

Are the contributors to these messageboards the only people who still use IE ?

I still, for my sins, use IE7, I am being told I have to upgrade to IE8, but reports of 8 look scary, and I know now there is IE9. Am I being a total wuss with sticking with something out of date and not upgrading or using Firefox? Everything works just fine as it is. Am I a Luddite?

[Stunsworth]

That's a very reassuring & helpful site, Resurrection Man - many thanks

You don't need a separate partition for windows by the way. You can use emulation software such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run Mac program's and Windows ones side by side. You will need a Windows OS disk in addition to the Mac software. You can also us Parallels etc. to run Linux from within the Mac environment should you wish.

When I switched to Mac I had a couple of programs that I ran in Windows, but quickly dropped them for their Mac equivalent.

[french frank]

You don't need a separate partition for windows by the way.

I am suspicious. I think my LaCie HD packed up after it was divided into a partition for Windows and another for Mac. Culture shock?

[Last news is that it is in the 'holding centre' waiting to be shipped to France. Once it arrives it will take only two weeks to be repaired. If so, total time 6 weeks during which time I only have Time Machine as my back-up ]

Tahme Machine, Ah thenk Ah lerv yu ...

[PJPJ]

I still, for my sins, use IE7, I am being told I have to upgrade to IE8, but reports of 8 look scary, and I know now there is IE9. Am I being a total wuss with sticking with something out of date and not upgrading or using Firefox? Everything works just fine as it is. Am I a Luddite?

IE9 is slicker and a big improvement on IE8 I understand. I went from IE7 to 9. If you do modernise browser, go for IE9.

I do use Google Chrome mostly but keep IE9 on the go, too.

[Resurrection Man]

FF..I have a spare 250Gb external drive gathering dust and you are very welcome to borrow it for the duration.

[french frank]

FF..I have a spare 250Gb external drive gathering dust and you are very welcome to borrow it for the duration.

Stand by for PM!

[Dave2002]

You don't need a separate partition for windows by the way. You can use emulation software such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run Mac program's and Windows ones side by side. You will need a Windows OS disk in addition to the Mac software. You can also us Parallels etc. to run Linux from within the Mac environment should you wish.

When I switched to Mac I had a couple of programs that I ran in Windows, but quickly dropped them for their Mac equivalent.

Some people might want/need separate partitions. It depends on the application. I recently wanted to have an ext3 formatted drive, for use with my Humax Foxsat machine. I ended up creating multiple partitions using Ubuntu and gparted. I didn't actually install Ubuntu, but used a live CD on a Windows machine. By having a machine with multiple partitions I can move files between a PC, Macs and the Humax PVR.

A cheaper option than Parallels or VMWare is to use VirtualBox (free) - https://www.virtualbox.org/ - though it may not work with everything. It has worked on systems I've used though. The big problem I've found with running VMs and trying to run Windows is getting a licensed copy of the ***** operating system to install. I'm blowed if I'm going to pay any more to Microsoft. The whole reason I moved to Macs was to get away from having to spend my life fixing machines which don't work because the software and environment is so temperamental.

I have found that largely my life has improved since abandoning Windows. The downside though is that every few months, when I do have to fire up a Windows machine, I may have to download and install several months worth of updates, and do various installations etc. to get things working properly, so I still end up wasting half a day from time to time. At least it's not every day or week though.