Ok, so I want to see what you guys think. I am looking to buy a new system by the end of this month to use at school for my degree in Civil Engineering. I am a Junior and used a maxxed 1.33 12" Powerbook for the first two years and would like it to last at least 3-4 years. The main programs that I use are; Safari, iWork, iLife, light Photoshop, Excel, Omigraffle, Omioutliner, Vectorworks/Archicad (but very rarely do I need 3D), Maple, Sketchup, and maybe Matlab and AutoCAD in Windows. I am basically trying to get off as inexpensively as possible and get a nice light wieght but high powered laptop but my budget is about $1200 max but I wouldn't mind spending less. The other way I am considering is to get the newly updated iMac. The options I am looking at are:
Base Macbook - $999 from Amazon.com + $170 or so for 2Gb or Ram from Newegg.
or
HP dv200t - $924.41 from HP edu with the same specs as the base Macbook only with a Core 2 Duo processor and a Dual Layer DVD burner. + $170 for 2Gb of Ram. There are less expensive models but I like the 13"-14" form factor.
or
The $1099 edu iMac
The only reason I am really considering the iMac is because it seems to be problem free and the extra drive space and screen real estate would be great for design projects. Unfortunately, my school has Wifi everywhere and I live in an apartment so I would only use it at night. That being said, it has just about the right specs for me minus the portability...
The reason why I am hestitant about the Macbook is that it costs significantly more than the PC counterparts (around $200 if specced equally from HP). Also, the palm rest discoloration and random shutdown problems have me worried about it as well. That is not to say that if I read the HP forums every day I wouldn't be worried about that as well.
The HP was the closest in a PC that I could find that met my needs/budget. I looked at some other manufacturers but I couldn't find anything I liked at Dell or Gateway, didn't like how Toshiba's aren't really very customizable, and don't want to pay the premium for a IBM/Lenovo or Sony. Right now I am in wait and see mode because I can stand to use the computer labs until the end of the month at least. All Apple has to do is keep their current price structure and throw in a C2D and DL burner and fix the production problems and I will buy that day. All of this waiting is getting frustrating though. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should get or what you would do?:
Thanks
Dustin
Base Macbook - $999 from Amazon.com + $170 or so for 2Gb or Ram from Newegg.
or
HP dv200t - $924.41 from HP edu with the same specs as the base Macbook only with a Core 2 Duo processor and a Dual Layer DVD burner. + $170 for 2Gb of Ram. There are less expensive models but I like the 13"-14" form factor.
or
The $1099 edu iMac
The only reason I am really considering the iMac is because it seems to be problem free and the extra drive space and screen real estate would be great for design projects. Unfortunately, my school has Wifi everywhere and I live in an apartment so I would only use it at night. That being said, it has just about the right specs for me minus the portability...
The reason why I am hestitant about the Macbook is that it costs significantly more than the PC counterparts (around $200 if specced equally from HP). Also, the palm rest discoloration and random shutdown problems have me worried about it as well. That is not to say that if I read the HP forums every day I wouldn't be worried about that as well.
The HP was the closest in a PC that I could find that met my needs/budget. I looked at some other manufacturers but I couldn't find anything I liked at Dell or Gateway, didn't like how Toshiba's aren't really very customizable, and don't want to pay the premium for a IBM/Lenovo or Sony. Right now I am in wait and see mode because I can stand to use the computer labs until the end of the month at least. All Apple has to do is keep their current price structure and throw in a C2D and DL burner and fix the production problems and I will buy that day. All of this waiting is getting frustrating though. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I should get or what you would do?:
Thanks
Dustin