Mbp vs u30jc or other

[Apollo808]

So I've been lurking on these forums for months and call me crazy but I think a lot of you are very well informed and knowledgable about mac and pc products.

I am graduating soon and will be getting a new laptop to replace my 14" Dell pos. I will become a teacher so most schools use macs and I can get an ed discount. However I never really use a mac too much and learnig a new OS does not really make me too excited. I could load windows 7 on it though.

My question is should I go with a mbp or a windows machine. 13" is the size I want and I want it to last me a few years. I am really dissapointed in the c2d with the 13's. I will be using the laptop to grade papers, manage a website, photoedit, create documents in word, lessons on ppt, stream video, web surfing mild gaming etc. Nothing too serious but I want it to last me 4-5 years. My experience with windows pcs tells me machines slow down over time. So the c2d right now is great. But 2-3 years from now can I expect a machine that doesn't feel snappy and fast? Also is iLife really that awesome for a guy who just started using a dslr and loves it and wants to start his own blog?

 

[spinnerlys]

A C2D CPU does more than suffice your needs, no need for any fancy i5/7 for that.

It will still be snappy in two years, if you have taken care of it and did not install every software title you come upon.

And iLife is quite great for people beginning using digital media. I don't use it, but that's because I was raised with more advanced media tools.


In the end it comes down to Mac OS X or Windows, so if you want to know more about Mac OS X you can have a look at the following images with links.

Btw, what s that u30jc you allude to in your title? And what kind of teacher do you wanna become?

 

[neteng101]

Spend some time viewing the many video tutorials on Apple's website...

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

There's ones that cover iPhoto, iWeb and also the Mac basics. It will give you some idea of how things are done on the Mac. You will want to get a photo editor beyond iPhoto though (iPhoto is great for organizing things)... I use Photoshop Elements since the latest version has tons of Photoshop functionality in it.

After watching the videos, go to the Apple store and play with the applications.

If you decide that OSX is not for you, and want to run Windows solely, then you're probably better off looking at a PC laptop. Macs don't suffer the slowdowns typical of PCs, I wouldn't worry about the 13" MBP lasting you a few years given what you plan to do. You can upgrade the hard drive to SSD someday when the prices of those drop, that will give a huge boost... I'm still using a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive upgrade and don't feel a need to bump to SSD immediately.

 

[Apollo808]

The u30jc is an Asus coming out with an i5 soon. Similar in spec to a mbp even has aluminum enclosure (not unibody though)

I will be moving over seas to teach esl in Korea so I need something light and portable. I won't own a car there so I will bike/walk or publi transport everywhere. Optical drive is necessarry for my use to make DVDs and play esl audio from differeent text books. So the size and weigt of the mbp an battery really appeal to me too.

Then I will come back to the us 2 years later and work in a public school which will 90% of the time use a mac.

So basically macs don't slow down like pcs provided I don't load all this junk on it.

A C2D CPU does more than suffice your needs, no need for any fancy i5/7 for that.

It will still be snappy in two years, if you have taken care of it and did not install every software title you come upon.

And iLife is quite great for people beginning using digital media. I don't use it, but that's because I was raised with more advanced media tools.


In the end it comes down to Mac OS X or Windows, so if you want to know more about Mac OS X you can have a look at the following images with links.

Btw, what s that u30jc you allude to in your title? And what kind of teacher do you wanna become?