Comments on: How to find a good cheap laptop

By: Joe Ahearn

Joe Ahearn — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:37:39 +0000

Good advice. Thanks. I own a MacBook and love the build quality, but I want to buy another laptop just for doing LINUX builds and tests and LAMP stuff. Your advice will help.

Best,
Joe Ahearn

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:58:00 +0000

I agree with what you said about Apple components not being better. I was just saying they won’t be very likely to put crappy components in their machines, which can be a concern when buying a cheap PC. Macs tend to have the latest chips, nice screens, etc. I also think the MacBook Air is a sweet design that doesn’t have a cheap PC competitor yet.

But I also agree with what you said that there is increasingly little difference in capability between Macs and PCs and it’s probably not worth the cost. I do wish someone would make a PC version of BBedit though. I loved that program when I was on a Mac.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:05:29 +0000

I don’t think Apple is really any better in terms of component quality, but that’s another discussion. I agree that newegg.com probably has the best filtering tool out there. Amazon.com ‘s filtering tool seems to be broken. I often get products that aren’t computers in the results.

Since I run models or process data on supercomputers, I just need a good Internet connection and bare minimum in terms of specs so I am happy with the free net book I got from Google. (I find it silly that Google is trying to sell their chrome books whatever they are.)

Anyway, it comes down to finding out what you’re going to use your laptop for. I bet over half of the people using Macs can probably do everything they do on a cheap $400 laptop, especially in science. OK, I’m starting to sound like my advisor!