<p>i have a toshiba and its the worst thing EVER too. constantly overheating, randomly shutting of while i’m working claiming “system errors”. it’s pretty horrible. my mom has an ibook from her work that now i use more often than my own laptop. next year before i leave my mom is going to buy me my own ibook and i would highly recommend them. at first i was wary about using a mac, since i traditionally used a PC, but once you get used to where everything is and whatnot, you’ll never go back. i second 1075 in that apple’s rarely get viruses and hav great customer support!</p>
<p>Apple only gives free tech support for 90 days.</p>
<p>I have a Sony Vaio and the hard drive crashed after a year. It was under warranty and they sent a tech out and put in another hard drive. I bought it at Frye’s and they at least saved most of my files before it finally crashed. It is quite heavy and I don’t know if I’d trust it for college. I get errors and some freezing up now and and have to shut the thing down at least once a day. I love the TV, though!</p>
<p>I would recommend that anyone purchasing a laptop, purchase the extended warranty. Smaller electronic devices that are carried around are more fragile than something that is going to stay in one place on your desk.</p>
<p>Apple provides complimentary free support for 90 days but the initial warranty is for one year.
I still recommend highly purchasing the additional warranty to 3 years however, things do happen, although any problems that I have had usually do occur during the first 90 days.
I also recommend buying factory refurbed unless you want very biggest and fastest on the market.
apple sells factory refurbed as does smalldog.
You can also use your status as a student to get additional discounts.</p>
<p>UCLAri,
Yes, some gaming will certainly be done, but not extensively. He also wants to run Sibelius, a fairly involved music composition program.</p>
<p>My whole family is a big fan of Macs, for both desktops and laptops. We’ve heard a lot of people talking about the wonderful warranties they get from Dell–for example, that their child’s laptop crashed and Dell fixed or replaced it without a problem. And my husband and I look at them in wonder and say, “What is this crashing of which you speak?” </p>
<p>In 15 years and 6 or 7 computers, we’ve never had an Apple crash. Never. It’s true that they’re stingy with the free customer support–but then, we haven’t needed it. The one time we did spring for the (fairly pricey) 3-year extended warranty, we didn’t use it even once.</p>
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<p>As far as Dells go, I think the perfect balance of form and function is the 600m. Good video capabilities, but light enough to take anywhere.</p>
<p>Thanks UCLAri…I’ll check into the Dell 600m. We had about $1500 earmarked for the purchase. I think the college offers some sort of Dell discount, too.</p>
<p>What about the Dell 9300?</p>
<p>Well, my opinion (and take it with a grain of salt) is that it’s way too big. I prefer having something that is actually reasonably portable if I’m going to buy a laptop. That’s why I want to sell my behemoth when I start working and invest in one of these beauties: [IBM Thinkpad X Series](<a href=“http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=-840&storeId=10000001&langId=-1&dualCurrId=1000073&categoryId=2072542”>http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=-840&storeId=10000001&langId=-1&dualCurrId=1000073&categoryId=2072542</a>)</p>
<p>Those look awesome UCLAri! I visited the IBM site after I read on another thread how durable the Thinkpads are. Maybe these would be good for a student? Do you think that they are now Lenovo will have any effect on quality or service?</p>
<p>We have had Macs since 1984. We have had two repairs needed: in a 1998 tower the hard drive froze after five years of nearly constant use; in a 1998 laptop the computer crashed while we were in Paris, fortunately we had the extended warantee. All other problems have been solved by restarting the computer. Another factor to take into account is that PCs are owned on average 3 years and Macs about 5 before the owners buy a more up to date model.</p>
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<p>I’m sorry, please restate the last sentence…I’m just too tired to decode it. :p</p>
<p>But anyway I think they’re great. I’d check to make sure he or she is okay with something that isn’t as…“media driven” so to speak, though.</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m tired too…that’s why I can’t formulate a proper sentence anymore! I meant that since Thinkpads are now going to be products of Lenovo rather than IBM, do you think that there will likely be any change in product quality or customer service?</p>
<p>I actually didn’t know that they’re changing! Hm, I wouldn’t worry too much, but maybe be a little cautious and look into the matter by reading up on it.</p>
<p>well I bought my son a dell when he went to college, and I could never recommend them. their financing is awful, they say they are giving you interest free for xx months, but it’s a bait and switch, you end up paying 28% interest! there is a dell community forum at dell.com where it is discussed. I guess the question is, what is a good computer with good support? my daughter is also looking at the ibooks now. I am just so leary after the awful dell experience.</p>
<p>My only question about the Dell financing is whether or not you had good credit to begin with? Remember that no interest financing sometimes hinges on you being “approved.”</p>
<p>Gotta read the fine print they say!</p>
<p>my daughter just purchased her 2nd apple laptop ( first was clamshell powerbook after high school)</p>
<p>first computer she paid cash, but for this one she financed it through apple to establish credit and paid it off within 9 months. I don’t think she had a problem, they like to give college students credit even if you aren’t working full time.</p>
<p>I’m a fan of the Apple notebook lines. They’re thin and light enough to take anywhere, they have that panache that college aged adults desire, and they’re pretty much powerful enough to do anything.</p>
<p>I just need two buttons on a mouse. Damn you Apple and your one button paradigm! Damn you to the singular button circle of hell!</p>
<p>Other than that, Apples are great.</p>