<p>To reiterate what chuy said in the other thread, be wary about buying Macs, because you’re really paying several hundred extra dollars for the brand. This is alleviated somewhat in August when Apple throws in a free iPod with the Mac, but you have to judge for yourself if that’s worth the extra cost.</p>
<p>If you buy a computer at the Virginia Tech Bookstore you get a warranty for a couple of years in most cases. To be honest though, you’re probably not going to run into any viruses or complete system failures unless you’re poking around in places you shouldn’t (e.g. messing with the HDD partitions, editing the registry, etc.). That goes for Mac and PC. I’d ask your daughter what she wants. She’s going to be the one using the computer all of the time.</p>