50th Birthday Notebook

[mdipi]

Hey guys,
My uncle is turning 50, so his kids decided to get him a notebook, (good kids eh?).

Pretty much they want built in WiFi (Centrino?), Firewire, USB2.0, a good GFX card, a big honkin HDD, and a DVD burner.

He loves to edit home movies as well, so the notebook would have to be good for that too, as well as be able to take a spill.

I was thinking of the ThinkPad line, but, alas, I really know nothing about PC's anymore, being a Mac man myself, and his whole network at home and work is based off of Windoze...oops, Windows.

Anyone think they can just offer up some good choices? Id rather not break their bank TOO badly, but any names of notebooks would be nice.

Thanks-
-Mike

[Maxtr0sity]

What's their price range?

IBM, Dell, Alienware are all good companies.

[mdipi]

Maybe top it off at like $3,000USD?

[kirupa]

Wow - for $3000 you can get pretty much any laptop configured to the Max(tr0sity!)! I like the Dell Inspiron XPS, but an Alienware is great also. The only downside with both of these is that they are bulky for carrying it around all the time.

[Maxtr0sity]

Hahaha, nice.

Yeah, I'd just get a 'mobile' laptop and pimp it out.

[ahmed]

Wow - for $3000 you can get pretty much any laptop configured to the Max(tr0sity!)!
Sorry for the waste of a post, but that's hilarious :thumb:

[mdipi]

Now that I think about it, I might have set my price for more Apple-standards.

I showed them Alienware and they liked what they saw. Any recomendations on the ThinkPad lines? I know there are mulitple "versions."

[Krilnon]

My mom's new (last week) Thinkpad doesn't have a Start button, which might annoy your uncle like it does my mom.

[mdipi]

My mom's new (last week) Thinkpad doesn't have a Start button, which might annoy your uncle like it does my mom.

As on the OS or the little Windows key on the keyboard? My dad has a ThinkPad thats probably nearing half a year old now, and he seems to like it for work. But thats all he uses it for.

[Krilnon]

It doesn't have the key on the keyboard...or at least not that we could find. Usually if there's not a dedicated key there'll be a function key that does the same thing... but I didn't see it anywhere. That wouldn't really be a deciding factor for me but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[jerez_z]

It doesn't have the key on the keyboard...or at least not that we could find. Usually if there's not a dedicated key there'll be a function key that does the same thing... but I didn't see it anywhere. That wouldn't really be a deciding factor for me but I thought I'd throw it out there.I think that would be a pretty huge deciding factor for me.... its like a mouse with a scroll wheel or a keyboard without a tab key

[kirupa]

You could use Ctrl + Esc, or you could even map a key on your keyboard to Ctrl + Esc :)

[mdipi]

I think that would be a pretty huge deciding factor for me.... its like a mouse with a scroll wheel or a keyboard without a tab key

I had never used that key whilst I was a Windows user, I didnt even know what it was for :P It just popped open my Start menu during Counter-Strike, and that was bad enough for me.

IBM has been really pioneering the way with Linux, so it makes sense that they would have a more Linux-friendly keyboard layout, minus the Windows key too.

So I'll warn my Uncle about that. Any other recomendations?

[ya3]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72001/wo/1N60yYSlPFQj2MDje2FoZFHsHuB/0.0.11.1.0.6.23.1.1.1.1.0.0.1.0

I say switch him!!! Do it!!! I think he'd be more comfortable editing and burning his movies with iMovie and iDVD rather than Windows Movie Maker or some obscure opensource GPL kvideoeditX32+ (:P) thing... he'd have to Ψ out a few thousand for Premiere. Gotta think of the software ;)

You could even get him a pimped-out 12" iBook. Chicks love 'em :sure:

[mdipi]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72001/wo/1N60yYSlPFQj2MDje2FoZFHsHuB/0.0.11.1.0.6.23.1.1.1.1.0.0.1.0

I say switch him!!! Do it!!! I think he'd be more comfortable editing and burning his movies with iMovie and iDVD rather than Windows Movie Maker or some obscure opensource GPL kvideoeditX32+ (:P) thing... he'd have to ? out a few thousand for Premiere. Gotta think of the software ;)

You could even get him a pimped-out 12" iBook. Chicks love 'em :sure:

First of all: Arent you a Windows user?

Second of all: I am the last person you need to tell, that i shold try to switch someone. I have 2 PowerBooks and an iMG5, so trust me, i tried pushing a PowerBook on them as fast as i could, but since they're family, i offered to look at PC's for them.

I've showed them ThinkPad and Alienware. I'm iffy on Dells because my dads last one had a bad BIOS and I've heard some other horror stories.

Anyone have any experince with Compaq/HP notebooks? I've always loved HP desktops/workstations but I'm not to sure about their notebook lines.

Thanks,
Mike

[ya3]

First of all: Arent you a Windows user?
Yes :)
I'll shut up.

[Ψ]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72001/wo/1N60yYSlPFQj2MDje2FoZFHsHuB/0.0.11.1.0.6.23.1.1.1.1.0.0.1.0

I say switch him!!! Do it!!! I think he'd be more comfortable editing and burning his movies with iMovie and iDVD rather than Windows Movie Maker or some obscure opensource GPL kvideoeditX32+ (:P) thing... he'd have to Ψ out a few thousand for Premiere. Gotta think of the software ;)

You could even get him a pimped-out 12" iBook. Chicks love 'em :sure:

was i called in this post, to pull out some thousands?

ok that was totally random sorry

um yeah convert him to apple even tho i use windows, i have tried appless and they are very cool and sweet

[booler]

DONT WHATSOEVER buy a Gateway Trust me I own an M675 17.1" and it been in the shop 4 times in a year they finally said if anything else happens we'll just replace the whole thing and give you a new one... I hope it breaks again in the next 6 months! :)

[CagedApe]

DONT WHATSOEVER buy a Gateway Trust me I own an M675 17.1" and it been in the shop 4 times in a year they finally said if anything else happens we'll just replace the whole thing and give you a new one... I hope it breaks again in the next 6 months! :)

Easy... Laptop + Hammer = New Laptop. ;)

[mdipi]

was i called in this post, to pull out some thousands?

ok that was totally random sorry

um yeah convert him to apple even tho i use windows, i have tried appless and they are very cool and sweet

:thumb2: Thanks for the help, because as i mentioned 2 times already its gotta be a PC.

Thanks for reading the posts...

[electrikmonk]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72001/wo/1N60yYSlPFQj2MDje2FoZFHsHuB/0.0.11.1.0.6.23.1.1.1.1.0.0.1.0

I say switch him!!! Do it!!! I think he'd be more comfortable editing and burning his movies with iMovie and iDVD rather than Windows Movie Maker or some obscure opensource GPL kvideoeditX32+ (:P) thing... he'd have to ? out a few thousand for Premiere. Gotta think of the software ;)

You could even get him a pimped-out 12" iBook. Chicks love 'em :sure:

yep, how could you not consider the industry standard platform for movie making? and if he's got a windows network, no prob. only windows have problems connecting to windows networks.. .

i thought IBM sold off their PC division to some other company that makes them but has a license to use the thinkpad name? alienware has some of the best specs for a laptop and the sony line up is kind of nice.