My work is offering a computer loan program for the months of August and September. The deal is $1300 payroll deducted for a year, interest free. I'm looking at a laptop. The current contenders are an HP nx9420 or a MacBook. I'm a desktop support tech for a small college in Vermont. Campus is 99% PC and if I bought the Mac I"d dual boot with XP. I've used current Macs here on campus and I know what they're all about. I've played with Linux and Mac for a few years on and off. The HP is a 17" 7.4lbs dekstop replacement that would do the usual PC laptop stuff as well as being a machine I can game on. The PC is clearly more bang for the buck with a big screen, 256Mb video, Dual Core 1.6, 80Gb hard drive, combo dive, 512Mb Ram would be upped to a gig, wireless, and XP Pro. The Mac is a 2.0 Core Duo, 13" wide screen, 80Gb drive, DVD cutter, wireless, 1Gb Ram, X 10.4 and a free 2Gb IPod Nano.

The price on each... The HP comes in at $1264 before the extra ram. The Mac is $1334.

What do ya think?

I bought a HP laptop about 3 years ago. Been pretty happy with it. When I bought it, USB1.1 was still hanging on, and my laptop only has that. But, a USB2.0 PCMCIA card helps me out when I need the extra speed. Things I'd make sure you get are the higher-capacity battery (preferrably not made with Sony cells), DVD+-RW drive (they're pretty cheap now), 1GB RAM (especially if the one you get uses UMA (shared video memory), and a 7200RPM hard drive.

They all come with 802.11g, modems, 10/100 NIC, and the usual heebie-geebies.

The rest is just personal preference. Screen size, widescreen or 4:3 aspect ratio, etc.

I'm not really concerned about the DVD cutter... I don't have the need to cut more than 700Mb too often. Battery size is important but I think you get what you get with this model.

if you had more money i would say MAC... but sense its only 1300 or so.. PC. just like you said, Alot mor ebang for the buck...

1GB or memory is a must for a laptop and 7200 RPM drive help out alot also.

i got a gateway, havent had any probs with it so par (knocks on head) but its got the amd 3500 64 bit prossesor 1 gig or ram 64 meg video (dedicated) up to 256. but it was like 1100 but then i got the 4 yrs unlimeted warrrenty protection that will have them replace it as long as it doesnt get thrown into a pool but outt he door was right around 1500. i just got an external hdd cause the 100 gig that is in it is not big enough so i went and bought a case for my 200 gig so i now have a 200 external hdd but my next purcase will be 2 1 gig sticks of ram as of right now i have 2 512 sticks in there now. but if you pay attention to newspaper ads you can find some realy good deals (back to school sales) like my mom just went and got a desktop comcrack 2 ghz 512 ram 128 video dvd burner 200 gig hdd and 17 in lcd for 475 outthe door.thats cheap.

You can't go wrong with either. Unless gaming is a big concern.

A big screen gaming box is a concern but it'* kinda a toy... Listing proficient with Mac OS looks good on a resume. I just hate spending so much for so little.

As for Gateway, we get a wicked deal on them through work but even with my discount they're too expensive.

I'd go with a mac. My next computer is going to mac as I am really starting to dislike Windows.

yeah me too but with what money he has to spend hes not going to get vary good mac.. :(

a good mac starts at like 2K+

I do like my Mac Mini i got for $500 but its realy not a preformer.. its not that fast and the only thing its good for is webrowsing and Word stuff...

Im thinking of save for a G5 mac, a realy one not one of the new 1/2 PC & 1/2 Mac.. i want a real mac with a G5 CPU and stuff... there fast in a lot of aeras still then the Intel'*

There are a lot more software options for Window'* than there is for the Mac. I am not sure if the fustration of trying to relearn a new OS is better than having sparatic hick-up'* in Windows :?