Desktop, laptop, or mac mini?

[celtic34]

went window shopping yesterday and have it narrowed down to these 3. I just have no clue what i want. i want a general purpose pc for the most part. i'm a gamer but i use my 360 and ps3 for that. im older and used to build pc's and gaming rigs but dont want to do that at all. i mainly just use my pc for listening to music, reading, browsing the internet, watching videos etc... never owned a mac. seems pretty cool though. i dont use a computer out of the apartment that often if at all. laptop to me would just be more conveniant in ways. the problem with laptops is if one thing breaks they are a pain. i used to repair them but eh.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideacentre-desktop-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive/8998157.p?id=1218968344463&skuId=8998157


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/mac-mini-4gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive/4840689.p?id=1218548287565&skuId=4840689&st=mac%20mini&cp=1&lp=1

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/mac-mini-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive/4840634.p?id=1218548287950&skuId=4840634&st=mac%20mini&cp=1&lp=2

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-ativ-book-4-15-6-34-laptop-8gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-mineral-ash-black/9041201.p?id=1218974711335&skuId=9041201

For me the desktop has everything i want. It has a nice graphics card and a lot of memory and space if i want to game ever.

The mac mini is something different. I can dual boot it and from what i read its more than capable.

The laptop is just nice. But not sure if a laptop is for me. I do most of my computing in my apartment and have owned laptops in the past, but they have their drawbacks. seems like i can just get a new phone and internet on my phone if i really want portability.

all these seem pretty sweet to me and in that range of under $1000. $700 range. Tough to choose just one.

 

[Kelthar]

I'd either get the laptop or the lenovo one, but really depends on whether you want a laptop or a desktop.

 

[celtic34]

just a sidenote lenovo also makes that same pc with an i7. but it's $899 vs $650 which im not sure $250 is worth the performance bump. I'm thinking a 4th generation i5 should be more than capable. im running a dual core desktop right now lol and its perfectly fine for what i do for the most part. the issue is its running vista and im just sick of the issues with it. plus the soundcard had the speaker connection break off inside of it at one point and i cant use headphones. i can use my speakers because it keeps the connection when i plug it in because half the connector is in there and ic an't get it out. i hung onto this pc for the longest time because its perfectly fast enough for basic use. i just cant game on it at all. whatever i buy is going to be a lot faster.

 

[RazerZ]

I agree laptop or a desktop. Mac's are just overpriced and honestly aren't that great. My friend has a mac book air and the only thing I like about it is how thin it is, but I'm sure there's plenty of laptops like that.

 

[celtic34]

I agree laptop or a desktop. Mac's are just overpriced and honestly aren't that great. My friend has a mac book air and the only thing I like about it is how thin it is, but I'm sure there's plenty of laptops like that.

i agrree mac's are overprices but that's the nice thing about the mini. It really isn't if you look at the specs of what you are getting. it doesnt have a dvd drive but its small and compact. they all have the same parts mainly if you look at the specs. the lenovo has a nicer graphcis card. mac's os isnt as memory intensive so 4 gb of ram is pretty much equal to 8 on a windows pc.

i would never buy a full blown mac. they are way overpriced. the mini is just interesting to me because it's priced for peopel like me looking for something different maybe without the price issue. i think that's the exact reason it was released and marketed as actually.

if i'm ever going to own a mac now seems like the time. I just don't know if i will. But i had windows xp and now vista and i'm sick of windows issues.. i'm guessing windows 8 gets it right. but seems every 5 years with xp or vista i have to reinstall the operating system ebcause it stops updating. Or i have to spend a week going through some ridiculous process to fix it.

windows is always the same though. i get 5 years out of it until it breaks.

 

[RazerZ]

I agree laptop or a desktop. Mac's are just overpriced and honestly aren't that great. My friend has a mac book air and the only thing I like about it is how thin it is, but I'm sure there's plenty of laptops like that.

i agrree mac's are overprices but that's the nice thing about the mini. It really isn't if you look at the specs of what you are getting. it doesnt have a dvd drive but its small and compact. they all have the same parts mainly if you look at the specs. the lenovo has a nicer graphcis card. mac's os isnt as memory intensive so 4 gb of ram is pretty much equal to 8 on a windows pc.

i would never buy a full blown mac. they are way overpriced. the mini is just interesting to me because it's priced for peopel like me looking for something different maybe without the price issue. i think that's the exact reason it was released and marketed as actually.

if i'm ever going to own a mac now seems like the time. I just don't know if i will. But i had windows xp and now vista and i'm sick of windows issues.. i'm guessing windows 8 gets it right. but seems every 5 years with xp or vista i have to reinstall the operating system ebcause it stops updating. Or i have to spend a week going through some ridiculous process to fix it.

windows is always the same though. i get 5 years out of it until it breaks.

Hmm your choice I guess but it seems like you should get a desktop. WIndows 8 is terrible if your used to xp and vista. Windows 7 did great however.

 

[celtic34]

yeah im leaning towards that lenovo pc myself. Seems to do everything i need. Thanks for the help. Tough choices though. Don't want impulse buy.

 

[Kelthar]

@Your post back up there - The improvement from i5 to i7 is negligible for the use you'll be giving it.

The real advantage of the i7 comes when you're doing video edition and rendering, you won't see any improvements whatsoever in your situation, unless you run a benchmark.

An i3 would even be enough, truth be told, but if you decided to game you'd immediately be lacking on the CPU.

 

[RazerZ]

If you want to use it just for the basic uses for the things you stated above you could be well off with a $300-$500 desktop. Also why'd you give up on building pcs

 

[celtic34]

I used to go on pricewatch dude and buy all the parts and put my pc together. I've been gaming since i was 6. When the new consoles came out i figured it was fairly negligable and stopped doing it. I turned 30 and don't game as much or feel like going through all that. i actually just turned 40 and still game so deserve some credit for not giving up on it completely. but yeah. I'm old? started on the commodore 64. went to pc's and built them all through my teens and 20's. then went to console gaming in my 30's because most of the games i want are all on consoles now anyways. just less problems. I used to hate having to update drivers and pc headaches with games that wouldnt give me the performance i wanted because some part in my pc was giving issues or whatever. just got tired of always upgrading and keeping up with the joneses i guess.

i've always tried to get the best bang for my buck though. It's always been in that under $1000 range.

 

[Kelthar]

If you were to custom-build once again, you'd get much better bang for buck, but of course you'll need extra handwork. I think custom-built PCs are a must for gaming and video rendering, but not absolutely necessary for the rest.

 

[celtic34]

thing is im not that excited for the xbox one or ps4. im going to hold off getting the new consoles for a couple years i think so having a pc i can game on in the interm might be a nice change of pace. I havent gamed on the pc since world of warcrap which i played for a couple years until blizzard got greedy.

it seems like every gen it takes these developers all gen to really get up to speed. im actually loving my 360 and ps3 right now.

look at the specs for that lenovo pc though. It seems perfect to me for a couple years to game on. i think pre built pc's are priced fairly competively now if you can find what you want.

 

[RazerZ]

thing is im not that excited for the xbox one or ps4. im going to hold off getting the new consoles for a couple years i think so having a pc i can game on in the interm might be a nice change of pace. I havent gamed on the pc since world of warcraft which i played for a couple years until blizzard got greedy.

it seems like every gen it takes these developers all gen to really get up to speed. im actually loving my 360 and ps3 right now.

look at the specs for that lenovo pc though. It seems perfect to me for a couple years to game on. i think pre built pc's are priced fairly competively now if you can find what you want.

When your ready to buy check out this site:

Best bang for your buck

http://www.tomshardware.com/t/hot-deals/