Need help on a new laptop (mine)

[Shadowrider]

I've always wanted to try a Mac but was leery of so much being windows based, it would have limited function. What problems would I have going to a Mac after a lifetime of windows?

Get this book. I did and have used it only a few times, but it's nice to have just in case. Clearly written, easy to understand and covers anything you could possibly want to know about Mac's OSX operating system.

Macs are way easier on some things. Worse comes to worse you can run windoze on a mac. Parallels or bootcamp which is built into mac already. I run windows 7 in Parallels just because I didn't like the mac version of Quickbooks payroll. It was online only, twice the price and only had a monthly payment option so I got my money back and kept using the windows version I had. Parallels is a terminal server and I only start it up when I need Quickbooks and sometimes I view photos on a 2nd monitor in that and do my work on the main monitor on Mac.

https://www.amazon.com/OS-El-Capita...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JH7EFKVC3ZVY927MPTR1

 

[NightShade]

Find something with a discrete rx4XX or gtx10XX graphics card. They have pretty much stopped doing the separate version for mobile use now. This will do a lot for graphics design especially when working with something like photoshop which does have the ability to process in the GPU when you start manipulating images with filters and such.

16GB of ram is minimum in my book. My wife's ASUS G75VW is five years old and came with a discrete graphics card and 8GB of ram and I doubled it within a week. It has ran like a champ since.

Also spring for an SSD, the bigger the better and I highly recommend the Samsung 850 Evo series or Pro series. I dropped the 850 evo 500GB in my wife's laptop and it has changed drastically. Her load times for games is a snap of the fingers and mine is a drag your junk in the dirt slow in comparison. Even if you buy something with a HDD in it swap it out at home or splurge for the upgrade. Better yet find something with the ability to have two drives, boot from the SSD and keep the majority of the programs on it and store large files on the HDD and keep your movies for the road there too.

If your current laptop has the ability to upgrade the ram I would do that first and then swap to an SSD and see if it works better before I shell out a couple thousand on something new and faster or more because it has a logo with a bite missing on the case. You may find that a refresh with extra ram and an SSD will allow you to stretch it a couple years. This is especially true if it has a discrete graphics card to begin with. If it has Intel HD video then get a new one and donate the old one to the wife/kids/dog/neighbour or better yet toss Linux on it and have to start learning GIMP on. But on the new one DON'T cheap out and get the intel graphics...... It will last a lot longer if you spend some extra now.

 

[steelfingers]

Get this book. I did and have used it only a few times, but it's nice to have just in case. Clearly written, easy to understand and covers anything you could possibly want to know about Mac's OSX operating system.

Macs are way easier on some things. Worse comes to worse you can run windoze on a mac. Parallels or bootcamp which is built into mac already. I run windows 7 in Parallels just because I didn't like the mac version of Quickbooks payroll. It was online only, twice the price and only had a monthly payment option so I got my money back and kept using the windows version I had. Parallels is a terminal server and I only start it up when I need Quickbooks and sometimes I view photos on a 2nd monitor in that and do my work on the main monitor on Mac.

https://www.amazon.com/OS-El-Capita...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JH7EFKVC3ZVY927MPTR1

Thanks

 

[Podman]

I had windoze machines for years and switched to a mac. Much better imo. Not so much to worry about spam, viruses etc. Apple keeps
pretty close watch on malware. I have a windoze laptop but hardly ever use it anymore. I have been thinking about converting
the laptop to some version of linux.

 

[Shadowrider]

My iMac is right at 6 years old now and still going strong. I would have bought at least 2 and possibly 3 windoze machines in that time. I may upgrade to a SSD and throw 4 more gig of RAM in it soon just for the hell of it. I've upgraded every OS since Lion and it's cost me exactly NOTHING. I'll never go back to windows unless Apple screws up and morphs themselves into another Microsoft.

 

[docohm]

I've always wanted to try a Mac but was leery of so much being windows based, it would have limited function. What problems would I have going to a Mac after a lifetime of windows?

If you are over 50 I highly recommend AGAINST switching to Mac. I've had several older folks I know try it and nothing be headaches.

 

[steelfingers]

If you are over 50 I highly recommend AGAINST switching to Mac. I've had several older folks I know try it and nothing be headaches.

Older folks like me?

 

[dennishoddy]

If you are over 50 I highly recommend AGAINST switching to Mac. I've had several older folks I know try it and nothing be headaches.

Why?

 

[steelfingers]

Why?

Crap. I was hoping to hook it to my beta max with some new fangled thing called coaxial

 

[steelfingers]

Update. Spilt a glass of water on my keyboard and shorted it out. Having to use screen typewriters so new laptop in future