My Dream Machine needs to meet multiple purposes:
- It must be fast, large, light, and lovely.
- It must accommodate multiple resource-demanding programs at once (PhotoShop, Dreamweaver).
- It must allow working in both a creative and a practical environment (Quicken, Office as well as well development).
- It must be up-to-date, with all the necessary "bells and whistles" - Blu-Ray player, touch screen.
- It must be affordable.
I've been studying this problem for almost 2 years, as my current laptop got slower and buggier, and the newest laptops got more spiffy and exciting. Finally the questions all became: What operating system? It seems like that should be the last consideration, but every time I thought I had made a selection, The Alternative reared it's head. Ultimately, I found I could not make a decision - both the MacBook Pro and the Windows 8 Touchsmart had something to offer. SO - this is what I got.
- 8/13/13 - a 15-inch Toshiba for $969 (bought by mistake!) Exchanged immediately.
- 8/13/13 - a 17-inch HP Envy for $1094 - the display was so much brighter; the looks and feel were "better". Returned 8/24/13.
- 8/16/13 - a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display for $2587 (including a USB Superdrive for $80, One-to-One training for $99, and support for $249).
- 9/2/13 - a 15-in HP Envy Touchsmart, ordered online from Costco for $1342, including an external DVD.
What were the deciding factors? The computers at the top of the line were all comparable. What won the day for me was:
- Ease-of-travel: Will it fit in a backpack (the Mac will)? Will it fit in my computer bag (the 15-inch HP wil, but not the 17-inch).
- Visual display (HP over Toshiba; Mac with Retina Display vs. without).
- Movie editing (the Mac)
- Financial and business software (Windows)
- Fun - the Mac and the Touchsmart
- Capacity - both; but, will rely on external harddrives...
The drawbacks:
- Software incompatibilities (do I need to get a Mac version and a Windows version of everything?)
- Transfer (I've decided to transfer all the other computer documents to the HP, and to start fresh with the Mac).
- Unresolved issues - where do I want to do my photo editing, and my web developing? This is far more complicated than I thought!
Unfortunate Price to Pay:
I was not able to finish Graphics Editing homework due tonight. I haven't decided which system to install the PSE, or whether I even need to. Should I upgrade my Creative Suites software? On which computer? Meanwhile, I've transferred over 60 gigabytes of iTunes music and 50 gigabytes of video to external drives for importing into the new computers. I still have 200 gigabytes to go...
What I needed to include:
- CPU
- Motherboard (has to fit the case)
- Case and power supply (what wattage is necessary?)
- RAM
- Hard Drive (or SSD)
- Video Card
- Sound Card or external audio interface
- Optical Drive (BluRay/DVD/CD-ROM)
- Connections (USB 3.0, FireWire, Thunderbolt, etc.)
- and any other fun peripherals that you think you'll need: headphones and/or audio monitors? a special mouse? A USB Keyboard if you want to make music?