Dell (among others) makes plenty of durable magnesium, daily totable, notebooks and such. ...Let me guess, you are comparing the build quality of one of the $500 Dells to the $3k Mac's...

Yep..... This is actually kind of funny as our new controls guy at work just broke his expensive Mac laptop (fell off table... screen no workie now) and he asked to borrow one of our company's old Dells that are the exact type I have suggested buying refurbished for under $300 from Dell Financial Services Ebay store. Our company has several of them with the larger battery pack that have lived on our shop floor for several years taking a beating.... They still work great. ;)

wow island - 3k for a macBook - even the screamin' new 17" i7 pros don't cost that -

The guy needed Final Cut - and if you have ever worked in video, you know why he needed FC. So, he bought the tool he needed for the job.

If he were a business major - he could have done it with a Dell...

He paid it off - early - good for him. A good way to learn how to use credit. Maybe when porsche4life buys a house, he will do the same - pay it down, get out of the note early...

Enjoy the mac 4life - and welcome to the dark side... It is a lot more fun over here anyway...

Heck, even my old G4 machine is still uber cool in its nerdy apple way (and has worked tirelessly and without a glitch since I plugged it in) - plus, the screen is still rock solid- best screen adjustment system ever....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1309233464.jpg

Yeah, they do.

Sure, you can get a bare-bone MB-Pro for $2500 ...or go to $4000+ with options like SSD, more ram...

My MB pro, with a few upgrades, was under 2500 with taxes and shipping.....

Island - we just looked at these at work (ended up with an i7 iMac instead)

Even with solid state drives, warranty, going with 2.3 and 8g the mac pro 17" was only about 3,100 (with some rebates)... and that is with a lot of bells and whistles - the 'stripped down' $2,500 version is plenty hot.

A comparable Dell was about 2,800 (same thing - with some rebates), because they made me look at it... blick.

When you get into the more hi end stuff - the pricing difference becomes less and less. It becomes more a matter of what you want to do with the machine.

And no matter how much money you throw at a Dell, running FC just isn't going to happen.

xactly. A $300 Windows laptop is not the same as a $2,500 MacBook or an AlienWare for that matter.

But seems people sure love to make that argument.

I resemble Sid in a number of ways.

A few comments:
-in no way did you "need" a MacBook. You wanted one...and that's fine. I still don't think that financing a want at age 20 is a smart move but your mileage did indeed vary. However, your comment about all the naysayers shows that no matter how grown up or "adult" you think that you are, you are still quite immature in a lot of ways.

-a Dell can absolutely stand up to daily abuse, I had the same laptop all through college

-batteries are cheap

-to put this in perspective, I'm not saying you shouldn't splurge on the things you want, especially with all the time in the world to make money. You are talking to someone with all the new tech gadgets, designer clothes, a BMW, a nice apartment, and more snow/water skiing gear than is in anyway reasonable. The big difference in this is the very point that the "naysayers" on this thread were trying to make is that I could pay cash. It's not sound financial stategy to be financing wants. Obviously it worked out. It may not not time

ok then, I'll buy a mac laptop

But do his parents still pay for his gas?

;)

d.

Your right, I don't pay for my gas. But I also burn most of my gas driving errands for their business, or driving back home to work the afternoon. If it wasn't for the business, I wouldn't be getting that bene...

Oh, and they don't have to pay for my school... I got that paid for elsewhere...

Daughters of Jay Leno?

Looking at those chins, I would say yes...

Funny thread. PPOT is a broad church.

Sidney: I'm glad you bought the MacBook. You wanted it, and it's the best product out there. Buying it will teach you something about quality and durability—and about integrity and elegance in design and engineering. And about value in a disposable society. Enjoy it.

And financing your purchase will also have taught you something about risk-taking and how rewarding that can be when it helps you to achieve your goals.

Some of the poorest and unhappiest people I know live by the "I only pay cash" rule. People that have a morbid fear of banks. People that paid rent for decades instead of building equity. People who missed the housing boom and every other buying opportunity because they didn't have the cash.

Balance is always good. It seems to me you struck it with this purchase.

doesn't Jay have a big car collection?:)

No kids that he knows of or has admitted to.

OK, that's fair. To be perfectly honest, sometimes it's difficult for "old guys" (I'm 39) to reconcile the life of a college student today with what we experienced back in the day.

For example when I was 21, I had just gotten my bachelor's degree and was away from home in my first year of law school. Here are some things I did not have:

- car (had my 240Z from high school but it was at home, couldn't afford to bring it to school)
- cell phone
- computer
- VCR
- microwave oven

The "consumer culture" that has overtaken people today makes me sad. Many college students today enjoy a better lifestyle with more material things than I did when I first started working - either because their parents supply it or they are taken in by easy credit. Not that young people are the only culprits - the stupidity and greed of many of their parents is a prime cause of the financial crisis.

If people lived within their means and bought toys with cash (and I mean real cash, not home equity cash) we'd all be much better off. You seem to have your head on straight so I hope you will be one of these. I didn't get my Porsche until I was 38 but I paid cash for it. It's all the sweeter when you know it's all yours and there are no "payments".

Cheers

d.

When you were 21 cellphones and computers were nigh unheard of in the home...
Microwaves are cheap now...

And as far as the Porsche, I paid for more that by working my ass off lots of summers, selling my prize motorcycle that I had also paid for, and then bought a less than loved 944, and put TONS of blood, sweat, and tears into it to make it the car it is today.


Oh and island, stop bashing those girls, we've probably all done worse...


Hell I'd hit it...

I'm sorry, are you guys disparaging Alessandra Ambrosio?