best laptop to get

[GyratingCow]

;-; wizardjian, I love my Linux. Sure sometimes it's a pain in the butt, but it has taught me a lot already.

Like how stupid it looks trying to run Chrome on Linux

[JohnChapman]

I am using desktop computer to play games ... Because its much suitable for playing games in desktop...
Thank you for asking some suggestions..

[Ulric]

"Best" is a an extremely variable word. There is no "best" laptop for every purpose. Decide what your purpose is for this system before buying a laptop. Want the best gaming performance on a measly budget? (under $500) Consider an AMD Fusion (A6/A8.) Want exceptionally high build quality without gaming? Get a ThinkPad. Want to impress your hipster friends? Since your budget is too low to afford a Mac, just glue an Apple sticker over your generic laptop's brand name, install Hackintosh and hope they don't notice the difference. Want to get good all around performance for your budget? Go ask on a computer forum instead of a random indie game forum. Or just search Google. Good deals/coupons pop up and fade all the time.

Why are we talking to a spambot?

[EnvizionRev]

Spambot started a legitimate forum discussion. Spambot got to stay.

[caprontos]

spambot is doing it.. right I guess..

[darkcraftia]

Lol. SpamBot are getting smarter now eh? Or are they just wait dumber than this one?
Linux is good but it breaks alot on me. Mostly on my IDE's since its taking so much ram when i have around only 1.7GB of ram available for us ;-; . I really want to build my own computer but my parents are saying that doing that is just plain stupid and a waste of money to do ;L

[Aduvash]

I really want to build my own computer but my parents are saying that doing that is just plain stupid and a waste of money to do ;L

It's not stupid and a waste of money! I have a friend who's building a computer for me now and he can make it much better then a store-bought computer for the same price, cheaper even. But you need to know what you're doing or it is a waste of time and money, Newegg is a great site for computer parts if you do decide to make one, they have good sales sometimes also.

[darkcraftia]

I know its not not a waste of money but since im Hispanic my parents think it is. I would love to make my own since the laptop i have right now is a compaq w7 2GB RAM with 135GB HDD ;-;

I want to at least get a desktop with:
6-8GB RAM
1TB HDD
2 Screens(Who doesnt want 2 of them lol)
Linux Os since i use it more than windows but gaming sucks since there isnt much of them ._.

[Ulric]

Just wanted to comment on some things that were bugging me.

Ok to keep it short

PC-(windows)- Made for people who wants to scripted play games and editing. Gives you great control over mostly everything. Bad- slow and lots of viruses.

Mac- High speed comps made for working and the viruses are so low u cant even find them. Bad- cant to much, gaming and editing are greating limited.

If possible try to get a alienware laptop.

Alienware- High speed, great anti virus abilities, gaming is highy supported and editing and scripted are also great (it runs windows 7 i think)

Although this post seems like a spambot I'll answer anyway.

Windows - probably best as it is unrivalled in terms of comparability. For example, there are about 4000~ games on steam for windows, and little over 100 for mac. I don't think there is even a client for Linux.
Mac - my personal favourite. Because the hardware is selective and controlled it works well. A mac will nearly always run better than windows in every respect, but not with gaming. The app store has a lot of cool games but many games written using XNA or other tools simply aren't compatible with mac. Java games work fine though so towns is great there are certain problems with mac. EG: I have a ATI HD6850 and GLSL (shader language for open GL) doesn't work on mac. This isn't a problem, but Minecraft looks nice with some different shaders however, about editing, macs are renowned in both the web development and graphics industry for being great for editing.

While the operating system does have an affect on the speed of programs, with modern hardware the difference is negligible. Most proponents of Mac OS being faster than Windows are ignorant regarding the hardware aspect of the issue. The reason Macs appear faster than Windows PCs to many people is because of an inadequate hardware comparison. From a graphics designers point of view, a Windows system with identical hardware will deliver equal performance to that of a Mac OS system. A Windows based system can also easily exceed the performance of the Mac due to greater compatibility of software and the ability to purchase superior hardware at a much lower cost.

As for not being able to find viruses on Mac OS, be aware most malware for Mac OS are botnets and/or spyware which are designed to be disguised from being noticed by the user.

There isn't a Steam client for Linux but the Windows one can be run using WINE. Since it's not native to Linux expect trouble and realize that not everything will work. Each game will also need to be individually tweaked to run under WINE and many will be buggy if they even work at all. Aside from gaming Linux is an excellent operating system for programming and web browsing. Even most completely computer-illiterate people won't have much trouble using a pre-setup GUI Linux system for basic web browsing, despite the belief that using Linux is hard.

As a side note, on Windows if you install a decent internet browser such as Firefox or Chrome with an ad-blocker add-on (I recommend Ad-Block Plus) you've pretty much decreased your chance of getting a virus by over 95% (as long as you don't go on shady/warez websites that is. Most viruses on Windows systems arise from infected website advertisements. Also for more security, consider the WOT(Web of Trust) add-on for user based ratings of websites.)

Also Alienware is a company not an operating system. Speed is relevant to the hardware and the anti-virus abilities are no different than any other Windows-based PCs.

[tom k.]

Actually, regarding speed between Mac and Windows, Mac IS faster. I run a hackintosh (not even an optimal mac solution) and it boots FAR quicker and is FAR more responsive than windows on a separate disk (both 1tb, both 7200rpm, both the same).

Most graphical designers would agree macs are better for designing, that is why they have been used by the majority of professionals for a long time now. OSX, being derived from UNIX and actually programmed by people that seem I care for optimisation is a lot more efficient on memory usage than windows. My machine runs 16gb of 2133MHz RAM and windows wastes so much more on its background processes.