Originally Posted by MapleLeaf

Thanks Madhouse24.

I am a fairly good tweaker when it comes to PC's but clearly not enough as I ended up having to reformat my HD about 1 - 2 times per year.

Right now my 2.5 yr old laptop is giving me nothing but grief. Programs freezing, crashing, simple things like Quicktime causes the application to quit. While I posted before about possible interference causing me intermittent wifi signals, it appears that it is my hardware as the router etc., is good and no-one else is having issues.

The PC I have on order is an HP dv2110US, 120 GB HD, 1 GB Ram (will upgrade to 2), lightscribe DVD burner, 288 MB shared video RAM, Vista Premium - got it for $800. An equivalent Mac would be $1,100 - $1,200... trying to figure out if it is worth the extra $$ (ie less hassle, less time intensive, last longer etc.- I think my current laptop should have lasted longer than 2.5 yrs, but it doesn't seem to want too)

There is an Apple Store walking distance from me. Don't know if they will give me the educational discount though... my student card is from a Canadian University. Also with exchange, it is cheaper to purchase in Canada, but then I have more taxes to contend with - so probably balances out.