My point was just that if (the conditional “if”, meaning “in the even that”) you’re studying and are low on funds, what would you choose – a $150 laptop or nothing at all? Sure, you might opt to wait and save up for a better laptop, but if your paper’s due in 2 months, what good is that going to do you?

Remember, what people choose, doesn’t always go hand in hand with rational argumentation. NAD or Denon may make some great DVD players, but what do you reckon sells more, NAD/Denon or Denver/Prosonic/Lumatron/whatever? Exactly, the cheapest low-end crap sells the most, but since it does what people expect it to do, namely play DVDs, why invest another $400 in a DVD player that also plays DVDs? The expensive one may run longer and have higher quality sound output, but you can buy 8 or 10 crap-players for the same price and Joe Sixpack doesn’t give a hoot about quality sound – he’s still using the ear buds that came with his Denver 256MB mp3-player from Bilka.

Same goes for computers, if you just need to check email, do some web browsing and write a few papers, you don’t need a $1800 machine – any Aldi-computer will do. It’s only geeks, like us, who really care what they’re using and what’s inside of it. Most students I know have some discount computer that’s noisy as hell and is always in for repair, the others have Macs. ;)

As for your console collection… Sounds awesome! I may have just gotten a job, which means I’m one step closer to a Wii! :D

Did I recommend a Ps2 for work? I was referring to the Wii with the el-cheapo console. I don’t like it though. Actually it looks like most people just get that and the included Wii Sports – then it actually makes a pretty expensive unit.

I like that you got a Mac even though you say you a underfunded. It’s not exactly cheap, but you get a lot of value per dollar. Which actually goes nicely with me disliking the cheap laptops for the sake of being cheap.

Ps. not long from now I can you my biased, but reaserched opinion on all three newer consoles as I just got a 360 home yesterday :)

We all know which comes out winner, but I might have something nice to say about the others. Might.

Sure, but if you’re a student and want something to write your papers/articles on, a PS2 or whatever won’t do you much good. :)

Personally, if I had the opportunity, I’d prefer a laptop for papers (like my MacBook running Linux), a regular work station for PC-gaming (like Heroes of Might and Magic, Railroad Tycoon 3, Halo, Starcraft and such) and a Wii for all my console gaming needs. Unfortunately, being a poor student, I have to settle with the first mentioned. But I want a Wii and definitely will buy one, when I have teh monies.

“I don’t think anyone disagrees that a $150 laptop would be nothing but great.”

I might. You can get a rather new gaming console pretty cheap, but it’s not that fun in the long run.

But sure, you get what you pay for – if just people would learn that and stop buying Amilo’s and what not ;-)