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I am a returning college student buying my very first NEW pc for myself. I am fortunate enough to be spending money that was given to me, and I do not have to pay it back (scholarship). It is specifically for a computer that will hopefully last me until I am done with school (I'm 2 years into my B.S., going for my M.P.H., maybe a doctorate after, so HOPEFULLY it lasts).

I currently have a 8 year old Toshiba Portege which I love, but it's heavy, old, and the keys are falling off.

My H has a Lenovo ThinkPad, and to me it is slow, cumbersome, has poor graphics and awful speakers (compared to my old, clunky Portege).

I went to Best Buy and played around with the new MacBook Pro (with retina display) and fell in love, but all the pc users I know say "Nooo, there's so much you can't do!"m or "I haaaate Macs!!" etc.

I will be using this pc for online classes, video streaming, MUSIC, photo editing, etc. No gaming (except Words With Friends, haha). I will sometimes be commuting with it, but almost anything is lighter than my 2006 Toshiba Portege. The most important thing is durability, and maybe battery lif (and speakers, for the love of god, my husband's Lenovo makes me feel like a deaf old woman).

If you had a $2,000 pc budget, and wanted to spend as close to that as possible, what would you get?

Would you go with the Mac? (In the interest of full disclosure, I have never, ever been able to afford a computer this expensive, which is why I don't know much about them).

I'd love to hear from Mac users, on why you love your Mac.

Thanks in advance!

*Jumping up and down*

Mac user here... I was a total PC girl until my first MacBook Pro in 2008. Now I wouldn't use anything else.

I have 6 Macs in the house now. Yeah, I know. I started with a 15" MacBook Pro. Bought DS a 13" MacBook Pro, bought myself a 13" MacBook Pro... FWSO has a 17" MacBook Pro (way too big and heavy to commute with)

We have since retired the MacBook Pros... except for DS's. and FWSO and I both use MacBook Airs now. I have the 13" and FWSO has an 11".

I commute with mine daily. I use it for word processing, spread sheets, streaming video/music, and Internet. It's lightweight and the battery lasts most of the day if I'm not streaming.

It can run the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) or you can use iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and there's an integrated Mail program that works well.

I still use a desktop PC (Dell) at work because that's what my school supplies and that's how I connect to network stuff (like attendance).

I personally have zero problems going between PC and Mac. In fact, I find I get a little frustrated because my PC can't do all the neat little tricks my Mac can.

I would totally suggest a MacBook Air either 11" or 13" for doing school work and commuting. I would only go MacBook Pro if you require a disk drive as the Airs don't have one. But the Pros are heavier.

Also... I don't know about current MacBook Pros, but the Airs have a solid state hard drive (like a flash drive) with no moving parts, which makes it safer to travel with as well.