laptop for designers, macs Options

[whomps]

So yea, I'm gonna be a freshman in College soon.. and I was wondering what would be the overall best type of laptop to get for my major.. Graphic Design.
Yea yea yea, I know everyone is going to say MAC HANDS DOWN. Macs excite me too, but they're also intimidating.

Basically I checked out the Macbook Pro on the Apple website and it looks pretty damn sick. But I've been using PCs all my life and I'm kinda scared to switch into Macs and get all jumbled and frustrated..

I was wondering if there would be any MAJOR differences switching into Macs, like.. would there be programs that I wouldn't be able to use on Macs that I've used on Windows before ?

ALSO. If I decide to get a Mac.. which one should I get ? Macbook or Macbook pro ?
If you're a designer but you're not looking for anything bulky, what screen size seems to be the best ?

Furthermore.. is there any possibility that getting a PC would be better than getting a Mac for design ?

Hmm.. My budget will probably be.. something under $3,000. I'm looking for something that will not break down on me in 3 years and will not lag or OWN THE SHIT out of me if I have a 20" by 20" 300 dpi psd opened up on the latest version of Photoshop. How much RAM should I buy ?

If you're a Mac user, what are some problems that you have encountered ?

Any help is appreciated. :}

[Just_Dream]

omg a mac is so easy to learn to use, Yvonne. If you're going to do design, get a macbook pro. But I don't know if you should invest in one right now. Who knows -- they might come out with something by the time you graduate, or update something. Although, they did release new updated stuff for the macbook and macbook pro.

If you do decide to get a macbook instead of the pro, make sure you get 2 x 2 gb (total of 4 gb) dual channel RAM because it will definitely help if you're using photoshop. It doesn't come with stock, but just get it on newegg.com. It's much cheaper than getting it from apple.

As for macbook pro -- as Kevin says.. "illuminating keyboard" <33

Haha, yeah Davis sucks. I got accepted to UCSD, but parentals didn't let me go.

LMAOOOOOOO OMG YOU JUST SAID DAVIS SUCKS. That totally makes all your past arguments null/void when we first fought. Ahahah. Its okay though, you're still cool. But for me!

[SolisDeSoul]

I'd go wit Mac, especially for designing. I mean, I love my Windows and all that but when it comes down to it Mac is the shizznit, and the majority of grpahic design companies/firms use Mac.
And I've been where you are now, coming from a predominantly 100% Windows based life-style then jumping into the world of Mac. I was confused for about two minutes(mostly because I wanted to right-click with the mouse) But once you get over that you'll get into the swing of things, just like you did when you first used Windows. We're the new generation, we always gotta learn new tricks.
As far as RAM I'd go with this-->>>>

If you do decide to get a macbook instead of the pro, make sure you get 2 x 2 gb (total of 4 gb) dual channel RAM because it will definitely help if you're using photoshop. It doesn't come with stock, but just get it on newegg.com. It's much cheaper than getting it from apple.

Especially for Photoshop, Paintshop. . .any type of graphic application is going to require some hard core memory, especially if that's your major and not just a hobby. Best of luck to you.