Question on LapTop?

[C L]

I am thinking about purchasing a laptop. Any suggestions?

[Bethers]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Not gonna go here - you'll have a million different responses and everyone will be right for themselves.

Make sure you get the most memory and best you can for whatever your budget is - no matter which company you go with.

[bill2006]

Re: Question on LapTop?

All depends, what you want, i.e. videos, design, etc. and how long you expect to have it. Lightweight if you travel. Some brands appear to have better recognition than others.

[C L]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Hi Bill and thanks.

I am looking to work on my website which is animated, so graphics and such. Perhaps some gaming and videos. Mainly business and travel. I don't want to spend $2000.00, that is what my home computer cost. I see some laptops for $800.00 and was wondering what the difference is. I heard stories of laptops catching fire, so I am concerned about this as well. Basically good quality and value for the money, that will last a few years with this technology race. There are so many out there, I am confused.

Thanks Bethers.

[larazovich]

Re: Question on LapTop?

You know, dell does a good job. If you are specific about your needs, and tell them what you'd like to spend, they might be able to put something together for you.
I have an dell ******** I've had for like 5 years. I traveled with it 3/4 of every month for 3 years, and never had a problem with it. I am still using it, although I don't travel anymore, and now I use it basically as a hard drive, in a docking station. It has been on between 8 and 16 hours of every day since I've had it - a real workhorse. I suppose I could use more memory - but I store all unnecessary stuff on another drive, to which I back up the whole shebang weekly; but that is irrelevent, I suppose.
About the catching fire thing - Dell contacted me about the recall on batteries and replaced it, and also about the power strip, which they also replaced.
Okay there is my spiel.....
good luck.

[C L]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Thanks Liz

[bill2006]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Expect prices to come down, especially as stores look to move out some of the old (current) technology. Dell, HP are comparable. For what you want consider over 512 MB Ram, 1 GB would be ideal. Also a larger screen, the 15" ones are light but will strain the eyes. Shop around, give you an idea Compaq laptops are down to under $400. I have had a ******* for over 5 years and never had a complain.

[C L]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Thanks Bill, and everybody else as well.

To hear your customer reviews helps to make my decision, there is nothing like word-of-mouth, especially when you are not sure.

[Sadain]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Ehhh something with Mobil Centrino that way you can access the net via Satellite

[Vasili]

Re: Question on LapTop?

I got the HP MediaXP 17" with 1g RAM (very soon the recommended minimum!) and 200gHD thru Best Buy with a 5 year Total Care Protection (covers EVERYTHING next day) for around $1500.
Does everything, has everything (including Office 2003), and although Vista-ready, I'll stick with the MediaXPpro, thank you very much.
I like it so much I eventually bought another 14 for the office, as I am trying to convert to laptops (some with stations), and all hooked up globally with the Verizon Global Broadband card. The boys at Best Buy now bow down to me whenever I get to the store! LOLOL

It took me a while to set up the 17" screen so it wouldn't distort online images, but it is great for making Excel and other programs more legible. Plus the DVD and Music features. Really *****.
And, when I add up all the extra software thrown into the Media (even has Adobe programs) it makes this one is a hands down winner for me. (Not that I do gaming stuff, but webbing with multi-media is now a snap!)

[Bethers]

Re: Question on LapTop?

I know I said I wouldn't recommend - and I do say that Dell and HP are pretty comaparable - I recommend you shop by options and price. I also say get at least 1 gig of ram. Even with that, I keep all my work stuff backed up off the computer at least weekly (should do it daily).

My newest (got last February) is a Dell - has all the bell's and whistles except if I was doing it over, I would have paid for the lighter weight model - as I travel so much. So know how you're going to use it. This past summer I got tired of lugging it around :)

I also use an external mouse all the time and an external keyboard much of the time. I'm just as fast on the keyboard on the laptop- but have already replaced this one once during the summer (yep, I use my puter a LOT) and on my old one you could only read one or two keys.

I paid $1200 for the computer, including some fancy software I always wanted :) - and I use and abuse my computers. I had picked out an HP, but ended up with the Dell because I also got a 3 year warranty included in that price - and with all the same options saved about $400 over the best price on the equivalent HP I could find anywhere.

Now, I had my g/f who was buying at the same time as me purchase a special priced HP at Sam's club - for what she needed, the price couldn't be beat. So, again, look at what YOU want for options - then compare.

Oh, one other thing - I disliked very much how the keyboard on some laptops I looked at - the mouse part was separated differently from what I was used to and I'm not sure I would have easily gotten used to it - so I made sure the keyboards were compatible with my speed typing.

[Stroke.nz]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Dell and HP stay away from **** pc's/laptop's Dell over here sell the celaron chips which are B-Grade by far HP load the pc's with **** you never need to use, let alone they use a percent of you Hdd for back up incase you stuff things up .

For me by a Asrock or satellite laptop and make sure its 64bit not the old 32bit which is now outdated

[C L]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Thanks Sadain, Vasili, Bethers and Dave.....for taking some time to give your advice, lots of good info in what you all say, gives me a base to go by.

[C L]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Hello everybody, just wanted to thank you all again for the advice on the laptop. I have been out looking around at the different ones, came across a *******, only had a 60g harddrive with a 15' screen, that was $759.00 cdn. The one I liked was $1499.00, it had everything you all were saying, The Dell's were way up in price........so,........ want to know what I ended up with...???? Hope you all don't laugh or think your advice was for not..........I ended up with a 37" flat screen LCD tv. I went a little off track......lol. Want to know why? $700.00 cdn, slashed way down in price, and I couldn't resist. True story...... This is the one here, have a little look.....what do you think? Good price eh?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2184557&Sku=A180-AT3705%20CA

[LadyEye]

Re: Question on LapTop?

Well CL ... the old story of "It's only a bargain if you need it" comes to my mind. I thought it was a laptop that you needed? I too know you rarely watch the tele .... so what gives? While you may have gotten a steal of a bargain for your purchase, it is not what you wanted. So now to gain what you wanted will cost you the $1499.00 plus the price of this so called bargain. You still do not have what you wanted. So ....... seems to me you settled for something just to spend your dollars. Is that what you've done? You can't travel with that TV, you cannot work on your website on that TV, nor can you do business with that TV. So .... hmmm ...

I believe you also should have asked BigH in regards to this purchase, I believe he would have gotten you a super deal.

Here is my purchase coming up ..............

Case
Mother board with on board audio/lan
Processor at 2.6 gigs
1 gig of ram
256 meg video card
80 gig HD
** DVD/CD Burner
Windows XP Home Addition
** 17" lcd monitor

Santa is gonna be good to me .... can't wait!!
And if I do a little more individualized shopping for this (at a few different places) may also be able to save another $100.00 or two ......