Laptop help

[faete]

hello,

i'm a med student, i've got to buy a new laptop for my classes starting in august, & unfortunately i next to nothing about them...

my minimum reqs are:

1.7 GHz, 20 Gb HD, Modem & Ethernet card, CDRW & flopppy drives, 256 Mb RAM, vid card w/ 8 Mb Ram, Office Suite 2000+ Pro, XP Pro...

unless laptops have a very large learning curve over desktops, tech support isnt extremely important. i own all of the required programs except XP, but not necessarily the newest versions. i'm not a big fan of large amounts of included software, but dont mind as much if what is included is realatively worthwhile.

this computer will have to serve for 4 years, and may spend time as a gaming platform depending on travel requirements.

i'm budgeted pretty well ($3000), but would rather spend less if possible.

i've done what research i could, and keep coming back in circles. ive seen reports that Dell, Sony, IBM, and a few other companies are all the best, or are horrible choices. since i'm not sure of the biases of the reviewers, i'd really appreciate advice from anyone here.

thank you

-f

 

[JamesL85]

The only thing I can offer you is my opinion. Keep in mind that opinions are like @$$holes.....Everyone has one, and some stink worse than others.

I have done some limited troubleshooting and technical support repairs, and I can tell you with an unbiased opinion (read the above statement) that HP and Compaq are the worst computers to buy. Anyone in my limited knowledge that has those computers experiences 10 times the amount of problems that owners of Gateways or Dells has.

I myself have a Dell laptop (and a PC) that I would swear by. I've been around Dells and Gateways both at work (as well as a couple of Quantex's) and have had far less trouble with Dell. Again, as a disclaimer, it's like the difference between Chevrolet and Ford.....It's common knowledge that Chrysler is superior to all, kind of like Dell is superior to Gateway and all the others.....I believe that was on the 3rd tablet that Moses accidentally dropped on his way down the mountain.

Just trying to clear up any discrepancies......

 

[Piratecat]

I quite like Dell laptops, and they have good customer service. But I have one VERY important piece of advice for you:

If you buy a laptop, pay for the three year next day on-site service.

I can not possibly give you better advice than this. Laptops break MUCH more than desktops, and can't be fixed with off-the-shelf parts. I have thanked myself for doing this easily a dozen times over, most recently when I slipped on ice and landed on my laptop. Dell fixed it, no questions asked. So worth the money.

If you're buying for more than 2 years of use, buy near the top of the technology curve. It's more expensive now, but will stay useful for much longer.

 

[BrooksTech]

As for Laptops...IBM would be my hands down choice.

Desktop...a custom job from me or any other online computer store would be your best bet...or better yet, buy the parts and build it up yourself.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

My experience pretty much contradicts JamesL85's. I've been doing tech support for around 15 years, and I would rate Dell pretty average in terms of overall reliability, and near the bottom in tech support.

For reliability, nothing in my experience beats IBM. At my previous job, we went through Dells and Compaqs like they were made of paper. I switched them to Thinkpads and we had one failure in a year. I've been using one nonstop as my primary work machine for three years now, schlepping it back and forth to work, home, and client sites and have had zero problems.

As far as gaming, the best gaming laptop available today would be at best almost average if it were a desktop. The power and heat issues necessary for the high end video, memory, and hard drives makes designing a good laptop gaming machine difficult, especially if you want to get a couple hours off the battery. For playing stuff like Civilization or even Warcraft most anything will do Ok, but if you are into MMORPGS or FP shooters....

Also, seriously consider WiFi at some point -- being able to go cable-free is wonderful. Also, go 512MB instead of 256. The greater amount of RAM will offset the slow hard drives they tend to put in laptops. Invest in the best warranty offered, or look for third-party companies for a longer-term warranty. Even the most reliable laptops get dropped from time to time.

Check out http://www.stores.ebay.com/store=23983696 . IBM sells last weeks models on Ebay, complete with full warranty, etc., for decent prices. I've gotten my last two Thinkpads there.

 

[KenM]

The only thing I know about laptops is you can't upgrade the RAM, video card, ect. at all, like you can with desktops. What you buy is what you get.

 

[drothgery]

Some other things that you probably want to consider...

How important is portability to you? Are you going to carry your laptop around a lot? If so, you'll want a lighter laptop. Are you going to be working off of bateries for extended periods? If so, you'll want to eliminate Pentium 4-based laptops.

CPU speed -- note that comparing clock speeds among modern desktop CPUs isn't all that useful. A 1.6 GHz Pentium M, 1.8 GHz AMD Athlon XP (2500+), and a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 will all perform about the same, and all of them will be much faster than a 2.6 GHz Celeron. And you'll save quite a bit by stepping back from 'fastest available' clock speeds.

I'd have to agree with the 'buy near the top of the technology curve' recommendations, but don't by at the top of the technology curve. The absolute best CPUs demand a significant price premium over second-best.

 

[rlphay]

The only thing I know about laptops is you can't upgrade the RAM, video card, ect. at all, like you can with desktops. What you buy is what you get.

Actually depending on who you get the Laptop from you can upgrade some things. My Laptop I can upgrade my memory as I have done this, insluding my CPU.

My personal choice would be a Laptop from MPC Computers. Formually MicronPC.

www.buympc.com.

MPC or MicronPC has had a very good and industry leading tech support rateing. I own several systems from them. 3 desktops and 1 Laptop and I have not had any problems. They are a small company but sell top of the line systems.

Look into them, you will not be sorry.

 

[jdavis]

Some good information and links in this thread on gaming laptops:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53570

A important thing to remember, research, research, research. I have heard terrible things about Gateways and some very good things about HP's and owned a Compaq laptop before myself (no problems at all). Dad has a IBM and he loves it but it is definatly a buisness only laptop. There are sucess stories and horror stories about every manufacturer out there. Before you buy look into the reputation of the company and the model of the laptop you are getting. Many companies that sell laptops don't actually make the laptops they order them from companies overseas, so there can be problems with certain models of laptops that are not indicated by how good the company selling them is. Some good research material can be found here: http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/index.html

You can get a laptop at the level you are wanting for under $1000, http://www.pricewatch.com/ but if you want it for 4 years you might want to go state of the art (you can't really upgrade laptops that much). I got a P4 2.8 gig laptop for less than $1600 but it was a unbranded model: http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=G732-K (Computer Geeks has great deals sometimes)

A good place to window shop is Tiger Direct (they have a large selection so you can get a better idea how far your money will go): http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?id=17 Best Buy is also a good website to use to compare laptops: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat01002&type=category

 

[Aeolius]

How about an ultra-small laptop (12.1" display, 4.6 lbs) with 40GB HD, Ethernet & Modem, CD-RW, 256Mb RAM, and NVIDIA vid card w/ 32 Mb RAM for $1,599? Also includes a 1-year warranty, an IEEE1394/Firewire port and can support Bluetooth and wireless 802.11g.

Here's the catch - it's an 867 MHz Powerbook G4. Since GHz is not an accurate representation of speed or power, when comparing different CPUs, you may want to check one out for yourself. www.apple.com/powerbook

Let's see... we still have $1,401 left in your budget... You could always spend $300 over your budget, for a 17" Powerbook with a DVD-R/CD-RW (Superdrive), 60 Gb HD, 512 Mb RAM. Or just spend an additional $200 on the 12" Powerbook ($1,799), to get the Superdrive.

Or, take that $1,401 and buy an Airport Extreme Base Station and card, so you can walk around the house and still be hooked up to the internet. Add the full version of Office v.X for Mac and an iPod (because everyone needs one). That leaves you some left over to choose from an extended warranty, more RAM, a printer, a .Mac account, a new iSight webcam, or the full version of XP Pro via the Virtual PC 6.0 emulator.

If you really want that floppy drive, you can get an external USB Floppy Disk drive for $40.