Laptops

[Angel Tarragon]

I've been thinking about putting down about $400 to $600 for a laptop in the next 6 months. I'd like advice from people in the know about what I should look out for. This will be mostly for school work, and only ocassionally for use at the gaming table.

 

[XCorvis]

The short version: get the best that you can afford.

 

[Krieg]

FWIW Dell is running a huge sale on Inspiron's right now so if you can somehow swing the money in the next day or two you might want to think about going ahead and picking on up:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_dotw_inspn?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

[dreaded_beast]

If you wanna save some money, you can also look at getting a refurbished one. I'm using a refurbished laptop right now as I type this. I purchased it from here, and have had a good experience with these people:

http://www.retrobox.com

 

[IronWolf]

If you wanna save some money, you can also look at getting a refurbished one. I'm using a refurbished laptop right now as I type this. I purchased it from here, and have had a good experience with these people:

http://www.retrobox.com

I used to work for a company that used retrobox to purchase servers for test environments. They were a local company and we tended to get pretty decent deals on used equipment. Not sure how they were ordering from them as an individual, but there were no issues with retrobox at the company I worked for.

 

[Rackhir]

Don't buy one that comes with Windows Millenium. Probably the worst version of windows since 1.0.

Look for one that comes with a Pentium M, chip. Several different chips in this series have come out over the years, but they are faster than the equivalent Pentium chips (despite lower clock speeds) and have substantially lower power drains, so the batteries last significantly longer.

Don't bother trying to play 3d games on them. Basically, nearly all laptops have shiped with graphics chips that are pathetic compared to those in regular computers.

If possible see the screen on it or that on the SAME model, to help you find out if it's any good. You can't count on the screen being the same on any other laptops. Also try looking at it, with the screen set to varying resolutions. Many look terrible when set to anything other than their "native" (ie. the physical pixels) resolution.

Built in WiFi is good, but Centrino is basically just a marketing campaign and really has nothing to do with portability or wifi capability. Though it is a good chipset for laptops.

For 400-600 dollars your options are going to be limited. While much cheaper these days the good ones are still going to cost well more than that. Especially if you want small and light, which probably should be one of your main considerations if you will be hauling it around everywhere. Invest in a good laptop carrying bag or Backpack.

 

[evildmguy]

While I don't necessarily disagree with what has been said, I don't think they have the right viewpoint.

I do agree with not getting ME. XP or 98 would be the way to go. Also, I have a Dell and have had nothing go wrong, so I recommend Dells but that's me. I am sure the other computers mentioned are fine.

If you are buying something to have a portable computer, think about what you need. If you only need a word processor, email and a few other things, what you can get in your price range will probably be fine. You don't need more than a 1.5 GHz computer, if even that much, to do what you need. If you need something that does graphics, you will want as good as you can get in terms of the CPU and RAM.

I got a 1.7 GHz laptop to be used as my gaming laptop. It is able to run a voice recorder and six or more programs with no problem. It is slow to boot up but that's about it. I can push it to its limit if I run Overseer 3D, but the creators have admitted that the code has memory leaks in it and it is graphic intense. Otherwise, I have had no problems with it. It is still *exactly* what I need in a gaming computer, two years later.

I hope this helped!

Have a good one! Take care!

edg

 

[Nareau]

A big part of this answer is: How tech-savvy are you? The more savvy you are, the more you can do for yourself, meaning the less you have to pay.

I like Dells. In the past couple of years, I've owned/ordered about a dozen of them.
Here's why:

1) Great support site. I'm a computer tech, so I'm prepared to do 99% of all repairs myself. Their site has detailed service manuals, drivers, bios updates, etc.

2) Relatively cheap. I spent about $500 on a D600 about 8 months ago, and it's great. DVD ROM, 700Mhz proc, 384 MB RAM, etc.

3) Great support site. I always do lots of research when I make a big purchase like this. They have community forums where people post all kinds of problems. And they have REAL technicians that monitor those forums, and provide useful answers.

Unfortunately, the D600 line has a problem with their touchpads not working very well. I had to have mine replaced, and it still sucks.

Don't buy off of eBay. You'll probably save $50-100, but it's a huge gamble. I bought my laptop from a reputable seller, and he committed fraud a couple of times when I tried to get him to honor the 90-day warranty.

If you can, go for XP Pro. Try to get them to include the CD (instead of just having Windows already installed)

If I were you, I'd save money by getting a smaller HD. Laptop HD's are way more expensive than desktop HD's. I am currently using an old 160GB drive in a USB enclosure for all of my file storage stuff. I don't require it for day-to-day usage (surfing the net, gaming, etc), but it's great to break out when I want to spin some music, video, etc.

You can also opt for less memory; I almost guarantee you that you'll pay MORE for memory from the manufacturer than you would from newegg.com. It requires some tech knowledge to get it in there, but only a little bit.

Go for internal wireless (802.11g). One less thing to worry about.

Definately go to a few different stores, and play with the models they have on display. It's like buying a car--there's no one right answer, since different people like different things. Familiarize yourself with a bunch of different computers, so you can see what you like and don't like.

Spider

 

[Nareau]

Ironically, as I was writing the above post, I was also setting up our newest latitude x300 laptop. It shipped with 2 bad USB ports, and it took me 2 hours to convince the CSR on the line of the problem. Thankfully we've got the on-site next business day service...but it's still a pain. Ugh.

Spider

 

[Enforcer]

I, for one, had nothing but a craptacular experience with Dell. The motherboard required replacement on my Inspiron 5150 not once, but twice. Tech support took forever to get on the phone, and only once out of the dozen calls that I made did the person on the other end speak English at an acceptable level. It took a half dozen calls each time my motherboard had failed for them to diagnose the problem as well--that is, it took a half a dozen calls for me to convince them it was the motherboard that failed.

I got an Apple iBook as my replacement laptop and I'm never going back to Windows, but if someone made me do it I certainly wouldn't get a Dell.

My rant aside, I know a few people who have Dells and have had zero problems with them (my girlfriend, my Mom). If you do get a Dell, at least get the ultra-warranty with at-home service for as many years as they let you buy.