Getting a new laptop.

[madanthony]

College time. My 4 year old desktop isn't entirely up to par. tl;dr people skip text wall.

I'm kinda between two different Dells right now. An Inspiron 1525 and one of their Studio ones. Yeah, I know. Dell. The guy at Best Buy laughed at me too. But hey, for <$1000 both have 4 gigs RAM and a 320 hard drive. I spent some time wandering the internet this morning, then tried to avoid the employees at Best Buy while I did some out-of-the-house comparisons. (Plus I had $45 in gift cards to spend) Ended up with a stoned WoW player trying to sell me on a Toshiba or an HP that were both identical to the Dells in terms of specs. I get home and have my sister and a nerd god friend of mine cursing HP laptops.

What kind of laptop do you have? Do you like it? Could I find it for under $1000 with 4 GB RAM? Any recommendations in terms of brand/model?

[Magus]

Depends on what you are gonna do with it.

In any case, I am going to an art college and I got this one from Be$t buy:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavilion-dv6885se-core/4505-3121_7-32976285.html

So far, I pineappleing love it. It's got great specs, to the point where if I were so inclined I could run Bioshock on full detail, and it would still run smoothly.

EDIT: Oh, and it has a built in webcam, which is really useful for taping lectures so you can review them later.
DOUBLE EDIT!: It runs on Vista. I dunno if that'll be a problem for you, but as a diehard XP user I can say that Vista has gotten much better then it use to be.

[Christine]

Sorry. I have a really close godfather (my father's best friend) who bought me a Sony Vaio CR notebook. It was approximately $1,000 and a little over. I would not recommend this computer to anyone who wants to do anything beyond Microsoft word and casual internet browsing.

I bought an external cooling fan to compensate whenever I want to use any high-end programs. The attached photo camera is remarkably ghetto and the quality of the pictures are embarrassing.

I'm a Science Major so I don't need to do anything high-tech. Most of my life revolves around simple computer programs. I wouldn't recommend this laptop to anyone. But I enjoy it tons because of the fact that it was a gift from someone very close to me and I wouldn't trade it in for the world. Besides, it's better than this really old Toshiba I had for four years. Christ. It still works too. xD''

[Lylac]

HPs are way overpriced, don't get HP.

I've got an Acer laptop. 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, 17 inch screen, Nvidia 8600M video card, Vista ultimate 64-bit, 2.1 GHz core 2 duo processor. I bought it in May and it cost me 1500 Canadian without tax. If you don't get a 64-bit OS, there's no point in getting 4 GB of RAM.

[Magus]

HPs are way overpriced, don't get HP.

I've got an Acer laptop. 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, 17 inch screen, Nvidia 8600M video card, Vista ultimate 64-bit, 2.1 GHz core 2 duo processor. I bought it in May and it cost me 1500 Canadian without tax. If you don't get a 64-bit OS, there's no point in getting 4 GB of RAM.
The one I provided a link to was actually really cheap for what it's specs are, and it was an HP.

[Yoorah]

HPs are way overpriced, don't get HP.

I've got an Acer laptop. 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, 17 inch screen, Nvidia 8600M video card, ...
Ewww. :eek:

If there's one piece of advice that I can give you, avoid any laptop with an Nvidia GeForce 8400~8700 graphics card! That graphics processor line was manufactured with huge flaws, and because of that they experience a very high rate of premature failure. The sad thing is that those 8000-series graphics processors are near their production end of life, so Nvidia doesn't feel like fixing the defect in their production, nor doing a recall. Laptop manufacturers who have built laptops with those GPUs won't do recalls either. Instead, they issued BIOS updates with a "fix", which is basically forcing the fans to spin at full blast to cool the GPU, all the time. This makes your laptop quite noisy and shortens its battery life a lot. So basically, it's no fix...it's a slap in the face. :f7:

Go for something with either an ATI graphics processor, or a 9000-series Nvidia. :heart:

[★tastie]

HPs are way overpriced, don't get HP.

I've got an Acer laptop. 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, 17 inch screen, Nvidia 8600M video card, Vista ultimate 64-bit, 2.1 GHz core 2 duo processor. I bought it in May and it cost me 1500 Canadian without tax. If you don't get a 64-bit OS, there's no point in getting 4 GB of RAM.

if you consider hp laptops overpriced then what do you call sony, etc. from my experience hp's lines of laptops are generally closer to the cheaper side rather than expensive.

[nannerz]

I recently ordered a Dell Inspiron actually and am waiting for it to come in. However, mine ended up around $1400 CAD after tax (lol). I had a bunch of upgrades done on it, however. Guess I'll let you know when I get it if you haven't decided yet. :P

I also looked into like Future Shop and BestBuy but I was not thrilled about getting another HP. I have used an HP laptop before and I wasn't impressed. Friends of mine also shared that view. Biggest complaint I recall is that after a few months it just got too loud, and when I need to have a laptop in class for my lectures, having a loud laptop is far from ideal.

[DrRusty]

I'm also thinking about getting a new computer. Currently i'm using an HP laptop, and its working okay but its starting to slow down (I've had it for 2 years now). I want something that can run MS with almost no lag, but also inexpensive. I've got a pretty decent internet connection, and the only thing that will really slow me is my comp. I'm debating whether to complete wipeout my hard drive and start fresh, or get another computer.

[Yoorah]

I format and reinstall Windows on my computers at least once a year. You should try that before buying a new computer, IMO. >.>

[madanthony]

I format and reinstall Windows on my computers at least once a year. You should try that before buying a new computer, IMO. >.>

It's not so much that my desktop is losing functionality, it still runs just as well as when I got it. I just want some mobility on campus. Well, and the ability to torrent/virus scan/Maple/iTunes/open browser window simultaneously... one can hope. Wait... this was directed at Rusty wasn't it?

Thanks for the heads-up on the Nvidia cards @_@

@Katz: I'll be in engineering.
I'm pretty sure I looked at a slightly beefier version of that laptop at Best Buy for something like $900. Duly noted on the awesomeness, although it falls under Yoorah's Nvidia warning.

What's it cost to get an equivalent/better video card and is installing it more difficult in a laptop than a PC?

[madanthony]

wat, Virus Scan while running other programs and playing games? Not the smartest thing to do.

I generally leave my computer overnight to get one done these days. Sometimes even web surfing can get frustrating while I do a scan. Having a half gig of RAM is a very disappointing thing.

[Hypermug]

Ewww. :eek:

If there's one piece of advice that I can give you, avoid any laptop with an Nvidia GeForce 8400~8700 graphics card! That graphics processor line was manufactured with huge flaws, and because of that they experience a very high rate of premature failure. The sad thing is that those 8000-series graphics processors are near their production end of life, so Nvidia doesn't feel like fixing the defect in their production, nor doing a recall. Laptop manufacturers who have built laptops with those GPUs won't do recalls either. Instead, they issued BIOS updates with a "fix", which is basically forcing the fans to spin at full blast to cool the GPU, all the time. This makes your laptop quite noisy and shortens its battery life a lot. So basically, it's no fix...it's a slap in the face. :f7:

Go for something with either an ATI graphics processor, or a 9000-series Nvidia. :heart:

Dammit, what about an 8800?

[Yoorah]

It's not so much that my desktop is losing functionality, it still runs just as well as when I got it. I just want some mobility on campus. Well, and the ability to torrent/virus scan/Maple/iTunes/open browser window simultaneously... one can hope. Wait... this was directed at Rusty wasn't it?

Thanks for the heads-up on the Nvidia cards @_@

@Katz: I'll be in engineering.
I'm pretty sure I looked at a slightly beefier version of that laptop at Best Buy for something like $900. Duly noted on the awesomeness, although it falls under Yoorah's Nvidia warning.

What's it cost to get an equivalent/better video card and is installing it more difficult in a laptop than a PC?

Yeah, I was replying to Rusty. lol And generally, you cannot upgrade laptop graphics cards. Some models would let you, but it's not a common thing -- or at least it didn't use to be. It's something that might have changed recently, I'm not sure.


Dammit, what about an 8800?

The 8800M is a G92M core. Only G84's and G86's are affected, so I think you should be fine. You can read more about the mess here (http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad).

[Hypermug]

The 8800M is a G92M core. Only G84's and G86's are affected, so I think you should be fine. You can read more about the mess here (http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad).

Thank you :3
I was planning on buying a laptop soon too. I would have not known about this if you hadn't said anything.

[Beloved]

Personally, I've had it with HP. Their online tech support people are generally a nice bunch, but if you called them, you may as well have asked a chef how to fix it. My last HP tower was headache enough having to constantly find stuff to replace parts that had gone to shit. Compaq is a part of HP, fyi. An ex employee who worked for a branch of HP in the states that I once knew said that at HP meetings, they literally sit there brainstorming of ways to cut down the costs of building something by eliminating stuff and bringing it down as low as they can. Understanding that the same can pretty much be said for many other corporations out there, it hit home for me when my cpu chip finally died and killed my hard drive in the process. About what was said about priciness... Well, let's put it this way, I can build myself a tower to match the specifications and a little beyond HP's 1 grand media computer desktop tower. And I'd still have enough to make even better upgrades. It was like a slap in the face when I'd gone online and did a price comparison -- and yes, I did mean AFTER tax AND shipping.

But since this is all for desktops, I'm not sure how well they fare in the laptops category. I doubt anything much would change, though. I CAN say one thing for sure though: HP is currently the trend in laptop brands -- just like Apple is for mp3 players. It's nice to be wary about that.


Dell, doesn't stand out to me. lol Coincidentally, my friend told me how hot Dell is -- no really, it's seriously quite the hot stuff. (http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2006/06/21/dell-laptop-explodes-at-japanese-conference) That aside, nothing fancy hits me besides the fact that schools keep on using Dell systems. o_O I wouldn't put the um.. hot stuff issue against Dell though (and um, pay some attention to the bottom links too, at least). And hey, the guy at futureshop (canada; bestbuy owns futureshop) told me that Dells are built more sturdier. ... whatever that means. lol

Acers ... *tend* to look like they're made of cheap plastic and metal put together with crazy glue. And well.. we all know how much heat laptops are able to generate. :[ Sorry Alysha, but I've been laptop browsing lately too. And everytime I run across an Acer laptop, I keep finding their cases to be disappointing. But hey, feel free to stand up for Acer -- I'd love to know its good sides; I really just haven't found an Acer that didn't look like it were built of cheap stuff. =\

I can't say much about Toshiba. Once again, just like Dell, nothing stands out.

In the end, I'm settling down with an Asus M51Sn-B1 after some recommendations by friends. It does have its couple of things I don't actually like -- BUT I figure, I can deal with it. Asus is known for it's well built motherboards. The maximum amount of moolah I plan on dishing out is 1.2k, after tax AND shipping. So..
Laptop specifications: Clicky (http://ca.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=132&l3=607&l4=0&model=2026&modelmenu=2)
Laptop assessments for this model: Click (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-M51SN-Mutimedia-Notebook.8452.0.html)

The assessments and rating came back to be about 84%


From the very same site, I didn't really read it but the Dell Studio 15 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Studio-15.9694.0.html) scored highest with an 82% as compared to Dell Studio 17 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Studio-17.9695.0.html) with a 65% (lol). On the other hand, I don't think you should be worrying too much about the ram. The way I see it, if everything else is deemed sufficient enough for you and there's still room for upgrades, I'd totally just grab the laptop and then buy the ram for it. After that, if you're really still down for it, I would downgrade the vista to an XP -- after finding out what drivers you need. (In case one didn't exist for xp)

For whatever it's worth, IBM, the creator of the first computer, sold their pc group to Lenovo. So I guess you can technically call Lenovo, IBM.

Edit: I dont know much about laptops, being that I've never felt the need for one, but this is all based on research and some observation + experience.

[303aegiszx]

Everytime I hear or see the word Acer, one word comes to mind: shit.

Not only do the laptops suck but the desktops suck too. I'm currently using an HP dv9310. It came out last year. It's not too bad. Runs smoothly, beautiful graphics, and I love my 17" screen while playing games or watching movies. One good thing about it is the option to change battery levels between power saver mode, balanced, and high performance. I'm planning on selling it for 40% of the original price soon though since I just dished out 3.1k for a Macbook Pro.

[Wani]

I personally have an Acer laptop, which I got quite cheap and I've got no issues with it. The only thing is, I had to install Windows on it myself because it came with Linux.

[Shinryuji]

What kind of laptop do you have? Do you like it? Could I find it for under $1000 with 4 GB RAM? Any recommendations in terms of brand/model?

Own: Some Vaio
Like it or Hate: meh
Under: close to it
4GB: no T_T

Recommended brand: Dell
Pink (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8913205&type=product&id=1213399954892)
Blue (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8913143&type=product&id=1213399954608)
Red (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8884497&type=product&id=1211454761803)

[Beloved]

I'm looking at the specs of Dell studio laptops again and noticed that it's actually got integrated graphics card with a shared memory...meaning it's gunna be stealing RAM memory. You seemed to be looking for something that's really good. Why not go all out and find one in your budget with a dedicated video card? o_o Dedicated cards generally have its own set of memory it can use.


.....You never mentioned what else you were gunna use the laptop for to be requiring such specifications.

Edit: Toshibas..



The A70s are notorious for chronic overheating. The A200s intermittently decide they don't want to detect Wi-fi. The A210s decide to blank the screen whenever they feel like. Many Toshibas feel like creating an unbreakable startup password whenever they feel like it. We've had a lot of the newer white Toshibas show up with dead pixels all over the monitors. Many of those issues were later fixed with BIOS updates... but most people simply don't know about them.