Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 Due to the fire we had, we have replacement value for an old laptop that was burned in the fire. What's a good PC laptop/notebook? It will not be used for music or video, so the demands aren't great. It should just simply be reliable. We would primarily be going online at home (digital cable), doing web site stuff, and maybe possibly using it for light PhotoShop work later. I heard some of the Toshiba laptops were decent, and to stay away from Dell. Anyone have suggestions for relatively inexpensive laptops (probably under $800). Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dylan Walters Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 The HP Compaq nx6325 Notebook is nice and right around $800. I'm a big fan of the HP Compaq Business Notebooks, FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members panthalassa Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 My fiance really likes her Toshiba she bought using a combination of sales and coupons; that's the way to go unless you're a Mac user like me, in which case you either know someone who can hook you up who works down the street (from me, literally) at the Apple mothership; or else suck it up and shuck out the cash. That's what I really like about PCs: you can find a great deal anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blackpig Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 I just bought an Acer 5050 series laptop to replace a Fujitsu that died. It's not at all bad compared to the one it replaced and cost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members franknputer Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 The HP Compaq nx6325 Notebook is nice and right around $800. I'm a big fan of the HP Compaq Business Notebooks, FWIW. Check buy.com for this - I just ordered one of these myself, just under $700 AND there's a $100 rebate from HP until the end of January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 Cool! I really appreciate all the tips!!!! Thank you very much!!! http://www.buy.com/prod/HP_Business_Notebook_nx6325_AMD_Mobile_Sempron_3200_1_6GHz_15_XGA/q/loc/101/202922208.html Found this so far...good and cheap. Sorry, can't seem to find the HTML Button anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 13, 2007 Members Share Posted January 13, 2007 Just remember to go through it after you get it home and get rid of all the crapware. I bumped into an old friend at the coffeehouse with a brand new, very nice looking VAIO but it was just crawling from all the garbage, offerware, spyware media players, etc... 70 or so processes running in background. And he was QUITE disappointed with how it performed -- compared to his old Frankenputer desktop put together by one of his friends more than five years ago -- think about that. Core 2 Duo brought down to noticeably sub Pentium 3 performance... THAT'S how bad it was. We cleaned it up a bit (lost 20 processes) but he doesn't live in the area anymore and I didn't want to possibly cripple something he needed. Damn these SOBs for naming their processes so obscurely... 80% of the time it's hard to figure what it's part of without googling -- and sometimes not even then. I honestly think they do it JUST to make it hard to get their drainware out of your system. [i just came up with that... I think it's gonna be my new word for it, although everyone who's ever bought a big vendor box seems to know precisely what I mean by "crapware"... but drainware... it drains your system resources -- and it belongs DOWN THE DRAIN.] Anyhow... I've had great luck with my Dell laptop, which I love, it's a trooper (and I really like the super cheapo refurb tower I got from them) but I've mostly never had to deal with them and I understand that can, at times, be quite frustrating. And I DID have one hellacious hour+ on the phone when I called their sales line instead of their cust service line to order an OS reinstall disk a day after I got my machine. Once I got cust support, everything got better -- but it STILL took 20 minutes just to order the disk. But they were so "contrite" about the hellacious hour -- which I explained briefly but pointedly -- and sent it out next-day for free. I have a client who acted on my at-the-time-all-positive experience with Dell and bought a desktop. He likes the machine very well -- but after time on the phone with them, he said he'll never buy another machine from them. So, you know... caveat emptor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dylan Walters Posted January 13, 2007 Members Share Posted January 13, 2007 One of the nice things about the HP Business notebooks is that they don't come with usual bloat of trialware that you find on consumer systems. Besides drivers and a 90-trial version of Norton Antivirus, the system is clean. They also include an XP Pro and Driver CD in case you want a super clean build. I'd recommend setting up the system from scratch this way if you want to eek every bit of performance out of this system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members amplayer Posted January 13, 2007 Members Share Posted January 13, 2007 Others have way more experience than I do with HP and Compaq. However, the experience I have with them is that I had two, and both were utter pieces of junk.Since then, I have purchased a Toshiba laptop that has NEVER failed. If I were buying one now though, I'd consider an ASUS from newegg. They're cheap and very powerful:http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Brand=1315&N=2030260032+50001315&Submit=ENE&Manufactory=1315&SubCategory=32&CMP=KNC-GoogleAdwords&ATT=ASUS_Laptops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deanmass Posted January 13, 2007 Members Share Posted January 13, 2007 In over 10 years of buying large amounts of computers, for work and myself, I pretty much think it comes down to the model offered at the time. I have had good Toshibas and crap ones. Good HP and bad, Good Acer and bad, good Dell and bad. Some chassis' just suck, others are tanks... I would pick something with the max ram capacity, i.e. don't by on that tops out at a gig...I think one that will do 2-4 gigs will give you more legs. Everything else is gravy. Dell was running a $799 Core 2 laptop over the holidays, that for general use, looked pretty darn good. Lenova is really agressive on pricing right now, cause they are rebuilding the Thinkpad image. A Refurbed Macbook form Apple under the education discount and an extended warranty is a good choice, but the video is weak in them. Also, unless you gotta have the portable, a mac Mini is cool for what they sell for and what they come with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thankyou Posted January 14, 2007 Members Share Posted January 14, 2007 My fiance really likes her Toshiba she bought using a combination of sales and coupons; that's the way to go unless you're a Mac user like me, in which case you either know someone who can hook you up who works down the street (from me, literally) at the Apple mothership; or else suck it up and shuck out the cash. That's what I really like about PCs: you can find a great deal anywhere. You can say the same about Honda and Toyota's sales policies - pretty much no negotiations or sales. I've never had a modern laptop (had Tandy 600 and a kind of no-name DOS machine, if that counts as modern), but I will probably pay the extra for a Mac. The drainware warning apparantly does not apply to the Mac, right? Having used XP PC's at work, I developed the feeling that Windows didn't trust or respect the user as much as Mac OS. Didn't mean to go Ford and Chevy on y'all, I did just wanted to share the analysis of Apple's marketing strategy to Honda and Toyo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deanmass Posted January 14, 2007 Members Share Posted January 14, 2007 PC's have, in general, become Kia's without warranties. There are some great deals on PC hardware, but the superior OS is on the apple side. I was shocked that Apple did not announce a OSX for release on PC hardware last week. There are also some great PC's out there, but because of the glut of hardare, it is easy to get hosed. Shop carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 15, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 15, 2007 Also, unless you gotta have the portable, a mac Mini is cool for what they sell for and what they come with. That actually has crossed my mind several times. It'll be either a cheap PC or a Mac Mini. Gotta figure out our space issues and wants and needs and arrive at the best solution. I think I may still go with the cheap PC laptop because we have some of the apps for it already, and my girlfriend is more comfortable on XP than she is on Mac OS (I swing both ways, although I'm slightly more comfortable on a Mac). Thank you to you and everyone else for their valued input. Greatly appreciated!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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