First Laptop?

[BlackTigers]

My parents and grandparents graciously offered me a laptop as a grad present, and I have $600 to work with here. (I can use more, but it;s OOP)

What am I looking for?

Uses:
Firefox.
MS Word.
AIM.
WMP.
uTorrent.


That's all I'd use it for. I still have a desktop for when I move out, so I can use that for anything more intensive.

How are the processors right now? What am I looking at for a decent processor?

The RAM I'm not too concerned about, I can upgrade for cheap.

Brands? Acer or Toshiba good? HP?

Thanks

 

[fire400]

fvck acer and toshiba, they suck

get somethin' cheap off of the fs/tr forum and you're done, way under 600 bucks.

you gotta know what it's like at the bottom to know what it's like at the top, so if you want tosh and acer then go for it, worse manufacturing procedures for computers in the world for a cloning company(s)

I say go dell/hp or gateway, but gateway is acer though, lol

 

[IlllI]

i've had good experiences with hp/compaq
even most base systems seem to come with 3gb of ram these days

pretty much anything you get today wont have any problems doing those things you mentioned above

 

[PhoKingGuy]

dell outlet + coupons = win

 

[Hacp]

Maybe the HP Dv3z? You can get it down to around 620 shipped and taxed with a student discount(You're still a student after all!). Uses an AMD processor though but performance shouldn't be bad. Its only battery life that's a little sketchy. 320HD/3GB ram.

Or an HP DV4T with an intel processor you can get for around 600. Bad graphics but everything else is ok. 320 HD/3gb ram.

Btw, grats on graduating! Getting through 6 years of higher education is something you should be pround of!

 

[evident]

make sure it has HDMI. you won't regret it.


i have an acer and it's great. i guess the quality control is questionable but i never had any problems with mine.

 

[jdkick]

For your intended uses, you don't need much, IMO. The majority of "entry level" consumer notebooks these days seem to feature a dual-core CPU of some sort, 2-3GB of RAM and 160GB or larger HDD and a DVD writer. All of that should be more then enough for what you want to do. Other options like 802.11n, Bluetooth, HDMI, etc are really up to you and aren't generally necessary IMO.

What are your thoughts re: size/portability? Battery life? Warranty? These are some questions that, when paired with your budget, should help narrow things down a bit. At the moment, I prefer Intel mobile CPUs as they appear to have an advantage re: battery life, which is unfortunate given the price point of some AMD-based configurations.

As for brand, I don't have much loyalty these days. I've seen various models from all of the major players go belly up or just exhibit odd/glitch-y behaviour. I know Acer gets a bad rap but I also know people that praise the brand as well. Not that i'm endorsing Acer. As has been suggested, the Dell outlet site seems to offer some good deals. I don't have many complaints re: Dell hardware.

I just picked up an ASUS notebook on clearance. I was shopping on price point for something w/ a 14.1" screen and the F80L-X2 fit the bill perfectly. I think I actually lucked out as it's nicely configured and features 802.11n+Bluetooth and a 1.3MP webcam. What I really found appealing about ASUS tho is the factory 2-year global warranty. I think the only other company to offer a warranty > 1-year on a notebook (excluding business grade machines) is Toshiba on their Satellite Pro models.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Go look at Dell's website and get exactly what you want. Inspiron 15's are a decent value in that range and you can also probably find some goos coupons. Dell outlet is also pretty good even if you are taking a bit of a chance on buying those systems they are almost good as new most of the time. If you find something decent and still have some money left over invest in some extra ram. Best value that you can get.

 

[DarkThinker]

For the budget on hand and uses?
ThinkPad X61
/thread

 

[reallyscrued]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Go look at Dell's website and get exactly what you want. Inspiron 15's are a decent value in that range and you can also probably find some goos coupons. Dell outlet is also pretty good even if you are taking a bit of a chance on buying those systems they are almost good as new most of the time. If you find something decent and still have some money left over invest in some extra ram. Best value that you can get.

Get a Vostro instead. Buy it from their business website, make up a phony business name. Quality control is much better on their vostros vs. inspirons and business tech support is handled in the US instead of overseas I believe. (no need to decipher a thick indian accent when you need to send in the laptop for repair)

Steer clear of Toshiba unless you get the higher up models where the quality control is a little better. Sonys are ripoff's. Choose from all the others that give you the best bang/buck.

 

[boomhower]

Originally posted by: PhoKingGuy
dell outlet + coupons = win

+1

 

[Pghpooh]

If I were looking for a new laptop now this is what I think is important.
Battery life is number one. How long will the battery last.
When I bought this laptop I bought a extra 12 cell battery. We took the grand kids to Disney World and let them use the laptop in the airport and on the airplane. Also Let them use the laptop when they visit us and they like to go off by themselves without having to plug in the power unit. Keeping two batteries is a slight inconvenience but well worth it.

Weight is another factor. If you carry the laptop around for hours it can get heavy.

Screen brightness while running on the battery is another important thing for me. My old eyes need a brighter screen to look at while sitting out on the patio! LOLOL

Max out the memory when you buy! I found out the hard way my laptop cannot be upgraded to use more memory.

Viewing angle of the screen is important to me. My screen has a narrow viewing angle making it hard to be off center while looking at the screen and harder for others to see when they are looking at the screen.

I like a full size keyboard that has the keypad for numbers on the side.

Look for pre loaded software. Most of the time that pre loaded software is only good for 90 days. I waited for Microsoft Office student version to go on sale and bought it for under $70. You can load it on three different machines.

I have bought from the Dell outlet and have good luck. I bought a refurb desktop for my daughter and it came with a one year warranty!!! Dell will try to trouble shoot remotely and if they can?t fix it that way they come to the house as part of the wrranty agreement.
Check out the specifics for laptops on the Dell site.

 

[GregMal]

My daughter just purchased this, and loves it.....
.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1218036213682

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: GregMal
My daughter just purchased this, and loves it.....
.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1218036213682

For 599? You can get a new studio 15 for just 650..