Laptop Help

[CruiseBoundnKY]

This is a question for anyone that knows more about laptops than I do.

We "NEED" a new laptop. I want a good light to medium weight laptop that cruises the net with ease and will hold vital farm information. I "NEED" a fairly economical (less than $1,000) buy preferably.

Thanks in advance!!!
Karen

 

[BeenHereB4]

LOL - you gotta keep up that farm!

Anyway, we just got a nice deal at Staples on a really great HP laptop. It's $450 after the $50 rebate. They also had a nice Compaq for a little less but it didn't have the webcam (not that we will ever use it, but you just never know) .

The really nice ones were about $800 for what that's worth. You can check Slickdeals.net for great laptop deals too.

 

[nowellsl]

I just bought the one I'm using, it's a Dell Inspiron 15. My daughter has a Inspiron for over a year now and no problems. The reviews aren't great, but so far I haven't had any problems either. It was $499 (free shipping) and it was advertised on the back of the Parade Mag in the Sunday paper a while back. I really like it so far.... There have been some fantastic deals in the Sunday ads lately.

 

[dawson5]

Hubby has a nice HP for work, we don't play around with it much at the house though. I can't help in that but if you are wondering what is on sale in your area (you list KY as home), these are some of the laptops on sale and a brief description:

http://salescircular.com/ky/computer/laptpp.shtml

 

[Nette]

Check the Apple refurb listings. We've now bought an iMac, an iPod touch and two macbook pros from their refurb dept and have had NO issues.

I bet you could get a mac book for around $1K. Lightweight, easy to use and no hassles... can't ask for more.

 

[DebMcDonald]

Not to hijack the thread, but we are also looking one for our DD, does anyone have any experience with Dell Outlet, I've heard that it's one of those places that you check on a daily basis and then pounce when they release them.

 

[tigger51276]

My husband just bought me a new laptop a few weeks ago as I lost my job and was feeling quite lost without my work one as I was attached to the hip with it. This is the one I picked out (I worked in the IT industry and hubby is really knowledgeable in computers) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9371547&type=product&id=1218093383198 .
While Toshiba didn't have a very good name in computers, in the last couple of years their products have improved majorly. I am so far very, very impressed with this laptop. It's super fast and was very easy to get started, it was ready to go when I opened the box up and turned it on. The selling points on this laptop for me was the large screen, extended keyboard (it has a keypad built in like a standard keyboard), the keyboard is pretty well lite and the sound is good. Also while it is run on Windows Vista, because Windows 7 is being released in a few weeks, they are offering a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it gets released. It is a bit heavier than my work laptop was (I had a Dell) but performance wise this one is better.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

My husband just got me the Acer Aspire One for just under $300 at Tiger Direct. I have had it a couple weeks and love it. AND I love that it didn't brak the bank! We are considering buying another for our DD for Christmas...if she is good!

 

[wmharley]

if you get an intel processor, get one of the t6400 or higher processors.. anything less is or will get old quick. its probably faster than what you ahve now, but its antique very soon.

I have a t7250 processor from 2 yrs ago and its still faster than most of the budget offerings now... IT was top of the line back then.

Same on the AMD side... Get an Athlon X2 or Turion X2 as those are the dual core (equivilant to the Intel Core 2 Duo)

you should, or will get one that has 3+GB RAM, 250GB+HD.. DL DVDR/RW drive with lightscribe or labelflash.. wireless, 15" or so monitor..

Thos you can get for $550-800 which is reasonable. I would HIGHLY suggest if you get an external HD.. get a laptop and a EHD with an e-SATA connection. Faster access speeds than USB2.0

My sister got a T6400 HP laptop with eSATA, 4G RAM, 250 or 320 GB HD (i forget which it was) for $650.

I've seen some Blu-Ray offerings with the DVD drive for under $800.

 

[dawson5]

Don't get labelflash. You cannot find the discs easily in the states.

 

[monarchsfan16]

I would strongly encourage staying away from Dell. Several of my friends have brand new Dells. All have had their computers get the "blue screen of death" within 2 months of purchasing. One in particular had the computer 3 weeks before it crashed. She was then without it a month while it was being fixed. She just got it back and it worked fine...for 3 days. Then it was the same problem over again. Too many reports of this happening in my classes for me to think it's a fluke anymore.

 

[timmac]

For PP, I think Dell outlet is generally a good deal... search by the minimum specs you want (I'd recommend 2+ GB ram, 160GB+ HD) and then sort by price, and pick what shows up on top of the list.

For OP, depending on how much "support" you need/want from where you buy it may be the biggest factor determining what I'd recommend. If you need some amount of customer support after you buy it, I would tend towards Dell. If you just want an affordable laptop, and can figure out on your own what to do with it (or have friends who will help you, lol), then there's a lot better deals to be had. Personally, I buy almost everything from geeks.com, tiger direct, or new egg.

Something else you might consider, assuming you'll get a non-Mac, is waiting about three weeks until Windows 7 is available retail, if that's something that interests you.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

. . .Something else you might consider, assuming you'll get a non-Mac, is waiting about three weeks until Windows 7 is available retail, if that's something that interests you.

I agree with this comment. If you have to buy it before Windows 7 is released on Oct 22, I would suggest you buy a Windows Vista (never thought I would type those words!) that matches the kind of upgrade you want to Windows 7, i.e., don't buy a Professional Vista if you really want a Windows 7 Home. And make sure that the upgrade to Windows 7 is included in your price.

We skipped all this and switched from Dell with Windows XP to a MacBook Pro in August. We are very happy with our Mac. -- Suzanne

 

[jsmith]

BRAND is immaterial except when you look at MACS-yes they do have all proprietary parts and US customer service, the operating system is less resource intensive than any Windows system and about the same to use-but they are also signifgantly more expensive-and the two we have have required more repairs than the three PC Toshiba laptops-my younger sons MacBook Pro has been an absolute lemon-three times in for warrenty repairs of a month or more in two years. Any laptop can be that way-the parts are small and fairly delicate. We have one Toshiba thats on its third vist to Iraq and still going strong-but i also have a friend who has a lightwieght cheap Dell that has stood up to that abuse as well.
my Advise would be to get 4 GB of Memory ( for the poster who said 3-DDR2 memory clocks in pairs-you get no more use from 3GB than from 2) 250 GB of hard drive, the faster processor you can afford-if you are going to play games-get a one with a video card that has at least 512M of memory rather than using shared memory.
as for Operating system-what are you comfortable with-despite all the cheerleaders for Windows 7 here i doubt seriously that Microsoft has changed its ways and started actually doing good testing before it puts a product on the market and in wide usage-issues will show up. Vista is not the devil people make it out to be if you have adequate memory-i have there vista computers that are as stable and easy to use as XP. I also use Linux in several flavors either at work or at home and like it as well-it is low over head like Mac and allows more flexiblity in some things that Windows-they all have advantages-choose what you will be comfortable with.

 

[dfchelbay]

This is a question for anyone that knows more about laptops than I do.

We "NEED" a new laptop. I want a good light to medium weight laptop that cruises the net with ease and will hold vital farm information. I "NEED" a fairly economical (less than $1,000) buy preferably.

Thanks in advance!!!
Karen

Best Buy always has Toshibas and HPs fully loaded for less than $1,000.00 all the time. They also offer the protection plan too. If you'd like, I have the Consumer Reports data on laptops and I can look up the laptop you're interested in before you buy it. Just PM me and I'll look it up, to see if it got a good rating.

 

[Tanzanite]

I dont recommend buying from best buy i have had :a lot of problems with geek squad i hate to say how much i have purchased from them in last 5 yrs lets just say thousands .I had had to take my Toshiba laptop in 4 times & they had some how managed to get out of declaring it a lemon .My son has a very expensive HP computer desk top he also has had a lot of problems .Last time i went they took so long to fix it & i called head quarters very rude i will never buy from them again.I brought 2 computers from Dell for 2 of my kids they were wonderful on the phone had no problems with them i will go to them next time.

 

[Lucille1963]

I bought a HP laptop a year ago and it has been nothing but problems. To make things worse their customer service stinks! Never again!

Last month when it had to be sent away for service I also had a problem with my iPhone. HP was terrible to deal with (literally left me in tears after hours on the phone), Apple apologized and replaced my product immediately.

Next time I'm buying a Mac, no matter what the price difference is.

 

[4boys531]

If you are just looking for a laptop to surf/e-mail and do word processing stuff on, there is no reason to spend $1000 or more. You can get an adequate laptop for $400 or so, probably even less on Black Friday if you can wait. You only need a high end laptop if you are doing major photo editing, gaming or something like that.

 

[Praying Colonel]

This is a question for anyone that knows more about laptops than I do.

We "NEED" a new laptop. I want a good light to medium weight laptop that cruises the net with ease and will hold vital farm information. I "NEED" a fairly economical (less than $1,000) buy preferably.

Thanks in advance!!!
Karen

Apple Store Refurbed Aluminum Unibody Mac Book--$999

You can thank me later.

 

[smokeyblue]

In my computer servicing class years ago I was told that upwards of 1 in 20 computers are total lemons so you are going to find that there are going to be horror stories for just about any brand. I've used IBM ThinkPads, Toshibas, HP, Dell and Sony Vaio's. Out of those I like Dell and Sony the least. I loved my IBM ThinkPad's (have had 4 or 5 models over the years.) Only problem is finding somewhere to have them serviced is a bit of a pain. Right now I have a cheap Toshiba. It gets the job done, runs great, only complaint is the power cord plugs in on the side and has kinked a bit; I will probably have to replace soon. My boyfriend just got a new HP. It is sturdy, easy to use and very inexpensive for all the features.

My suggestion would be to get the HP. The products that they are putting out now of days are good quality. Second choice would be the Toshiba. I would suggest going with the $600-$1000 price range. You get more RAM, better processors, more hard drive space, better graphics cards and the laptop cases themselves are a bit more strudy and substantial. The extra couple hundred of dollars compared to a $300-$500 model will give you a more useful lifetime.