LAPTOPS, WHAT BRAND AND WHICH ONE TO BUY

[SARGE]

I have been looking off and on for a few months now trying to decide on what I want to go with. I want something that is going to be fast and dependable. It will be used for both personal use and here at work. Yes, I often run several applications at once. In the past I have had a Dell laptop and a desk top of which I have had extremely crappy luck with. The tower never worked right since I took it out of the box (demension 510). The laptop is slow on start up, USB port no longer works....(inspiron 4100). Another thing about Dell I dislike is all of the garbage they install on new computers.

I have been looking hard aat the Mac Book Pro 15", but the program we use here at work may not work on a MAC.
I know that the processor (i7), amount of memory (at least 4GB), capicity of the hard drive (500GB@7200), all have to do with the speed of which these things run. I placed a few things in parinthecies that are on the top of my list for one to have. A fingure print reader would be great, but these can be bought as a seperate item.

Below is a small list of laptops I am looking at:

Mac Book Pro (work related program may make this a NO GO)
Alienware M15 (another Dell Product)
Toshiba (no certain model as long as I can configure it with what I want)
Lenovo (briefly look at)
ACER (briefly)

I know some of you out there are computer guys and can guide me a little better on what brands and models to look at and what to stay away from. When I say computer guys, I mean those that have experience not someone who thinks he knows about them!!!

[PRO151]

Lenovo. look into them and read the reviews.

[721HACKSAW]

I am no computer expert by any means. I needed a laptop so off to Best Buy I went. I compared all the models in my price range ($500-700) and came away with the HP G60-535 DX. It came with Windows 7 and has been great for 3 months so far. Good luck Sarge.

[Nightshade]

I have been looking off and on for a few months now trying to decide on what I want to go with. I want something that is going to be fast and dependable. It will be used for both personal use and here at work. Yes, I often run several applications at once. In the past I have had a Dell laptop and a desk top of which I have had extremely crappy luck with. The tower never worked right since I took it out of the box (demension 510). The laptop is slow on start up, USB port no longer works....(inspiron 4100). Another thing about Dell I dislike is all of the garbage they install on new computers.

I have been looking hard aat the Mac Book Pro 15", but the program we use here at work may not work on a MAC.
I know that the processor (i7), amount of memory (at least 4GB), capicity of the hard drive (500GB@7200), all have to do with the speed of which these things run. I placed a few things in parinthecies that are on the top of my list for one to have. A fingure print reader would be great, but these can be bought as a seperate item.

Below is a small list of laptops I am looking at:

Mac Book Pro (work related program may make this a NO GO)


I know some of you out there are computer guys and can guide me a little better on what brands and models to look at and what to stay away from. When I say computer guys, I mean those that have experience not someone who thinks he knows about them!!!

As a serious Mac user (I used PC's at work for years and find them all to crappy troublesome pieces of junk) the only comment I can say is...."Once you go Mac you never go back"

There will be a small learning curve but the crap that a PC puts it's users through on a daily basis will be a thing of the past once you get used to a Mac.

Tip: shop Apple"s Refurb store for any Mac you want. These apple product all come with a new warranty so you get a "bench tested" Mac with all the bugs gone at a decent price!

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Look at the 13" Macbook since it is a VERY,VERY capable computer that isn''t at all temperamental in a tough as nails polycarbonate case. The 13" Macbook often beats out the Macbook Pro's in performance test.

[DragonHammer]

I am a fan of the Toshiba laptops. Best buy is a really good place to buy a laptop because of their awesome support. they stand by what they sell, and have service techs (GEEKS) on hand to help you with all your questions or problems.

[Remo]

you mentioned "ACER" i have no personal experiance with them, but i was strongly advised to stay away from them by the folks at bestbuy.

as someone mentioned above, Toshiba makes an awesome product.

you should look up ASUS. i recently did some homework on a laptop in my price range (about $500) and the Asus K50 got some excellent reviews.
i picked it up from bestbuy and i have been very pleased with it so far.

go check out CNET . com and go read some of their laptop reviews. hopefully that might help ya
good luck

[preacherman]

i currently own a Lenovo, a Toshiba and and older iBook G5.
There is a bit of a learning curve going over to the Mac...but
after over 25 years of Pc'S I am seriously considering a Mac
for my next computer. You can run Windows on the newer ones
as well as Snow Leopard OS and in terms of speed, you have to
get a real hefty PC for it to keep up.

I compared my little Mac that is 5 years old with only a gig
of memory to my friends new netbook with XP and 2gig.
He booted up 5-10 sec quicker. After the OS was up and
running, any applications we had were just plain faster on
the Mac. Period. You'll hear a lot about things not running...
but on the new ones, that's pretty much not true. There will
be just as many that won't run under Windows 7 if it's an older
program. Old drivers aren't compatible.
Preacherman

[audio boy]

definatly apple so much eaiser with the internet and downloading stuff , oyea

[Sporty Mike]

I'm a cheap skate, I have a Compaq Presario CQ60, but for waht I use it for, I have NO complaints. I've had it for a year, problem free.

(it'll probly crash tomorrow)


Mike

[Pickles]

Go with a hp or a compaq (both are made by the same company) Acers are also pretty good. Just dont get a DELL unless you want to spend a lot of time at a PC shop.

[909WiSCoNSiN]

I have a hp, I also have acer. I think the hp boots faster, and goes faster. both have the same hardware.
stay away from dell and gateway.
I would say read reviews, It's hard to say what laptop is the best. It all depends on what you use it for. I dont play pc games or anything. just e-mail, shop on craigslist, and simple basic stuff for my company.
good luck!

[linx]

I worked for Dell in one of the corporate offices for about 4 years micro managing some good folks from India and watching over a call center. You know how you resent a company after you work there, and you resent their products? This happens to be one that I don't resent, lol. In fact, most of the computers at my office are Dell computers including my laptop at work. I bought that laptop when I worked there with my employee discount and got half off. It's just a little Dell 600M, and is getting rather outdated, but it still serves me good and has never failed. To beat all, I have a accidental damage warranty still in effect so you never know how it may end it's life. My brother is rocking a newer Dell laptop at work and it's been a good computer as well. We've tried HP and Toshiba with nothing but catastrophic failures. I'm using one of the newer Toshiba laptops to run Ubuntu, but I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Alienware is a good computer, but as previously stated, owned by Dell.

To me, bottom line comes down to this question. Do you want a mobile computer, or are you looking for a desktop replacement? I'd rather have a super mobile computer in a laptop to be able to move around and do work with, v/s one that is so heavy it's basically a small desktop computer. I'd steer clear of the Acer and Toshiba and any HP based products. I'm not familiar with Lenova but I'll be looking them up shortly.

While I'm out of the PC business, probably forever, I still have certain interests in it. I do after all have a degree in it, and have done it for a job for a living. The only reason I got out of it was I was feeling a lot like the guy from Office Space and needed to "get away", lol.

Go with a hp or a compaq (both are made by the same company) Acers are also pretty good. Just dont get a DELL unless you want to spend a lot of time at a PC shop.

I don't believe you can back that up. I've seen real world numbers for Dell's, including part failures, and it's marginal. Almost all problems with a computer is a problem between the computer, and the chair. End user problems account for almost all tech support and hardware failures. I'm rocking a dozen of them with zero hardware based failures.

[909WiSCoNSiN]

so call linx if you have dell problems, because I already know you cant understand the india folks at dell that well. press one for english, they should have another option press 2 for english but impossible to understand.
hey linx you ever do that india accent as a joke when someone called???? I bet you did, I know I would. lol

[linx]

so call linx if you have dell problems, because I already know you cant understand the india folks at dell that well. press one for english, they should have another option press 2 for english but impossible to understand.
hey linx you ever do that india accent as a joke when someone called???? I bet you did, I know I would. lol

LOL, I wasn't really often the guy to take a phone call unless it was something like when that blaster worm hit and there was like 6k calls waiting over 2 hours. At first I was a L2 which helped out the techs on the phone, then I went up to call center operations, and then I was in a small group (10 folks) who watched over all the call centers in India, the Phillipeans and Malaysia. The last job was a raise, but sucked man. I alsmost drove myself crazy listening to phone calls and looking over call logs. I was screening calls and I wanted to yell so bad into the phone but it wouldn't do any good b/c they wouldn't hear me. The funny thing about the India folks is Dell asks them to use an American name. So it would be like this "Thank you for calling Dell, this is John" and his real name would be like Pooja Depak or something weird. It really is a good company...they just lost focus by laying off most of the American call center workforce and hiring overseas. But they could hire 20 of them for the price of 1 US phone tech. They kept the branch I was at open for phone tech's, but it was for business customers only.

I got a lot of stories about the place, lol. I could ramble on for hours. I better stop while I'm ahead. Still though, no bad taste in my mouth about their quality of product.

[Nightshade]

One key point to consider in any new computer purchase is that a Mac will allow you to run windows where windows won't run Mac's OS.

I have a good friend who partitioned a drive then loaded windows XP on it along with mac OS X and uses that drive for all his business needs since he can toggle back and forth between the two OS's as needed. Whenever he's not conducting business he uses Mac's OS X 100% of the time since it's so much easier , and very friendly, compared to windows.

Me? I use Mac's all the time now that I don't have to deal with windows in my retirement years.

[Shaft]

One key point to consider in any new computer purchase is that a Mac will allow you to run windows where windows won't run Mac's OS.

Really Nightshade?

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I switched to Mac 2 years ago and haven't looked back. There are only a few programs I need Windows for and my Netbook does a great job with it. (One flash drive is XP and the other is Mac OSX).

I've had two HP laptops and they were OK. The Dell I had when I worked for Fujitsu Ten was an absolute piece of garbage. Poorest constructed computer I've ever seen. If you want a windows machine, Lenovo is probably the best. The Sony's are good too, but I think a little overpriced. Toshiba has always had a good reputation, but they make some cheap ones too. Remember, you get what you pay for. I paid $2,000 for my Mac and this is the best computer I've ever had. Even 2 years later I'm still not feeling the urge to upgrade.

[WESTGATE]

ALIENWARE and be done with it

[Shaft]

Sarge, do you feel like you just asked what kind of truck should I buy? Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota?

I got a Mac because I got tired of all of Windows crap and I wanted something that worked every time. Kinda like buying Snap On Tools.

[SARGE]

Yeah, it's about the same type of question Shaft! Everyone has their opinion!

[SARGE]

So an IBM and a Lenovo are one in the same? Kinda like Compaq is to HP?

[Nightshade]

One key point to consider in any new computer purchase is that a Mac will allow you to run windows where windows won't run Mac's OS.

Really Nightshade?

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I switched to Mac 2 years ago and haven't looked back. There are only a few programs I need Windows for and my Netbook does a great job with it. (One flash drive is XP and the other is Mac OSX).

Then you must be that evil hacker my mother warned me about!

[Shaft]

So an IBM and a Lenovo are one in the same? Kinda like Compaq is to HP?

Lenovo always made the IBM Thinkpads. It was just a few years ago their contract ran out and IBM decided not to renew it so they sold the Thinkpad trademark to Lenovo.

[DragonHammer]

My first laptop I bought in 1989, it was a zenith. It ran on DOS, most programs were self made. I bought it at Ft. Gordon Ga. from the Signal Corps Library. It is amazing as to how far computer tech has come so far. Windows 95 was like rocket science back then.

[SARGE]

OK, after doing some serious researching, I have narrowed it down to three different brands and two models so far (am working on the third model). ASUS G73, Clevo X8100, and Sager. I have looked at a few of the ASUS llaptops which are almost identical to what the G73 is, and they feel very sturdy. The Clevo X8100 is by far the most expensive of the three, and the only way to afford it is to buy it barebones and install most of the equipment myself. I also know nothing of the Clevo or Sager brands. I have read that Clevo has been building computers for other resellers for quite some time now, though they are not widely known just yet.

Any thoughts one my three canidates?!

[jchowell]

mac i have a 13" macbook pro you can duel boot it meaning you can run either windows or OSX and you can choose on startup i haven't had any problems not being able to run a program nor have i had problems with the computer absolutely love it once you go Mac you just can go back!