Posted: 6/24/2006 4:28:26 PM EDT
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I'm looking to buy a laptop for multi use by my kids, myself and the wife. We already have a great desktop and are looking to spend around $800-$900 or so on the laptop. Any "best buys", models or brands to stay away from ?? |
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Newegg has a special on an Acer Sempron 3100+ laptop, for like $540. Then maybe get a RAM upgrade, and a few other accessories, and you should be in business, well under budget. If you allready have a great desktop, then that should be more than enough machine for general use. |
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Here are links to a couple we have been considering. Thoughts ? www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/entnb_e1505?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs gateway.com/products/GConfig/proddetails.asp?system_id=nx510x&seg=hm |
If those two were the only choices, I would go with the dell, no doubt about it. |
Our Dell Inspirons seem to work pretty good. Get the most warranty you can if you intend to keep the laptop for a long time. |
And make sure you pay extra to get hard copies of the installation disks. 
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for laptops i choose intel only processors. get a minimum of 512mb of ram and a 40gb harddrive and you will be set. try to get one with wireless capabilities too. stay away from sony(root kits) averatec (walmart sells them) cheap hp, compaq, ibm, dell's are about the only laptops i would buy....... as long as it has a intel processor on laptops depending on how long you want to keep it. buy a extended warranty. laptops are smaller the parts are more expensive, and are much more fragile. get a extended warranty. don't drink while using a laptop, don't let your dog or cat around it. and becarful of the charging pin (where the ac adapter plugs in) if you break that pin its a very costly repair. |
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www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7727524&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat64400050004&id=1140394812232 Any thoughts on this model ? |
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couldn't have said it better myself, excellent advice. heed these words! |
xp home is completely and totally sufficient for 99% of home users. the main differences between home/pro are some enhanced networking abilities, more robust encryption, and the ability to allow remote desktop. home allows you to RDP to another box no problem, but doesn't accept connections. most people wouldn't notice the difference from regular use. works, on the other hand, i agree with. |
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I have had a variety of laptops (HP, Toshiba, Dell etc). They have all been a pain and source of trouble. The only one I have ever had that has been no problem (well, one, and that was fixed quickly and efficiently) has been my current IBM ThinkPad (Lenovo). I have a T-43, which is probably overkill for home use - look at the Z series Link They currently have them on sale. If nothing else, its fun getting the tracking number and watching your laptop get from China to the US in half the time it takes to get from its port of entry to you. |
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I have an Acer TravelMate C314X tablet PC. It's a nice machine, though it runs HOT in tablet mode when plugged in. Battery lasts about 6 hours in the setting I use; Acer PCs have comprehensive power management that allows you to change the power usage for pretty much everything. My beefs are that the HDD comes formated in FAT32, and it comes with a Windows recovery disk set rather than a Windows CD for reformatting. Fortunately I can use my other Windows disk and then install the tablet utilities from the recovery disks. I recommend Acer. My younger brother SWATsnip3r has an HP Livestrong edition, it's a very nice computer too. I bought mine from newegg.com, if you aren't going with Dell and want the best deals, buy from newegg. |
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First of all, let me state that I don't consider myself a "computer expert"...I'm just an ordinary guy who happens to have a laptop that I've used A LOT... I've got a Toshiba Satellite M45-S331 that I've had for over a year now...I've been totally happy with it. I bought it at an Office Depot store(Best Buy does indeed suck... ) in April of '05 and it spent a year(May 4 '05 - May 4 '06) with me in Kuwait. I used it EVERY DAY I was there...AND I took it with me on my mid-contract vacation for 10 days in Ireland...it was my life-line back home to my family via e-mail, whether plugged in to a LAN connection or using the Wi-Fi service down at the Starbucks Coffee in the Mall ...I have over 60 hours of music on it, so it also saw extensive use as a "stereo" when I'd hook up a set of stereo speakers & sub-woofer to it. I took it out to my jobsite office in the desert regularly and had no problems. Now, I didn't use it outside in the blowing sand and intense sun, but there was still plenty of dust/dirt and heat. It has an Intel Pentium M processor, which is the only way to go with a laptop IMHO...better battery life and it won't have issues with overheating. It also has the Centrino built-in wireless capability, which is great. Since I've gotten home, I've gotten a wireless router set-up so now I can surf the 'net from anywhere around the house. My 10y.o. daughter loves that...  The OS is Windows XP Home and it runs the M/S Office 2003 suite of products just fine. It has 512MB of memory & a 80GB harddrive. Plenty good enough for anything I'll want to do. It has a built-in card reader, so I can easily copy pictures from my digital camera onto it. That was a very handy feature...I have tons of pictures from Kuwait and Ireland on it...neatly organized and catalogued. The only downside that I can think of is that it's pretty big for a laptop...but that's mainly because of it's 15.4" screen. I wanted a large screen for better picture quality for DVD movie playback in case I didn't have access to a TV & DVD player over there. Whenever it's time for another laptop, I'll most definately start my search with Toshiba at the top of the list. Another recommendation...if you plan to travel any at all with your laptop, get a QUALITY bag for it. I spent $80 for a back-pack type bag with extra padding around the edges of the pocket that the computer rides in. |
Beat me to it. I played with one yesterday at CompUSA. It felt very strange playing with Windows on a Mac. Only downside: For some reason the screen has a shiny finish to it. Every other Mac laptop I've seen has a matte finish to it so you don't see every little thing reflected in it. Frankly I think they cheaped out on the screens. |