need laptop help!

[Caleb]

I recommend against Dell and Gateway. I personally use HP, Asus makes good machines, not Acer, Sony, Samsung, and several others make decent machines...I personally dont care for toshiba. some people swear by them.

Every company has their good and bad models...in my case, the XPS was a great model I bought 3 or 4 years ago...as a refurb. Hard telling exactly how old my machine is, but it still rocking away.

My old toshiba gave up after two years and a motherboard later.

 

[jojoa55]

I wonder if every manufacturer just has some bad apples then? Some swear by hp, ours has been nothing but trouble. Some hate toshiba, mine has been great. Aren't they all pretty well the same machines anyway spec wise? kinda like ford vs. chevy?

maybe not, i know nothing about IT stuff. just going by what you guys say.

 

[Chefcook]

Any off the shelf computer you buy no matter the manufacturer or type lap top or desk top is going to have some watered down parts. Like they might give you a descent processor but a crappy motherboard ect. This is true even of high end machines like ASUS and Alien Ware although the a fore mentioned do have better quality they are more apt to use older out of date parts. Many people do not realize this.

For what your needs are an HP, Dell, Acer should be just fine. You said your girlfriend had problems with her HP I would bet it had Vista on it and that was the problem. Stay away from vista you want Windows 7, Also i7, i5, i3 processors are all great for what you seem to need an i3 should be just fine. The difference is the number of cores or possessors within the processor i7 and i5 both have 4 cores, also for your needs an AMD 4 core system will be fine since your not gaming, if you are gaming an I5 is actually better than an i7 with the i7 the multi-threading actually slows down some games. Here is a machine that should fit your needs quite nicely...

Walmart.com: Toshiba Matrix Graphite 14" L745-S4310 Laptop PC with Intel Core i3-2330M Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium: Computers

White Sony Laptop PC, 14" VAIO, Intel Core i3 Processor - Walmart.com

Also check these two sites out...

Newegg.com - Laptop Computers, Tablets, Desktop PCs

Laptops & Notebooks at TigerDirect.com

I hope this helps...

 

[jojoa55]

thanks for your help chefcook. do you think the 2nd toshiba i listed is overkill or will it be a good one to have over 5-6 years?

ETA: her HP had windows xp on it

 

[Chefcook]

thanks for your help chefcook. do you think the 2nd toshiba i listed is overkill or will it be a good one to have over 5-6 years?

ETA: her HP had windows xp on it

I don't think there are really any laptops on the market that are going to last 5 or 6 years but I guess that depends on your needs. When it comes to computer electronics what is new now typically will be considered old in 6 months to a year. I would say that so long as the maintenance and upkeep is kept up to date that Toshiba should be good for at least a year...

 

[jojoa55]

a year?? yikes. I want it to last longer than that. The two laptops we have now have lasted at least 4 years

 

[Chefcook]

a year?? yikes. I want it to last longer than that. The two laptops we have now have lasted at least 4 years

In that case I am sure it will last you..

 

[MRTOOSE]

I really like my Toshiba hasn’t giving me any trouble. I would stay awayfrom Acer and Fujitsu . This is from personal experience . I had trouble withboth and replaced with the Toshiba and all has been well .

 

[CountryBoy19]

Anyways, I really don't think laptops DON'T crash. Regardless, do not buy a Dell.

Not my experience.

I've come to the conclusion that when buying a computer it isn't necessarily the computer that you want, it's the CS. I will share my experiences wit laptops.

My Dell M70 is almost 7 years old now and it is still cruising along. The problems I've had with it are #1 virus that required a wipe clean and reload XP Pro (Dell was a pleasure throughout this whole experience), and #2 failed optical drive (still not fixed). I've never had problems with it "crashing". It has always came on and always worked for me.


My wife's HP is going on 4 years old now it has had optical drive fail, touch-pad fail, screen fail twice, and many other software issues. Through-out all of those experiences HP CS was HORRIBLE.

The best example of HP CS I can think of is as follows. Screen starts working intermittently and smacking the screen occasionally turns it on (seems like a loose connection). So I call HP to see if they have had any similar problems. The conversation went like this:
ME: Hi, I have xyz laptop and the screen has started to work intermittently and I was wondering if there is a common issue that I could check to try to fix it.
Her: Sure, what is your service contract number?
Me: I don't have one, the laptop is out of warranty.
Her: I need a service contract number before I can help you, you can buy a service contract for $$$.
Me: I don't want to buy the service contract, I just want to ask a simple question to find out if this is a common problem or not.
Her: We can't help you until you have a service contract.
Me: You can't answer a simple question without me paying $$$ for a service contract?
Her: No
Me: That is ridiculous. A company that won't even take 1 minute out of their busy day to answer a question for somebody that paid $1400 for a laptop.
Her: I'm sorry, those are the rules.
Me: I'm sorry as well because I will never buy an HP product of ANY type again.


Dell M70 reloading XP I had some driver issues.
Me: Hi, I just reloaded XP on my M70 and I'm having some driver issues that I can't solve, can you help?
Him: Sure, your Dell comes with lifetime phone support and free driver disks.
Me: Excellent!
We then continued to troubleshoot the issue over the phone and we solved it and didn't even need them to send me the driver disks in the mail.


BIG difference in CS, and a BIG reason why I'll never own HP again.

I like my Dell and I will definitely consider Dell again when I'm looking for another laptop.

 

[sepe]

Even though you said $500-700, I'm a bit surprised you haven't gotten 10 "Get an Apple, best thing you'll ever do. When I bought mine, it cured AIDS and world hunger."

For what she'd be using it for, you'd be fine with just about anything. I'd say find the lightest 14" you can if she is going to be hauling it to class. You could go slightly smaller if it doesn't need an internal optical drive. As far as needing hard drive space for projects and papers, 90% of my papers and projects from the last 2 1/2 years are on a usb flash drive. The school stuff doesn't take up much space at all. If I was in the market in that price range and I didn't NEED an optical drive, I'd be thinking hard about the MSI X series. Should be able to find them for around $630.

MSI Notebook Official Website

 

[Caleb]

I'd go with the i3 and with the money you save, invest in more ram or hdd

 

[jojoa55]

Caleb I'm curious, what are you doing with the old laptop batteries?

 

[Caleb]

Caleb I'm curious, what are you doing with the old laptop batteries?

Disassemble them and repurpose them to flashaholics such as myself