Are you just going to use it for a fill in for everyday use..like doing email or school work, or are you wanting a desktop replacement, one that can do everything. Since laptops can pretty well cover the full spectrum of computer needs these days, you can spend anywhere from $500 to $3500. A basic every day machine with decent memory, nice sized hard drive, and a somewhat decent processor speed can be had from Dell or HP for around $500 to $700. If you are going to be doing any gaming, then one with a faster processor, more memory and hard drive space would be in order with a top of the line built in gaming video card.
Minimum, look for at least a 2 Ghz or compatible processor, one Gig of ram, a video card with no less than 128MB of ram, and a 100 GB hard drive. A DVD burner is a plus, as is built in wireless networking capability.
I recently upgraded my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop with a bigger hard drive, built in wireless, more memory and a DVD dual layer burner. Except for the video, it'll smoke any of the current Celeron or Centrino offerings.
It all depends on what you want and how much money you have to spend.
Mike
"Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar." Mark Twain
Bluesky gives some solid advice above. My personal laptop for the last two years has been a IBM ThinkPad R51 with a 1.60 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM, and a 40 gig hard drive. It's done me well so far, and I love some of the built in security and connectivity features IBM provided. My brother recently picked up his own, but it is a Lenovo (the quality has not dropped since they purchased manufacturing rights from IBM). His is a couple steps above mine, but his experience has been top notch as well.
Other than that I would say either avoid HP or be able to wipe you system clean and reinstall what you want as they're famous for bloatware (excessive unecessary products already installed). Dell has slipped a bit, but are moving back towards being a quality organization. Sony is decent, I've had no personal experience with them to date. And Mac laptops are top notch if that is the OS you're into.
Other than that, good luck in your search.
"Don't like it too much, they're more expensive than drugs."
Posts: 520 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: September 19, 2004
Originally posted by skinny4: No gaming, I will be using it for work. What is Mac OS?
Apple-McIntosh(Mac) Operating System (OS).
I have an Apple G-4 Powerbook. I love it, however, if you need it for business to run stuff like Microsoft Xcel, Word and Quicken, I suggest you stick to a Microsoft OS PC like a Dell or a Gateway.
I've been buying Dell laptops for about the past 5 years at my job. They have been very reliable with very few complaints, and those mostly from people who don't know how to take care of them. I'd recommend a Dell for anyone.
*********************** "I reject your reality and substitute my own" Adam Savage - Mythbuster
I have a Toshiba myself and I am very happy with it. I HIGHLY recommend a wireless modem and then getting a wireless router for the house. It is awesome. I'm out on the front porch right now with my cigar and a good book checking in on you chuckleheads on the boards.
*** "Let us hold our discussion together in our own persons, making trial of the truth and of ourselves." – Protagoras
Personal laptop is a MacBook Pro, just love the freedom of the Mac OS, no viruses, no worries about picking up spyware, previously was an iBook, just love it. I also have a Dell XPS that I use for a side project I am working on, and have no complaints with it, use it strictly for photo editing and website publishing, have yet to have a problem. There are alot of great computers out there, check them out then check out the video reviews at cnet.com, they have very good reviews.
"What my neighbors call good I belive in my soul to be bad, and if I repent anything it is my good behavior." ~ H D Thoreau
Posts: 121 | Location: Roanoke, Virginia | Registered: June 06, 2002
I have two notebook computers. My older and well traveled Toshiba Satellite. My new notebook computer is a Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650. I love the wireless modem and router.
*********************** "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Anonymous
As an addenum here, some folks emailed me asking why such a large hard drive for a laptop. Well, if you do picture editing or storing while ontrips on the road, and you sometimes have to take work with you, then you'll want a hard drive large enough for storage, and to have those programs installed that you use at home/work. I use Office 2003 Pro all the time for web editing and general office work, and use Ulead PhotoImpact a lot, so naturally I want those with me on trips or when I take it to work.
Toshiba and Sony laptops are excellent laptops, just at the higher end of the price spectrum. Only reason I suggested Dell/HP/Gateway is they put more at the lower end of the line, and you can configure them a little better for lower end work from the manufacturer. I would love to have one of the new HP's with the Turion 64X2 mobile processor, since I'm more fond of AMD processors than Intel. WinXP pro is my operating system of choice for any computer ( yes, it's windows I know), and make sure to get a good AntiVirus program and Spyware detection program as part of the included software. Stay away from Norton's antivirus and suite program's, they have gotten overly bloated and cause more problems than they fix. Norton's has come under fire lately for putting spyware in their programs, nice huh?
Mike
"Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar." Mark Twain
I've got a Dell inspiron 1705 and I love it.... With warranties and the ability to cusomize any compuer when you order, it's tough to say one is better then the other, you can get whatever you want from anyone...but i would definitly say to go with the 17" monitor with whatever brand you get...over the long run, you'll be glad you did, it makes work, or movies, or analying fantasy football stat pages, sooooo much easier.
jag
quote:
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Posts: 1379 | Location: Moving in December | Registered: September 15, 2006
Between XPS & Inspirion? about $1000...hahaha...the xps is geared for media of all kinds...I'm never gonna hook my laptop to my plasma tv and play online games for days on end, and i don't edit a lot of video...so i went with the inspirion it meets my needs, and with the extra money i was able to get a nice travel case, a humidor, a box of ashtons, a couple of nice dinners, etc...
i don't know what kind of work you do, but generically speaking i'm an "analyst" and the ability to see huge spreadsheets, or side by side pages of documents or .pdf's makes a difference to me..that's why i like the 17"...i have a 19" monitor on my work PC and dropping to a 15" on a laptop seemed like i was working with an etcha-sketch...
just my two cents...
quote:
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Posts: 1379 | Location: Moving in December | Registered: September 15, 2006
Originally posted by Bluesky5553: Stay away from Norton's antivirus and suite program's, they have gotten overly bloated and cause more problems than they fix. Norton's has come under fire lately for putting spyware in their programs, nice huh?
Mike
I completely agree with this. Even McAfee is getting very bloated. I ordered my wifes new computer with the Norton suite on it and all it did was slow the computer way down. She complained of extreme slowness and I found 3 viruses and a ton of spyware on it and Norton was just running along happily like nothing was wrong. I now use the free version of AVG on all my computers. It works very well and it free! You can get it here:
I'd also like to add that the Symantec Corporate product is completely opposite from it's consumer version under the Norton label. The Corporate product is excellent and I swear by it at work.
*********************** "I reject your reality and substitute my own" Adam Savage - Mythbuster
Dell originally touted the XPS systems as "Xtreme Performance Systems" going after the younger crowd that wanting gaming systems. Typically your XPS laptops and XPS desktops have faster ram, more of it, faster processors, better video cards with more video ram...etc..and that's why they cost more
Mike
"Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar." Mark Twain
