5.9Excursion

Thinking of getting a laptop, nothing fancy. What do I have to spend?

Rednecktastic

Go to Dell's site. Business section.

I think they'll run about 700-800 for a nicely optioned one.

Get dual core duo processors and there is some other stuff you'd want to buy when building it... I'm no whiz on this, I just use what work gives me.

Hope to change jobs here soon so I might have to buy one so I've been looking. My work Dell has treated me well and is 3 years old.

Busboy

Don't get one with Vista, look for an XP model, I bought one a while back for my wife (Compac) and picked one up for my daughter yesterday (HP). Get at least 1 gig memory and more if possible. They do run slower on wireless, I compared the 8 meg download test and plugged in download speed was 712 kb/sec using wireless its about 540 kb/sec. I have the 600kb/sec high speed. The salesman yesterday said people are returning Vista laptops and trying to get XP ones, apparently Vista uses just about all the memory just to run itself leaving nothing to do any work with. Don't get a Sony battery they were catching fire.

cbtumedic

Vista is nice, it just uses lots of memory so the computer seems slower, if you get a vista computer try to get one with 2 gig of ram, that makes vista shine from what i understand. Also stay away from dell, they use a more flexible chassis that tends to make them more vulnerable to shorting out the power supply and motherboard if handled roughly. Toshiba has the stiffest chassis and from what i understand the highest quality components (without going to rugged laptops or alienware or one of the high end laptops.) But in the end get what you like the best and can afford. figure on spending 600-1000 on a decent general use laptop, up to $2k if you want to do much gaming , video editing, etc.

FlaCracker

I work with pcs and laptops all the time. Dell is one of the best around, I just bought another one for my wife. My son has had his over a year now, no problems. I am a IT network Admin, so I am around computers alot. You can't go wrong with Dell, IBM is also good. As for Toshiba, my company used sone of the Tishiba toughbooks, had a lot of problems with quality control, i.e., problems with the case cracking, monitors going bad, ect.

steerjock

I bought a Dell about 3 months ago for school and love it, well now that I have Vista half way figured out its much better

t-boe

I've had good experience with Toshiba.

nirion

Another vote for getting one with XP. I would recommend one with either an Intel Centrino or AMD Turion for a laptop. Get at least 1GB Ram and try to check out the screen on whatever you are buying (Dell is good, but you will have to find a kiosk to check out the machines in person), as there is a lot of difference in quality and brightness.

cbtumedic

I wasn't saying dell didn't make a good product, just saying the cases lack the rigidity of some of the others, and that everyone i know with a toshiba has had good luck and they make a good case.

jbjarko

I have a dell vostro, dual core intel, etc...its nice and got a good deal on it.

dodgepower88

You also have to think about how long you plan on keeping it (maybe you have). I have an IBM and it is very reliable and have had no problems. However, if I could have a do over I would've boughten a dell or compaq for half the price and renew it every two years.

rustyshakelford

i have an hp and it has had a very rough life. i toss it everywhere and show it no sympathy. i rarely let it have enough room for adequate ventilation and in two years all its needed is a hard drive...probably from getting to hot(my fault) been great. dont buy the biggest and best, becuase thats what i did and 3 months later it was outdated. i went over board and spend like 1400 and in reality i couldve spend 700 and had a computer that does everything i needed and then some

brett

Rednecktastic

Mine has a titanium case. Pretty rugged. Govt jobbie though, I was looking at I believe the Vostro the other day and I think it's plastic.

upjeeper

i've had 2 compaqs and both have given me so many problems i've sworn each time to never get one again, even if it was given to me. HP bought out compaq a year or two ago, so to make matters even worse now compaq's customer service is based in india (so is hp).

vista's "sweet spot" for RAM is 4GB, if you can't find a laptop with XP or for some reason want vista you have to get at least 2GB of RAM, 1GB just won't cut it.

if you look on ebay you can find some killer deals, especially around this time of year. Dell and Toshiba are both very good names. IBMs are very good, but sometimes their parts are very proprietary (i.e. not all off the shelf hard drives work on an ibm) however if security is an issue with you, you may want to look into an IBM - they're the industry leader in laptop security. I had a machine earlier this year that someone lost the password to (it wasn't stolen, i know because i bought it from the company who used to own it). anyway to make a long story short if you don't have this password, some people can do a combination of hardware and software to hack through, but it's not easy and not something any joe can do. so yea, very good security.

sorry for the novel...

MikeyB

I like the HP commercial grade notebooks.

MikeyB