Help buying a laptop

DouglasDanger

My wife and I are thinking about buying a lap top with some of the money from our tax return. I don't know anything about laptops. Our desktops are ancient. I use mine for typing and surfing and not much else. She uses hers for playing the Sims3 and Second Life. We want to be able to do the same things on a laptop, if it is possible. We are thinking somewhere around $400. Is that doable? Where would we begin?

DouglasDanger

Do I just buy one from Dell?

Raif Severance

I usually go to newegg and read the reviews when I'm thinking of making a purchase. Just look for the highest rated laptops in your price range on the site and then peruse the reviews people post. It gives a good balance of the pros and cons. I personally got my wife an Asus Eee PC netbook, I think it was the 1201n, and she's loved it. It has a full-size keyboard which is nice for a netbook. The newer iterations are even better and are below $400.

Netbook

DouglasDanger

My wife says she can keep playing the Sims3 on her old desktop. So hm...

Redjar

Edit: Post removed by user.

DouglasDanger

I will check out new egg, and keep that brand in mind.

DouglasDanger

Is it safe to buy a laptop at Wal-mart? There isn't anywhere else around here for more than an hour's drive. If I were to take the system requirements for Sims 2 and whatever to the store, would I have any luck?

BoomShake

Do not go to a store unless you know exactly what you want and need (i.e. the actual make/models). For every one salesperson who knows what they're talking about and will help, there are 99 that either know squat, give wrong information, and focus on selling big.

Tekzilla just had a segment recently on buying laptops that you might find relevant.

DouglasDanger

Hm, so this is what the Sims3 needs

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
1.5 GB RAM
128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1
At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games

This HP Pavilion looks nice, and ti s under $500.

VISION Technology from AMD with AMD Athlon II P360 processor
2.30GHz 1MB L2 Cache

3GB of DDR3 system memory (expandable up to 8GB)
Give you the capability for multimedia videos and images, video conferencing, basic gaming and all other simple duties

320GB, 5400rpm SATA hard drive
Store 213,000 photos, 91,000 songs or 168 hours of HD video and more

LightScribe SuperMulti DVD burner
Watch DVD movies on your computer; read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats; burn custom labels onto LightScribe-compatible discs

10/100Base-T Ethernet; 802.11b/g/n WiFi
Connect to a broadband modem or router with wired Ethernet, or wirelessly connect to a WiFi signal or hotspot with the 802.11b/g/n WiFi connection built right into your Pavilion notebook computer

15.6" diagonal HD BrightView LED widescreen display
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics with up to 1405MB total graphics memory

Hmm onboard graphics card

Iceman.USAF

I like cnet.com's reviews. Here is their selection of best less expensive laptops.
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-budget-laptops/?tag=

republic of me

DouglasDanger wrote: »

My wife and I are thinking about buying a lap top with some of the money from our tax return. I don't know anything about laptops. Our desktops are ancient. I use mine for typing and surfing and not much else. She uses hers for playing the Sims3 and Second Life. We want to be able to do the same things on a laptop, if it is possible. We are thinking somewhere around $400. Is that doable? Where would we begin?

i have a Compaq with windows 7 on it its the best laptop i have had so far and i have had a dell and an apple. although it is probably because i am more used to Compaq due to my first ever computer being a Compaq with windows 98 (actually it was my mothers i was only 7 in 1998 but we used it until it was completely obsolete)

MichaelLC

Compaqs/HPs are OK for the price. That Samsung from the CNet link looked decent, 15" screen and i3 processor.

Oh, and yeah, don't go to a store unless you know what you're buying. Even better would be buy it on-line then pick-up in store. Feel free to check out the keyboards, feel, etc., but as BoomShake said, the sales monkey is more likely to be bad than good.

Anecdote - Overheard a BB blue shirt talking to customer about the PS3 and HDD space - he wasn't sure if the PS3 allowed you to copy games from disc to the HDD like the XBox does. I had to fight the urge to jump in.

Elimination

I absolutely love my new Acer. 2.0 ghz quad core AMD Phenom II, Radeon 5650 1gb dedicated video, 6gb of DDR3 and 500gb HDD. Cost me $650 on sale at best buy, regular price was $800 i think? And even at that price its awesome.

Best thing about these AMD laptops is their new tech where the video and CPU are on the same die so the heat is not nearly as brutal as it used to be. Plus the 5650 is powerful enough to run most things at high settings or even max settings in many cases so far. Also the Radeon graphics on laptops have dedicated driver support from AMD and get updated very often, unlike the Nvidia modile cards which are up to the manufacturer of the lappy itself. AMD kicks ass for laptop stuff right now.

Ironically i perfer Nvidia for desktops.

riz

For what it's worth, I always build my own desktops, but laptops I've bought from HP the last few times and they lasted many years and never gave me problems. (Well unless you count my mom's penchant for finding malware, but that's not HP's fault. 8-))

Thundyrkatz

A lot of the laptops i have looked at lately do not come with Microsoft Office installed. That is like 120 bucks extra. So, that 499 computer will cost 619 if you need that.

DouglasDanger

Thanks for the tips, guys.

DouglasDanger

We bought a Toshiba Satellite l675. 499 at Staples. I like it so far.