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Good cheap laptop?
Snake Gandhi
Des Moines, IARegistered User regular
Des Moines, IARegistered User regular
I'm in the market for a cheap laptop, but I'm not all that up on what are considered good brand.
I'm looking for something small and with good battery life that has built in Wi-Fi, is widescreen, and can handle Vista. It's pretty much only gonna be used for web browsing, Office, and watching DVD's.
Any advice on which way to look?
I'm looking for something small and with good battery life that has built in Wi-Fi, is widescreen, and can handle Vista. It's pretty much only gonna be used for web browsing, Office, and watching DVD's.
Any advice on which way to look?
Snake Gandhi on
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A bunch of people are going to come in here and recommend the Macbook, but while that is certainly a good laptop, you can definitely go cheaper than its asking price of $1100 or so.
Celeron Ms don't have SpeedStep, and AMD Sempron Mobile chips do, but there isn't all that much difference in battery life either way.
I hear you need a gig of RAM for Vista Premium, but if you turn all the transparent shinies off, it should work with less.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I've had a HP myself, and after I started having trouble with it I searched and found others with similar experiences. What I've found is that while they work fine for the first 3 months or so, they begin to develop very odd quirks that are at best annoying and at worst mind-blowingly frustrating. And I'm not talking about the kind of quirks you get from viruses or spyware, it seems to be more device conflicts.
I'm currently using a Toshiba Satellite. It had a few nuisances when I first got it, but after updating the BIOS and the drivers, it's worked fine for 8 months or so now, no problems. I've heard Acer laptops spoken highly of, and IBM notebooks as well.
If you're looking for good deals, check out NewEgg or TigerDirect online.
Awesome android RPGs are made by my friends; check them out.
However, for the price/performance, I have no idea what a "better deal" is.
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To the OP though: A one or two year old iBook is going to be more reliable than a Dell or HP that costs as much. Won't come with a warranty, but that shouldn't be a problem with the iBook line, the only stuff that would be liable to die would be the hard drive or the battery, both of which are user serviceable.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
The only reason there are so many problems with Dell is that Dell sells so many. There's bound to be a failure rate, with them sending out so many systems. I've had mine since October and it hasn't given me any trouble whatsoever.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
The deals are pretty much even at time of purchase. Getting similar performance for a similar price.
However, macs have more longevity. They'll stay viable for a long time, and they'll fetch a decent price on ebay years after purchase.
Dell has only 17.5% of the worldwide notebook PC marketshare, behind HP with 17.7%, and just above Acer and Toshiba with 11.8% and 10.7%(source). In terms of units sold, that's not a substantial enough difference to justify higher failure rates. Another downside to Dell is their customer support. While once the best in the industry, after years of outsourcing it is now some of the worst.
To the Op, I highly recommend that you don't just take my word for it. Thousands of thousands of computer forums exist with first-hand accounts of Dell experiences. They went through it so you don't have to. :-P
Awesome android RPGs are made by my friends; check them out.
Nice little machine. The only bad(1-star) review is from someone who didn't even buy it from NewEgg, and the only average(3-star) review is from someone who says "It's not a gaming machine". If you are looking for a gaming machine, you better not be buying a laptop for less than $1,000.
The only thing from the other reviews that stands out is that you'll need to either install a different OS or add some more RAM, since Vista is apparently a huge memory hog.
Awesome android RPGs are made by my friends; check them out.
Desktop or laptop? Because when I went laptop, I ended up with essentially the same machine.
I mean it varies week to week, but you can get a laptop on a level with a macbook for $800-$900 rather than $1100. You just have to wait for a deal to hit.
Well, I just did it.
1288 to 1299 in Dell's favor. There's some room for argument, such as the display(I left it at default, the macbook's might be closer to the upgrade, plus the dell is 14 inch, the apple is 13), but you get the idea. Similar price for similar performance.
A Dell doesn't have the same build quality that a Mac has. Compare a mac's price to a similarly equipped Toshiba or IBM/Lenovo laptop.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
It's gonna be about the same price as the Levono laptop and the Toshiba will be cheaper. I specced this stuff out for a friend a month or two ago. Expect build quality to vary directly with price.
http://www.discountlaptops.com/index.php?section=configurator®ular_model_id=1386&model_id=1387
Chembook 4030 aka Sager NP2030 aka Compal HG 30
Small, fast, and totally sweet.
i need a laptop, but i cant get one with vista as it dosnt run the programs that i need for work.
MS grants ALL OEM copies of Vista downgrade rights. See here. Basically, if you can find the media, you can install that in place of the OEM version. You can even use a disk and key that's installed elsewhere, like a friend's FPP/retail copy (see the FAQ).
Just keep a copy of your Vista restore disk handy, and you can "upgrade" when ready, or just use XP in the meantime.
How's their reputation? Are they a good company?
Why not just get one with vista, format it and slap XP on that baby? Then when you can/it's better, whip out the Vista reinstall discs/partition and upgrade.
I'd say pretty good with the quick read through I got. The place only has one "Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied" rating for the entire period: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/DiscountLaptops
Don't know the entire validity of this article, but interesting nonetheless. I believe this same story pretty much goes for any computer related part (dvd drives, dvd-r discs, memory, etc.)
http://www.gen-x-pc.com/laptopmanu.htm
Something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834110222 (TABLET, $1600)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834110232 (LAPTOP, $1000)
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!: