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Getting a laptop maybe
Burning Organ
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I might be getting a laptop to help me with school work. I'll probably get one in around one month (since my birthday is around that time.)
So, a good laptop for around 900€. XP or Vista isn't much of a matter since I'll probably format and install XP anyway. It needs to be decently portable, so no more than 15.4 inches.
And no macbooks.
So anyway. My first choice right now is this one.
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3477327/Acer-TravelMate-5520G-402G16Mi-Turion-Tl-58-1-9GHz-2GB-160GB-15-4-DVD-SM-Vista-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html
(okay, so the price is in £, but I couldn't find it at a better place.)
It's pretty good for the price, I think... I wouldn't play very intense games with it (at most, maybe dark crusade and some older RPGs).
Anyway, I'm open to suggestions... It's the first laptop I found that was decent in that price range.
So, a good laptop for around 900€. XP or Vista isn't much of a matter since I'll probably format and install XP anyway. It needs to be decently portable, so no more than 15.4 inches.
And no macbooks.
So anyway. My first choice right now is this one.
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3477327/Acer-TravelMate-5520G-402G16Mi-Turion-Tl-58-1-9GHz-2GB-160GB-15-4-DVD-SM-Vista-Home-Premium-Laptop-Notebook/Product.html
(okay, so the price is in £, but I couldn't find it at a better place.)
It's pretty good for the price, I think... I wouldn't play very intense games with it (at most, maybe dark crusade and some older RPGs).
Anyway, I'm open to suggestions... It's the first laptop I found that was decent in that price range.
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I was actually looking for a new laptop the other day in roughly the same price range as what you mentioned. I should preface this with the warning that I know very little about computers.
This was what I think I'm leaning towards right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220163
Plus an extra 1 GB of RAM puts that at roughly $1,200 U.S., which i think is nearly equivalent to your budget.
All cost about $1239. I fear your strange and unfamiliar system of currency, but google says
900 € = 1 291.86 US$.
That really depends on what you need it for. I have a widescreen laptop with lots of power for gaming, but it's huge and hard to carry around without the special backpack I got for it, and the fans are so loud I don't want to take it to class. Everybody else has these tiny, silent things they can slip into their messenger bags, and here I am writing all my notes in illegible pencil.
Also I have a beast of a laptop that is just a bit too heavy to be easy to carry around, so it's annoying to lug it everywhere, and just a bit too weak to run everything I want. So don't do what I did.
Performance is pretty much just for the sake of having it, as long as it has 1 gig ram.
Also, I need places shipping to Europe (Finland)... Checking out Cyberpower PCs now
It's funny, before your reply, I thought Improvolone was cautioning people to keep portability in mind. My brain just skipped right over the actual words because as written, it's crazy. If you already have a desktop and you're getting a laptop, portability is king. I love my little silent little thing with huge battery life (6+ hours) that I can slip back in to my small backpack. It can't really run modern games, but that's not what it's for.
Anyway, Cyberpower PC's look awesome, anyone from Europe ordered from that place?
Good? Bad? Extra taxes? Shipping costs?
That's like saying I want the best car in the world, but no European cars. You're just excluding yourself from a lot of good luxury cars and supercars.
That said, Power Notebooks uses the Sager laptops that most OEMs (Dell, Alienware, etc.) use. As a bonus, it comes without Windows so you save a few more bucks. (Especially since you'll just install XP on it anyway.)
My girlfriend owns a "gaming laptop" (if there is such a thing, I don't think they exist). It's noisy, has a three hour battery life and takes 2 minutes to boot. On top of that it weighs a ton. Heavy enough for her to not carry around often even though it's not a massive machine. It does have a 15" screen and can play Half-life 2 reasonably (no better than my midrange desktop).
My housemate owns a Macbook which boots in 30 seconds and has a 6 hour battery life and a 13" screen (I think). It weighs nothing. I have no idea how it handles games but I'd imagine it's not great.
I own a tablet PC that boots in about a minute and is the same size and weight as a large pad of A4 paper. It dies after 7 hours - i.e. I can have it running for a whole working day on battery. Personally I'd recommend the Macbook - I don't think anyone builds a better Windows machine - but you don't want one so instead I'd look for a similarly specced PC. I love the tablet too but it's difficult to say you will - it's something you have to try to see if you like.
Look, I'm planning on using this for 3 years. On year 3 we're gonna use linux a lot, and I need a computer where I can easily install Linux later on.
So no macbooks
As for a regular laptop, check a few of these out.
Fujitsu LifeBook A6025 NoteBook Intel Core Duo T2450(2.00GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 2GB DDR2 667 120GB 5400rpm Dual layer DVD Burner Intel GMA950 - Retail
$999.99 ($799.99 after $200.00 Mail-In Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834110274
TOSHIBA Satellite A135-S4527 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T2080(1.73GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 1GB DDR2 533 120GB 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel GMA950 - Retail
$749.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114343
Gateway MT3422 NoteBook AMD Mobile Athlon 64 X2 TK-53(1.70GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 1GB DDR2 667 160GB 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce Go 6100 - Retail
$669.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101085
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!:
So anyway:
Toshiba - Yay/Nay
Acer - Yay/Nay
Levano - Yay/Nay
HP - ...
Dell - ...
Anyone know how much tax + shipping to Europe would cost?
You probably mean Lenovo not Levano
But ... MacBooks can run anything.
Don't turn down the prettiest girl around. She'll be good to you.
I have a MacBook that I love, but I'm sick of people trying to push Macs on people who don't want them.
3 kilos is nothing when I don't even need to walk 500 meters.
Anyway, I've heard Acer has sort of crappy driver support and that the laptops comes crammed with shit programs or something like that....
Is this true?
Personally, I like to hear people's reasons why they don't want an Apple laptop as opposed to any other brand since they all run the same thing. The reason very well may be that they're more expensive since you don't plan to use OSX, but it's still interesting to see what drives people's decisions.
That said, I've had good luck with HP in the past year. They're all I purchase for work, and I've had pretty good luck with them reliability-wise and support-wise. I carry a 6910p for my work needs, and it's great (although, not cheap).
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
If I'd ever enter the building with a mac, I'd be ridiculed.... And likely beaten. With a Acer Ferrari laptop and a cheap HP laptop.
(Also, I don't like mac desktops, so I won't support mac laptops....)
Ignore the parenthesis...
Every person with an Acer I know had nothing but problems with it - software and hardware. I definetely would not recommend ever buying one of their laptops.
On the size deal. 15.4 is all you want, I have tried carrying a 17inch wide-screen laptop too and from work, it's a god damn nightmare. And loud, don't forget loud.
Anyway, Lenovo quality is good and they feel so god damn solid compared to my old Acer and Toshiba.
[edit] Also they also have a nubin.
Sig images by FooB
I would hope that people in a computer/business school would know that Apple is more valuable than any other computer company and consistently has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings (despite dropping a bit this year, they're still on top), and therefore would look pretty silly for ridiculing someone using one. That and anybody using an Acer Ferrari branded laptop deserves to be beaten. Nothing against Acer, but those co-branded models are retarded.
However, I suppose your reason is fair enough if you've given them a previous shot. You didn't mention that you did, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I'll still throw my support behind HP Business laptops. They've served me and my company very well.
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
Also, I do have some apple experience, but that was one of the... Older ones. (Let's just say that it couldn't have run duke3d very well)
Ouch. Just... ouch.
Anecdotal evidence time!
Personally, despite being all Mac at home (I recently executed the Great PC Purge of 2007 upon my new apartment), I wouldn't run Macs with anything before 10.3. I received my first Mac the day 10.3 came out. It shipped with 10.2 on it, but I refused to boot it up until I had a 10.3 disk in my hands (granted, it only took a few hours since I worked at CompUSA at the time, but still). In my opinion, it's not worth the switch before that. Naturally, you're not going to find any Macs to buy with 10.3 or earlier on them (since 10.5 just came out and is freaking awesome), but 10.3 was really the point that made them worth looking into again. If you're later in the market for another laptop, now is as good a time as any to give OSX a shot again (regardless of your thoughts on their hardware, the software makes it worth it).
In my opinion.
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
Sig images by FooB
Saves me some pretty money
(Can you install linux on macs?)
This makes no sense.
You can install Linux on a Macbook. It's a PC under the shell. As with any new hardware, there are a few tricks to getting it running on the Macbook right now, but if you follow a guide you will have no problems.
Or you could just take the easy option, and install it on Parallels. That way, it's in its own virtual machine and you can use it side-by-side with OS X.
Plus, you get the advantage of having a fully POSIX-compliant Unix variant (OS X) as your standard OS. You can install pretty much any "Linux" stuff straight onto OS X using Fink or MacPorts. Unless you are going to be doing some kernel hacking, OS X will probably be able to do all the "Linux" work you need.
In any case, you can tinker with Unix on OS X, so by the time you get to your third year, you will be a Unix pro.
I payed $1299 for my laptop and it is pretty close to my desktop as far as power is concerned.
No arguments to why it's better than any other PC though.
I don't really see why I should get one as opposed to another PC. I mean, I'm already pretty fluent in vista and XP, last thing I need right now is to learn another bloody OS, except for linux, which I need to learn eventually.
I think I'm gonna get from zepto if I can get anyone to say something good about them.
They are a cheap, portable laptop. The Macbooks are really some of the best value laptops you can get right now.
For US$1100 you can get a fairly nice Macbook. They've even just been updated to use the new Santa Rosa chipset.
What do you need to learn about Linux? If it's learning Bash scripting, then that can be done on OS X. If it's coding using POSIX C, then that can be done on OS X, if it's configuring and installing Unix apps, then that can be done on OS X.
If it's kernel hacking (which I doubt it would be), then you need Linux for that.
As for Windows, well you can run that in Parallels or Boot Camp anyway.
It seems to me that you need a portable laptop, and want to learn Unix. I really can't see why you are disregarding the main portable laptop that runs Unix out of the box.
I'm not saying that you should buy one... I'm just saying that it's worth considering, because your requirements for a laptop seem to be pretty much describing a Macbook.
The only upside I could find is that it's tiny. 13"
Too much.
I can't import from anywhere, unless the price is drastically less, and then much money would probably go to shipping and taxes anyways, so I could just get a laptop from here for cheaper with more performance. Protability is important, certainly, but I don't need anything smaller than 14-15.4". It's at that place I'd rather have a faster laptop instead of smaller.
So, now it seems to be too expensive.
Yeah, Europe gets hit a little bit by dodgy currency conversions... although the price is ~€870 once you take out taxes (so it's really only €100 more expensive than in the US).
In contrast, the Zepto laptops are surprisingly cheap in Europe.
Yeah, don't bother importing hardware if you're in Europe. I lived in the Netherlands for a little while, and I tried importing. It was a disaster. I was accustomed to the Australian customs system, where they let pretty much any electronics come in without charge if they are for personal use. In contrast, I was charged huge fees by Dutch customs, then more fees by TNT because they had to handle the customs fees.
So, if you can get a cheap laptop locally, then that's the best bet. Just make sure you try it before you buy. Some cheaper laptops look nice in photographs, but are flimsy and poorly constructed in reality.
It was a fucking X1600 XT, the equivalent of which I had gotten for my PC for around 100-150€
Anyway, can someone vouch for Zepto? They're looking mighty fine right now.
I mean, if you don't want to learn a new OS, then by all means get another Windows laptop. The reason I suggest a Mac is because lots of people are stuck with the misconceptions of "there's no software for OSX" or "File compatibility across platforms will be a problem" or "Only people doing graphic design use Macs."
Truth be told, for your average user, OSX is easier to use and (by virtue of obscurity and the Unix platform) safer, and because of that there's no reason to not buy a Mac. And you can run Windows on it if you really want to, although spend a week getting used to OSX and I doubt you'll be using XP for anything except games.
You're paying a little more for a more integrated experience, truly. For a lot of people it's well worth the price of admission. The other thing you're paying for is the fact that, in my experience, Macs don't depreciate the same way PC laptops tend to. The best example I have is my first Mac. It's a 12" Powerbook G4 1GHz with 512MB of RAM. It's running the most up to date version of OSX and I can't justify buying a new laptop simply because mine doesn't feel like it needs an upgrade. It's not slow enough. And if I wanted to turn around a resell it, I could probably get anywhere from $600 to $750, looking at going prices on Ebay. You can't get that much for a four year old PC laptop, I'll wager.
With regards to Linux, OSX is a great Linux learning tool. I had to start learning Linux when I started this job (even though now I'm pretty much just the Windows admin) and being able to bring up a bash terminal in OSX meant that I could practice stuff in a similar environment at home. I'm still far from a Linux expert, but I'm much more comfortable at the command line now that I was able to force myself to use OSX that way for a while.
But again, it will take a little getting used to. Most Mac users around these parts will tell you that it's time well spent. I'll tell you that if you're unwilling to learn a whole new set of software (which in some cases is better and some cases not, but in almost all cases easier), then stick with Windows.
This is great advice. Always try to get hands on with a budget laptop so you can feel how well built it is before you buy it. Since it'll be taking quite a beating (even when you pamper it) the build quality is really important.
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
(Also, 500€ is budget laptops, 900 is more midrange