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laptop suggestions?


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#1
tankertons20

tankertons20

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Hi, my wife and I have been intrested in purchasing two laptops. We have never owned them before. And everyone here always seems to be so helpful. I was wondering what anyone knows bout Sony, Hp, Compaq, Toshiba, or Dell? Does anyone know if these are still reliable machines? What specs should we look for when purchasing? I'm really big into my music. My wife however spends a good bit of time with data processing. I will kick back now, and let you all take a second to respond. Thanks for the help.
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#2
jaxisland

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Well I dont use laptops. But at work there are a bunch. We just purchased Lenovo which are eh, decent. We have always had really good luck with Sony Vaio, those run nice. We also have a IBM Thinkpad which was really nice. I have heard decent things about Dell.

So brand names now adays are warranties and service contracts. The insides of mose machines are all the same.

Depending on your budget I would go with an Intel Dual Core Processor, especially with games and music, I really noticed a BIG difference.

From there it just has to be built around your needs, also now, most new computers will come with a free upgrade to Vista, so if you are interested in upgrading after the new year, definitely want 1GB RAM decent video card, and a 2 Ghz + single core. A 1.6 Ghz Dual Core would be more than enough. It is all personal preference.

Getting back on track, I purchase alot of computers for work and now its all about who has the better warranty and service, the insides, all the same.

My personal prefrence is Intel Dual Core or AMD dual core processor, 1GB+ RAM, 80GB+ 7200RPM SATA drive.

Good Luck!
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#3
Facedown98

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Hi. I actually just got these results courtesy of Consumer Reports in the mail. Here's what they say about laptops...

Best to worst:

(1) Sony
(2) Lenovo
(3) Compaq
(4) Dell
(5) Toshiba
(6) Gateway
(7) HP

(For laptops only)

Support:

(1) Lenovo (IBM)
(2) Toshiba
(3) Dell
(4) Gateway
(5) HP
(6) Sony
(7) Compaq

Now, I would say to go Lenovo. They have the best rated support, and they make solid products. IBM actually branched out to home users by making Lenovo. I would suggest them the highest.

(Edited for addition of details)

Edited by Stormknight6, 14 December 2006 - 12:16 PM.

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#4
tankertons20

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wow thanks so much. i will take this information into great consideration. i didnt know lenevo was part of ibm either. i will also take into consideration the warranties. i heard most hard drives and motherboards have their own warranties. pending on the company 3-5 years. :whistling:
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#5
SuperSam

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Sony are infact very bad laptops for the price, for the same spec laptop of a cheaper manufacturer you could get it for so much less.
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#6
warriorscot

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Sony are pretty overpriced new and not anything special on the hardware front, they get cheap really fast for the reason so you might pick up something older but decent.

The only companies that really excel in hardware consistently are Lenovo and Acer they are pretty much the biggest player in quality laptops along with dell but there are so many smaller companies now making custom laptops and base model rebrands.

Lenovo isnt a division of IBM it was the IBM laptop division rebranded and sold to a chinese company.

Parts only usually have separate warranties when bought retail when you build a PC laptops and purchased systems usually dont have individual parts warranties and are covered under the whole system warranty from the builder.

The lenovos are business computers great very sturdy high quality computers but usually lack decent gfx and hard drive space as its usually assumed you'll be working from a network storage site.
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#7
Facedown98

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Very true. They used to be very good, but the other companies are doing better. I suggest Lenovo to anyone in the market.
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#8
SuperSam

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I have an acer at the moment, for thier spec's the prices just can't be beaten. Now that my laptop isn't used much I have put windows 2003 server on it and left it at a datacentre in England, London. It was built with a desktop processor (as a desktop replacement pc) so its pretty good I suppose, but the battery life is crap, though when its a desktop replacement (which most of acers are) what do you expect?

I bought this laptop 3 years ago now and it's got:

Intel Celeron D 330 2.67GHz
512MB RAM (Upgraded from 256)
ATi Radeon 9100IGP (Can just about scrape CSS on low detail)
40GB HDD

It's a pretty quick machine even now, even though it is a celeron the speed is suprising. Currently I'm just running a few server bits on it, like FTPd, HTTPd and a small css server.

Edited by SuperSam, 14 December 2006 - 05:38 PM.

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#9
Ozzyb

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My budget was a £1200 and there was plenty of choice of machines.

Bought myself a

Toshiba

It’s my first proper laptop and a desktop replacement.

So far Im made up with it.
I would recommend this laptop or at least this range.
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