Lets talk laptops

[Huskinhano]

Since this is definitely not my area I'd thought I'd ask you guys. I'm basically looking for a second laptop. The one I have is an old MAC which my wife often steels from me. I already have an other ancient lap top, I think is say "Univac" on it.

OK, I don't need anything fancy, no gaming ect. I use it motley for general stuff, like cruising the 'net, paying bills downloading pictures and some music for my ipod. I'm looking to spend no more then$500, preferably less if I can. I was down at Staples just looking, to get ideas and what lap tops are coming with these days. Anyway I saw a Asus with a 15.6" screen, 8MB ram, 600 gig hard drive a bottom of the line intel2350 I think. A HP and Acer with similar features but 17" screens. The guy at Staples said the Asus was a very good unit for the money. All were $450-500 range. Any opinions on the brands?

I was thinking of checking tigerdirect but heard they have poor customer service and newegg which I here don't have anything great as far as pricing goes. One of the IT guys at work recommended Dell but a little more then what I ant to spend.

[mike343sharpstick]

For the uses you just listed, why not just get an Ipad?
For our family we have a Mac desktop, an Ipad, and several other smaller I-things.
And 8 times out of 10 the Ipad is the tool of choice for everyone in the house. The Mac is basically the "server" for all pictures and music, the smaller stuff gets fed from that.

I have a standard dell laptop for work, that's a decent basic PC.

[squirrel]

The ipad is ok for some things, but I'd still want a real computer. A $250 netbook is what my wife uses to do almost everything at home. The keyboard and screen are kind of small though.

I got a sony i3 laptop recently it was marked down to 500. Works pretty well for all the stuff you want to do, but then so would any of dozens of different models in that price range. Kind of depends on what you like....and we shouldn't try to tell you what you like.

[mike343sharpstick]

The ipad is ok for some things, but I'd still want a real computer.

Totally agree, but I've found the real computer no longer needs to be a laptop if you have a tablet for mobility.

[Deaf Bob]

I got a Dell desktop..
Use my iPad mostly... Used the desktop 3x since I got the iPad... Need a desktop to start the iPad..
I also use an iPhone cuz they have "deaf" service.. With unlimited text and internet for 52 a month. IPhone will buzz with texts.. Blackberry will not..
Only thing I do not like about iPad is lack of 3G service (or 4G)

[moparmaniac07]

Whatever you get, I'd recommend getting one with a Core processor. I just got a new HP in January with the i3 and it runs so much cooler than any laptop I've seen with a different processor.

[Beagle]

Pop got a 300.00 Best Buy HP laptop that will do anything you ask of it. I'm on the verge of getting a tablet, but the keyboard thing is gonna kill me. How do you touch type on a screen?

Just about any modern laptop is screaming badass bulletproof. The worst thing you can buy this year is light years ahead of the best thing you could buy 5 years ago. The machine I'm on now is a couple of years old, i5 4 core proc. and slaughters my desktop at work for number crunching. If I were a gamer I would have ponied up for a bit more video, but otherwise, even the slowest 300.00 Fry's or Best Buy is way beyond what I have a real need for. I'd still be running my old one (actually still do, it's the garage stereo's music server) if the battery didn't go wimpy on me.

The newer boxes are much better on battery life. I think this one goes about 3 hours on average. The ultra thin LT's are interesting too. I'm waiting for them to stop being the latest coolest thing so the price will come down. I refuse to buy "top of the line" mostly because I get buyers remorse and if the thing I bought was middle class, it will still be middle class in two weeks.

I've had real good luck with the Toshibas I've had, we use a bunch of Dell's at work and they're rock solid. The HP I bought Monica has a 17" screen since she uses it mostly to watch t.v., and other than being heavy, it's awesome. Dad's HP, hell, who knows. He never plugs it in. I'm not real sure why he bought it! I played with it some, it ran fine. I'd probably be happy with it. My old Toshiba (32 bit proc, 512m memory) was really more than enough for me, but the average phone these days will pounce on it. lol.

I'd personally be hard pressed to find something I needed to do and couldn't on a 279.00 Fry's sale HP. This box has a 14" display, I should have gotten the 15.6, but it's not that big of a deal.

The thing I like about buying retail from local is if you really HATE it, they'll work with you on exchanging it for something else. You can also play with it before you buy it.

[milner351]

I got a Toshiba, been very happy with it - $499 over a year ago - 15.6" screen, full size keyboard with number pad, DVD drive, win7.

Hard to beat for the price, it survives car rides on the console playing DVD's for Lee as well as standard laptop duty.

Check out Tigerdirect.com - they have some great deals and often have free shipping.

[Sticky Dipstick]

We bought a Mac Pro because one of the kids actually runs programs on it.

Laps tops are quickly going obsolete.

iPads and the the smart phones are now offering bigger screens.
Unlimited data plan and you are good to go.

Experienced a few 4g areas and 4g is tits.
Everything will change when 4g takes hold.

[stage1scott]

I bought this on sale at bestbuy, typing this reply right now-was 329.00 when I bought it-has been great-I currently own 6 laptops between business and home, this one, 3 dells, a toshiba, a lenovo, the Dells are the worstof the bunch......

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+1...=1218608967044

[tardis454]

I build desktop PC's, & servers. I use mostly AMD stuff because it's cheap & future proof. For laptops I use Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, Acer makes a decent laptop too. I stay away from HP, Sony, Asus. HP's have motherboard issues. I replaced 3 HP laptop motherboards for that same customer, & it's still junky. Sony & Asus have various issues, nothing like HP though. I won't shop at Best Buy, their geek squad guys always try to upsell you on crap you don't need, even after you tell them you're an IT guy. I buy 90% of my computer stuff through Newegg. I've been using Newegg for 8+yrs now, only had to return 1 item. http://newegg.com

[bishir]

Agreed, I like newegg too.

[BKBridges]

I buy T43 IBM Thinkpad/ Lenovos for 90.00 on ebay. If you shop a bit youll find units with the 8 hour battery and big hard drives... They are primitive with 14" screens, but robust, and I use em to tune the cars (need XP) so they get thrown around a lot...Ive gotten a couple stolen out of my car recently so Im not motivated to spend more...They run the Drip feed at my shop as well.
BKB

[Scott Liggett]

I have an HP 15.4" pavillion dm4. 320 gig hard drive, 4 gig memory, Intel I5 Core chip. Brushed aluminum case. about 4.5 lbs.

I didn't get a monster sized laptop because I use mine in the car at work sometimes. I like everything about it except it doesn't have power enough speakers for me.

[TC]

I build desktop PC's, & servers. I use mostly AMD stuff because it's cheap & future proof. For laptops I use Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, Acer makes a decent laptop too. I stay away from HP, Sony, Asus. HP's have motherboard issues. I replaced 3 HP laptop motherboards for that same customer, & it's still junky. Sony & Asus have various issues, nothing like HP though. I won't shop at Best Buy, their geek squad guys always try to upsell you on crap you don't need, even after you tell them you're an IT guy. I buy 90% of my computer stuff through Newegg. I've been using Newegg for 8+yrs now, only had to return 1 item. http://newegg.com

I've been building my own computers for the last 20 years, go to Fry's electronics and piece a badass puppy together......... I Like EVGA and Nvidia stuff, my current comp is an i7 with 12 gigs of memory which I'm about to expand to 24 gigs and I have a EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win graphics card and 3 monitors, two 24's and a 32.............

As for laptops, I have an Asus Netbook that I use for my HPTuners and MegaSquirt software and the wife has a MacBook and I also have an ASUS Tablet EP121, which I stated in the other thread.........