Thinking About a middle budget laptop.. advice anyone?

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Master Baiter Joined: 07 Dec 2008 Posts: 186

greetings!
Soon I will be leaving my humble abode here in Constantinople to do some work in Doha,Qatar. As a result of this move I am leaving my tabletop to my better (and more beautiful looking) half and the kids. So, now I'm in the market for a decent laptop. I'm looking to spend about 800 bucks US. Any ideas anyone? My oldest daughter says Lenovo because they have agents everywhere.. but it seems cheap and made in china. Then again, I guess most things are made in China these days.
What do I need the laptop for? Hmm. Surfing the net, Wordprocessimg, scambaiting, games, etc. It would be nice if it had a dvd burner and driver. Any suggestions?

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 1407

For your modest needs, anything should do. Biggest expense-screen size.

I bought a 17". Frankly, it's too big. I think a 15.4 would be much easier now that I have had it for 3 years. The bigger they are, the heavier they are. And it's not all that portable.

I have an HP. Bought it at Best Buy.

I would make sure you have at least 2gig ram. Most likely you will get Vista (I like it), so the more ram the merrier.

I'd spend the money and get an extra battery if you are really going to be mobil a lot.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Whatever you do, please don't buy a Dell XPSM1530. Got nothing but hell from mine.

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:06 am

I got a Toshiba Satellite Pro L300 with dvd burner player, 150Gb, 2mgb ram for here in the Solomons, wireless and lan internet connections built in,

It's working well in the tropics

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:31 am

I'm on my 8th luggable computer and have given up on really small laptops. I like a slightly thicker full size keyboard and 17 inch display. I know they take more power and are heavier but I am willing to put up with that. I have a business issued tablet computer and find its size makes it worthless and have two 15 inch screens out on perpetual loan. My last laptop was not made in the People's Republic but instead, where the cameras go crick. Its a Fujitsu Lifebook that I carry in a Samsonite laptop backpack. The backpack frees up my hands, keeps the curve out of my spine and I never get charged extra when flying. Its best baiting feature is that its keyboard is spill resistant. Instead of an extra battery, I carry an extension cord.

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:24 am

Just a word of caution, if you buy one online (say Dell for example) get the least amount of ram in it, then buy more on your own at Newegg. You'll save about 75% of the cost to do a 5 minute job of increasing memory.

I've got my eyes on one of those MSI Wind netbooks; the 10" 2.5lb thing sounds really nice.

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:40 am

Our PC blew it's guts just before Xmas, so I bought a Sony VAIO. One of the cheaper ones with 1MB RAM and increased it's RAM to 2 MB because it runs Vista.

It's got 250GB hdd, 15.4 inch screen, a DVD-RW and wireless built in. I'm running Sun Systems Open Office suite as an alternative for MS Office, it's just as good and you can save files in .doc, .ppt or .xls, and it's free - the computer shop loaded it for me. I'm using IE and MS Mail for internet connection and mail, but this laptop has Firefox, Safari and Skype also loaded on it by the computer shop.

I'd recommend a VAIO, I've had a good run with this one.

Right now I'm watching NZ Trademe (E-bay equivalent down here) to buy a second hand laptop for my 16 year old son. I've got my eyes on a 3 year old HP ZD8004AP with 2 MB RAM and 160 MB HDD, 17 inch screen, DVD-RW, a separate number pad and wireless. It might cost in the region of $US 300 ($NZ 600), but it was a superb laptop when it was new and this one has had it's RAM increased and was fitted with a larger HDD. It's built like a brick dunny, which is important when I consider it'll be carried to and fro from school in my son's backpack.

That's one thing you should consider, robustness. Maybe you should buy a second hand laptop, something you won't mind getting scratched and which won't be such a target for thieves. If you buy new, cover it's lid with labels and give them a good rub with light sandpaper Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Another black mark for Dell here. One of two that we bought recently has strange problems that have eluded all Dell attempts to fix, including swapping the main and graphic boards.

My PC literally went bang last night. Crying or Very sad

Hopefully it's just a seized fan and it hasn't done any other damage, but I'll probably be getting my evening fix of 419eater on my eeePC for a day or two.

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:36 pm

OxygenDeprived wrote:

I've got my eyes on one of those MSI Wind netbooks; the 10" 2.5lb thing sounds really nice.

Go for it OD. I've got a EEE PC. No moving parts (though there is a fan for processor cooling that only fires up once in a blue moon). The only thing that pushed me in the Asus direction was the huge amount of battery time you get. I think MSI have caught up on that score since I bought my ultra mini.

I hardly ever use my 17.5" lappy now.

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:02 pm

^^ I'd probably sell my 15.4" gateway 6864fx (wife would never let me keep both Wink

). I've also been drooling over the new 10" Asus Eeee 1000HE, which claims between 7-9.5 hrs of batter life dependant on settings.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 03 Mar 2009 Posts: 41

Stay away from Dell. Stay away from lenovo *they're a joke IMO* Stay away from HP laptops they're not terrible but there are a lot of flaws... You're best bet it probably toshiba or gateway. Both of which I know everyone hates but I work at a computer repair shop in a retail store that I'm sure you all know and I have seen more dells not start up then any other computer. HPs come back with the most Mobo/Hdd/Quicktouch issues and we use lenovo as our main computers and they are IMO awful. Toshiba, while still having problems, I have seen the least while we do sell them very frequently and Gateway's just seem pretty solid....

Just my .02.... All that's left after that scammer :'( lol jk

Note on the minis. The HP ones are ok and the EEEPcs are good quality. The acer ones you should definitely stay away from...

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