Rufus The Bum Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 I have had enough of my desktop computer because anymore it's basically an overgrown email machine. Now I am looking to buy a laptop. Problem is, I have NO idea where to begin. I'm not a graphics/games/programming type of user, just a casual part-time internet user with little to no need for fancy programs. From my limited research, my first choice would be the Dell Inspiron 1100, is there any other decent laptops out there that compare? Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgary Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 Can't help you too much on specific brands, but I can give you some food for thought. 1) decide what you're going to use the laptop for. Is it a replacement for a desktop machine? Will it usually live at home? Or will it do a lot of traveling? The answers to those questions will decide which (of a lot of possible) factors should be important, like -- battery life -- weight and size -- expansion capabilities 2) decide what trade-offs you're willing to make. Laptops are not a good-for-everything machine, a feature that you want may come at the cost of another feature. For example, a big, gorgeous 15" active-matrix high-res screen will be wonderful at home on the desk, but will generally weigh more, and chew up battery, which is a drag on an airplane. A machine without an expansion bay will probably be smaller and lighter, but may cause issues if you want to add wireless, or a CD-burner, or whatever. 3) decide whether the-latest-and-greatest is worth $$ to you. Do you want to spend premium dollars for a premium 2.4Ghz machine, or would you be just as happy with a 1.3 GHz machine and $1000 in your pocket? Given the answers to those things, you should be able to start shopping. Oh, and... everything else being equal, I've found that Costco can be a pretty good place to shop... they don't have a lot of choices, but they generally have good, all-around machines, for pretty good prices, and their return policy is a lot better than Comp-USA and that type of place. bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 Bruce pretty much hit the main points. Laptops are good general-purpose machines, but not great for games or high-end work, and are less expandable. It's not so easy to pop by Fry's and get a new hard-drive or video card or whatever, but you make up for it in portability and convenience. They're typically somewhat slower in overall performance than a good desktop. So long as you're good with those tradeoffs, I'd go with a laptop. If you get a laptop, get one you think will work for the next 2-3 years-- hard drive, memory, whatever else you need up front. CPU speed is probably the last thing you should look at-- most laptops spend little time actually running top speed. Heat and battery life cause the CPU to throttle back most of the time (especially on some of the low-end off-brand "Pentium 4" machines). A good warrantee is important in case something goes bad-- again with the lack of easy-to-replace parts. Also get one with 802.11 wireless if you plan to carry it around with you-- several places around here are putting in free wireless internet and it's very cool surfing BE.com from your porch. I'd go with the Dell, but they give me an employee discount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 I'm on Dell #2 1/2 right now. (Sorry Shred....) Dell's quality has gone in the toilet, which now puts them on par with all of the other laptop makers. The only two companies I would consider buying from are Dell and Toshiba. Toshiba has zip for warranty service, but it probably won't break. Your Dell will probably tank several times, BUT you can get a 4 yr on site warranty - and it's a legitimate warranty, and they don't make a bunch of f'ing excuses and try to screw you out of what you paid for. You call, and the parts and/or the tech are on your doorstep the very next day. The other thing that sucks about Dell is performance. My Mom's $1100 Toshiba (Costco) runs circles around my $2700 Dell - and the processor speed is nearly identical. You have to make a decision. All laptops are basically worthless garbage, but they are very convenient. So, you can hedge your bets and get a Dell that you know will work for 4 years, OR you roll the dice and get a Toshiba that will *probably* last forever, but if it breaks, you screw the pooch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted August 31, 2003 Share Posted August 31, 2003 I'll make that another vote for Dell. A year and a half ago, I was looking for a laptop to do digital imaging on the road and needed basically a portable desktop replacement system. The Dell 8100 fit the bill, as did a few others but at a pricetag of more than $2500 for the cheapest, I chose to pony up a grand more than that for the Dell. The extra money got me a swappable drive bay with all the drives I'd ever need and Dell's 4 year warranty with Complete Care. Complete Care basically covers my computer for everything but theft --- if I spill coffee on it or drop it out of the truck, they'll come fix it. Performance wise, I curse it's slowness virtually every time I power it up, but it putters along and gets the job done. I like that reliability. In a year and a half, I've needed a new touchpad and they were out the next day to fix it. The only thing cooler would be a gunsmith who makes house calls..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianH Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 Stay away from HP....they're shit. I'm not too impressed with Compaq, but it's pretty fast. It came from Costco, a P4, faster than any desktop I've played with recently, but I just don't trust these guys. My Dell Inspirion 5000 was a total piece of crap. The motherboard had to be replaced, the lid cracked where it shouldn't have, and the last two techs that worked on it were morons. But my brothers Inspirion 8000 is still kicking along great...go figure. One little hot tip....Costco will take back any computer within 6 months of purchase...no questions asked. They took back my HP after a year, and gave me cash what I paid for it! So I got a way-faster Compaq, after shopping around and figuring out that nobody was really offering anything better. But my wife had papers to write, otherwise I would have sunk the money into another Dell. They're probably still the best, in spite of what I went through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehli Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 Listen carefully... I'm only going to say this once: APPLE!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rufus The Bum Posted September 1, 2003 Author Share Posted September 1, 2003 I know one thing for sure. I WILL NEVER BUY A HEWLETT PACKARD AGAIN. That has to be, without a doupt, the biggest piece of SH&* on the market. I have had nothing but trouble with this thing since day one. I have had I don't know how many techs look at this thing and try to explain to me why it keeps freezing up, they upgraded the RAM, put in a new motherboard, installed Norton System Works and it just keeps getting worse and worse. WalMart sells these things so cheap because that's what they are.....cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 I know one thing for sure. I WILL NEVER BUY A HEWLETT PACKARD AGAIN. That has to be, without a doupt, the biggest piece of SH&* on the market. What's sad, is that HP used to make a solid laptop. They might not have been the speediest, but dammit, it said "HP" on it and you KNEW it would work. I hope Carly Fiorina and her cronies burn in Hell for what they've wrought. OK, more free advice. Whatever you do, avoid AMD processors like the plague. At least in the laptop version, they overheat and freeze, CONSTANTLY. It took me two laptops to figure that one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rufus The Bum Posted September 1, 2003 Author Share Posted September 1, 2003 Whatever you do, avoid AMD processors like the plague. At least in the laptop version, they overheat and freeze, CONSTANTLY. You couldn't be any more true. I had a Celeron Processor and got conned into an AMD processor and it has been a nightmare ever since. Coming online is no longer fun because this thing freezes up so much. I'm going to check out consumer reports tomorrow on a laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianH Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 My HP had an Athlon....maybe that was part of the problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironman Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 RTB HP bought Compaq so now they are one in the same. If the graphical interface (monitor) is important to you go Sony if weight and power is what you are looking for I would go Panasonic. I had a Panasonic Tecra (Sp?) at the last place that I worked and it rocked! Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eerw Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 For simplicity and robustness...I would vot for Mac..they are spendy though compared to the PC .. But I got 10 machines in hands of photographers..that do a bit of travel and in three years have had one machine go for a cracked monitor..bad packing to austrailia for Olympics and one loose its logic board..two survived with no issues for two months in Iraq..with all the dust and crap.. These were the G3 firewire versions..and we are upgrading to the G4 powerbook 12" this year...they also have a 15" and 17" version which are cool too. just my vote but not for everyone.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 [thread Drift on] eerw, what do you do for a living? Newspaper, Mag, or wire photography? [/thread drift] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted September 1, 2003 Share Posted September 1, 2003 If you are not tied to the Wintel platform (Windows runing on an Intel processor), try an Apple iBook, or PowerBook running OSX. They can be had for as little as $1299 or for as much as $3999. They run without locking up regularly and they are very user friendly so you will spend less time farting with the system and more time using it for what you bought it for. The Apple portables come with all the software you need to do most of what you will need. 5stars. Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eerw Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 [thread Drift on]eerw, what do you do for a living? Newspaper, Mag, or wire photography? [/thread drift] Nik Hey there..I run a photo dept for midsize paper in the west...we do a bit of travel with sports and the number of military installations in our area..I was surprised that our laptops did so well in Iraq..we totaled some of our photo gear that went...it worked no troubles..but when it came to cleaning and getting back to factory specs..Nikon replaced most of it.. anyway..have found OSX the latest version to be pretty stable with little crashing problems...not too many games.. a few..but good for DVDs on the airplane... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Sweeney Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 So when your paper upgrades, what are they going to do with the old machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsrdx Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 FWIW, I'm pretty satisified with my 1 year old Dell 2650, I got it direct for IIRC less than $1800 with some decent midrange features, DVD/CDRW, big screen, 1.8GhZ P4M, lots of RAM/SDRAM. It came with WINXP and it works fine in the desktop replacement role, although its pretty big (15" TFT+) for toting around on airplanes. I haven't traveled with it, so I don't know much about battery life, or travel durability, but both hard and software have been reliable. I bought it to replace an aging Compaq Presario I used in the same role. The (PreHP) Compaq actually crashed on me (WIN 95) but it may have been my fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral404 Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 I have some experience in the laptop world. My old company gave me a worn out Sony. It worked fine for email and light wordprocessing and spreadsheet. Then the got me a Dell with a 15 inch screen. My next company got me a Dell with a 14 inch screen. For my own company I purchased a Dell with a widescreen. Key features for me were: Microsoft XP Microsoft Office DVD player RW CD (read write CD) Upgrade Screen (I am old with bad eyes) I do alot of wordprocessing, presentations, and spreadsheets hence MS Office. I purchased an Inspirion 8500. DELL has many others that will meet your needs but cheaper. The key feature for me is the screen quality. Dont short yourself. DO NOT GET THE FASTEST SPEED MACHINCE--it is a waste of money if you are not a gamer or heavy into other software. DELL treats me right but for what you want there are others that are just as good and cheaper. HP is starting to come on strong but DELL reduced prices in order to make HP seem more expensive. BTW: I do watch Matt's CD on my machine when I am on the road, even in an airplane. The next to me actually commented on it. Not negatively just out of curiousity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasag93 Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 I can't help you with a specific laptop but can tell you that GATEWAY's customer service sucks a$$. Blows big time...and on and on and on. I had a nightmare experience with them on a PC and will not buy another. Not sure what my next one will be but I can tell you for sure IT WON'T BE A GATEWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TXAG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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