Lookin for a new laptop.

thatmguy

thatmguy

Joined
Mar 26, 2000
Messages
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Well, my dinosaur is gonna be put out to pasture soon.

I don't play computer games, so I don't need all that crap.

I surf, moderate, download some pix now and then.

So far, I think I want at least 512 RAM, maybe 1G, either a 40 or 60 gig HD. 40 would be fine.

Don't need wireless, don't want wireless.

Wanna be able to burn CD/DVD.

Prefer at least 15" screen.

Now, here's the constraint. Wanna have final cost under $800 (total, with taxes, after any rebates.)

What is best for reliability? Service? Upgradability (I know laptops aren't very flexible, but memory upgrade might be desired later)?

Thanks kids.
 
Acer makes laptops that have a pretty good reputation amoung computer people, and they are priced well too. I would say you need at least 512MB of RAM, and a gig would be even better if you can find a deal.

In that price range you can easily pick up a nice model with a DVD/CD-RW combo dirve, 512MB RAM, and a 60GB HD. The only difficulty might be in finding something that doesn't have a built in wireless capabilities. You might not ever use it, but it also doesn't hurt to have it there.
 
What, no Mac lovers? Get a used Powerbook or iBook off the internet, with OSX and the large screen. Macmall and Macwarehouse come to mind.
 
Forgot to update.

Ended up with an HP DV1411se, on special at Best Buy for $699.

Wireless, CD/DVD burner, reads media cards, 80 gig hd, 1.5 ghz.

Best Buy page is gone, but here is an artifact from another site:

BestBuy.com offers the Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv1411se 1.5GHz 14" Widescreen Notebook with Intel Celeron 370 1.5GHz processor, 14" 1280x768 widescreen LCD, 80GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, DVD+/-RW dual layer burner with LightScribe, 6-in-1 flash card reader, FireWire, and Windows XP Home for $699.99. With free shipping, it's the lowest total price we could find for this notebook.


I priced the same features at HP's site, and it was over a grand even with our company discount program.
 
Just today, I bought a new laptop. HP DV8135nr with AMD Turion 64 ML-37 processor(2.0 ghz), 1gig of DDR memory, 200 gig hard drive, integrated wireless, ATI Radeon 128 mb video(not shared), DVD burner, etc...

Got the thing home, and it won't connect to the internet. When I click on My Computer, it does nothing. Also, I'm getting an error message that says, Norton Antivirus has detected an internal error, please uninstall and reinstall Norton Antivirus. Do I need to take this damn thing back already? :mad:
 
I think that I would try to uninstall Norton 1st....See if it works with norton gone...Then consider taking it back if it doesn't.



Bill
 
Weird. I got home and plugged the thing in to the wall(I was using the battery before), and all seems to be fine. Haven't tried to get on the internet yet, but no error messages so far and everything else I tried seems to work. Played my Stevie Ray Vaughnn DVD(man, what a nice picture!) :)
 
Danbo said:
Weird. I got home and plugged the thing in to the wall(I was using the battery before), and all seems to be fine. Haven't tried to get on the internet yet, but no error messages so far and everything else I tried seems to work. Played my Stevie Ray Vaughnn DVD(man, what a nice picture!) :)
Click to expand...

Danbo..the battery probably wasn't fully charged. That could affect the performance.
 
first thing I do when I get my hands on any new laptop is format and reinstall the software, just a habit of mine so I can clean everything up and install only what I want, not all the extra crap.

If looking at $80 I would also suggest dell or acer. I have a dell and my mom and sister both have Acers. One of the Acers did have issues with cooking memory sticks though.

I'm going to be getting rid of my dell in favor of the tiny Sonys with integrated Cingular wireless because I need to hae internet almost everywhere but thats another story.

edit: realized you already got a laptop, nevermind my comments then, nice find on the sale.
 
K.V. Collucci said:
Danbo..the battery probably wasn't fully charged. That could affect the performance.
Click to expand...


You could be right; although the battery out of the box was about 80% charged. Would that have made that much difference?
 
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