My laptop died

GWashington1732

GWashington1732

Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
13,240
I need a new one. It went absolutely nutty last night, probably a virus and wiped out basically everything, windows wouldn't even boot so I did a factory reset. It worked, but my screen looks like it shorted out in the process. About a month and a half ago I had to replace the screen for $200 and it's broken again I'm not spending more money to try and fix it. I'm thinking about getting another Dell because they work so long as you're not stupid with them and their customer service is good but I don't really know about computers so I need some help. What I'm looking for is a decent computer that is:

  1. Not an HP
  2. Not a Macintrash
  3. Not a Gateway
  4. Needs to be relatively fast
  5. Need to be able to get an accidental damage plan with it
  6. CD/DVD player/burner
  7. Decent graphics card
  8. USB port, port for an external monitor
  9. Must have a replaceable battery
 
I wasn't impressed with Dell's customer service when I needed to call them. I'm pretty sure their customer service has been outsourced to India and trying to communicate with them was like pulling teeth. No offense to them but it's frustrating due to the language barrier.
A lot of laptop brands aren't actually made by the company who's label appears on it. A lot of them are made by third party manufacturers and then branded accordingly. As far as I know Asus is one of the few Windows laptop makers who actually make their own laptops. They've got one of the best warranties in the laptop business but I've heard that their customer service sucks so it's a bit of a catch twenty-two. That said, my current desktop replacement laptop is an Asus N61J 17.3" Core i7 laptop and aside from the bloatware that came pre-installed, it's been pretty good since purchasing it in Aug 2010.
My "travel" laptop is an HP dm1z. I know you said you don't want an HP and honestly, I'm not a fan of them on the whole, but this model was the best match for my needs. It's an 11.6" laptop with the E350 AMD processor, came with 4Gb RAM which I upgraded to 8Gb and for travel it's ideal. It's basically a laptop in a netbook body, or an entry-level ultralight laptop, depending on how you look at it.

Regarding losing your data, sorry to hear that. The first thing I'd do when you get your new laptop is to create a new partition for your data. I allocated about 80 or 90 Gb as my C Drive for my operating system and installed program files. The rest of the onboard storage is what I allocated as my D Drive for all my data storage. That way you're a bit safer if your OS crashes or your machine gets infected at least your data should still be safe. I actually don't save much on my laptop D drive. I have a NAS box with 3Tb of hard drive space that I use as my primary storage. I use a Western Digital 3Tb USB 3 "My Book Essential" external drive as my backup to the NAS. I've been trying out a free program called PureSync to sync my data between both HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) but haven't figured out how to set up scheduled syncing yet.
 
The thing with Dell is, they've actually sent me free replacement parts after it was off its warranty and they'll give you online support when you don't have a warranty plan anymore. HP won't do this, their business plan is, if you don't have one of their warranty plans, tough. I'll look at Asus though,I've never even heard of them. I found some of the pictures I lost though, they were on the USB drive that fell into my shoe, somehow, which means I don't have to spend hours rescanning negatives.
 
You musta got a rep on a good day. I had to pay for the post warranty tech calls I made to Dell, plus pay for a restore cd for my Inspiron.
Asus makes pc components - mother boards, etc. Don't confuse them with Acer which is another ball of wax altogether.
 
Buy one of the cheaper Toshiba's or something very similar- Dell and HP don't make very good consumer products any more so its not worth the extra money. Enterprise or business grade stuff is what they care about selling and they do a great job. Support will be in ballywood if you buy a Dell, i'm just saying, and your paying extra for NO reason. But I'd now stay away from the "American" companies for your money (Yes, I am American too) and get the most value for your money which you probably work hard for like I do. If your shopping off the shelf (best buy etc), pick up a Toshiba and make sure it is has the better options-any of the newer Intel processers specifically- I3, I5, I7. (Not the cheapo mobile proc's) More memory the better, but buy what you can afford and same goes for the screen and vid card.

Few things to do when you get a new cpu so this doesn't happen again, cuz win7 sucks like all the preceding iterations, but it will get the job done.

1) google and download malwarebytes -anti malware - 'free'.
2) google and download super anti-spyware 'free'
3) Select and download some sort of firewall such as zone alarm free edition or comodo free edition. Will be a pain for a few days for it to learn your programs, but worth it in the end.
4) AV is optional actually in my book. Slows your system down and doesn't play nice with just about every other software you will install. Not worst thing to have, but your loosing juice.
5) Purchase (worth it) or download if your familiar (via torrent search) a product such as ACRONIS or drive imaging software- Ghost etc. Create a golden image of the new machine "FRESH" and anytime after you make any major changes to the system or do it quarterly say, create an image of the machine etc. 98% of problems with computers today are just software related. Dell laptop screens are cheap and do suck now though- so hard to get past that one. Just my .02
 
My daughter got an Asus (NOT Acer) laptop at the recommendation of her IT savvy friends (geeks). She has been extremely happy with it. Very fast, very stable. She found it as a reconditioned item on the Best Buy web site. Think it was ~ $425.
 
Asus has an accidental warranty for 1 year, even if it's your fault. I have only ever used Asus, Toshiba, and Acer (yes, Acer) and they've been great for me so far. I used to work for Dell, Hp, and Compaq when I lived in Austin, and there are a few good reasons why I will never personally own any of their stuff.

Since you live in NJ though, Newegg might charge you tax. I live in NY and if an items ships out of NJ, its here the next day if I order it in the morning and no tax on top of free shipping for most items!
 
I'm down to a Dell 14z.
AN Asus, I have no idea what model.
Or a Sony, anyone have anything on Sony, what their customer service is like, how their laptops run, etc.?

Anyone have any information on Tablet laptops? I do a lot of computer drawing and it would be cool if I could do it on the screen. It would need to come with a pen.

Also, what's a netbook?
 
How fast do you need the laptop to be? Which 14z are you looking at? there are 3 different tiers, iirc. I assume you want a robust graphics solution, since you mentioned computer drawing. I would use a wacom pad though, and not a tablet PC. But that's just me.

Vaios are ok, but come with a lot of bloatware and proprietary drivers.

Here's an Asus similar in spec to a Dell XPS 14z, but with a better video card, bigger hard drive, and lower cost:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230132
 
I would recommend a Sony Vaio. Last one I had worked for about 3 or 4 years before it fell of my bed.
 
gooeytek said:
How fast do you need the laptop to be? Which 14z are you looking at? there are 3 different tiers, iirc. I assume you want a robust graphics solution, since you mentioned computer drawing. I would use a wacom pad though, and not a tablet PC. But that's just me.
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It doesn't need to be the fastest computer in the world. My old desktop still works good for what I need to do for drawing and animating, plus I haven't updated my animation software in like three years. I use a wacom tablet now, I was just curious about a tablet PC. I can't bring myself to spend the $1000 for the tablet with the on screen drawing.


Here's an Asus similar in spec to a Dell XPS 14z, but with a better video card, bigger hard drive, and lower cost:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230132
Click to expand...
Awesome
 
For what it's worth I've been told by several people that Vaios are not what they used to be. When Sony first launched them they were good quality, well built laptops, but the current crop of machines may just be built to their specs and their logo slapped on them.

Here's some light reading for you: http://www.frostycomputers.com/category_s/72.htm

Quote: "You have all heard of "name brand" laptop's on the market today; such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Alienware, etc. None of these companies actually manufacture their own laptop's.

These "name brands" purchase their laptops from an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer). ODM's such as Quanta, Compal, Asus, MSI, Uniwill and Clevo design & manufacture the machine and sell it to these 'name brand" companies. These "name brand" companies then customize the system with a Intel or AMD Processors, Hard Drives, Ram and other internal accessories and then put their name on it and market it as their own. Most companies receive the laptop's from the ODM's as a barebones; meaning there is no processor, ram, hard drive and other internal accessories."


and another Quote taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Design_Manufacturer

“The market research firm iSuppli issued a report in 2006 which demonstrated that 82.6% of PC notebooks are made in Taiwan by Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) and ODMs.”
 
I've been doing some research on a new laptop for my wife to replace our aging Dell Inspiron E1505 and came across this Asus. It's won Best in class by several sites.

This is the one I'm going to order from Tiger Direct Canada: Asus U56E-BBL5 Refurbished Notebook PC - Intel Core-I5 2410M 2.3GHz, 6GB DDR3, 640GB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6" Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Here are several links to reviews:
http://www.retrevo.com/s/Asus-U56E-Laptops-review-manual/id/23975dj194/t/1-2/
http://www.ecoustics.com/pcmag/reviews/2394971

Seems pretty good for the price.

From Tiger Direct product description:

Asus U56E-BBL5 Refurbished Notebook PC:
Core I5 4 Star The Asus U56E-BBL5 Refurbished Notebook PC is packed with powerful components, capable graphics, and communications tools to give you a truly versatile computing platform. The Asus U56E-BBL5 Refurbished Notebook PC is a performance notebook that imposes its will with the combined power of an Intel Core-I5 2410M 2.3GHz Processor with 6GB of DDR3 Memory. This excellent all-purpose PC comes running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system. Purchase the Asus U56E-BBL5 Refurbished Notebook PC today.

Intel Core-I5 2410M 2.3GHz Processor
6GB DDR3 Memory, 640GB Hard Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Operating System
 
Hey Mr Washington, have you made any decisions yet? I went to check out that refurb Asus I mentioned previously but it only carries a 3 mth warranty so I opted for the ASUS X53E-XR1 Laptop Computer - Intel Core i3-2310M 2.10GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6" Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit instead. I also got a 3 yr extended warranty that covers everything down to accidental drops, spills, etc. I've been promising my wife a new laptop for the past year so I'm finally making good on that promise!
 
NaturalMystic said:
Hey Mr Washington, have you made any decisions yet? I went to check out that refurb Asus I mentioned previously but it only carries a 3 mth warranty so I opted for the ASUS X53E-XR1 Laptop Computer - Intel Core i3-2310M 2.10GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6" Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit instead. I also got a 3 yr extended warranty that covers everything down to accidental drops, spills, etc. I've been promising my wife a new laptop for the past year so I'm finally making good on that promise!
Click to expand...

I still haven't made a decision.
 
GWashington1732 said:
I still haven't made a decision.
Click to expand...

Have you thought about an Alienware? I have had just about every brand of labtop and Alienware has been the absolute most reliable and best working system I have owned. Their CS is also the best I have encountered as well.
 
Knifein said:
Have you thought about an Alienware? I have had just about every brand of labtop and Alienware has been the absolute most reliable and best working system I have owned. Their CS is also the best I have encountered as well.
Click to expand...

Way expensive. Plus, they're owned by Dell now.
 
Finding a good laptop is a tricky thing. So far since blackfriday there have been several decent second generation i3 computers go for around $380 at multiple different stores. There also have been some good 2nd generation i5's go for around $500. You can use that as a quickguideline for some price vs performance. I have been watching sales since I had to obtain a laptop for a family member. I ended up picking up a second generation i5 from dell for a family member recently for $499 during one of their sales.

I'd recommend deciding four major factors before you narrow down brands.
1. processor speed (here is a decent benchmark guide for processors http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php)
2. video card (dedicated vs integrated, games and graphic intensive programs run better with dedicated graphics, most people integrated is fine)
3. laptop size 14in, 15.6in, 17.3, etc
4. how much you are willing to spend

The first two really are determined by what you will use the laptop for and how much you want to "futureproof" your purchase.
The second two are personal preferences.
Once you get past these then look in at other features (hdmi out, cdrw, bluray, etc)

I'd recommend watching deal sites like fatwallet, gottadeal, slickdeals etc since they usually post decent options and have forums that will evaluate those options versus other available laptops. (I'd still suggest to check reviews for each model.)

As I write this their is an Asus i5 from bestbuy available for $449. Not to bad for an i5 15.6in laptop and if you have a bestbuy around you, you would have a bricks and mortar store to go for repairs. It may be something you would want to look into.

Edit for additional info:
Netbook = low power, smaller laptop. Usually just good for web browsing and videos. It will be more portable since its closer to the size of a tablet but its processing power will suffer. Also if you are going for the higher end like i7, I'll throw Lenovo's Y series into the fray.
 
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