Buying a new computer, tiny bit of advice needed
What would be a good brand name to get? :P I currently have an HP and I'm fully aware of how :skull::skull::skull::skull:ty HP is, so I'll be staying away from that. I'm not asking about the specs or anything because I know what I need and I have it covered. I just want to know who makes reliable laptop PCs. xP
Also, I'm not building my own or having someone else custom build one for me. I cannot be assed.
I've had very good personal experiences with Acer, Toshiba and Asus. You'll find mixed reviews on Acer and Asus and generally good reviews on Toshibas.
The higher-end laptops from Dell are also good (unlike anything else from Dell, including tech support for said laptops), but they're expensive.
Toshiba are the devilAcer are nice though. Asus I've only had experience with Desktop PC's, very reliable but prone to needing odd drivers. Fujitsu make some nice laptops though too
Yeah, I won't be getting anything too high end. It's not going to be a gaming PC or anything.
How about Samsung? My husband has a Samsung. It's taken a lot of abuse. (He's the reason I need to get a new laptop! xD) It still works fine, though the casing is cracked.
What's wrong with Toshiba?
Samsung make awesome LCD panels and TVs and pretty average phones except for their PDAs and high-end mobiles (they have a phone with a 10.2MP camera). I have no idea how good their laptops are though.
In my opinion, Asus make the best motherboards and graphics cards in the world. I've never used Fujitsu.
For every good review of a brand you see you're going to see a bad one. Don't take them too seriously - I'd advise that you look carefully at each laptop and decide for yourself what fits your needs and price range best.
For something relatively low-end you'd be looking at:
160GB hard drive
1GB RAM
GeForce Go 6600 GT
15.4" LCD
AMD X2 4000+ CPU (I'd definitely go dual core)
Something like that is at the bottom end of today's market, but to give some perspective, it would run Oblivion on medium-low settings.
my HP desktop was a beast, so I tend to disregard any HP bashing people tend to do.
My mom's toshiba satellite (since 2002?) is falling apart. The casing around the screen was cracked and barely staying together. It was frightening to use because I thought I would be the one to sever the screen.
Dell laptops are pretty much far better than their desktops imo. I'd just find something that had really good specs for cheap (because very soon they will be terrible specs)
Or you could get a refurbished macbook ^_^
Vaio and Alienware laptops has yet to let me down. My Vaio lasted a really long time and didn't lag as much as the laptop I have now does, and my Vaio was from back in 2000. Alienware laptop was a beast... but your pockets really pay for what you get.
And don't get a Dell... I'm using one right now and I hate it. Unless perhaps it's an XPS. I've heard good things about those. I'm using an Inspiron right now. Don't like it much... had it for a little more than a year and I feel it's time I get another one already.
Build quality and repairs are of poor quality.Originally Posted by Roto13
My motherboard has done pretty well since I got it
We have two Lifebooks here and both are quite old and still in perfect nick, their quite good little survivors
I've never had anything but trouble from HP's, the components always seem cheap and need replacing well before they should do, but that's just personal experience.
Come to the dark side luke?
Vaio's are awful machines, full of proprietary hardware and software you can't get rid of easily, even with a complete reinstall of the OS using a Windows CD you would have to borrow from someone else as they don't come with them.
This is clearly a superior solution.
[q=Baloki]Vaio's are awful machines, full of proprietary hardware and software you can't get rid of easily, even with a complete reinstall of the OS using a Windows CD you would have to borrow from someone else as they don't come with them.[/q]This is also good advice. If I were you I'd keep my laptop (or any computer, for that matter) as open-platform as possible.
Hey, is Vista lessty yet?
Not even slightly.
Samsung can make less-than-stellar panels too. My Thinkpad has the dimmer, less crisp Samsung panel compared to others who have LG panels, so you really don't know especially with laptop displays. I would recommend Lenovo, though. There Thinkpad T and X line have a very good reputation. If you like boring, like I do, the notebook doesn't try to make any fashion statements instead showing off excellent build quality and easily the best keyboard on any portable out there.
You also can't go wrong with Asus. They have the best standard warranty inside the U.S. and possibly Canada (three years standard, 1 year accidental and 30 day zero bright dot) and they have the whole style thing going on. Some of there lower end models, however, do have build quality issues.
My laptop is going to be relatively lower end, whatever it is. I just want something practical for my few needs. :P
What are your needs?
You'd probably be able to get a good Sager. To be honest, they are probably the best quality I've used/seen/heard about.
They pretty much just use Asus cases and put their own stuff in there. I forget what panels they use, but I haven't seen anything wrong with them.
If you are just going to doing the most basic of basic stuff (like internet, emails, im, office, even some photoshop) then you don't need anything spectacular. You could seriously just go for Dell (just make sure they don't try to sell you a bunch of extra crap, and opt for Windows XP instead of Vista).
My sister just recently bought a simply notebook from Dell and it runs absolutely fine. I had a look over it and apart from the crap they install for you, it's very decent quality.
Though, check out Sager if you can. Here's a good place to buy them from:
Custom Laptops by PowerNotebooks.com™ - Discount Custom Notebooks & Cheap Laptop Computers
By the way, please don't go for some over-expensive piece of crap like Voodoo or Alienware. You will be wasting your money, especially with what you want to do.
If you want to do a bit more research, check this out (helped me heaps):
Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion - Powered by vBulletin
"... and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
I know what what I want the insides of my laptop to be able to do, and I know what I need for them to do it. :P I just want to know who makes laptops that don't fall apart. Also, I really don't want to buy something as expensive as a laptop online. I'll be buying mine in a store. :P
Dell sets off my consumer alarms, for some reason. I think I'm leaning towards Asus.
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