First Laptop ^-^

[Matty]

Well i have finally saved up enough cash to buy myself a laptop. and i want it to last me until university at least . Currently i am looking at the Dell inspiron series as well as the XPS series. looking for a compy that will let me do all my school stuff with a little gaming to the side (around the 900-1200 dollar range) Any suggestions?

[Kesarra]

I personally won't touch Dell. Toshiba's are fairly good. I'm partial to Lenovo/IBM, which have a secret contractor discount and usually 10-20% discounts each month.

[Matty]

Ive used dell desktops my whole life. i havent run into any problems with them so far. whats the cons of a dell laptop

[Kesarra]

Both desktops and laptops have certain components that tend to fail within a year. My aunt had a laptop model from one line that was known to overheat quite consistently and did so within 3 months. Dell never addressed the issue. The users knew exactly what was wrong with it and told Dell year after year. Lots of Dells have been known to have heat issues, which lowers the lifespan of components.

[Tommy]

I've had a few laptops over the years and as of my last laptop I've cycled through all the major manufacturers. I also had good luck with my dell and bought another one recently. My personal worsts were Toshiba and Apple. The Toshiba's power supply seemed quick to fail (Sent it back three times in the end) and the macbook was expensive, underpowered, and resource hungry (Really nice hardware wise though, just MacOSX just isn't for me). As for good experiences I loved my Compaq but it was years and years ago in the Windows 95 days, so I couldn't tell you how they were today, and my work laptop is a Lenovo, which I love because it looks more business appropriate. In the end read reviews of the model you want, if it sucks, chances are someone's out there complaining loudly:P Every manufacturer seems to have their high points and low points afterall.

[Matty]

Yeah i agree with you about toshiba and its low supply, and ive tried my buddies mac before i just dont like the software :|

Ive heard that Lanova is good so ima take a look at it thanks ^^

[Benjamin]

I have an Acer that I've had for over two years now, and it's done me quite well. Acer used to be pretty mediocre, but they've evidently come a long way in the past few years. They used to be primarily for business users, but they're appealing more and more to the home user and traveler market now.
 
Benjamin

[Matty]

Yeah my cousins in first year U, and hes got an acer. he also had an alienware or something but hes down in the states so i cant talk with him much...
Anyone have any experiance with that brand?

[Wyrd-Hotd]

My sis has an Acer, they have come a very long way, they make all sorts of laptops for any usage, they are quite reliable, and some of the more advanced (better) ones are quite good looking.  Also HP makes a wicked little machine, both my parents have HP Laptops and they are great, im running an HP Pavilion PC and its wonderful, the customer service is great, they also dont have to much pre-loaded junk on em.  As for Dell, i have heard a few bad things about the hardware but it goes both ways, the biggest issue i have heard about with dell is their customer service sucks royally apparently.  and i kinda think dells laptops and desktops look nasty XD except the uh... XPS series.  I myself recommend Acer or HP, having sold those the most and not having a single problem with any that i sold.  (worked at the Source By Circuit City, Sales associate WOO! ;p )

[Lady Serpent]

Alienware is pretty top-notch, it seems; good for gaming if that's what you're into but they can get pretty expensive.

I was debating between an Acer and what I eventually got, a Sager.  I ususally use it plugged in on my desk and I've never had ANY problems at all.  It's great for games, too, though that depends largely on your memory, graphics card, etc.  I don't use the battery much, but when I have, it seems to last a decent amount of time.  (Nothing to compare it to, really.)

*Edit:  Forgot to mention; the reason I eventually went with Sager is because it was a great price at the time.

[Matty]

Sager? Never hear of that brand. is it a branch off another company?

[Lady Serpent]

I don't believe so, though I don't follow computer brands all that closely.  Here's a link:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/default.php

[Wyrd-Hotd]

Judging by a VERY quick look at Sager's website, i would have to say they would probably be a decent little machine, although you can never quite tell, vista is rather picky, go with MORE then 1 gb of RAM AT THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM i would try to find three myself, (go for at least 667, if you dont know thats the Speed of the ram, and 667 is usually enough for most people) and see if you can get something with at least Nvidia or ATI graphics, it will make a world of difference, also AMD makes a great processor, and its usually cheaper then Intel and you would most likely never notice the difference (yes i know Intel is better but blegh) in speed or power consumption. also, dont get a single core (if you even still can) its not worth it, because some programs are finally coming standard with multicore optimization.

[Matty]

hmm... Yeah im leaning more towards the acer system. its alot cheaper and within my price range O.O

[Kesarra]

I've known two people that had Alienware and both had numerous problems within 1 year. Alienware pushes its hardware to the limits but doesn't offer the most stable of firmware or drivers. I had a roomie with a Toshiba and it did fine once you got rid of the Toshiba software clutter.

My own IBM ThinkPad, which is what Lenovo controls now, is only just now suffering from overheating. I know it's the fan for the video card. The laptop itself is now 8-9 years old, so this is no big surprise.

[Tommy]

And on the alienware note, if gaming is your primary goal. Definantly don't get a laptop. Gaming laptops suffer from one massive problem, and that is the inability to upgrade them. I believe alienware will let you swap out the graphics card, but other than that you can only usually upgrade the RAM and Hard drive. Not a good thing for a gamer, as you'll be shelling out 2000+ for a whole new laptop when yours loses the ability to play the newer games. That and on a price/performance comparison desktops almost always win, as the mobile versions of stuff have to worry about heat and battery consumption. Wheras your average enthusiast's PC can double as a noisy space heater:P

[Matty]

Well i do want do some gaming on the side but not as a main aspect. more focused on school 

[Zephyron]

I've had an Acer Aspire 1692WLMi for 4 years now.

Its been through some rough times and several upgrades (HDD, thermal pads -> Thermal Paste, RAM upped to 2GB limit from initial 512MB), and its screen is a lot dimmer now that it was at first, but it still serves me well and I do a lot of Photoshopping on it and occasionally some light gaming =)

Acer's come quite a long way with their QC, and my 1692WLMi lasting for that long, I'd like to believe, is a testament to their QC when it comes to their mainstream machines.

When it comes to their newer machines, I recommend the Acer's Gemstone line of mainstream or gaming laptops. They're sufficient enough to run most games (save the most demanding ones) from medium to relatively high settings.

Say for example this system: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34636&vpn=LX.ATP0X.212&manufacture=Acer&promoid=1001

The CPU on the unit is a dual core T5800 Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2GHz per core, paired with an nVidia 9600GT Graphics Processing Unit (its not going to be faulty like the mobile 8000 nVidia series, so there's little to worry about). Both those components are relatively powerful in the realm of laptop CPUs and GPUs.

Its on discount now over at NCIX due to the upcoming Valentines Day, and for its price, its a very good machine. The one drawback is its 1366x768 resolution 16" 16:9 screen, but if you consider that some of us came from the times when screens were at VGA or XGA resolutions, that screen res is more than sufficient =)

[Drewdle]

I'm partial to Mac hardware, which is almost Windows hardware now that they're on Intel processors. There are multiple issues with Macs however. One is cost. Even with the extra softwares included and the lower upkeep costs (no antivirus subscription, for starters), it can be a pretty big pill to swallow. I'm also not a huge fan of how they tend to cripple their low end equipment, case in point: the new MacBooks had FireWire removed from them, and that's now only available on the MacBook Pro. My first-generation-Penryn Macbook has firewire, and cost less than the aluminum ones to boot. My best laptop experiences, hardware wise, have been Macs however. Built very well, though you'd expect it of the price. They also hold the record for longest living hardware we see in our service department at work (first generation clamshell iBooks are not uncommon, and usually in for upgrades rather than repairs).

In the world of PC laptops, my favorites have been IBM/Lenovo (seriously, buy a five year old ThinkPad, it'll never die), NEC (who sadly doesn't import their computer equipment to North America anymore, but the one my father & I owned was a tank), and HP. HP's build quality seems to be quite good, but their service policies suck; they won't let anyone except themselves service the hardware, so you're looking at weeks if you need service, unless you live within distance of an HP service facility (owned by HP). They seem to be good machines. Stay away from Compaq. I've had/seen nothing but trouble from these, and they're really nothing but stripped down HP chassis with a different coat of paint (Compaq is now HP's budget line). If it's a higher model Compaq you might have a different experience, but I've never met a satisfied entry-level Compaq owner. Toshiba is hit or miss. Some of their models feel/are pretty sturdy and well build, and some are just flat out garbage. If a laptop doesn't feel "solid" in the store, how do you expect it to hold up to mobile computing demands?

As previously mentioned, Acer is also a great brand to look into. I remember when their QC sucked, but you have to give credit where credit is due, and the newer Acer laptops seem to hold up quite well.

[Kesarra]

In the world of PC laptops, my favorites have been IBM/Lenovo (seriously, buy a five year old ThinkPad, it'll never die)

Battery and fans will, but that's about it.