Buying a new laptop.

[Tavo]

Hello people.
My g/f needs a new laptop for school. She is willing to pay no more than $1200 (U.S.). What should I recomend her getting?? I've never bought a laptop so I don't know nothing. She won't do any gaming, she just needs a good computer that will be able to handle office, mp3, web pages, spyware and adware at the same time...

Any ideas on where I could get a good deal? Or just any ideas on what I should look for?

[Kalbrecht]

Dell.

Good prices, solid computers. And (usually) very good service for repairs etc.

America: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Mexico:
http://www1.la.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=mx&l=es&s=gen

I'd save money and get a 14" screen - I doubt she'll need more than that for those needs.

Naturally a CDRW-DVD combo would also be very nice.

Make sure it has at least 256 memory - 512 is better as it'll be running Windows XP - which loves the memory.

And at least a 40gb HDD - more is better unless she's planning on storing them on CD.

The Dells are solid laptops and can handle it all quite easily.

I bought my fiancee a Toshiba - and I'm quite happy with it - good screen, excellent quality. Works well. So that's another option - not as sure about the service though (haven't had to use it yet!)

[Tavo]

Thanx Kalbrecht.
Yeah, I was looking at the Dells and the Toshibas, they look like pretty solid computers. If I opt to get the Dell, I'll get it from the American site. I don't wanna pay import taxes, mex sales tax and a bunch of other stuff.

I'll tell you how it goes on saturday when we'll make the final decision.

[Tavo]

Alright, help me with this option:
65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
OR
96 WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery [add $29 or $1/month1]

Also
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-In Service [subtract $49]
Remember that I live in Mexico but go to school in California, so I can get a friend to keep the computer while the technitian goes to his house. But is this really worth it?

[Kalbrecht]

Depends on how/where she'll be using it - at class? Mainly at home?

If she's carrying it around, then the longer battery is definitely worth it - in fact, considering how cheap some of the Dell laptops are, a 2nd battery might be worth a go.

Music and media and mutlitasking drag the battery power fairly significantly.

But if it's for home use, then this doesn't matter as much - as she'll be plugged in.

I'd go for at-home service - I don't trust the post/courier - I prefer to be there to ask/answer questions!

[O'C]

Tavo,

Will she be carrying the laptop around? If so pay a lot of attention to weight. I know that sounds obvious, but even 4.5 lbs in a carrying case gets heavy after a while. Besides that doesn't count the weight of the recharger, any extra drives or batteries you carry at the same time. As a side note, consider getting a backpack carrying case instead of the briefcase style. Much easier on the back.

I agree with Chai on everything he's said. I have a Dell Latitude for work--1 Ghz processor, 256 MB ram and 20 GB HD, W2K. It's about 2 years old and is still everything I need for work and travel. It has a 14" screen which is plenty big for watching movies on a plane :) I've hooked up PC speakers to its headphone jack and used it as a mobile juke box.

If you are only going to get one battery, spend the extra $29 IMO. But if you can, get two batteries instead of one, even if they are the standard kind. I can get almost 6 hours out of two batteries.

Oh and go for the in-house repair. I had to have the motherboard replaced on mine (but that's another story and most likely my fault, but we don't need to go into that right now) and it was done the next day. Much better than shipping the machine back and forth.

Good luck. Let us know what you do.

[mandrake]

Another option to consider, I just bought an HP laptop from Best Buy.
$999 with $250 in Mail-in rebates and 18 mos no interest on BB Card

AMD Athlon 2500+ M
256mb RAM
40gb HDD
DVD/CD-RW
15" XGA Screen (1024x768)
Windows XP Home
64mb ATi Mobility Radeon (Shared)

It runs great. I spent an extra $125 and added 512mb RAM because I DO game (it runs UT2k4 wonderfully at 800x600x32 with most settings at normal).

Pretty good deal at BB if you ask me. Dell is good to though. I just wanted to give you another option to consider.

[Captain]

Another option to consider, I just bought an HP laptop from Best Buy.
$999 with $250 in Mail-in rebates and 18 mos no interest on BB Card

AMD Athlon 2500+ M
256mb RAM
40gb HDD
DVD/CD-RW
15" XGA Screen (1024x768)
Windows XP Home
64mb ATi Mobility Radeon (Shared)


That is what I was considering getting/asking for my birthday.

[Tavo]

Nice options. I'll look into that HP laptop since I like AMD processors. Also, she didn't buy the laptop this week, and I haven't recieved word on when she will. I'll keep you guys informed.

[Tavo]

UPDATE:
Budget has been increased to $1900. Considering tax and shipping the computer should not exceed $2000. Any new ideas with this type of money?

[Tavo]

Check this one out:
http://www.outpost.com/entry?sku=3948148

[O'C]

There's a lot of bells and whistles on that there machine. Personally, I'd say that laptop is a bit of overkill given what you said she will be using it for.

Will she be bringing this notebook to class? If so, I see 3 problems.

1. It's huge--go for a 14" screen like Chai suggested. Trying to fit that thing on a lecture hall desk will be a challenge.

2. The battery life sucks. 1-1.5 hours is embarrassing. 3 hours with 2 batteries is criminal.

3. It's a brick. I cannot stress this enough. At 8 lbs with only one battery, that thing is very heavy to be carried around regularly. I carry my laptop a lot on business trips. It's only about 6 lbs all in and it gets heavy.

Even if your girlfriend plans to leave it sitting in her dorm room most of the time, you have to figure she will be carrying it to study groups, the library, etc.

Go smaller and lighter, that's my advice.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but that's a lot of money you're dropping so make sure you think of these things.

[Tavo]

Alright. I'm going to San Diego right now, I'll be going to Fry's electronics so I'll be looking for a smaller laptop. One thing I've noticed about the laptops is that the Pentium 4 usually have a battery life of about 1-1.5 hours and the Pentium 4 M have about 2-2.5 hours. Are the Pentium 4 M and the Centrinos good processors? I know they are all P4s, but will they do the job well?

[DanTheManPR]

Are the Pentium 4 M and the Centrinos good processors?
Centrino is not a processor, its a "technology" (whatever that means). Notebooks with the Centrino label have Pentium M's in them.

[O'C]

I think Intel took lessons on naming conventions from nVidia when it came to its mobile processors. :wtf:

There is the Mobile Pentium 4 - M, and there is the Pentium-M.

The Pentium M is the processor in the Centrino laptops. Centrino means the combo of that processor, Intel 855 chipset (I think) and Intel's WiFi chip. The M has lower clockspeeds--2 GHz max, but is way better on battery life.

My wife has a Centrino laptop for work, so mostly MS Office applications, and she is very happy with it.

The Mobile Pentium 4 is geared toward graphics and other memory intensive apps like PhotoShop. Plus it's still better on battery life than a regular P4.

I have a 1 GHz PIII in my laptop, and it does everything I need. Work applications, DVD movies and playing CDs / mp3s. So I imagine any of the newer processors would be fine.

[Ojnod]

Aren't the centrino notebooks supposed to be much faster than their rated spec? Sorta like the AMD chips. I think I recall seeing 1.7ghz P4's that compete with 3.0ghz.. or maybe it was less than that.

[DanTheManPR]

They are.

[Terry Penrod]

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Heya Tavo -

In case you and your girlfriend are still shopping around for a new laptop PC, here is a link to a top rated online seller that has a huge variety of makes and models in all price ranges. Of course, you will need to go to www.dell.com to review their current, comparative notebook specs and prices. I'd also look at whatever Gateway has just so you have a complete picture of everything available.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=17

Cheers, Terry

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