Opinoins on good laptop
 

Well I want to get a new laptop in about a month or so but haven't decided on a good one for what I need. I want one that is fast, has upgradable hard drive, CD/DVD-RW drive. I've always used Microsoft XP OS which I perfere or XP Professional. But on the other hand I've heard the new apple computers are better/easier. So what is the best option for under $500 with the options above?

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

There are no upgradable parts on laptops. You can do it yourself, but you will void your warrenty. Just wait till Black Friday and there'll be plenty of decent laptops within your price range.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

Macs are great, but tend to be in the higher price bracket. The new generation of MacBook is looking pretty awesome, the entire chassis is CNC machined out of a solid billet of aluminum.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

I second that wait about a month and boom you will get a killer deal.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

I want one with about 2.Ghz prossessor, 2G RAM, over 50GB Hard drive, and CD/DVD+RW. Wireless card would be nice to. That pretty much narrows down what I want. Black Fridays around my birthday so i'll keep a look out. Thanks for the opinions so far.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

Those aren't terribly high standards and should be easy to find on any standard laptop, except the processor. Many are 1.8 GHz, but dual core. I don't even think there are any full laptops with hard drives as small as 50 GB anymore...

FWIW, I love my tablet. It's made by HP, 1.8 GHz dual core AMD CPU, 3 gigs of ram, 250 GB hard drive, integrated ATi Radeon graphics, super portable (12.1" screen), and I can flip the screen over and write on it with the included stylus whenever I want!:D:cool: It was $899 at Future Shop up here in Canada.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

Check www.dealnews.com

I have a Toshiba Satellite with a 1.8 GHz dual core Pentium, 1 gig of ram, 120 gig hard drive, integrated memory card reader, built in wireless, S-Video out, and a few other goodies... (It's a model A205-S5825, google it for more detailed specs) Got it at Best Buy for 450 in April...

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

Upgrading hard drives and optical drives will not simply void your warantee. Considering companies release guides on how to do it, and they're all easily removed. Sure, if you break your laptop while you are performing hte swap, it would not be covered, but simply upgrading would not void the warranty. As far as under the $500 mark, you can probably count apple out. Their laptops start around $900+ and go up quickly, if memory serves.

I have an HP tx1000 series laptop I picked up for $899, and they're awesome. They've since released the tx2500 series, and they're awesome. Black friday you should be able to find them around $600. 2.2ghz dual core 64bit processor, 2gb ram, 160+gb hd, dvd-rw with litescribe, 12.1" convertible touch screen, IR remote, dedicated graphics, and 4-6hr battery life. I don't mind hte smaller screen because hte laptop itself is very tiny. because of that it has such awesome battery life, considering most 17" get around 1.5hr at best. The graphics chip by nvidia allows me to play some lite games as well.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

hit up dell.com/outlet

look through thier listings and you can find some amazing deals. Right now I'm really desiring a XPS 1530 with 2100 processor and the 8600m vid card. Usualy around $800 though.

The more modern version of the latop I am using now (inspiron 15xx series) can be had for cheap just make sure to get it with something better than just the integrated graphics card unless internet explorer is about the most advanced game you play. Do get the Core2Duo cpu, and if you can see if you can get it with the 2100 or other 45nm version as these run alot cooler and draw alot less power than the older chips.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

I am currently using three laptops, two for work and one personal:

- IBM T61, for work, 2.0G, 4G Ram, heavy, not fast as it should, etc.... nice laptop but too expensive for your budget.

- IBM T42, for work, small, light, 1.8G, 1G Ram, that thing is the most heavy duty laptop I ever used. It is amazingly fast and reliable. I think you can make wonders if you can get a 1.8 or 2.0G T42 with 2GbRams. It is also within your budget. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT

- IBM T43, 2.0G and 2.0GbRams... a disappointment concerning speed. Heavy (same as T61). I do not recommend it.

If you do not mind buying a used PC, I suggest you go with the T42

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

I have had great luck with Acer computers. Something like a Extensa 5420 is exactly what you are describing and is going to be at your price point.

The sales people I work with are required to purchase their own laptops so I have had to support quite a few of them over the years. From what I have found the IBM (Lenovo) is a solid durable product, I have had 2 of those over the years. The Toshiba's are very nice computers but tend to have overheating and motherboard board problems. (I would never buy a Toshiba without a extended warranty.) Dell's are a mixed bag, some are good some are horrible. The Sony's are great but over priced and typically full of software that you have to unistall. Mac's are great if you have double or triple the budget and you buy into their marketing. Also the HP's have typically been very good machines.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

true on upgrading, all of my dells and even my archaic compaq armada come with a removable access panel to upgrade the ram. I recall this being tru with MOST laptops that I have used/owned.

Latitude D630 - The Company Laptop
T7100 1.8 Core2 Duo CPU with 2gb ram and every feature
Awesome perfomance, does not like our VPN when I transition throughout the Accesspoints, but I think that is just the Accesspoints we have at work, and not the laptop's WIFI, because it works seamlessly on mine. It has the bigger battery which is incredible, Wireless and bluetooth most the day without docking if I have to. When I do dock, multi-screen desktop performance is terrific, much better than having to have two or three PCs with a couple KVM switches hanging around :lol:

Inspiron 1500 at home
...with "?" for cpu (the wife is on it and I really can't recall)
but 1gb of ram, great on multitasking very well performing laptop for media, Internet and authoring (at the same time)

Cons, over the work laptop... WIFI range is great, but less than the Latitude
same situation with the upgraded Battery... you can sit on the couch most the night with it online and full screen brightness, but remember to plug it in after!

Inspiron 1200
This may have been one of the first of them :lol:...
1.3 ghz Celeron M, 760 ram
Great for Internet. (period) Used it nearly every day for the last 5 years, lives on the couch with the remote! I am using it right now. Battery sucks with the screen on any brightness that won't give you a headache... stays tethered to the house, but overall has served well

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

Well I just pick up a new laptop which was in the price range and meet my requirements. It's an Acer Aspire 4720Z with an intel pentium duel core processor with 1.87 GHz, 2 GB memory, 120GB hard drive, CD/DVD+RW, built in WLAN, and a 14.1 screen. Also has Windows Vista home Premium. I got it for $550 which i thought wasn't bad for all the stuff it has. I'm on it right now and it's freakin' sweet.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

I'd just go with a corporate lease ended ebay T30 or other similar IBM and throw a hard drive in it. Your standards are pretty low.

Re: Opinoins on good laptop
 

I held out for a 17" widescreen and got a Compaq CQ70 for $580ish last week. Nice features for a price like that! Check 'em out if you're in the market.

My old Acer is holding up one of my short table legs. I wouldn't buy a second one at gunpoint!