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#1
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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?
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Seth 94' Barcelona Red w/ Tricoat black 2-tone AWD Ls -Sold Mods:AWD conversion/4.44 swap by Budfreak, Custom red interior lights, Custom Satin black dash, Power mode switch, Cold air intake, Permecool tranny filter,Sony xplode 10" sub, Sony xplode 1000w amp, Blitz in-line driver, DDM Tuning 6000k HID's, New paint job/body work by me, 97' Grill, QC shift kit, 17'' MB Motoring rims, 15&20 min mod, front & rear urethane swaybar bushings, Custom fiberglass sub box, Custom red led a/c control unit, perrin lightweight crank pulley, Black wrinkle finish powdercoated intake manifold w/ clear hoses , 02' outback heated/power black leather seats Soon to come:Fiberglass hood, upholster ALL suede to black leather Past subies: 92' Pearl White/black top LS-L-SOLD 96' Legacy Outback-TOTALED 99' Legacy Outback Limited 30th anniversary edition-TOTALED 98' Forester L -Totaled Other toys: 99' Forester S -WRX brake upgrade, soon an 04 wrx motor swap 06' B9 Tribeca-Stock 1982' Yamaha xj650 Maxim Mods: work in progress |
#2
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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.
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#3
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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.
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Chris 92 Ebony Mica LS-L "A Rolling Restoration": 223,250 KM - Sleeping 2007 STi 6MT, Stance GR+ coilovers, PWR Rad, JDM hood badge, svxfiles 6000K HIDs, JDM Clear Corners, $15/15 min mod, $20/20 min mod, Energy Swaybar Bushings, Hella Supertones horns, Gold STi BBS rims, Group A lightweight crank pulley, A/C system removed, Custom header-back exhaust, Hybrid carbon/metal rear sway bar, restored headlights with CCFL halos 2008 Subaru Legacy Spec B - Diamond Grey Metallic - Sold 2020 Ram 1500 Longhorn - Red Pearl |
#4
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Re: Opinoins on good laptop
I second that wait about a month and boom you will get a killer deal.
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1994 SVX L - FWD Barcelona Red 190K miles ~ SOLD 1994 SVX LS - 5spd AWD Emerald Green 202k miles PWR Radiator, HID 5000k, New paint job with issues, 17" STI BBS wheels, converted to 5spd AWD from FWD. Purchased from SVXyGirl 2/20/09 -- Undergoing complete rebuild 1993 Justy 4wd 5door- Teal of sorts , beater. 2008 OBXT Newport Pearl 65k miles |
#5
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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.
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Seth 94' Barcelona Red w/ Tricoat black 2-tone AWD Ls -Sold Mods:AWD conversion/4.44 swap by Budfreak, Custom red interior lights, Custom Satin black dash, Power mode switch, Cold air intake, Permecool tranny filter,Sony xplode 10" sub, Sony xplode 1000w amp, Blitz in-line driver, DDM Tuning 6000k HID's, New paint job/body work by me, 97' Grill, QC shift kit, 17'' MB Motoring rims, 15&20 min mod, front & rear urethane swaybar bushings, Custom fiberglass sub box, Custom red led a/c control unit, perrin lightweight crank pulley, Black wrinkle finish powdercoated intake manifold w/ clear hoses , 02' outback heated/power black leather seats Soon to come:Fiberglass hood, upholster ALL suede to black leather Past subies: 92' Pearl White/black top LS-L-SOLD 96' Legacy Outback-TOTALED 99' Legacy Outback Limited 30th anniversary edition-TOTALED 98' Forester L -Totaled Other toys: 99' Forester S -WRX brake upgrade, soon an 04 wrx motor swap 06' B9 Tribeca-Stock 1982' Yamaha xj650 Maxim Mods: work in progress |
#6
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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! It was $899 at Future Shop up here in Canada.
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Chris 92 Ebony Mica LS-L "A Rolling Restoration": 223,250 KM - Sleeping 2007 STi 6MT, Stance GR+ coilovers, PWR Rad, JDM hood badge, svxfiles 6000K HIDs, JDM Clear Corners, $15/15 min mod, $20/20 min mod, Energy Swaybar Bushings, Hella Supertones horns, Gold STi BBS rims, Group A lightweight crank pulley, A/C system removed, Custom header-back exhaust, Hybrid carbon/metal rear sway bar, restored headlights with CCFL halos 2008 Subaru Legacy Spec B - Diamond Grey Metallic - Sold 2020 Ram 1500 Longhorn - Red Pearl |
#7
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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, it for more detailed specs) Got it at Best Buy for 450 in April...
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1992 SVX LS-L #1222 Pearl White 1987 GL Turbo wagon, 5 lug conversion, D/R 5 speed (Rice killer) 1992 Dodge Ram 4x4 diesel (car hauler) 1968 Dodge Polara convertible (Camaro killer) 1990 Toyota Corolla FWD auto (330,000 mile grocery getter) 1986 VW Jetta |
#8
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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.
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*No SVX at the moment...* 1987 Winnebago Elandan 35' 2001 Yamaha Roadstar 1600 2004 Ford Excursion Eddie Bauer, 6.0litre Power Stroke Diesel - Daily Driver. Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, scotch in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming HOOOOYA !!!!! |
#9
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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. |
#10
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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
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Danny 1994 Silver SVX in hybernation, awaiting for the monsterous awakening (Lebanon) 1967 Mercedes-Benz 250SL Euro Specs, Hard/Softtop, White/Red. Under Complete Restoration 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL350 Euro Specs, White/Red. Mint... Another step into SL Collection. |
#11
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Re: Opinoins on good laptop
Quote:
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.
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1992 LSL ebony pearl 170k - Thank you Ron Mummert Reading Box of Wine Car ----------------------------------- 1992 SVX LSL 5-Speed Sold at 180K 2019 1995 SVX Lsi Polo Sold at 118K 2007 |
#12
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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 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 ... 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
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-Mike ECUTune2v7 - 4.11 5 Speed - Sprung 6 Puck Clutch - D&S Rotors - SS Brake & Clutch Lines - HKS Panel Filter - HeaderBack Exhaust -80GB Hard Drive - GroupN Engine Mounts - - some other "tricks"
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] In progess: track down mystery noise <-identified, paint the new dash, get better pic Spring plans: Replace Trans - Integrate ECU with the carputer - Suspension - Go back to STI Filter - Paint? Maybe not - Next Oil change: Purolator L30165 Member #995 | My Locker | My New Locker Catch you next at: ? Auto-X ? Last edited by Speedklix; 10-26-2008 at 12:26 PM. |
#13
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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.
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Seth 94' Barcelona Red w/ Tricoat black 2-tone AWD Ls -Sold Mods:AWD conversion/4.44 swap by Budfreak, Custom red interior lights, Custom Satin black dash, Power mode switch, Cold air intake, Permecool tranny filter,Sony xplode 10" sub, Sony xplode 1000w amp, Blitz in-line driver, DDM Tuning 6000k HID's, New paint job/body work by me, 97' Grill, QC shift kit, 17'' MB Motoring rims, 15&20 min mod, front & rear urethane swaybar bushings, Custom fiberglass sub box, Custom red led a/c control unit, perrin lightweight crank pulley, Black wrinkle finish powdercoated intake manifold w/ clear hoses , 02' outback heated/power black leather seats Soon to come:Fiberglass hood, upholster ALL suede to black leather Past subies: 92' Pearl White/black top LS-L-SOLD 96' Legacy Outback-TOTALED 99' Legacy Outback Limited 30th anniversary edition-TOTALED 98' Forester L -Totaled Other toys: 99' Forester S -WRX brake upgrade, soon an 04 wrx motor swap 06' B9 Tribeca-Stock 1982' Yamaha xj650 Maxim Mods: work in progress Last edited by redlightningsvx; 10-26-2008 at 08:18 PM. |
#14
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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.
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Matt Locker Link 2015 BRZ Limited 6MT 92 Ebony LS-L ECUtune Stage2av1, Z32 MAF, 370cc injectors, TomsSVX intake, BontragerWorks 22mm RSB #003, HID Hi and Lo beams, OT endlink and bushing mods, PWR Aluminum radiator, Harvey's QC shift kit, 2.5" flowmaster 80 exhaust, 17" Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, Poly sway bar bushings, Slotted Bradi rotors, AFBeefcake powdercoated calipers, 97 grill, and a huge set of air horns. 300,000 miles and counting 92 Ebony LS-L. ecutune stage1v4, motorsport 1pc pulley. Garage Queen - sold to Dad in upstate NY 155,000 miles 19 Subaru Ascent Premium - -Hers !. 89 DL 4x4 little red wagon - a.k.a. The immortal suby. 275k R.I.P. |
#15
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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!
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Disclaimer: The above post is on the internet. |
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