Opinoins on good laptop

redlightningsvx · #1 10-25-2008, 05:46 PM

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?

Mensaf · #2 10-25-2008, 05:53 PM

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.

Crazy_pilot · #3 10-25-2008, 05:58 PM

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.

Wikedjuggalo · #4 10-25-2008, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omar

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.

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

redlightningsvx · #5 10-25-2008, 06:32 PM

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.

Crazy_pilot · #6 10-25-2008, 07:19 PM

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.

Hondasucks · #7 10-25-2008, 10:35 PM

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...

Sean486 · #8 10-26-2008, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redlightningsvx

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.

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.

Speedklix · #9 10-26-2008, 12:23 PM

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