I am in need of a good laptop, and I am a college student so I dont have to much money. I am looking at an Acer because for a really cheap price I can get a the same thing as an HP or dell. So if any of you guys know of anything around let me know. I am looking to spend about 1000 dollars or so. Thanks
Need Help on a Laptop!!!!!
- Thread starter flsuprabro
- Start date
Good time to buy. Should be able to find one with good rebates at either Best Buy or Circuit City. I'd think that $600 can get you a decent machine. A friend just bought a gateway media center version for a little less than $600 and it's very nice.
Avoid Acer if you can, the quality of their machines and the parts inside is really bargan basement and they *tend* to use older parts too (eg the video chipset).
Dell has some VERY good sales right now (and availability varies throughout the day), so do all the others, Gateway, HP, IBM/Levino, ect.. but hard to beat Dell usually for a decent laptop.
Dell has some VERY good sales right now (and availability varies throughout the day), so do all the others, Gateway, HP, IBM/Levino, ect.. but hard to beat Dell usually for a decent laptop.
RDJ said:
Yeah after you spend half your life talking to some idiot in India.
They are. I have a desk top Dell.
About 2 years ago I bought a Mac, I'll never own or use a PC as a personal computer again. Mac's are rock solid. Well constructed and reliable. OS-X is a fantastic operating system, years ahead of anything Microsoft has available or in development. 99% of Spyware and Viruses are built to attack PCs, and Mac's simply arent effected. I can count on one hand all the errors I've received with this computer. Mac's are slightly more expensive, but well worth the investment. You can get a MacBook with all the bells and whistles for $1100. You'll need MS Office too. Wait till you get to school to buy that as the school will most likely offer it at a serious discount.
Neverlift said:
While I agree with SOME of what you said ... some of it is just patent hype.
1. Mac's are rock solid ... true . to a point. I will say that I have had lots less issue with my mac than I have with my PCs or windows laptops
2. OS-X is years ahead of anything Microsoft has available or in development? :bs: It has some very nice features .. most are not better or worse than Mickysoft they are just different. It IS more stable .. and more expensive.
3. The statement that most viruses and spyware are written for PCs is true... the part of "Macs are simply not affected" is again :bs: More and more Macs are being targeted with some success. If they were "simply not affected" there would be no need for a MAC virus scanner. and now that MACs will run XP you will see the number of "mac attacks" go up ... not down
4. Mac software is more expensive that PC related software, hardware upgrades are more expensive.
Bottom line .. the MAC is a good machine but in reality it is no better or worse than a PC ... just different and you can still get more for your money with a windows based platform.
Disclaimer: The MAC/PC debate is much like the FORD/CHEVY debate, Everyone has an opinion and we all know what opinions are like. As a user of both ... I will continue to use both .. not because one is better than the other but they serve different functions and have their strong points
I really am not looking for a Mac. But I am not closed mind. I will never Buy another Toshiba AGAIN. I buoght a toshiba and I have literally had my hard drive replaced 4 times, my mother board replaced 2 and my sound system replaced another 2 times. I would love to know what people think is the best bang for my buck.
flsuprabro said:
These two sites ALWAYS find the cheapest laptops out there no matter what brand you're looking for. Well, for the most "popular" brands that is.
fatwallet.com
slickdeals.net
It takes some reading/research, and some incredible deals die VERY quickly, especially with Dell, but if you have the time, these two sites (there are others) rock.
pacotaco
+1pacotaco said:
I just bought my laptop from Dell with a link from slickdeals.net. The laptop I got is a Inspiron 6400 with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB/2.00GHz/667MHz) 1 gig of RAM a 120 gig HDD, a 256 MB Graphics card. It also has WiFi, Bluetooth and a DVD burner. It only cost 936 dollars excluding tax. :beer:
MackCaddy said:
Nice find!
I've got an ACER that I bought 2 years ago and my sister and her fiance bought one about 6 months ago...both have worked flawlessly and have been great machines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RDJ
Buy a Dell .. get the three year on-site warranty .... if something breaks they come to you to fix it
Yeah after you spend half your life talking to some idiot in India.
I have a friend who repairs PCs and Laptops for Dell & HP. He has been in the business for 35+ years and the phone support people try to tell him whats wrong. 9 out of 10 times the parts arrive, he goes out to the customer and nope parts sent does not fix problem. Why? Because when he is on site he sees more of what is happening than what the phone rep can over the phone. Usually takes 2 - 3 visits to get them fixed, BUT they are getting better and calling and listening to him before sending parts. Just make sure you special order your Dell and just don't go for the advertised out of the box models. These are made with the cheapest parts. A custom made one is built for you and you know what going in it.
Originally Posted by RDJ
Buy a Dell .. get the three year on-site warranty .... if something breaks they come to you to fix it
Yeah after you spend half your life talking to some idiot in India.
I have a friend who repairs PCs and Laptops for Dell & HP. He has been in the business for 35+ years and the phone support people try to tell him whats wrong. 9 out of 10 times the parts arrive, he goes out to the customer and nope parts sent does not fix problem. Why? Because when he is on site he sees more of what is happening than what the phone rep can over the phone. Usually takes 2 - 3 visits to get them fixed, BUT they are getting better and calling and listening to him before sending parts. Just make sure you special order your Dell and just don't go for the advertised out of the box models. These are made with the cheapest parts. A custom made one is built for you and you know what going in it.
wvmystichrome said:
I worked for Dell in Server Engineering for 5 years ... and for the most part your post is spot on. As a customer of Dell I get really pissed off when the guy comes without the parts I have told them to bring. Not at the tech but as the stupid asswipe on the phone they seem incapable of passing a simple message to the guys that come out.
On the comment that machines that are special ordered having better parts than those that are pre configured .. I am going to have to call :bs: on that. The parts are the exact same ones out of the exact same bin regardless if you buy it pre-configured or custom ordered. Even if you buy one pre-configured your order is processed down the line like every other machine. The advantage of custom ordering is you get a choice of somethings like video card, processor speed, memory configs .. which you can't change on a pre-configured machine
ttmadness
Banned
alienware.com , even their lowest end would be > then all
ttmadness said:
Well this is total and complete bullshyt ... obviously you have no idea what you're talking about. I thought the same thing ... until I got one and compared it to the Dell I had ...
Bottom line it depends entirely on what you plan to use it for. I have a top of the line alienware laptop, an aurora 9700 fully loaded, and a Dell E1305, again, fully loaded. For Gaming the alienware wins. It is hard to beat 1GB of video ram running in SLI configuration. If you're doing DVD Ripping and encoding . The Dell wins hands down .. The alienware takes twice as long. The low end alienware is not going to have core duo at the bottom feeder price, end of story.
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