Looking for a Laptop

[Acert93]

My wife is having our 3rd child soon (woohoo) and seeing as she cannot get up and down the stairs (PCs upstairs) she has asked if I could look into picking up a laptop so she can work on her website and get recipes off her site and the like.

I would like to get something with a warranty if possible. On the one side, as her needs aren't really high, a $300 refurb sounds enticing. On the other side a nicer laptop at $600 would be nice.

Most laptops come with the basics these days (DVD, WiFi, etc). Widescreen would be nice, but not necessary. The unit won't travel much, so battery life isn't a concern. A DVD writer would be nice, but not necessary. A "decent" GPU would be a nice little perk (for when I steal it hehe) but not necessary.

So where are the best places to pick up a good Laptio deal? Any specific suggestions/bewares?

 

[AlphaWolf]

You're going to have trouble finding anything new with discrete video in the $600 price range. When people ask about low end I always tell them to take a look at dells site for an idea of what you want/need then shop around stores in your area, you might find something they are clearing out on the cheap that suits your needs.

 

[epicstruggle]

So where are the best places to pick up a good Laptio deal? Any specific suggestions/bewares?

Price range?

I just bought a dell xps m1330 will let you know what I think about it in a few days.

If your looking for sales, I usually go to the following sites for deals:
www.gotapex.com
www.fatwallet.com/c/18
www.slickdeals.net

epic

 

[pc0day]

Compaq Presario F730US :
AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-55 1.8GHz, 1GB DDR2, 120GB HDD, 8x DVD+/-RW DL
15.4" WXGA (1280x800), 802.11b/g, Weighs 6.6 lbs, Vista Home Premium
right now it is on sale for $450, I think that should be a good choice for your wife :
http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=65405

 

[Acert93]

Thanks for the links and advice guys. Some nice links there. The F730US doesn't sound too bad, but it looks like I just missed that deal

Staples has deal on black Friday for a laptop at $350. Dual core (T2310; 1.46GHz, 1MB cache), 1GB mem, 80GB HDD, 15.4" 1280x800 display, DVD Drive/Writer/LightScribe(?), and Vista Home Premium.

I am going to keep hunting, but feel free to post nice links

 

[Acert93]

CompUSA: $450
http://bfads.net/HP-Pavilion-17-Laptop-with-AMD-Athlon-DualCore-Mobile-Processor-at-CompUSA
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-53 Processor, 2GB Memory, 120GB Hard Drive. NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150. Windows Vista Home Premium.
Dell: $399
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...vcode=ss&c=us&l=en&dgc=BF&cid=7421&lid=197378
AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53 (1.7GHz/512KB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
15.4" Wide Screen XGA LCD Anti-Glare Display
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ
120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW w/Double-layer DVD+R Write Capability, for Vista® OS
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (integrated)
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
1 Year Dell Warranty


The CompUSA deal looks great, but that will be an in-store pickup only. We are debating the DELL or Staples HP.

 

[Ty]

Yes, the Blackfriday deals are likely to be the best (IMO) around right now.

Be aware that the Staples laptop is regional, so it maybe not show up where you live (I was looking at it as well).

You can go to http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=267534&t=651803 and read up on some of the deals.

 

[Acert93]

Well, while my local Staples didn't list the Compaq as being a sale item they actually got some in late and sold them. I wasn't there, but my brother was and picked one up for my wife. Not a bad deal for $350. It comes with a TON of bloatware though--any advice on how to clean this up? I uninstalled a lot of crap, but still doesn't feel like a fresh install

The backup tool to make a backup OS disk failed on disk 2 and has coasterized 5 disks now. I think I will need to contact support on this one.

Finally, while Vista has some nice additions it runs poorly so far. 1GB of memory and dual core processor, you would think, would be smooth sailing. I disabled the 3D GUI, but the memory is 65-75% utilized idle. Now time to search for a Vista optimization guide... one that doesn't say, "Add another 1GB of memory" lol.

Ps- I don't know how I missed it a while back, but this should have been ni the purchase decision forum. Sorry guys.

 

[Ty]

PCDecrapifier might work well for you.

I don't think you can avoid getting more ram (2GB kit since the one in the laptop is 2 x 0.5GB) though.

 

[Skrying]

You're never going to reach that systems true performance potential till you do a clean install. Vista will run just fine on 1GB of memory and use around 350MB~. I have a Toshiba with a Core Duo and 1GB (now upgraded to 2GB), it ran Vista just fine. This was after I installed my own copy of Vista however.

 

[Acert93]

I am assuming I received license numbers and such with Windows, so should I be able to just install any copy of Vista Home Premium and put in my data and be set with a clean install?

(Ps- I tried doing a backup of the D partition with the OS, and the utility crapped out on me... go figure... and won't let me make a copy now).

 

[Ty]

Laptops on the lower end have a UMA memory pool, so really isn't Vista running on less than 1GB? If you have a Frys near you, there have been a couple of 2 GB OCZ laptop memory deals that, after rebate come out to 25 - 30 bucks if I remember.

I would contact the manufacturer and ask them about getting physical restore CDs/DVDs. I called Acer and they sent me a set without any problems.

 

[Acert93]

Thanks for the comments I will have to contact them about restore disks. No Frys near by, but I am sure if necessary I can find a sweet deal on memory right now.