Things to look for in a $600-700us laptop?

[digitalwanderer]

My wife has finally decided/announced that we're getting a laptop for ourselves as an Xmas present so she has one for work, and it's getting down to the nitty-gritty...

She almost bought this one last night, the only reason she didn't is they were out of stock by the time she had decided/placed her order. It didn't look too bad at all to me.

I sort of liked this one, but I know the hard-drive will die within the first year. (My friend MauiMom has one and I just had to swap her HD out of it and I read a LOT of horror stories about Toshiba laptop drives in me research)

Whatever we get I'm gonna make sure it has 1Gb of ram, I gave up worrying about that as an option for buying new since upgrading memory is such a no-brainer/cheap. I figure if we get a 512Mb laptop I'll be buying a 512Mb stick for it at the same time.

You've probably noticed both laptops were at BestBuy, that's 'cause we have a BB CC....one of the only ones we have right now. Our happy surprise-o-the-morning was that my wife's paycheck has went up about a grand for her two week pay period due to some changes with her stock plan, so we actually have or will have some cash on hand to pick one up so we're not quite so limited in selection....but this close to Xmas being able to charge it still wouldn't hurt. We'd prefer to get it from BB just for the convenience now, but if someone knows a deal anywhere please let me know.

Oh, and I got a $1,200us line-o-credit from Dell if they have anything. I kind of freaked when they did that, I did it in my own name.

Anyone have any input? All would be appreciated, I need to get knowledgeable about this again as I have a feeling it's going to happen fast now that it's been decided.

 

[Skrying]

Core Duo or higher at least on the processor. If you got one with a Celeron (yes, even the M models) you'll be kicking yourself for terrible performance and terrible battery life. Celeron's are just absolute garbage and have on place on the market.

1GB at least, and I seriously doubt you'd be better off upgrading later unless you're willing to forgo certain other needs.

DVD burner is a must, and a decent hard drive or even the fastest CPU won't make up for it.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Why is a DVD burner a must? This laptop will mainly be used for surfing the net/watching movies & viddies on from the HD.

Thanks for the input, just wondering on the DVD thingy.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

Don't get a sonly notebook. There some of the worst put together notebooks out there and the waranty stinks. I get many Sony notebooks with fried main boards, fried pointing device, failed LCD screens and there only 1 year old.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Thanks Snipe, Sony is now officially a no-no for us.

Which is better, the Intel® Centrino® Duo or AMD Turion™ 64?

This one just caught my eye...

 

[Skrying]

I'd go with a Core Duo/Centrino.

Btw, a DVD burner is a must because of back-ups for one, and not having a fully featured burner could be a real pain in the future, I would think especially for work where the possibility of a need to transfer data between people would also increase the need for one.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I'm not worried about back-ups, my 4 home systems are all archived on each other over our network...I'd just add the laptop to the mix.

I got a lil 30Gb USB HD for transfering stuff, I've really been shying away from DVDs and CDs lately. The only thing I use CDs for pretty much are tunes for the vehicles.

Core Duo is better, but the AMD Turion 64 doesn't suck...right?

Also, doesn't AMD have an x2 version of the Turion 64? The Duo is still better?

 

[Skrying]

I'd still go with a Core Duo. There's really no reason not to other than its Intel if you feel that way about it.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Nah, contrary to popular opinion I don't really care about the name on the hardware...just what the hardware can/can't do.

The brand loyalty game is for chumps, Digi don't play that.

Core Duo is what I'll aim for.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

I your looking at a single core CPU the AMD Turions 64 will do nicely with low power usage and low amout of heat.
This one is useing a MSI barebone has very easy access to the ram, harddrive, PCI cards, and CPU from the bottom of the notbook. It has a X700 in it for its GPU and has 128 meg for the X700. Price is around $1,070.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834224054

Its going to very hard to find a notebook with duel core and non intergrated video under $1,100.
The core duo and Turion 64 X2 are about the same in proformans and the best is the core2 duo but cost more.

Make sure the notebook comes with a 5400 RPM and up harddrive and not a 4200rpm. 4200RPM is very slow in loading anything.

Heres a link for a Turion X2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115250

For Core2 duo here is this Acer for around $1,000.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115271

 

[Skrying]

No need for above integrated in a work laptop, my laptop does just grand for what I use it for. Its a Toshiba Satellite with a Core Duo, 1GB, Intel 950G (or whatever is their most current laptop integrated), 80GB HD (7200RPM baby!), and a DVD burner. I'm extremely happy with it, its got a 15.4" widescreen and is wonderful, so I offer you up that experience. At the time I got it for $649, though its original price was $800.

Funny enough I bought it at Best Buy, and the only way to get the $650 price was for them to install Trend Micro anti-virus, and I really mean THEM install it. I had to wait an hour while they did so at the "Geek Squad" center. I un-installed it right in front of them afterwards.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Funny enough I bought it at Best Buy, and the only way to get the $650 price was for them to install Trend Micro anti-virus, and I really mean THEM install it. I had to wait an hour while they did so at the "Geek Squad" center. I un-installed it right in front of them afterwards.

Laptop, $650 + 1 hour wait

Look on "Geek Squad" member's face as you remove the virus of anti-virus they just spent an hour agonizingly installing, priceless.