laptop, i know its been covered ebfore but.... Options

[blkGT]

Ive finally graduated and am headed to USF in the fall and my mom said she would purchase me a laptop. Well what are the dos and donts? i want something reliable and fast. money is a slight object but not a huge facotr. any suggestions?

[darksecret]

Look for some deals from HP they have good systems and stay very far away from used laptops and Gateway/E-Machines (the picture quality isn't that good). I sell custom PCs and the occasional laptop, remember that the processor makes all the difference on how long it last before it's obsolete. Most laptops can be upgraded for memory, hard drives, and cards but internals aren't worth the money to upgrade or repair most of the time. If you need any more advice on PCs or laptops just PM me. If you have to get a used one due to cost look for a very reliable person to buy it from.

[tomazws]

iBooks and PowerBooks are pimp juice

[celicaracer18]

i say viao or HP
i have a hp and don't get anything less than near 3gigs it just isn't worth it, we sell these cheap oneas at sams that are like 1.8 and they just plain suck

mines 3.4 and i love it if your gonna spen the money get a good one, i would have gotten a viao but for the good ones they are too expensive

[Hanyo]

remember video cards and cpu cant be upgraded in most systems. So get the best you can afford. Everything else like ram, hard drive, disk drives can be add on later.

think about what you are gonna do with your laptop? is it gonna be your main computer? or a side arm? Are you gonna carry it around with you all the time? These questions will help you decide what size laptop you want, whether its a 12 15 17 inch laptop.

Good video cards are the ati 960o mobile laptop and a decent video card is the 7500 ati. (not a nvidea fan, so i don't know about them)

remember mhz is not always the thing. a pentium M processor has lower mhz but can be just as fast as a amd mobile cpu with higher mhz.

expect to replace the battery of your laptop with in a year. its gonna cost you 80 or so bucks.

[darksecret]

Hanyo is right, but do consider that laptops go out of date very quickly and until I can find some custom cases for a low cost you'll be stuck with a factory computer. Also think of the maintenance cost, parts aren't cheap for those things, a 20GB hard drive is 89.99 through my store and memory isn't far behind. As Hanyo said if it's just a PC replacement consider an HP 5000 series they are heavy but they are loaded with good equipment, for travel I would go with a Vaio. PM me with what you are looking at spending and I can help you with picking one out, I do this for a living so I can help you with finding a good deal.

[SinisterWhisper]

Ok personal experience with pcs says skip hp and compaq (compaq is owned by hp) because their software is **** and they dont give you a real install disk for windows just a ghosted image of what your pc had to begin with. Dell, Sony (expensive), Emachines (cheap but ive heard and seen good things with them), and sager (alienware repackages them for their laptops) are all good brands. With windows you need to get at least 256mb of ram trust me if your cpu is 500mhz or above you will see more of a performance increase with 256 of ram then you will with higher clock speeds.

[darksecret]

I don't like factory computers period, as far as HP goes with the software I couldn't tell you about the laptops, but I have run into faulty Media Center Recovery Disc. Most of our customers opt for a fresh install anyway without the use of the Recovery Disc. The most trouble I have is the Dell drivers, they set them up so that Dell Techs can read them. Factory companies put to much junk on their systems anyway and most people hate it. I prefer HP for the amount that you get for the price, Alienware is good but a rip off, E-Machines are a nothing more than Gateway's low cost line, Gateway and Sony have good lines but are expensive, I have used Acer and they work pretty good, Toshiba has a problem with the screen mounts wearing out quick. My personal favorite is the Sony X505 but it's about $3,000.