laptop purchase

[04efidynasuperglide]

HELP!  I AM I THE MARKET FOR A LAPTOP COMPUTER. IT WILL BE SHARED BETWEEN ME AND MY DAUGHTER, I WILL NEED IT FOR THE 04 INJECTED DYNA WITH POWER COMMANDER FOR FUTURE BUILD.   NEED SOME INPUT!!!!

     SCOTT

[marc]

I have had several Dell's and very few problems...Customer service (Microsoft & Dell) is good too...

[HV]

Bought this Dell   inspiron 1525 lap top last FEB...had a slow boot problem a few months ago... Dell PH Tech helped trouble shoot online...sent me a new HD OVERNIGHT  replaced it.. no issues at all.now .. working great ... brother bought a Dell Vostro  lap top no probs at all... just got a new 1725 for my Brother in law for Xmass ... their customer service is great ... and cant beat the price..... what ever you do get XP!!!  they have a few models with both XP and Vista... mine has XP ... also Id get no less then 4 Gegs of Ram ... this way either XP or Vista will run good... Vista on 2 Gegs is SLOW ... XP on 4 Gegs FLYs ... the Vostros come with both XP and Vista available ..they are a small business unit and Id recommend them

[codyshop]

I use an older Toshiba Satellite with a tiny 11 screen for my PCIII work.  It's a pain in the ass to see with these aging corneas, but it's easy to strap to bikes to get the live data stream logging on the road.  It's really a poor man's dyno and with an accellerometer I got from Dash Hawk, I'm able to predict hp and tq to within 7% / 8% of actual.  It won't substitute a real eddy current corrected dyno, but customers who've taken my builds to a dyno shop produce sheet of about that variation.  Mine are on the conservative side.  Ray

[codyshop]

Oh, and make sure you strap it down tight!  I had a very expensive lesson a few years ago.  Ray

[Coyote]

I think HV meant Gigs, not Megs on the memory. I'm a Dell fan as well.

[HV]

I think HV meant Gigs, not Megs on the memory. I'm a Dell fan as well.

Yes Keith I just noticed that..lol

[HIPPO]

I always liked Toshiba and Fujitsu.
Last time I bought one it was impossible to get a good deal on them, especially on the Toshiba.
Only ones with big discounts were Dell and HP but didn't really trust them to stay together long term. Went to look at them and liked the HP much better, and looking though the device manager all the important hardware was made by good companies like Hitachi and Pioneer.
So far i'm very happy with it, and it was very inexpensive for a high spec machine.
Lots of proprietary HP bullshit, but after deleting it and the default anti virus and stuff, it flat out flies even with Vista.

I think the trick is to look for discontinued gaming computers, the kids always want the latest thing and they discount them heavily when something new comes out, but they are very high spec for the money.

[bigblock6912]

what's needed with laptop as far as router and adapter? i got the wifey a refurbished dell laitude d610. a corporate turn in. it's maxed out on memory and hardrive.....bill

[HIPPO]

Depends what you want to do.

What exactly do you mean by "maxed"?

[bigblock6912]

maxed in respect it won't take more memory or any bigger harddrive. it will be used for personal e-mail,games on line shopping etc. i have dsl if that means anything when getting a router. i guess what i'm asking is should i get an n,n+ or will a g handle it?....bill

[HIPPO]

In the house or a normal size yard just a regular inexpensive wireless g router.

The n are faster and work over longer distances (if the laptop has a n card) but you can't really tell inside a house. Becomes obvious as the range increases, like if you want to use it from another building.

Best to set it up with WAP encryption, just follow directions   

[Kansas]

I have found that www.kimkomando.com is a terrific source for unbiased information on all things digital including computers and software.  If you aren't familiar with her check her out.

[bigblock6912]

thanks....bill

[mrmotoguzzi00]

We've got 3 dells in the house a refurb and 2 we got last thanksgiving at 3:00am   all work with no issue's...

my 6 yr old dell laptop finally died last year, bad power supply....

check these out...

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

[04efidynasuperglide]

any problems using vista with PC 3 USB?   

scott

[stick70]

All of the Dell 600 Latitudes are great workhorses. We work them to death in my profession-industrial automation.
Plus they still have a built in serial port-not very common on,laptops these days.

Stick

[Memnar]

I just bought a macbook, and here's why.

About 5 of us at work (Intel) all ordered Dell notebook computers on our individual personal accounts on a Dell account, all of us were told it would be about 3 weeks to build and ship them. Checking on the order on line for the 3 weeks everything is fine and on time.

At the 3 week plus 2 days point when they should of been shipped and arrived at the house, I realize the order has been cancelled.

Dell never sent a phone message or email. Call Dell in India and they say its because they could not build and ship it on time, but they wait 3 weeks to tell you this. They don't know why they did not send an email cancelling the order.

This happened to all 5 of us in a 9 month time frame.

I was angry at Dell, went and bought a macbook, and guess what?

We like it more. On paper it seems like it would about equal or a little less, but when using it - well it just works better.

For lack of a better word, the "experience" is better. And it was $100 less than the Dell when all was done.

Also if you live in a bigger city with an Apple store, you can take the computer down there for free to fix ANY problem or little hiccup, or any little question. The customer service is awesome at the stores, at the Albuquerque store you get one associate per customer.


One other thing is now you can load windows operating system on the mac, and have it boot-up on windows to run windows programs, then when done reboot it back on the mac operating software if you so choose.

I won't be buying a Dell for quite some time.

Erik

[~JC~]

Once you go Mac, you never go back.  ~JC~

[Dennis The Menace]

All, you can use my employee discount to get any IBM/Lenovo product, PS, Laptop, some other SW.  No limits

go to http://shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrary/controller/Lenovo:EnterStdAffinity?affinity=eppibm

employee serial:  1A4111
employee last name:  lancaster

Pass along to anyone you know.  Anyone can use this program, no restrictions

menace

[Ultrashovel]

I've had good service and support from Dell, I have a Vostro 1000 laptop and a Dimension 3100 with no problems on either one. I got both of them with monitors for less than $1,000.

I would have bought a Mac except for the fact that my old boss liked them and he told me every day for ten years how great they are. Since he was a stupid dork and none of his other advice ever worked out, I decided to stay with PC's.

You what....? You bought a Mac....? and now you want me to buy one.....?     

[NETacomaFatboy]

hah!   I just went through this.  Needed a laptop ASAP and did my research.  If you can wait, wait for the after Christmas sale.   I found a great deal on the Inspiron at Office Max but the deal was dead by the time I tried to buy.  Best Buy has some decent deals.  I wound up buying at Fry's and got a Toshiba for $620.  At that level, you can get a great laptop (I would not settle for less than a Dual Core).

I saw a Sony Vaio at Best Buy for $900 which would have been my 1st choice but I saw no need to spend $300 more though it was a better laptop.

My 1st choice is still a Sony Vaio...  Find a cheap system you can accept and try to match price with a VAIO.

[shovelmonster76]

Got a Macbook pro and will never use any thing else again. Make the OL do the business on the dells (3) and play on the Mac. Its backward from windows but super easy when you get used to it. You have great software already there and private browsing. Best part is never having to buy or download security updates or worry about viruses, yet anyway. Love it.  

[Tre_11 FLHX]

Just bought a Dell XPS 1530 320 Gb HD, 4 gig memory 2.1 Duo Core processor XGA monitor, 256 nvidia graphics card $954 free shipping and 2 year warranty.  It came with windows vista- upon receiving it I will reformat and install windows XP Pro SP3. IMO can't beat a Dell.

Mike

[tinkerman]

Toshiba satellites at Wally's world. Good deal but you would have to go to a Toshiba service center for support. That's no big deal. I have been knocking around the planet using a satellite for 5 years now. It shut down due to over heating on two occasions, dusty in the dry season in some of those places ; I found an air line in a shop, blew the thing out and fired it up, (not recomended but it worked) which says something for their durability.

Lots of people saying good things about Dell these days which is evident in this thread. So get enough ram to run the current operatings systems and go for the best dollar value.

I think laptops are like bikes, so much to choose from, and even the computer geeks get tangled up in the choices.

I would recommend the Toshiba's though, just bought one for my daughter when she went back to school last fall.

Virus software - I find running the freebies online like AVG seem to soak up less ram than Norton, MacAfee, etc... I am running MacAfee on the old satellite now and it slows it down something terrible. Soon gonna make that machine the email machine at home and get something new.

Just rambling,.......

Tink

[Princess Butt]

I've had an IBM G40 Thinkpad for 4 years, it's been great. I had to buy a new desktop for working from home, since the old IBM doesn't like our network at the office. I think the problem is with our office network servers, but of course the IT people can't find an answer, and it's cheaper to buy a new desktop for work than to troubleshoot the problem!

I really like the IBM; it's going to become our travel computer on the Ultra now. We took it with us this last year on vacation, and it's really handy for programming the GPS. Also, when I'm awake at 5 am and the Mrs. sleeps until 8, it gives me something to do.

We bought our daughter an HP laptop 4 years ago as well, it still works fantastic.

BnEUC