Needing to buy a laptop & could use your help.......

[b8man]

I'll just say that my Macbook died just after the warranty ran out with a complete failure of the motherboard and hard disk. Cost more to have it repaired than buy a new one. And the Apple center said "oh yeah, this happens sometimes - but very rarely" just as another person brought in another Macbook with the same problem. First laptop that's died on me and happens to be the priciest.

 

[Stoner4Life]

I need a price you are willing to spend, to find you the best deal

OK, saw the screen sizes & need to have
the 17", would like to keep it @ $800 or less.

but I don't really want someone just to shop
price, I'm looking for advice on units first.......

 

[uraverage]

OK, saw the screen sizes & need to have
the 17", would like to keep it @ $800 or less.

but I don't really want someone just to shop
price, I'm looking for advice on units first.......

totally understood, I just didnt want to tell you about apples(no pun meant) if your looking for oranges.

 

[the Rock]

I sent my DV6000 back twice with a fried motherboard,they replaced it twice even after warranty was up. Other than that it has worked great for over 2 years. I am going to replace it with a Fujitsu next year,they are the best PC laptop out there right now(other than MAC) Dont get a sony either.L bought each of my kids a vaio,they work but are made cheap

 

[cracker420]

macbook.. i love mine!

 

[the Rock]

valid points NOKUY/Drugley. I'm very careful w/my possessions,
I'll likely never drop or even bump it hard, if it needs to be kept
cool for prolonged usage I'll accommodate that as well, it would
primarily be used in my motorhome & only perhaps brought into
a public building if I couldn't access a signal curbside or in a lot.


This is why the wifi capabilities are a biggger issue to me, I'd prefer
to surf the web from my couch than a stool in a Starbucks.......

I know that wifi has a lot to do w/its own signal strength but there
must be some laptops that have better reception capabilities.

get a hawking USB dish adapter antennato hook to your laptop= I pick up networks over a mile away,and I am out in the boonies=free high speed wireless for the last three years since i bought this thing and I have choice of 4-5 networks at all times(unsecured)

 

[DrugleyDoRite]

well thats not a fair statement.

more ppl have hp's, and more ppl are not diligent w/ their care.

like i said 3 yrs and nevr an issue, and i abuse my comp.

Yes, they seem to be popular and it would affect the number of units breaking down. This is just the experience I have had with them.

I have never owned an HP but I do know people that have.

One thing I will mention, all the years I have repaired computers I have never seen an IBM Thinkpad in my shop for hardware problems. I can't say the same for Dell, HP, Compaq, Acer, .....well....You get the picture.

 

[j6p]

I need to buy a laptop here in the next couple of weeks. I used a laptop for the first time this past summer and hated it because of the smaller keyboard and the touchpad mouse (which I can remedy by adding a trackball mouse I think)

Yes, you can get a Logitech wireless mouse at Walmart for about $20 and simply plug its small remote into a USB, and you're good to go. I'm looking to buy a laptop now myself. I used a Dell from work for three years, and had no problems. Hated the smaller keyboard as well initially, but adapted to it pretty quickly. Need to do more laptop research, so I'm interested in this thread.

 

[soulfly22583]

Ive had my fair share of use with laptops so I will just toss out my thoughts via brand

Toshiba - I wouldnt recommend these to my worst enemy. I have seen nothing but bad things happen to them. Main board failures, HD deaths, and Ram problems like no other

HP - Ive had fairly good use with HP's. Had a friend bring me theirs in hopes of fixing it and getting XP on it. Found out after 4 days of doing everything I possibly could that the specific model i was using was basically "hard wired" for vista only. One thing I will say though is their tech support was really good and very fast.

Dell - The consumer series i have used all were craptacular. Very underpowered and prone to heat issues. The business side though get the real gems. Very strong and stable platforms with plenty of memory and storage.

Lenovo - I have to work with these almost daily and they are rock solid. I have yet to see one that was messed up due to user error, now i have seen a few lemons out of the box direct from China BUT that is to be expected to some degree.

Apple - I have a 17" powerbook and have had MANY issues with it. The new MacBook Pro's on the other hand are very solid and to be honest, if you configure it right, you wont need another machine for a minimum of 5 years (max your memory to obtain this) One thing id be hesitant of, AppleCare. I had a horrible experience with my machine but have had my apple nerd friends tell me they have had flawless support, so its kind of a 50/50 to me.


Now for what you want to do id suggest in the end you get 4GB of RAM, a 250GB Hard Drive (these seem to be the standard these days) (also, if you can, get a SSD - Solid State Drive, it will add to the overall cost but they are quite fast) and for video watching most of the standard "on board" video cards will work fine.

If you are truly concerned about the keyboard size then get a USB or wireles keyboard and use it like you would use your trackball mouse (also, if you think the touchpad is slow, you can adjust the settings, fiddle with it till you find your happy spot)

ow one last thing - on WIFI. Basically, EVERY single laptop manufacturere will install a A/B/G/Pre-draft N card in the machine. these are petty much standard across the board. The big issue with connectivity will be the placement of your wireless router - remember that brick walls and concrete walls are not friends of wifi, they will degrade a signal VERY badly.


Hope that helps =)

 

[solace]

For what you want, you shouldn't have to pay over 500$ USD.

If you live by a university, go check out their surplus store the day they restock it (usually the first day of the month. You can get some KILLER deals for 6month old lap tops.

I got a 1500$ laptop made 11 months ago, was going to use it for ad hoc but ended up not doing that. I bought it 2 months ago, from the university surplus store for only 200$. Like new. FAST processing speed and when my friends are getting low connections, I'm always double theirs.

Try finding some hong kong generic cards/chips - they work just as good as the 100 dollar fancy ones out there - just without the brand label.
cheers

 

[FrankRizzo]

I have had my Mac Powerbook (old mac book pro) goin on five years. Never a single virus, ever. Has been dropped on more occasions then I care to think about. Have replaced the battery once, but that will happen with any laptop. Recently got a new power cord, but I abused the living day lights out of my last one. There are ways around apple's support. Email Steve jobs, not joking. While I have never needed to do it one of my buddies was having issues and got it sorted out that way.

If you are used to pc's it will take a bit to get used to the new operating system. But it's worth it. Bill Gates could offer me his whole net worth and I wouldn't go back to a pc.

Macs cost a bit more, but to me they are worth every penny.

Good luck in your search.

Edit- I forgot to mention that for what you want to do a macbook is all you would need. The macbook pro would be overkill.

 

[soulfly22583]

I have had my Mac Powerbook (old mac book pro) goin on five years. Never a single virus, ever. Has been dropped on more occasions then I care to think about. Have replaced the battery once, but that will happen with any laptop. Recently got a new power cord, but I abused the living day lights out of my last one. There are ways around apple's support. Email Steve jobs, not joking. While I have never needed to do it one of my buddies was having issues and got it sorted out that way.

If you are used to pc's it will take a bit to get used to the new operating system. But it's worth it. Bill Gates could offer me his whole net worth and I wouldn't go back to a pc.

Macs cost a bit more, but to me they are worth every penny.

Good luck in your search.

Man i am on my 3rd power cord!!! I need to replace my battery soon but i also dont do the whole let it fully charge then run it down to nothing to recharge, i know they say that prolongs the life but I just cant for the life of me see how that really stands in these days with prices being so low and how quickly better tech is coming out.

The change from windows to mac is a bit of a curve but ive found its very easy for most people cause they only know a few universal programs (IE/FireFox, itunes, and some sort of email - although most people are now using webbased email clients)

glad to see a fellow powerbook user =)

 

[Stoner4Life]

thanks for all the responses, I've done a lot of looking and am
narrowing it down to the HP or the IBM Lenovo, Macs looked
nice but were too pricey for me although I keep thinking Mac
will be my next desktop pc for sure.......

 

[LolaGal]

Mac B ook Pro gets my vote.

The Mac Book Pro has fire wire, so that is why you need the Pro. Mac is too cheap to put firewire on the Mac Book anymore, bummer.

Fire Wire is great for downloading.

i had HP and finally gave up on PC totally, got tired of having to program it all the time.

Mac Book Pro all the way! Works, no viruses, and did I mention, it works? all the time? Never crashes, great machine.

go for it! You won't be sorry. AND the Mac people will download all your PC stuff onto your Mac when you switch for free....

 

[Herbasaurus]

Get the cheapest mac - my daughter has one, I have an older one. Hers has great wi-fi reception.

You can always get a mouse and keyboard for heavier work.

Hate to disagree with the lovely and talented Lola but I find USB to be as quick as firewire for most things and firewire has nothing to do with downloading from the net. fire wire is marginally quicker wired to another computer or hard drive but it is really only marginal and not worth extra bucks IMHO.

 

[bicyclebenny]

With win7 coming out on the 22nd, lots of laptops will be on sale. As a Dell user, I'm way happy with them. My main l/t is awaiting a new mobo, but it's about 3 years old, so no biggie. $100 on ebay if I'm patient.
If dependibilty is an issue, I'd have a look at reliability ratings on Consumer Reports. Though, IIRC, it goes something like this, top to bottom: Sony, IBM, Toshiba, Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer, Compaq. If I wasn't a Dell fan, I'd buy any one of those brands but Gateway, cause they suck. But as we've been told, smoking pot makes people buy Gateway.

 

[bicyclebenny]

oh yeah, I think Apple is between IBM and Toshiba on that list, but I'm not certain.

 

[soulfly22583]

Hate to disagree with the lovely and talented Lola but I find USB to be as quick as firewire for most things and firewire has nothing to do with downloading from the net. fire wire is marginally quicker wired to another computer or hard drive but it is really only marginal and not worth extra bucks IMHO.

was just reading on FireWire 800 vs. USB and the transfer for USB is 280MHz vs 3200MHz for FireWire 800. That is one hell of a difference in speed. I have seen the difference on my mac but only when working with video or audio files. I will say this about USB, it is a hell of a lot more stable on MAC's than on most PC's

 

[Yummybud]

I paid 800 for my hp dv2000 new 2 years ago. still works fine. not sure how good the wireless wifi is. I know sometimes it gets a weak signal for wireless internet like when i'm at school or the library.

I don't like apple, I prefer windows as I'm just used to it I don't want to switch to the mac operating system. plus to mac laptops are frikin expensive like 1500-3000 for the ones i've seen.

I also just use it for the net browsing and wordprocessing, and watching movies or whatever, so I don't need something really fancy that costs a fortune.

mines a 15" lcd and full size keyboard 80Gb hard drive I think which is enough.

 

[grapeman]

Get a Mac used laptop on craig' List. Intel only. anything else and you are an idiot and don't ask for help. Just buy and then cry later when you have problems.

PC's and windows are for idiots that don't know better or can't afford the extra $100 bucks now, but defend the extra $500 bucks later as they spend to keep it running virus and problem free.