Need a new laptop, help!

[pauldun170]

Originally Posted by Phenix_Rider

You could just clean it... Get rid of anything you don't need, stop programs from auto-loading on startup, run a good virus scanner, and defrag. Maybe add some RAM.

If you're not doing anything major with it, there's really no reason to get a new one. Unless you just want to

agreed
I have desktops going back to 2004. I have an old P4 2.8 and an Athlon64 3800 of similar vintage.
Vista Business is running on the P4 and it runs just fine. Pretty quick loading up and running what I need to run on it.
The Athlon has XP on it and its pretty responsive, though nowadays its strictly the torrent box.

I have some newer stuff running Windows 7, a quad core desktop and an older dual core laptop (HP). The laptop is used as a media center (while all the libraries are hosted on the quad core).

Of all the computers I have the slowest one is probably the laptop due to the slow drives in it.


Now that I have yabble and rabbled about my crap.


Asus is the most reliable.
HP has pretty good service which you will need the day after the warranty expires (they have made some poor design decisions)
A basic Dell is a suprisingly good deal and you can nab one for bout $500. Service has alledgedly improved.
Apple is overpriced and the hardware quality can be iffy.
IBM\Lenovo Thinkpads used to be indafuckingstructable but nowadays they are bout average.
Toshiba's are ok, but I rarely see them price competitive with the competition. they alsways seem to be an extra 50 bucks.


Whatever you get.
3gig and over of RAM is desirable
2 gig is the absolute minimum. Matter of fact, if they are selling a laptop with 2gig of ram, chances are it sucks in other areas.

Watch out for laptops that are stingy with usb ports.
Stay away from anything with an "Atom" processor.

[Bluestreak]

Avoid HP/compaq like the plague.
Dell has always treated me well.
I hear good things about Asus.
Whatever you do, don't fall for the e-machine...

Windows 7 32bit has a lower ram requirement than 64 bit but the 64bit natively runs faster. Pick your poison.

What Paul said about ram is spot on. 3GB or more is great while 2 is the absolute minimum.

[Kaneman]

DO NOT BUY AN HP!

Bought mine about 6 months ago, it cost me $900 and was supposed to be fast. It won't process digital photos through Photoshop without serious lag, the battery is completely dead and HP won't replace it because I've upgraded to Windows 7 and the DVDROM died months ago. I burned one whole DVD with it. What a fuckin waste.

[LeeNetworX]

As already stated, HP is crap. Stay away from it. When it comes to inexpensive models, Toshiba has some laptops with a nice bang for the buck.

[pauldun170]

Bad - Avoid if they have the following processors
AMD Athlon Neo
AMD Turion Neo
Intel Atom
VIA Nano

Otherwise post up stuff you find and we'll give you our opinion.

[Rider]

I've had my HP laptop at work for 3 years and it still runs strong and I abuse the hell out of it.

[pauldun170]

FYI:
Dell has a deal on Inspiron 15 for $399
For the $399, they skimp on storage but you can up it 320GB (consider that a minimum for harddrive space) and get it for $469.

Its a good fit for what you want to do with it and should be considered your baseline laptop when it comes to specs\price.

Whatever you get, I'd pick up an external harddrive (1TB external can be had for about 90 bucks)

[pauldun170]

Originally Posted by Rider

I've had my HP laptop at work for 3 years and it still runs strong and I abuse the hell out of it.

I have the 8510p for work.
They differ from the consumer line (legacy HP stuff) in that they are a bit tougher.

My Pavilion is poorly designed and not in the same league as the Compaq\HP stuff.

[sherri_chickie]

Thanks for everyone's input. I have tried defragging and actually ran two different debugging programs, just in case that was the problem. I am thinking that I could get an external hard drive and put all my pics on it and delete them from the computer, maybe that would help. But I think I may like to be able to sit my tired butt on the sofa and do my stuff there instead of feeling like a meanie kicking my husband off the desktop because I feel like playing around with facebook or just MSN. I am going to take a look around this weekend-week, while the hubby is in China.

[Rangerscott]

I got a new laptop I need to get rid of
Pm u wjem I get home