Laptop Thread

[w00dland]

Whats good? I don't know near as much about laptops as I do desktops. I've looked through Dell's website and Apple's website. That iBook looks sexy, but so expensive! Anyone with knowledge about laptops would be greatly helpful. This is for college next year.

[RBull4life]

Are you looking for inexpensive, or powerful? Depends if you are going to be using it for more than just college.

[w00dland]

I'm looking for something that is going to come with good quality programs that I'm not going to run into trouble with, something I can still play Counter-Strike 1.6 on and RCT3 on. Something that has a dvd player and still is somewhat inexpensive.

[RBull4life]

I just pickeded up a Dell XPS M140 that costs around $680 I beleive. I have got RCT3 on there, and it runs just as good as it does on my desktop. The only thing is with RCT3, the lighting is not as bright, and the water is not refelctive. but other than that it runs great. Not sure about Counter-Strike. Its got a DVD-Burner.
Persoanlly I like Dell Laptops. My work, and home laptop's are Dell.

[Aero737]

Let me get home from work.. I'm planning on purcasing a new laptop next week so I've been doing a lot of research.. I'm also an IT Tech so that helps a lot (I deal with tons of student laptops every day).

[Trailblazer Tony]

For our architecture program at UIC, me and my roommate both had to get personalized laptops for our class programs. I got the Dell version and he got the Apple version. His was slightly cheaper, but mine worked a lot better. I don't know how relevant that is, but thought i'd put it out there for the taking.

[viperchick85]

Dells are good. Make sure it has XP with at least a pentium 4 and a gb of ram on it.

[HoffmanMyster]

if you want to be able to play RCT 3, then you cant get a mac, cause macs dont run all games, one of them being RCT 3...in the PC category, Dells are good and get the job done, but theyre a bit over priced for what you get, and their service is horrible, worst ive ever seen (other than MPC)...if you get an HP, Compaq or gateway, they would be about as good as a Dell, if not better, but gateways tend to be more expensive than Dells, so id say get an HP or compaq, and compaqs have great service and great bundles and such...personally id go with the compaq, but in the end, its up to you...

[RagingBullLover1543]

^I agree I have a mac and I'm pretty impressed with the design.

[Aero737]

Whatever you do.. Don't get a Pentium 4 laptop!

Get one of the new Core processors or even the new Core 2 (Konroe).

Intel has done away with the Pentium line..not that Pentium 4's ever worked well in a laptop to begin with.

I would highly suggest dells based on the sheer cheapeness of the hardware. You can easily get 750 off coupons or 35% off coupons for their laptops. You just have to wait a bit (they cycle about 1 month).

If you have any specific questions, ask!

[Jackluver18]

Dells stink, I hate dells. They aren't worth the money. Mine broke in college and I had 2 weeks left of school and I needed to write papers and stuff for school. I have a dell here at home and it's only 2 years old and it sucks, it's slow there aren't any games on it or anything and it's just crap. Anyways Dells aren't worth it.

[HoffmanMyster]

dont get a dell, their service is horrible, my sister got one for college and it came with a free memory upgrade and she never got one...and now (about 4 years later) you can barely do anything on it, and it has barely anything on the hard drive, its horrible...and its pretty fast and we upgraded the RAM ourselves, so mechanically theres nothing wrong...other than the fact its a dell...

[ragingbullchick]

I had a Dell XPS for about a month. It worked until some virus got into it and completley crashed the whole system on that thing.

For my (belated) birthday I got a "sexy" iBook. I think it's worth the money. I love it right now for internet use, but I don't know how it would work out with college papers.

[Aero737]

All you people are bashing dell proably because you messed up your own computers.

Computers fail on their own very rarely. Sorry if you got a virus, but viruses don't just hit dells. Slow computer? Prob full of spyware.

Point is, when it comes to laptops dell makes the laptops that are cheep but still of quality. I have a dell laptop and I've had no issues.

Dell Support has gone downhill now that it is outsourced, but it is still so easy to get what you need. Technical support might be lacking, but if something is wrong you can generally get it taken care of. They also offer on site serive (with the approperiate warrenty).

Here my honest opinion of some of the laptop manufacturers (after all, I do work on many student laptops all day).

HP: Somewhat ugly and oftentimes heavy. HP is the bottom of the bottle when it comes to computers in general. HP compaq support is horrible (trust me - I spen 3 hours on the phone with them Monday). They use generic parts. Their website is something to behold and is quite easy to get software.

Toshiba: Not bad, they make some powerful sturdy laptops. The price is somewhat high. I've never dealt with customer support. All their laptops I've dealt with have felt sturdy and well built (I've taken care and fixed one that had a fluid spill).

Apple: Well you get apples overprised hardware..wait, it's the same hardware that every other computer uses now. I'm somewhat biased against apple, but they charge too damn much for their technology. You can get a ibook/macbook and run BootCamp and run windows and OSX, but you are garaunteed to pay around 2000.

Saager: in my opinion these people make the best laptops. Only downfall is the price. You can get a kick ass powerful laptop through them.

Dell: Well, their parts are generic (at least RAM) and upgrades through them are expensive. But they almost always have huge discounts and good deals. Some schools offer good Educational Discounts. The new modles are not built as solidly as their older lines (the 9xxx's) but arnt flimsy. I've talked to dell support quite a bit, and if you know what the problem is you can get it taken care of quickly.

Alienware: Don't bother..

Gateway: One of the worst.. see HP only uglier in my opinion. Their laptop line is not as popular as others.

------------------

Dell by far has the most popular laptop line of them all. I guess outside of this I can't give much more advice.

If you have questions specifically go ahead and ask. Also if you have and questions about Hardware, I know quite a bit about that..

[HoffmanMyster]

I wasnt bashing because of viruses or anything, I was bashing because their service is horrible...and when you format the hard drive and re-install the operating system and its still REALLY slow and messed up with NOTHING on it, I think there's something wrong with the computer, not the user...

[viperchick85]

I have a Dell desk top and unless you keep on top of the updates, your computer might as well be smashed outside. XP needs patches as it is, but I think Dells are more likely to get viruses unless you install the updates. I can't even remember how many times I've had to wipe the hard drive on that thing, but as soon as I got an anti-spy ware product (Free) and had it updated automatically, it hasn't had a problem since. A computer is only as good as its operator.

[the_franchise]

IBM is great also. I got one that I am on right now and it goes real quick on internet and I got RCT2 on it. Also, I got a Compaq Presario 2100, it's real good as well but viruses got to it.

[Aero737]

Viruses don't target certain systems and Dells don't have any security flaws that other computers may have..

[viperchick85]

We didn't even have DSL and we had some of the worst viruses. And it was on a Dell. I've had nothing but bad luck with them.

[RBull4life]

As I stated earlier in this post, my work laptop is a 5 year old Dell. I am on the internet everyday, and have yet to catch any serious virus that would cause the system to crash. As Aero has mentioned, viruses will strike any computer no matter what brand it is. If you keep up on the, spyware, firewalls, and anti-virus updates you should not have a problem.

[viperchick85]

I haven't had any problems since I chucked my Dell out of a moving van.

[CoasterTycoon77]

I've got a Gateway 7422GX...pretty decent...runs RCT3 and plays/burns DVD really well....can't complain too much other than wanting newer technology already...lol...I'm thinking AMD 64 X2... I wouldn't touch Intel if my life depended on it...

I heard from other people that Alienware was crap...anyone ever look into WidowPC?? They're high priced, but you can't beat the AMERICAN tech support and lifetime tech support....

http://www.widowpc.com, thinking about it, but the money is what kills me...

What about Acer? Should I even touch that one? BTW, I'm thinking desktop if/when I upgrade from this system.

[HoffmanMyster]

I like desktops better because you can upgrade them, which is really helpful, and you can also build it yourself and save yourself a few hundred bucks. And no, i wouldnt get the WidowPC, WAY too expensive, just build your own...

[CoasterTycoon77]

If I build, I'll do the AMD 64 X2 for sure, just debating to go SLI or no SLI...I am quite the computer nerd... If I go SLI I may end up paying just as much to build as going through Widow for their Arachnid SLI....gotta research parts..

[EagleFan344]

Just got mine today, being online anywhere owns