Buy a laptop

[twysted73]

Serious about investing in a good computer?

Toshiba.

 

[Always_loopy]

Oh enough about "avoid vista," its not that bad, and now sp1 is out too. If all you want to do is suft and write, then don't spend anymore the £500 and don't buy a dell. I work selling computers everyday and yes a mac is better (by far) but if your used to pc's and you don't want to spend too much then stick with it. If its a laptop you want then look at samsung or toshiba. Don't buy an hp! They break. Get at least a 1.6ghz core 2 duo and 2gb ram, the rest isn't really important for what you need. Don't let someone sell you a more expensive one just because it has a bigger hard drive either, if you need more storage, buy an external drive. Its cheaper and more practical because you have everything backed up incase anything goes wrong. Look at the samsung r60+

 

[coastal-boy]

buy a laptop for what it is...portability. I purchased one as a "desktop" replacement and would not do so again.

 

[Semler]

It sounds like you just need a basic laptop, but my vote goes for an Apple, I made the switch about two years ago when they switched over to the Intel CPU. My thought was that I could always dual boot into Windows when I need to. But you know what? I never did. Apple may not have the large library that Windows has, but you can find a program that will do the same thing as it's Windows counterpart.

Even the folks at Microsoft use Macs.
http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/04/Macbook%20Ballmer%20GI.jpg

 

[mynameiskate]

We've gone through the Dell website to buy a desktop, and we've had no problems. Plus, if you have OK credit, you can finance your laptop, and pay, like, $15 a month.

 

[SweetErika]

We've gone through the Dell website to buy a desktop, and we've had no problems. Plus, if you have OK credit, you can finance your laptop, and pay, like, $15 a month.

Just wait until you want to upgrade that Dell. You'll likely end up having to buy a whole new computer, instead of a few parts for hundreds less.

And I doubt Dell lets you pay $15/month for free. They likely charge a good deal of interest, so people who use the financing end up paying way more than the computer is worth.

 

[soxel]

i've seen 750 gigabyte external harddrives priced at $140-$200, so you can get a small ish harddrive, but if you want a lot of storage, an external harddrive would probably be best.

 

[kromen]

I finally blew my load

Well, after much research, nail biting, and hole burnin from the thick wad in my pocket, i bought my laptop. Hp amd turion x2 with 4gb ddr2, 320 mem, on a 17 in screen. It scored a 70 with consumer reports
Got it on sale and bought into the geek squad service plan. Now, im shoppin for either a phone data card or DSL. Thanx for all info provided. Im a happy man for now but all are welcome to call me a dumb ass when something goes wrong. Peace.

 

[SweetErika]

Well, after much research, nail biting, and hole burnin from the thick wad in my pocket, i bought my laptop. Hp amd turion x2 with 4gb ddr2, 320 mem, on a 17 in screen. It scored a 70 with consumer reports
Got it on sale and bought into the geek squad service plan. Now, im shoppin for either a phone data card or DSL. Thanx for all info provided. Im a happy man for now but all are welcome to call me a dumb ass when something goes wrong. Peace.

Well, everything but the service plan sounds really good. Although I suppose it depends on the price of the computer and the cost vs. how much you're likely to use the service plan.

I was shocked when I opened an offer from Circuit City offering a 3-year protection plan for Hubby's $550 laptop for like $280. I can maybe see doing it on something that cost over a thousand and we were planning on keeping for a long time (like a TV), but laptops are so inexpensive and technology changes so rapidly that I think one would be nuts to pay almost the purchase price just in case something goes wrong from year 1-4. Anyway, we laughed and wondered how many people actually took them up on that "valuable offer."

In our experience with laptops, things usually go wrong in the first year when they're covered under warranty. Beyond that, they're often minor issues that can be fixed relatively easily by someone who's tech-savvy, or the technology has already changed so much that it's better just to replace the computer since most laptops can't be fixed/upgraded like many desktops (at least the desktops we build).

If you go with DSL, be advised that you can often find perfectly good modems for CHEAP on sites like Craigslist. My mom just got DSL, and while we decided it was best for her to rent the modem until she knew she was happy with the service in general, I'll likely get her one of the used modems soon. In many cases, there's absolutely nothing wrong with them, it's just that the owners bought them figuring it'd be cheaper and then had problems with their DSL service or decided to upgrade to cable internet, moved to an area without DSL, etc.

Anyway, it sounds like you're really happy with what you got, and that's the most important thing. I hope you enjoy it and get your money's worth on the protection plan!

 

[niteshade23]

... most all computers have the same internal components, usualy from the exact same manufacturers (whoever is cheepest usualy). It is ither Intell or AMD based processor and ATI or Nvidia based chipsets. name brands don't really make much difference. Dell and Mac are the only ones who make their own internal components. and if you can afford it and arent looking to play PC games (cause no one other then Blizzard is willing to code for it) Mac is definaly the best option. Their preloaded software is not only increadibly userfriendly its very high quality and quite amazing.

as for all the vista haters... yes its a resource Fiend, yes some things just arent in the same places, but if you get a system that can handle it, (i recomend Vista rating 4 or higher minimum) then its good Operating System. As for compatability 1) anything pre vista probably wont work on it. its a new code, its not very backwards friendly, DONT install an XP printer Driver and expect your sytem not to BSOD 2) Get used to it, Vista is all there is going to be, technology is always advancing, learn it early and get ahead of the curve. Microsoft wont even be supporting XP after this summer. They stoped Supporting windows 98, they will stop supporting Vista 2 years after what ever "new and improved" unfathomable resource Fiend comes out in another 5-10 years

 

[ldn_pixie]

I've got a Macbook Pro and it's more than enough for all my computing needs. Yes Mac's are more expensive and to be honest they are more of an artistic laptop. If it is just browsing and watching DVD's then there are more than adequate enough PC's with a much lower price tag. Looking at what you would want to do i would definietly say a Macbook would suit you better if you did opt for a Mac. It's a great little laptop that is really easy to travel with and of course you can upgrade your hardrive and RAM to suit your needs and price options. I went for the Macbook Pro for uni because i was using it for all my project, animations and things like that so i needed a much heavier duty laptop.
If you are going to want more RAM than the basic don't purchase extra through apple as they mark up by about 300% get it from somewhere like www.crucial.com they ship to the US and UK and are incredibly cheap. It is ridiculously easy to install your own RAM on the Macbook there are even instructions in the manual it comes with.

 

[guywithglasses]

www.macofalltrades.com

bought a few refurbished apple laptops from them, they are fantastic. I never had an issue really. maybe I am lucky, but I recomend them.

 

[kromen]

Well, everything but the service plan sounds really good. Although I suppose it depends on the price of the computer and the cost vs. how much you're likely to use the service plan.

I was shocked when I opened an offer from Circuit City offering a 3-year protection plan for Hubby's $550 laptop for like $280. I can maybe see doing it on something that cost over a thousand and we were planning on keeping for a long time (like a TV), but laptops are so inexpensive and technology changes so rapidly that I think one would be nuts to pay almost the purchase price just in case something goes wrong from year 1-4. Anyway, we laughed and wondered how many people actually took them up on that "valuable offer."

In our experience with laptops, things usually go wrong in the first year when they're covered under warranty. Beyond that, they're often minor issues that can be fixed relatively easily by someone who's tech-savvy, or the technology has already changed so much that it's better just to replace the computer since most laptops can't be fixed/upgraded like many desktops (at least the desktops we build).

If you go with DSL, be advised that you can often find perfectly good modems for CHEAP on sites like Craigslist. My mom just got DSL, and while we decided it was best for her to rent the modem until she knew she was happy with the service in general, I'll likely get her one of the used modems soon. In many cases, there's absolutely nothing wrong with them, it's just that the owners bought them figuring it'd be cheaper and then had problems with their DSL service or decided to upgrade to cable internet, moved to an area without DSL, etc.

Anyway, it sounds like you're really happy with what you got, and that's the most important thing. I hope you enjoy it and get your money's worth on the protection plan!

Wouldn't you know it, I finally got to use the service plan. The motherboard went out on me. Took to the geeks, they sent it off for two weeks, replaced the mother board and the battery. Cost me nothing and i still have a year left on the plan. I think I might drop the damn thing out of the window a couple days before the expiration date.

 

[Vixandra]

I'd agree with others- AVOID VISTA. Its a memory hog.

I just bought a new HP laptop off of Amazon.com with Windows 7 on it and am really pleased so far. For $650 I have a machine that can run Aion or WOW with ease. It can handle four open documents, Firefox, Trillian and iTunes running all together with out missing a beat.

Check the BestBuy Black Friday ad, it just came out and has some good stuff in it.