Buying a laptop: Advice needed

[Alidar Jarok]

A few months ago, my laptop died (I'd have to replace the motherboard to fix it). After asking around with a few people, I found out that it had a known issue and I was one of many people to fall victim to it.

Now I'm off to buy a new computer. My goal is to get something that costs less than $600 (ideally less than $500). The only thing I will not buy is an HP computer (since that's what I just had). Anyone have any recommendations for a computer? Any computers I should avoid? I'm just trying to avoid the same potential problems I had last time.

 

[RevDMV]

I bough an ASUS a few months back to replace a dead Dell. It was on sale less than $500 out the door.

Intel Duo Core, 500g HD, 4gb ram. I run 64 bit windows and VM ware. It makes for a nice mobile development machine.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

That sounds pretty good. How is the ASUS so far?

Also, I was looking online. BestBuy has a father's day sale that I think ends today. If anyone has any feedback on this computer, let me know

 

[Robert Maxwell]

ASUS does make pretty solid machines.

Check out NewEgg.com and see what they have. Read the reviews and decide for yourself. They have good prices and the reviews tend to run the gamut. One or two people might have had bad experiences, but you'll be able to tell pretty easily if it's a widespread thing based on the number of poor reviews.

ETA: Toshiba Satellites, I never hear much about. I assume that means they are very average machines, neither stellar nor horrible.

 

[John Clark]

We do have an old Toshiba laptop that still runs. Just to give you a clue as to how old it is, it had a pentium 120 chip if I recall correctly. I can't say if they're still that reliable.

Mostly, I use an Acer Aspire 5100 (also getting a bit long in the tooth) and I haven't had any problems with it. One of my relatives has an older Acer though and they tell me that the touchpad fell apart on them.

 

[Marie1]

I have had wonderful success with Toshiba- been able to find all the hardware I need at a good price. And the stuff seems good quality- my laptop, DVD player, my LCD TV have all been beyond my expectations. And I've had my laptop for 3 years, my DVD player years longer... they still function really well!

 

[Spot's Meow]

I had a Toshiba Satellite for many years and I loved it. It actually still works great but the end of the power cord broke and I haven't replaced it. I am currently using an Acer Aspire One netbook and it is very nice.

 

[Amaris]

Acer, Asus, Apple, Toshiba. That's about all I can recommend anymore.
HP's lost a lot of QC over the past two years, Dell is...well, Dell, and Compaq is just HP.

 

[Hoser]

I love my Asus netbook.

 

[propita]

I got an old IBM Thinkpad with 720 MB hardrive--yes, 720 MEGABYTE--from 1996. Last I checked, it still booted up. How much will you give me for that?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I've had my Acer Aspire 8920 for 2 years. It has never had any serious hardware failures with only one exception earlier this year which was resolved by cleaning out the heat sink. This is in stark contrast to my previous Rock laptop which had 3 major failures (the first within 2 weeks, the second 15 months later).

 

[propita]

Hubby wants to go Mac. He wants that 27" iMac, with the CPU in the monitor. He says his eyes are too old and tired for his 17" Dell laptop. He can afford it? Then he can buy it.

I think he should get an ipad while he's at it.

 

[RevDMV]

We have an iMac for the kids machine (they use macs in school), it's a nice piece of hardware, and a prefect operating environment as far as being hassle free.

I wanted to get a Mac Book Pro originally when I was shopping for this notebook, but I couldn't justify the cost difference, and didn't need to run OSx.

 

[Hoser]

http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...n-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=919776&SID=

Newegg's got a sale today if you want to check it out...

 

[John Picard]

I know a few people with ASUS machines loaded with Linux and are hap-hap-happy.

 

[Colonel Green]

The only thing I will not buy is an HP computer

This is all that I was going to say. I will never purchase another HP product.

 

[farmkid]

Take a look at Lenovo's Thinkpad T series. I have a T61 I've been using for about two years now, and it's the best built laptop I've ever used. You'll pay a little more for it, but it's hard to find one as well built.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The only thing I will not buy is an HP computer

This is all that I was going to say. I will never purchase another HP product.

Glad someone agrees with me here

 

[John Picard]

The only thing I will not buy is an HP computer

This is all that I was going to say. I will never purchase another HP product.

Glad someone agrees with me here

That, and a Gateway.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I used to have a Gateway. At the time, I was unhappy with it, but my experiences with HP have made me look fondly on my old laptop (which is just sad).