1 g0t 0wn3d

I have had a gateway and the battery has lasted for 8 yrs and still holds a 3 hr charge.

apluscnc

Ive had every kind of desktop made I think, but I 've only had Dell Laptops and I love them. Their Customer Support is awesome. I can put in a Service Tag for a five year old Laptop and have a Support Tech online helping me with an out of warranty machine in five minutes. I have 3 C800 series (C800, C810 or C840's) and 5 C C600's ( a mix of C600's and C610's). All are P3'S between 750 to 1500 MHZ with 256GB to 512GB of RAM. They all run XP because I have a factory recovery CD that will restore XP Pro on any Dell. I get them off ebay for less than 200 bucks all the time. The only problems I've ever had is with keyboards, but I can get replacements for 20 bucks each. I love them. They will run anything I through at them.

Ignorance is Bliss.

craigwatanabe

having worked on all of those laptop company's products mentioned, my pick for the best bang for the buck is a Toshiba.

The IBM Thinkpad being sold nowdays aren't IBM's anymore. Lenovo was licensed to take over IBM's laptop business that's why you saw both names on them.

Now however, Lenovo own's the Thinkpad name outright and has gone forward in creating their own line of desktop towers called ThinkCentre.

Like Sony Viao, Lenovo has gone into using very proprietary software especially when trying to wirelessly link to a network. You have to use Lenovo's connectivity suite. If you try to use Windows wireless utility, Lenovo shuts down it's wifi antenna during online sessions. Verrrrry frustrating.

My wife just acquired a Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop for work and was frustrated when the brand-spankin new DVD-RAM drive failed to recognize anything put in it. Drivers looked fine so it was determined the drive was bad and she should return it to CompUSA...Well guess what? CompUSA is going out of business! At least here in Hawaii.

I told her whenever she wants me to void that warranty to fix her computer to let me know. So she's deciding what to do.

Now Panasonic is a great computer. I have an older Panasonic running a PII Intel Processor and it still runs circles around my Dell Inspiron 2650 piece of junk.

Snoopdogie187

For what i used:

Everyday common peron a dell is fine for if they are looking for nothing costing too much and want another in a few years.

I have a toshiba right now, people say all the software that came on it is bad, well most on mine was toshiba software to burn dvds or wireless, not as bad as the HP desktop i had and on top of that, i got a CD for system recovery unlike a lot of companies that put it on the hard drive and you have to make your own. only bad part is battery life is bad.

I also used an acer, which seemed fine too, battery life was bad though and it got hot just being on, so you have to be careful with that.

my friend has an old sony laptop (from china i think) and it seems good for its age with few problems.

HP, i heard a lot about their motherboards going and the desktop i had was no different then that.

I have used a IBM lenovo X60s, it is just what i need for class. Living on campus at a college (Rutgers, New brunswick to be exact) it takes a bating to get around campus, busses that are worse then NYC with all the people on them, all the traffic, just the distance. The X series is extremly lite and easy to carry around plus i was never afraid that it would break. it is a little pricy, not too bad though plus it doesnt use much cooling besides its size being so small that not enough heat can build up in it i think (somewhat). The battery lasts a really long time, 3+ hours min. playing a game that kills my toshiba in about an hour. then i think it was 5 hours just being on which is what i just need when i have two or three classes in a row. So yea i am trying to save up for a X61 of my own to use for class.

~is accepting donations towards new laptop~

Wisey!

In searching this thread I don't think anyone has mentioned MESH.

I had a 17" P4 MESH laptop, my first couple of years with it were very good although battery life was crap (I bought it second hand when it was about a year old) and it wouldn't last anymore than 10minutes and it ran really hot, however it did just keep running for ages and never seemed to go wrong.

Until in the third year, stuff started to fall apart, one of the two 512MB RAM chips broke so the computer wouldn't boot with it in and then once this happend:


No idea...

And then later it started to randomly not boot, this become more and more a common occorance until had to try to boot it 3-4 times every time I wanted it on. Until eventual it wouldn't boot at all (managed to boot with a Norton file saving disc thing) so I took to a techy friend and he told me that either the motherboard or processor had gone.

======================

Now I have a pretty damn good Dell XPS M1530 (IMO) see spec at the side. And have had it about a month and have no problems with it at all (supriseingly, since it had Vista..). Boots real quick, finger print scanner is pretty cool too (and it works well). Runs Crysis on medium well (seems to be a bench mark atm). All that for £700, it's lifespan remains to be seen, but I'm very pleased with it atm.

fmjaguar7

well i might jump in here, agree alot with original post, except Compaq, sure they arnt the best but i have had a compaq desktop that my parents bought me for 10 years now lol, its finally hit its end but ever since i got it it has been easily upgraded to run for 10 years w/o a single hickup, i think i wiped HDD and started fresh windows once in all that time. upgraded about everything on it by now and still runs well, just cant handle any new apps such as COD4 but eh its old!

buy now i got a PC (laptop) i got to pick myself and i went with Sager, GREAT deals on their products and very reliable systems, its a 2092 with top line everything 200gb at 7200rpm an 8600GT 512mb and intel core2 Duo (2.5 Ghz) and WSXGA+ screen. very nice laptop and i love it dearly... runs COD4 on extra settings w/o a hickup, also runs Crysis on Extra but at about 20 fps, 35+ if i run it on High settings. so im gonna go with Sager as my pick for now, but really it would be a Compal (not Compaq) case assembled by Sager
www.sagernotebooks.com
anyways yea thats my product of choice, kinda of an underground Power notebook brand
when running off of battery i get 3-5 hours as well! (3 while playing COD4 and other games, and around 5 if its music)

Fox

Having been around the block with this, I'm going to take back any recommendations for a 'gaming' or 'high powered' notebook.

Buying a high powered notebook is silly for a couple of reasons. The first and most significant of which is the fact that a high powered notebook will be the fastest to depreciate, and will depreciate the most out of any new notebook. Second, high powered notebooks, from my experience, are much more prone to hardware failures due to the high amount of heat that they have to deal with, often with less-than-adequate ventilation. Heat killed the crappy sunon fan on my Acer, and I had to get the entire cooling unit which cost 70+ dollars because nobody sells the fan alone. That's pretty poor.

I found a Dell C600 on Craigslist at my university for 20 dollars, and after replacing the hard drive and cutting the accupoint ribbon (which was faulty and caused the cursor to go everywhere) it is now a near perfect laptop. The battery takes a charge just long enough to change outlets, but for a semi-portable computer, it does almost anything I want it to, which is usually torrenting out my window at school to places where my desktop won't reach :D

Not only that, I don't have to worry that much about it breaking since it cost me so little, and I can travel confidently with it. It's small, boots up fast, is light... it's everything that my Acer isn't and wasn't made to be.

So, in summary, my 'pick' will now be anything you can get used for super-cheap. That's a sure-fire way to get the best value.

Mcninjaguy

My gf recently bought this nice laptop a ASUS F8DN i think for $1049
its got a 9500 GPU, 1.86Dual coreCPU and 3 gigs of ram

The only thing thats broke was left mouse button stopped working for a week and now its good again.
It's also got the fingerprint scanner which is awesomely cool.She logs in all the time with it and it's pretty good for recognizing it
The cooling on this thing is pretty amazing for a laptop the fan in it is about as stong as a 80mm case fan

OwnYou280

my compaq persario sux balls currently shuts off randomly and the cd/burning drive needs replaced...only had it a little over a year and now my lil 1 year warrenty is gone and i have to pay to get somthing fix now -.-

C-Will - DSP

Just one comment about the reason people buy dell.... - WARRANTY.

I am a Technician currently contracted to Dell (as well as Fujitsu, NCR and Acer) and i see people who have STABBED THEIR COMPUTER WITH A SCREWDRIVER and Dell still fixed it as "Under Warranty".

Fox

Yep, especially with the stuff that goes on in college campuses. I've worked on a couple of Dells at my school - my cousin's, which had a display failure, and his roomie's, which had a problem with the keyboard. I love how easy they are to disassemble- and they almost always have tear-apart guides published. That's really helpful.

C-Will - DSP

I agree fox they are a heaps easier than macs or asus to break apart. Except for the XPS M1330 Laptop.... they are easy to pull apart but annoyingly hard to put back together again.

PVL

Got a Hp pavilion 9076eu 17 inc monster. heavy not realy moibl. if you run him on full whis out battery you dont have much time about 45min - 1 hour max. on low if you want to save battre is not much too 1.5 hour to 2.5 hour max. if you want a good grafic is not much but ok.
now i want to change my notebook from hp pavilion 9076eu to
Alineware area-51mx 15inc. what you think about this notebook ?

fmjaguar7

i know those alien wares look nice but no, you are paying an extra grand for a funky alien on your lid... go with a sager or ATLEAST check them out
here is a good one
http://www.sagernotebook.com/product....php?pid=91133
i currently own five of their systems now, all works great and have never had a single problem, CHEAPEST PRICES around for a power packed notebook, they use GREAT components so you know it will work, and they have great tech support to go with it, i only had to call once and it was for a dell lol but they still helped me.

check them out and post what you think

bluegarfield

i'm using Dell Inspiron 6400 intel t2060 1.6GHz, 2 GB RAM and ATi Radeon x1400. the system run quite well, no prob with the hardware except it generate a lot of heat. I think Dell should be ok for students, since it's quite cheap and stable ( as far as i concern, bcuz i keep my laptop quite well. And my friends using other brands, commonly HP and Compaq, had lots of problems)

What about Asus? anyone have experience using Asus? I want to buy a new laptop and i'm open to any offer, as long as it's the best.

(btw, i live in S'pore so there may be some differences, i assume :D)

Kailie

I prefer ASUS. Their hardware they make is next to best compared to all the other companies out there. DeLL on the other hand, sucks hard core. Not only do their tech support suck. But they are way overpriced and get away with charging that much b/c the people who buy their crap know nothing about computers.

Pamster1

I am looking at buying a new laptop and compusa has just what I am looking for here:

http://www.compusa.com/applications/...Sku=A180-16006

It's an Acer Aspire AS6930-6723 Notebook PC - Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2.0GHz, Bluetooth, 802.11a/g/n WLAN, 4GB DDR2, 320GB HDD, Blu-Ray/ DL DVDRW, 16" TFT, Integrated Webcam, Vista Home Premium 64. I think it's gonna make me a very happy camper since I am looking for a versitle desktop replacement machine. What do you guys think of this machine? It claims up to 3.5 hours of battery life, but I will most likely use the power cord most of the time. I really like that it has so many awesome things going for it but the slower hard drive bothers me. Oh well, can't have it all for just under 1K. :)

reggaeone

while i have not tried the other laptops mentioned I'm very happy with my Dell Inspiron 6000 (since 2005)....i have upgraded the memory & harddrive. Never had a problem and I also use it as part of my DJ setup. Its been dropped a few times and still very dependable.

Kasedie

This is my two cents

In jamaica Dell is average, service doesn't mean that much

Acers are pretty good unless your little sun pours water into it and even then only the keyboard is out

i have a new toshiba (1 month) it never keeps the time and i pugged my headphone into it for the first time last week and the speakers did not come on when i plugged it out, still havent come on.

my brother's toshiba went through a hard drive in less than a year. easy to source and replace though

my sister's hp has been a headache, now my mom has a new one, hope it lasts

smith31

Just thank you 4 this