OT - laptop recommendations

[michlady77]

and yes i have been to computer showcase but it is really for my home use, not super heavy but occasionally work at home

 

[TheVictors]

i am like red and guilty

i have been i die hard pc user for 30 years so hard to do the mac thing - i have tried several times

Yeah, when I'm using the wife's laptop it feels like driving a car in London, all backwards and without the same shortcuts I know from years on a PC.

 

[newton83]

Uhh.. so are Dell's and pretty much any other brand. The only Dell-related brand still assembled in the US is Alienware; 95% of Dell's notebooks are assembled in China (the rest are from India or Poland).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell#Manufacturing

I guess you think the iPhone is of inferior quality because it is made in China too, right?

If you'd like, I can send you a 50 page graduate school case study on Dell and its "revolutionary" Just in Time assembly process that I wrote .....

And I don't think the iPhone is inferior because it is made in China, I think the iPhone is inferior because as a phone, it sucks. Our IT dept made the remark about Lenovo in comparison to Dell based on the overwhelmingly negative response from employees assigned the machines.

I guess you get what you pay for and Lenovo made some cheap pitch to our IT buyer and now we're stuck.

But please, tell me more about globalized manufacturing and outsourcing.....

Who cares about your graduate paper on Dell? None of that knowledge came across when you claimed Lenovo sucks because it is based in China when Dell itself makes the vast majority of their laptops in China as well. I guess I should have read your mind and realized that you studied this topic in depth several years ago and apparently are not up to date on the latest state of the industry. I'm not sure I see the relevance of you bringing that up other than an attempt to wave your scholarly e-peen around.

I'll believe you have a case for quality when you pull out some actual metrics that back you up. Some secondhand story about your IT department's experience isn't gonna cut it. The fact that employees reacted negatively could mean any number of things, from a poor model selection to a disagreement in aesthetics or perhaps changes in provisioning and software access. Why not describe the actual issue and give your argument some teeth?

And before you accuse me of not presenting any facts to back up my claims, remember that all I am saying is that the simple fact of a product being manufactured in China does not mean that it is an inferior piece of shit. Plenty of crappy products come from China but plenty of good ones do too. You can't look at me with a straight face and claim that Apple products are of poor quality. I am aware of and hold many complaints against Apple products, but manufacturing quality is pretty low on the list.

 

[TheVictors]

There is a difference between "being made in China" and being made by a Chinese company in my opinion.

 

[newton83]

There is a difference between "being made in China" and being made by a Chinese company in my opinion.

That I'll agree with. US companies doing the engineering and design specification while handing the manufacturing to China is one thing. Outsourcing to whole operation top-to-bottom is another.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

There is a difference between "being made in China" and being made by a Chinese company in my opinion.

(insert American car joke here)

 

[erg57]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214407

Literally just bought this one last night from New Egg. Nothing spectacular but not low end either.

I currently have an older slow HP laptop with Windows Vista. Makes it tough to go home to that when at work I'm on a 64 bit Windows 7 desktop with dual widescreen monitors.

thats a good price for that machine. I have similar specs on a HP that cost 1,000 two year ago

 

[icetime]

Have to agree with Apple folks. MacBook Pro. Comes with all basic software tools you need. not virus proof but less 'exposure' certainly on a Mac than pc laptop. Also more expensive, but in 3 yrs, the only two things I bought are student version of Office for Mac, for like $100 or less, and like $45 to upgrade to 4 GB memory. That's it. Best computer purchase of my life and I go way back to punch cards.

 

[suh]

Just thought I would chime in and give my two cents.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230265
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1976963&csid=ITD&body=MAIN
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1753839&Sku=A50-156116

#3 seems like the best deal to me, but it might be a little overkill, unless you want a blu ray player built in. If all you are doing is watching movies, surfing the internet, etc. all I would expect to pay is $600 max. In your situation, i would get probably get #2. #1 but it has only a 1 year warranty compared to 2 of the others, and it is slightly worse hardware wise. Another word of advice, don't get anything with an all plastic case and try to avoid one with an AMD CPU. Aluminum is better at dispersing heat and Intel CPUs run cooler. Last bit of advice, make sure the fan exhaust is on the side, NOT the bottom of the computer case.

 

[michlady77]

thanks - and who are you suh? i can't keep track of name changes

 

[suh]

ive been on this board on and off since it started. Came from the old ESPN boards.

 

[Mitchrapp]

You want to be taken care of, people coming to your home if the laptop needs fixing, get a Dell. They'll the best. And they make good machines as well. How much money you want to spend and do you do gaming on it? If none, only what you listed in the OP, get a cheap bastard.

 

[michlady77]

no gaming
i am oldster -games for me were actual pinball machines and then pong, pacman, centipede & asteroids

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Mitch[/color]]You want to be taken care of, people coming to your home if the laptop needs fixing, get a Dell. They'll the best. And they make good machines as well. How much money you want to spend and do you do gaming on it? If none, only what you listed in the OP, get a cheap bastard.

lol, Michlady gaming.....

 

[suh]

No offense Mich, but dells are terrible. Cheap parts, terrible design and ergonomics, heard nothing but bad about them. The only ones that are decent are their alienware's and those are all gaming laptops that are over $900 each.

 

[icepick1982]

dells computers suck. The last I had kept falling apart or crashing over and over again. I finnaly got a sony last year for 700 and its the best laptop I ever had.

 

[KAWDUP]

Wow Dell's must suck because of the absolutely huge sample size in your review.

LOL, I have had a Dell for years and haven't had a lick of trouble. So, using your logic, does that prove now that they don't suck?

I also own a Lenovo, an off brand, an Acer netbook, and several desktops. Not to mention the 3-4 I use on a daily basis at work. The only one that really provided problems was an HP desktop, so I guess, again by your logic, that HP sucks.

Dell has pretty good service, if your aren't computer savvy, so their suckiness is lessened by that alone.

Anyway, be sure to let us know which one you get Michlady.

 

[Michchamp]

Wow Dell's must suck because of the absolutely huge sample size in your review.

LOL, I have had a Dell for years and haven't had a lick of trouble. So, using your logic, does that prove now that they don't suck?

I also own a Lenovo, an off brand, an Acer netbook, and several desktops. Not to mention the 3-4 I use on a daily basis at work. The only one that really provided problems was an HP desktop, so I guess, again by your logic, that HP sucks.

Dell has pretty good service, if your aren't computer savvy, so their suckiness is lessened by that alone.

Anyway, be sure to let us know which one you get Michlady.

that jives with everything I've experienced.

my current dell personal laptop even took a 1/4 cup of coffee without missing a beat.

the HP desktop I bought a couple years ago (before the price of laptops came down) was a piece of garbage. The thing had a bad motherboard that would require you to turn it off and on a bunch of times before it would boot.

during service calls, their stupid reps would claim static electricity that was screwing up the unit, which was absurd. never had that problem before with a desktop.

finally HP sent me a recall notice that would've been more trouble than it was worth to get a new motherboard.

I bought my current laptop from Dell about 2 years ago. happy ever since.

was also fun tearing apart the HP and smashing the hard drive to bits. SO satisfying.

 

[KAWDUP]

Mine was a failed harddrive (and controller). I probably would have felt very satisifed to smash mine to bits too, but I repaired it, and have used it for a few more years because it was pretty expandable, and I was able to stuff it with memory. It is pretty slow, and has been gathering dust as my mail server for a few years.

The Dell I bought wasn't cheap, so maybe that has something to do with its reliability. It is pretty rugged, and I use it as my gaming machine on the road. Seems pretty good so far, but as soon as you buy one, any one, there are 2 dozen brands that have everything your's has plus more for less money.

That is what I think sucks about computers. *)

 

[icepick1982]

I didn't write a review. I was giving my opinion on the subject. The dell I had was about 3 years ago and so many problems and so did a friend of mine. I only spent about 500 on it for school. Maybe they are getting better. But one thing I have found out about computers is no matter what brand you get there is always a few bad apples. Everybody has had different experience with computers. I just wanted to give my experience on the subject.