Looking for a Laptop

A

a.k.a. Patrick

New member
With Christmas around the corner, Im in the market for a laptop for my 16 yr old son. It's only fair as we purchased a desktop for my oldest when he was 16. (I still have 3 years to go for the daughter). Has anyone recently purchased a decent laptop lately that could shed a little light for me? I currently use a Compaqe Presario for my business, which has been a great computer, but I purchased that about 16 months ago for around $1,200.00. I would like to find something with about 80 Gig HD, 1.2 ram, C/D-DVD burner, and some of the other basics. I fig's nowadays, i could find that for about 1/2 of what I spent.
 
I have a Sony Vaio laptop and it has been good for me. We spent $1,200 on it last fall and it has the following:



1.8 ghz processor

512 mb ram

80 gb hard drive



My first suggestion was going to be an Apple but then the price goes even higher. One thing to keep in mind is though you may spend more money than you want, you could look into a computer that will last and able to upgrade if necessary. With college just a couple years down the road you will not need to purchase another one then.



Just my .02

-Josh
 
Can't go wrong with a Dell. Customer service sucks, obviously, but I frequently work with Dell desktops and laptops and their quality control is top notch.



You may just want to go to the website and play around with their laptop configuration picker. I'd avoid those bulky 15.4"+ widescreen models since they suck down batteries and really take away from the portability factor of a laptop. Friend of mine got a very nice XPS-M with a 14.1" screen for around $1000 and it had the specs that you pointed out.
 
I have a Toshiba Satelite A100 customized through their website. I paid 1800 but I got a ton of upgrades that probably wasnt even needed.

Here is the link to Toshiba Notebooks, Laptops and Tablet PCs - Toshiba



15.4 inch wide screen, 2.0ghz dual core, gig of ram, 100gig memory space, 128mb video ram, finger print reader, dual touch pad, harmon/kardon built in speakers, etc etc. I love it. I havent had any problems with it so i havent had any experience with customer service. I looked at the dell and what turned me away instantly was the cheap materials used for it. The build quality of the toshiba seems MUCH better. You can probably get what I have and spend less money as I believe the price has dropped. Also if you dont load up options like I did then it will be even less.
 
truzoom said:
Can't go wrong with a Dell. Customer service sucks, obviously, but I frequently work with Dell desktops and laptops and their quality control is top notch.



You may just want to go to the website and play around with their laptop configuration picker. I'd avoid those bulky 15.4"+ widescreen models since they suck down batteries and really take away from the portability factor of a laptop. Friend of mine got a very nice XPS-M with a 14.1" screen for around $1000 and it had the specs that you pointed out.
Click to expand...





I upgraded my battery to compensate the larger screen as I have a 15.4 inch laptop. I use my laptop as a home computer as well as taking it to school. The upgraded battery I heard doubles the life of the normal one that comes with it.
 
I got my Dell Inspiron Shipped for 1300, but I also upgraded the hard drive and also had a few other small upgrades. I highly recommend in and suggest buying the full warranty.



Greg
 
01bluecls said:
I have a Toshiba Satelite A100 customized through their website. I paid 1800 but I got a ton of upgrades that probably wasnt even needed.

Here is the link to Toshiba Notebooks, Laptops and Tablet PCs - Toshiba



15.4 inch wide screen, 2.0ghz dual core, gig of ram, 100gig memory space, 128mb video ram, finger print reader, dual touch pad, harmon/kardon built in speakers, etc etc. I love it. I havent had any problems with it so i havent had any experience with customer service. I looked at the dell and what turned me away instantly was the cheap materials used for it. The build quality of the toshiba seems MUCH better. You can probably get what I have and spend less money as I believe the price has dropped. Also if you dont load up options like I did then it will be even less.
Click to expand...





Not trying to rain on the parade or anything, but I believe most laptops are now produced for each company by the same company in China. The way the shell is designed may make one appear to be better built, but in the end they're all just plastic.
 
Thanks 01. The links you provided arent valid anymore. And even some of the puters mentioned are no longer available. I do appreciate it, but puters are upgraded faster then microfibers around here.

Keep the info coming. This will have to be a budget puter being as I have 3 kids to buy for evey Christmas!
 
have you tried looking on cnet? I have a 2 year old toshiba and it hasn't given me any problems, but its more of a desktop replacement and the battery life isn't great.
 
I posted this to the wrong thread a minute ago- sometimes I can be a doofus but it's in the right thread now:



A Toshiba is a possibility.

They recently upgraded their repair services, an old criticism. Their upgrade path to a much quicker turn-around repair time is mentioned in 'The Earth is Flat' by Friedman. An interesting read.

The lad will want a large hard drive, the dvd burning, wireless, lan, 17 inch widescreen with the 'clearview' screen as a minimum. Weight might not be a factor hence the 17 inch suggestion and it'll fit in a backpack anyway.

I bought one at Staples about 8 months ago, an almost discontinued model with all those options, about 1100 Canadian, which would translate to sub 1000 usd.

Something to keep in mind. (It's been a winner)

-John C.
 
Make sure you want to get him a laptop. At 16 there's probably not a lot of places he needs or should be with a laptop. Desktops are cheaper and more powerful
 
EmeraldFalcon said:
Make sure you want to get him a laptop. At 16 there's probably not a lot of places he needs or should be with a laptop. Desktops are cheaper and more powerful
Click to expand...



I was only 16 when I got my laptop and true most of the time it just sat on my desk and it may not be as powerful as a desktop, but now that I'm in college it is so awesome. I go to college very far from home so I just bring my laptop on the plane instead of shipping a desktop, and when I can't stand my roommate all I have to do is pick my laptop up and go somewhere to do my stuff. Plus if you ever travel it may be better to have a laptop to watch dvds on than one of those portalble dvd players. I'm sure he doesn't want to have to buy a laptop for him sometime down the road when he goes to college if he gets him a desktop. Plus, a laptop save a lot of space. But like someone else suggested, look at models that are about to be discontinued and you might get a good deal. When I got mine it was discontinued and my dad payed 1050 for it after $350 worth of rebates. Just make sure that you know whether he wants a laptop thats smaller and more portable or something with a 15.4 inch+ lcd. Makes a big difference.
 
We have two desktops in the house already. His older brother built a beauty from scratch, after we had purchased a Dell DT a couple years ago. We now use his (Christmas gift)Dell, which replaced one I bought for my wife 3 years ago.

He says he wants a notebook. Theres just so convenient to have, I'll be the first to admit that. Im not looking for anything gaming worthy so to speak, just something he can access for the web when the other puters (3 in total) are spoken for. But as with any teenager, we will have to keep tabs on his "whereabouts, and wherehavebeens". This whole Myspace thing doesnt sit too well with me or his mom.......Thats probably our biggest concern. It use to be you had to worry about who they hung out with and the possibility of drugs at school (Which are obviously still evident), now you have to be watching their almost every move on the internet. Ah, the joys of raising 3 teenagers!
 
a.k.a. Patrick said:
snip...



But as with any teenager, we will have to keep tabs on his "whereabouts, and wherehavebeens". This whole Myspace thing doesnt sit too well with me or his mom.......Thats probably our biggest concern. It use to be you had to worry about who they hung out with and the possibility of drugs at school (Which are obviously still evident), now you have to be watching their almost every move on the internet. Ah, the joys of raising 3 teenagers!
Click to expand...



I have been through that myself with our oldest and in a few years will be going through it again with my 2 youngest. Nothing beats a good dedicated hardware firewall and a strong set of web filters :D I know it sounds expensive and complicated but, using Linux and a cheap desktop off of eBay you can build a good firewall for about $100. That is what I have invested in mine.



All you need is a Pentium class machine, around 512Mb RAM, 20Gb hard disk and two ether net cards. You can easily get such a machine off of eBay for ~$100 or less. I prefer Dells here, the Optiplex line specifically. I have a couple of Dell Optiplex desktops that are more than 10 years old and still chugging away.



The software you can get for free. The firewall is Linux based and is called IPCop. It is fairly easy to install.



IPCop.org :: The bad packets stop here!



There is an addon for IPCop called URL Filter that allows you to control access to bad internet, again free and fairly easy to install.



URL filter add-on for IPCop and SmoothWall



You will need a good blacklist and the best I have found is from URLBlacklist.com. There is a subscription fee of $6.00 per month but, it is worth it. The list is extensive and frequently updated.



URLBlacklist.com



With the firewall you can not only actively block sites you do not want your kids to visit, you can monitor activity on your network. I have been running this setup for some time and am more than happy with it!
 
Heres my new toy, 17" speed demon.

IMG_0041.jpg
 
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