Choosing a laptop

[POLO]

I decided to buy a laptop for my study.But i don't know which brand,cpu,... to choose.I know that is 3 cpu for pc;turin,centrino,pentium m.turion it's 64 bit.centrino or pentium m consume less energie,so longer battery autonomy...........And which brand...dell,hp,gateway,toshipa,...Anyone can guide me?

[tnpartsguy]

I'll be quick, before anyone else can post; opinions will run rampant! Your best bet is to go test drive them in the store, see which ones you like best. You do want Centrino if at all within your price range (better threading and lower operating temp, plus better battery life), if the Centrino is outside your range, the Pentium M is the next best thing. BTW, the Celeron M's are bad at all, if the Frontside cache is big enough.As far as brands go, I love my Sony Vaio, bought it almost 2 yrs ago, and have never had a moments problem. My wife just bought a Gateway (with the Celeron M) and it performs as good as the Sony with the older Pent 4 M. I personally don't like HP or Dell, heard too many complaints on each of them, and have had too many brought to me for repair. I would stay with a major brand, the no-name Best Buy/Circuit City ones seem to be very cheap in feel.One other thing, check out the rating from Consumers Guide or Consumers Reports and maybe PC world. One last question, ever considered a Mac? The newest have pentium chipsets and are SWEET. If I was able, I'd buy one today....

[djb383]

Like tnpartsguy said, check Consumer Reports. They accept zero advertising money and will be about as unbiased as you can get. The repair records are survey results of thousands of subscribers reporting back how a product performed over time. We have subscribed for about 20 years and won't buy anything major ($200 up) without checking Consumers Reports, especially a new or used car. I believe the Mac has been one of the better rated brands. Good luck.

[Kari]

Yes, opinions will run rampant, so here is mine LOLEven the Macs with the PowerPC chips are still great and I highly recommend them. Plus you have the added benefit of not having to worry about all of MS's security issues and all of the viruses floating around, since they are all null and void on a Mac. I've had this one for 2.5 years and it still works the way it did when I took it out of the box...none of the craziness in the system after a year like I always had with Windows, and no need to reinstall the OS or anything like that.My parents have a Toshiba that I used at school for a year and they used since then, so a total of 5 years. It still works decently, but it has needed a few OS reinstalls and clean-ups and the CD/DVD drive has been a little chintzy for about 3.5 years now. They like it, but they also want to buy a Mac on their next computer purchase.

[joholste]

my only opinion is that the centrino M laptops whatever brand they may be under have a much longer battery life than the others.

[zionzr2]

I just purchased the Compaq V2570NR.its an AMD Turion64. 512Ram 60GB hd. Card reader DVD Burner 14" screen.I'm happy with it! Nice and Quick Great price!I'm not a fan of the Intel chips, (not that they arent good I just like the AMD's better.)test drive as many as you can! And choose whats best for you...

[joholste]

i totally agree as far as intel vs AMD but i know that the intel centrino m has a longer battery life than anything else...but i love my AMD64 in my desktop

[vibe-04]

Had Sony's for years, like um but they ain't cheap and frankly the Macs beautiful. Whatever you buy, test drive the keyboard and pointing device. Check the hinge area to see how it will hold up to abuse. I've had a Dell once that sucked.

[Jahntassa]

Okay...usual questions:1. What do you want to do with it?2. How much do you want to spend?3. What features do you REALLY want?Without answering this, we really CAN'T answer your questions with anything but vague opinions.Working in IT, I will say that i've seen the most problems with the following laptops:DellHPCompaqOlder SonysRecently, the Sony's seem to be improving. I had good experience with a Fujitsu, personally, and a Toshiba I bought a few years ago is still going strong.What I will say is factor in the cost of an extended warranty into anything you price out. They really do come in handy for laptops, as it's nearly impossible (and expensive) for a simple repair.Anyway, answer the first few questions and I (At least) will give you a straightforward answer. But once again..it's only opinion

[POLO]

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »Okay...usual questions:1. What do you want to do with it?2. How much do you want to spend?3. What features do you REALLY want?Without answering this, we really CAN'T answer your questions with anything but vague opinions.Working in IT, I will say that i've seen the most problems with the following laptops:DellHPCompaqOlder SonysRecently, the Sony's seem to be improving. I had good experience with a Fujitsu, personally, and a Toshiba I bought a few years ago is still going strong.What I will say is factor in the cost of an extended warranty into anything you price out. They really do come in handy for laptops, as it's nearly impossible (and expensive) for a simple repair.Anyway, answer the first few questions and I (At least) will give you a straightforward answer. But once again..it's only opinion 1. What do you want to do with it?I"m opening a lab with my brother at home to do research,i buy the microscope,i need a laptop to study and plug on the microscope to see the result on the laptop screen,(so a good video in/out,good screen),good cpu to make complex math calculation processing.2. How much do you want to spend?My budget it's 2000$3. What features do you REALLY want?In resume i want a multi purpose with new technology to last long in compatibility thing,usb,firewire,...And that can have a good autonomy.I find this site very interesting:http://www.notebookreview.com/i find lot of different type,i'm lost i find a dell xps m140 with 7 hours autonomy battery...wowor the sony vaio tx serie's with carbon fibre case...wow......i didn't know the labtop have progressed as well.

[northvibe]

well for software it seems the mac might be out...maybe. if you can the mac is great but otherwise heres my opinion from working as a tech for 7 years or sodell, compaq/hp and cheap laptops of ANY brand stay away from.I like sony and toshiba. sony's have some very nice features and their screens are beautiful. IBM seems to have a good laptop too but they keep their standard look so dont be fooled, they have some great features too. some of the "best" laptops you might not find in retail stores, but go to the stores and try some out. make sure they use DDR2 for ram, im not sure if pc laptops are at SATA hard drives but the nw mac book pro uses it so look for that. Centrino is a great processor and with 2grand im sure you can get one with one. Gateway seems to have some great laptops lately, the M460 we have at my school is kick (removed), has dvd burner big screen lots of ram. they also make a tablet pc that seems to be the best tablet on the market if you are looking at those, the new model is a m285, the old one is m275.