laptops

Hey everyone, I'm in need of a new laptop which I have about two days to buy before the crunch is really gonna suck. I'm no techie geek that needs tons of bells and whistles; I mostly use the internet and manage photos. What is the best laptop for the money, less expensive the better. Thanks for any input stuff like this is way out of my league.

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0patience

I bought a Toshiba from Best Buys for $399. Haven't had a problem with it. It replaced a piece of junk Acer, that I had to send in twice and then the mother board failed completely. So I would stay away from Acer.

I do website work on mine and it handles everything I need, plus some gaming.

Streater

Figure out how much $$ you are willing to spend and call Dell or HP. I have had many machines and if I was not buying a Mac, it would be either HP or Dell. ALL computers break. You want a manufacturer that has good customer service. I have found that HP and Dell are the easiest to deal with for warranty management. Don't get the extended warranty. The OEM warranty should be 3 years. Good luck.

marineatbn03

+1 on the toshiba, I have had mine for 4 years and it still runs like a champ. And the toshiba service is good as well.

stephen_hannibal

The computer I had that lasted the longest and stood up to abuse was my MacBook Pro (RIP)
After years of abuse it finally gave out. I happened to stumble on a great deal with HP and I have to say I've been impressed.

So that's one more for HP.

Luko

Agree with Stephen, I'm a Mac fanboy but if you're not goingnthatbroyte, I've always had very good experience with HP.

amz1301

bigharpoon:
Hey everyone, I'm in need of a new laptop which I have about two days to buy before the crunch is really gonna suck. I'm no techie geek that needs tons of bells and whistles; I mostly use the internet and manage photos. What is the best laptop for the money, less expensive the better. Thanks for any input stuff like this is way out of my league.

Best laptop for the money IMHO Dell. I've got an Inspiron that's about 6 years old and an XPS i7 that's about a year old. I was debating about getting a Mac or the XPS but for the $ and what you actually get I went with the XPS. Love the XPS. I'm pricing out a laptop for the mother inlaw right now. On Dell deals you can get an Inspiron 15 i3 for $540 or the i5 core for $590. You can even get to under $500 if you want.

taythegibs

im a fan of Asus, my current computer is an Asus Netbook (10 inch screen, 1gb ram, 1.60GHz, 14ogb Hard Drive, Windows 7 Starter) that i got in 09, and has handled more abuse than most computers should, im currently looking into "real" Asus laptops as i need a CD/DVD drive and this computer is starting to go. My family has had good luck with Toshibas (dad just got one with a 17in+ screen that is pretty cool) and Lenovos (also looking into refurbished Lenovo laptops...)

Vision

taythegibs:
im a fan of Asus, my current computer is an Asus Netbook (10 inch screen, 1gb ram, 1.60GHz, 14ogb Hard Drive, Windows 7 Starter) that i got in 09, and has handled more abuse than most computers should, im currently looking into "real" Asus laptops as i need a CD/DVD drive and this computer is starting to go. My family has had good luck with Toshibas (dad just got one with a 17in+ screen that is pretty cool) and Lenovos (also looking into refurbished Lenovo laptops...)

I second Asus. Asus is a parts manufacturer that happens to make a computer. I only use their parts when I can in all of my gaming computers. I like Dell and Samsung if Asus is out of the question. I am a PC/Home Theater tech and get to see a lot of "What breaks". EVERYTHING BREAKS EVENLY. If you take 100 of computer A, 100 B, 100 C, and so on, you would see the same ratio of problems across the board. PM me your budget and I will see what I can come up with. Also are you looking to purchase from a local store or offline?

docbp87

Dell man here, for the same reason mentioned above. If you're like me, you're gonna put your laptop through hell. I got a pretty standard warranty on my Inspiron 1545 or whatever it is, a few years ago when I bought it, and have really gotten my money's worth. Dell customer service has been awesome to me. I have had motherboard replacements, keyboard replacement, whole pieces of the plastic shell replaced, and even (on a previous laptop) a touch-pad replacement. All free of charge under the warranty. Also, their online chat service is really helpful. They have always been easy to communicate with, and after having me try some pretty basic things, pretty much always offer to send a technician to fix it, free of charge, at my convenience. All of my dealings with their techs (all of them actually contracted technicians from some local company I guess) have been pleasant, timely, and most of all helpful.

KingoftheCove

Mac user here since the mid 80s, but have had to use PCs (desktop and laptops) for various jobs, etc.
My experiences have been good with Dell and Toshiba, and I still have an ancient IBM Thinkpad from 2000 that still boots up and runs fine (as long as it's plugged in - battery is toast obviously.)
Still use my G3 900mhz iBook 12" screen, crap video for the modern Net, but works on this site!

Rob1110

I'd advise staying far away from dell. My first laptop was a dell and it was an absolute tank. Lasted me a solid 5+ years before I had any problems and in the end, it was the fact that the battery died, two power connectors had broken and the port was starting to wear. For what it would have cost to repair, I bought a new one. Big mistake. Got about 2 years worth of problems before I smashed it. My girlfriend bought one on my recommendation and we both regret that one. It's a complete disaster. My parents both have them and both have problems with them.

Their customer service has been ok at best. It's slightly better than comcast, who is the devil in my opinion. I now have a MacBook Pro for work that was given to me by my company and it's pretty solid. I can't say they're totally worth the money, but they tend not to have the problems PCs have. That's coming from a PC guy.

Shaun.Harrison87

I'm an IBM guy through and through. My work is a T510 and I have a T43 for personal that just hit the 6year mark...never an issue with either. You pay a little more, but they are above average for durability IMO. But when I sold for BBY Toshibas were king, HP was close and Dell right behind it. I would go with ASUS personally, very good computer for $550ish

bigharpoon

I went into Best Buy this afternoon and got totally frizzle-fried with information overload. Basically the techie told me the Dell, HP and Asus budget line was such junk that Microsoft doesn't even want them in the same aisle as their other computers. I can plan on many things breaking and at the very least I should pay them the minimum $100 fee to set up a hardcopy operating software disc that no longer comes with a computer purchase. While I'm at it I should get accidental coverage since power cords and every other friggin' part they are made of will break. So that's $170 plus purchase price w/o anti-virus software which is another $100 for 3 years.

Currently I use free editions of AVG and Spybot which he said actually don't eliminate viruses but just put them into folders and let them do their thing and you have to pay to have them removed in case you lose information in the process they won't be held liable for your lost info. ???

So between $400+ for a computer that will break, $170 to get the OS on disc and accidental coverage (for only 1 year) and $100 anti-virus (for 3 years) I'm up to $670 for bottom of the line. Not even a word processor which you have to buy separately no matter which computer you buy. I don't know if all this is hype but if I'm gonna spend $670 for bottom of the line maybe I should just fork over $400 more and get a Mac? No set-up cost, no viruses, better quality, WAAAY more than I wanted to spend. The whole experience was nuts, I felt like I was getting super-sized at every corner.

taythegibs

I dont trust a dang thing that the sales people say. They are there to sell as many add ons as they can, and they will use every excuse in the book to do so. On my $280 netbook that i have had for 3 years I have had no need of an extended warranty (that most likely would have expired already) os disc...yeah, i just backup on an external drive, and if my computer gets bad to the point that it wont help then im screwed already. EEVERYTHING that has broken on my computer has been my fault.

0patience

taythegibs:
I dont trust a dang thing that the sales people say. They are there to sell as many add ons as they can, and they will use every excuse in the book to do so. On my $280 netbook that i have had for 3 years I have had no need of an extended warranty (that most likely would have expired already) os disc...yeah, i just backup on an external drive, and if my computer gets bad to the point that it wont help then im screwed already. EEVERYTHING that has broken on my computer has been my fault.

+1
About the virus protection. AVG will Quarantine a suspected file. Once quarantined, the file is rendered inactive. And you can then decide to delete it or not. ALL virus protections have a quarantine, virus vault or other type of inactive setup.
I like Avast better than AVG, as I had some problems with AVG a while back. Both have free versions that work just fine.

smokeater187

1+ on HP and toshiba I've had both for years and still work great

bigharpoon

I'd like to thank everyone for their help and advice on this thread. It's been a looooooong time but I finally have a computer and am back on-line (I've been off-line for weeks). I ended up choosing a Lenovo IdeaPad. It had a bunch of great features like i5 dual core processor, tons of RAM and harddrive memory, dedicated graphics card, etc. It also had a lot of positive feedback and I got a great price on it.

Thanks again to everyone, it's great to be back!

Vision

Glad to see you back brother!

phobicsquirrel

I work on computers everyday and honestly if you plan on keeping the computer for a few years then I would say toshiba or sony. Dell use to make really good stuff but they have gone down hill for a while now. Their XPS's aren't bad but you are going to pay for it. Thing is, for a good laptop your not going to get away with spending less than 800 to 1000 dollars. Then again it depends on what your looking for, but I have to work on a lot of dell and hp laptops that are less than a year old.