Computer Expert?

Hi All!

I have the opportunity to get a new laptop computer and am having a hard time deciding what to get. I want at least a 3 GHz with about 1 GB of RAM if possible. I want something affordable, reliable, and with good customer/tech support. Does anyone have any suggestions? Good experiences? Horror Stories?

Thanks for your help!

I would go with Dell. I have owned 2 laptops from them and never had an issue with either one. I have always been able to find answers to any questions on their website :cheers:

I am far from a computer genius, but currently have an 'ACER' laptop. It was dirt cheap beside some of the big names and the tech support has been great
Good luck!

I would always advise to try and contact technical support before you buy, to see how fast they respond and make sure they don't charge premium rates or anything. It aways amazes me how the sales department answer the phone to relieve you of moneyso much quicker than support! I have always had good things to say about Dell too. Good luck.

Dell does not offer a 3 GHz laptop. They only use mobile chips. The Pentium M 2 GHz is supposed to be roughly equivalent in performance to a 3.6 GHz desktop chip (P4).

There are a LOT of factors that should influence a laptop purchase. The size of the display and the resolution are HUGE concerns. Remember that LCD screens only look good at their native resolution. I run my Thinkpad at 1600 x 1200. Most people would go blind trying to read print that small.

Dell offers an upgrade on support that guarantees hold times under 2 minutes and a tech "specialist" that is based in the US. I deal with support reps for several different companies (Dell, IBM, Cisco, Netgear, and Asante to name a few). Stateside support is a BIG deal and one that is worth paying for to guarantee (shouldn't have to be that way).

Remember with laptops, the question is not "will it break?", "how bad is it going to break?". We have several laptop users in my company and EVERY SINGLE MACHINE has been to the depot for some sort of repair or had to have parts sent in for me to replace.

Dell is probably your best bet. We are changing over from IBM to Dell as I type. IBM is great but they have sold their computer division to a Chinese company.

Do not order on the web. Call them. There is always room to deal. Try getting an extra AC adapter or extra battery thrown in. Even if they don't give that to you try to get them to come off the price on the service plan. Buy a service plan that will last the entire useful time of the machine for you.

Search the web for coupon codes and deals. Do your homework.

Ok, you guys have been so great so far, I have another one for you. I was looking into a P4 3.x GHz...but there is also this new PM chip with much slower clock speeds that is supposed to have basically the same performance. I need something that can multitask as well as I do if not better and I demand quite a bit from my computers. Anyone know anything about this new M chip?

currently have a toshiba a80, and im very satisfied
i have a 3.06ghz processor and 512 meg of ram, and decided to buy an external hdd, laptop came with a dvd burner. but i cant get used to the damn board!!!

Do you want something to travel with or a desktop replacement?

If you need to be on battery power for any length of time, go with the Pentium M and a screen no larger than 15". Battery life REALLY suffers on anything larger. Another thing to consider is networking. Most people have no idea that the network card (wireless or wired) is a huge drain on battery life. If you need long battery life, the Centrino (Pentium M with Intel wireless networking added) is the way to go.

If you will always use your machine near a power outlet, go for the desktop chip.

You have to be more specific about what you need in a laptop to get a good answer instead of a bunch of if's.....

"I am a demanding user" really tells me nothing. Our definition of demanding could vary widely.

My idea of demanding is:

running webserving software (IIS)
ColdFusion server (sort of like running PHP)
ImageMagick (a scripting based image manipulation api)
MS SQL with several 1GB databases
Winamp (a guy has to be entertained while he works)
Outlook 2003 (with a 2 GB PST file)
SQL Manager
Homesite (a code editor)
Acrobat
Photoshop
5 - 10 Internet Explorer sessions

ALL AT ONE TIME I do this all day, every day.

There are other background services and programs that I use during this fun, but I am tired of typing.

I am not trying to brag just illustrate a point. Many of my clients think that "demanding" use is having a couple of browser windows open and being too impatient to wait for Outlook to open in more than 3 seconds.

I'm sorry, I wasn't very specific. I do alot of digital photo and video editing as well as website design. I need something that I can have at least 6 or 8 firefox tabs open, a FTP, Dreamweaver, photoshop, be burning DVDs, editing video, yahoo messenger, outlook, and of course Winamp (because entertainment is a must )

This may not be demanding by your standards, but my poor 1.2GHz Athlon thinks so! Don't get me wrong, 5 years ago it rocked, but not so much anymore. Battery life would be nice, but is not a primary factor. I want this to replace my desktop, not to haul around everywhere. Not sure if this answers your questions or not, again, thanks for everyone's help.

I am in the market for a new laptop myself (my boss said yes!) I will be doing the homework for both of us. I'll report my findings....

The Alienware Area51m 7700 is leading right now. It just doesn't "feel" like the one for me. The Dell XPS Gen. 2 is a close second. I wish the Dell M70 cam with a 17" display. We just got one with the 15.4" and it is really nice. I just want to get exactly what I want. I will be stuck with it for the next couple of years.

I would love to hear what you find out. I did some research last night...but to be honest with you, while I am pretty good using a computer, the inner workings of it are greek to me. Software I am pretty good with...but when it comes to hardware, I can install it if I have instructions, but beyond that I am useless.

Thank you again so much for helping and sharing your knowledge!

Erin

Been a while since I bought a laptop, but one criteria that I had the most difficulty with was that I insisted on getting all of the original install disks along with the computer. The best that most would do is give me something they called a Crash Recovery Disk. The ONLY place I checked that would give me all of the install disks was Gateway. So that is what I bought.

But I only really use the laptop when I travel, so my demands on it aren't all that severe. But get the fastest and biggest you can, if that will be your primary computer, because the higher you shoot now, the longer it will be before it is woefully obsolete and slow with the newer software coming out.

I had the house to myself most of the night and got a chance to dig in.

The Alienware Area51m 7700 is probably the most powerful laptop available for less than $4000.

I think I will be going with the Dell Inspiron 9300 ($3200) though. Here's why:

Dell = larger vendor that I have a buying history with and is a known quantity to me.
9300 over the XPS Gen2 simply because I do not need the most powerful mobile graphics card and I would be hesitant to show up at a client's office with a laptop that has HUGE glowing lights on the case
I also think the 9300 offers a better value than the XPS Gen2. That is a subjective opinion though.

In all fairness, I only seriously considered Dell, Voodoo, Alienware, and Sager. I have a long history with both HP and Compaq and avoid them (except HP large format printers). I have never had warm and fuzzies about Gateway either.

If you go Dell, there are some great coupons available through May 5. Check here:

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=847484#post847484

Let us know what you end up doing

Ok, I almost forgot about this thread. I did get a new laptop. I ended up with a Toshiba from Costco. It has an awesome 17inch screen, 3.4GHz P4, 512 RAM upgradeable to 2GB, and a 100GB hard drive. It is a bit big to be hauling around a lot, but I don't plan to carry it with me everywhere. I am very happy with it. It has good power and does everything I want it too and much more.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

I got the Dell Precision M70. Only a 15.4" screen but it runs at 1920 x 1200 and is VERY crisp.

2 GHz Pentium M with 2 GB of RAM and dual 60 GB 7200 RPM drives. I also got the dual layer DVD burner

Congrats on your new purchase!