Looking at Laptops

KaGee

KaGee

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I've always had a thing for DELL. They have no deals right now.

A couple of places are offering a GATEWAY tomorrow with the new VISTA for $599. Seems like a great deal.

What do you guys think?

LINK TO LAPTOP
 
i386

i386

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Re: Looking at Laptops

Dell has slightly better service than Gateway. Dell is very good about getting replacement parts to you the next day. Gateway is a little slower but not bad.

I have an Acer Aspire laptop that I got for $550 on a tax free weekend (GA). I thought I was settling for what I could afford at the time, but it turned out to be a great laptop. I doubt I could get it serviced as fast as Dell though. Oh and I ended up getting a better battery for it after the fact. You can get ones nicer than mine at Sams under $700.

That's another thing about Dells. If you get the upgraded battery, don't be surprised when it runs 3-4 hours.
 
aspeck

aspeck

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Re: Looking at Laptops

Just received and email from Dell this morning on refurbished laptop deals, if you want to go that route. Had some nice units at some nice prices ...
 
KaGee

KaGee

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Re: Looking at Laptops

Got a link Art? The DELL OUTLET cheapest was $649?
 
tommays

tommays

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Re: Looking at Laptops

On the base price laptops you need to really read the fine print many of the cheep dells only have 90 days coverage

You buy as much time as you need BUT it drives up the cost :)

I have had good luck at Costco as they have a 6 month return on computers as long as you dont run over it with your car


Tommays
 
Gary H NC

Gary H NC

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Re: Looking at Laptops

I'm partial to Dell also KaGee, I have had mine for about a year now without any problems at all.I even dropped it a couple times.It fell out of my truck seat onto the concrete once too..
Its the Inspiron with the 15.4 screen.
I noticed they had them on sale awhile back with the Pentium for around 600.
They run sales every couple weeks or so and i bet they will have another one in Feb.
 
jimr

jimr

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Re: Looking at Laptops

I have a dell desktop that has never been 100% right it kind of does its own thing I bought my wife a laptop from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834228002 for xmas and it has worked great so far. it is a cisnet nascar pc laptop. it was last years model with 512meg of ram 60gig hd etc I got it bundled with a nice case,webcam stand and lock for ~ $650
 
Z

ZmOz

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Re: Looking at Laptops

DO NOT BUY A GATEWAY!!!!!!

If a Dell isn't on sale today, it probably will be tomarrow. There are quite a few of them, brand new, on ebay, for cheap, which of course still have exactly the same warranty.
 
Pony

Pony

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Re: Looking at Laptops

I personally would have a difficult time buying a refurbished laptop.

As far as brands go, I tend to stay away from the Gateways. Their desktops seem to give me nothing but troube at work, and their laptops get returned fairly frequently compared to the number that get sold. I have a Dell laptop and love it, but I am not sure if I would go that route again. I had a bad expirience with a Dell desktop a month ago, and really that has put a bad taste in my mouth overall.

I really like the Sony's but they carry quite a price tag. HP's arent bad either. There are a few that are very reasonably priced. To me they seem to offer the best overall value for the price.

I can't speak for Acer too much. I have used one and it seemed pretty nice, but it was only for a day or so when the girlfriends Dell that I mentioned above crashed. I like the look of the Toshibas, but for whatever reason, I see quite a few of them go out for service compared to the other brands.

Whatever you do, make sure you have at the very least 1G of Ram if not more. Get some thing with a dual core processor too.
 
roscoe

roscoe

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Re: Looking at Laptops

I'd tell you what to get, but you don't want to hear it. :(

So, nevermind.

indextop20061108.jpg
 
roscoe

roscoe

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Re: Looking at Laptops

Yep, stable os, secure os, superior hardware, better warranty than most.
Only one downfall. It will run something called Windows XP, if you want it to.

$999 with photo printer, software, laptop case, and free shipping.
 
Z

ZmOz

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Re: Looking at Laptops

roscoe said:
Yep, stable os, secure os, superior hardware, better warranty than most.
Only one downfall. It will run something called Windows XP, if you want it to.

$999 with photo printer, software, laptop case, and free shipping.
Click to expand...

You can get two Dells for that and chuck one out the window when something doesn't work...but the "mac is more stable" arguement has been pretty ridiculous for many years...
 
KaGee

KaGee

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Re: Looking at Laptops

Thanks for the input fellas. Still looking as the Gateways sold out before i could snag one.
 
JasonJ

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Re: Looking at Laptops

I don't know, the Gateway laptop I am typing on is about 6 years old, and other than a nasty virus a few years back, it has been problem free. The only real complaint I had was the lousy 128 megs of ram it had. The 640 megs of ram it has now is much better. I might toss another 512 ram card in for an even thou, but it works fine as is. I know it works fine with DSL, it doesn't game very well, but that is what X-box is for. I'll upgrade one of these days, but as long as it works, I am happy...
 
roscoe

roscoe

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Re: Looking at Laptops

"but the "mac is more stable" arguement has been pretty ridiculous for many years..."

Yeah, I know, the obvious is often ridiculous.

But you don't see the forums filled with Mac owners, looking for fixes to os problems, driver problems, virus problems, pop-up problems, ghost in the machine problems, aol problems, auto re-boot problems, spyware problems....

Would you put up with these failures of design in your new tv, car, boat, lawnmower, or refrigerator?


"You can get two Dells for that and chuck one out the window ..."

That sounds like fun. Put yourself through all the hours of troubleshooting and lost production, just so you can throw it away, and start over.

KaGee, sorry for hijacking your thread.

I hope you find a puter that meets your needs.
 
KaGee

KaGee

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Re: Looking at Laptops

I can't afford a Mac Roscoe. But thanks for your input.
 
Z

ZmOz

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Re: Looking at Laptops

roscoe said:
But you don't see the forums filled with Mac owners, looking for fixes to os problems, driver problems, virus problems, pop-up problems, ghost in the machine problems, aol problems, auto re-boot problems, spyware problems....
Click to expand...

That's because hardly anybody owns a Mac. You don't see people asking how to fix their gremlin either, do you? It isn't because gremlins are reliable is it? Pretty much all the problems you mentioned are user created, so yeah, if you're too dumb to operate a real computer then get a mac. I'm certainly not here asking any of those questions, and I have at least 30 PCs. And yes, there are dedicated mac forums where people go to fix their mac problems.

And, just for the record, I sell Mac servers to nuts like you. Uptime is around 99.26%, as compared to 99.97% for my linux/windows servers. (most of them are Dell) Yet, they're still willing to pay way more for worse service. I'm happy to take their cash...
 
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