Thread: laptop search

Well, everyone, in this past week I have been searching for a laptop computer, and it has been a tough decision, sifting through all the laptops in my price range trying to find the best computer for the money I have to spend. My budget is roughly about $1000 (at the very max $1200).

Anyways, after sifting through the options, I have come down to just a few choices remaining. And I would like your advice on which you think I should get.

2 of the computers are Dells. One is a computer that I saw in a Dell magazine that we got in the mail here, and I liked it, so I pulled it up on the internet (and increased it from a 1 year to a 2 year warranty).

The 2nd Dell is the EXACT same computer, but configured by myself instead of using the Dell E-Value Code, but then I used my Dell Student Discount thingy that I get for being a student. The printers included with both Dells are different printers.

The other computers are Asus computers, coming from a wholesale computer store in the Houston area called Directron. I have a friend that works there that says he can get me a 10% discount.

The final option is an Acer computer which I just recently added to the mix, but I am very weary of Acer computers. I have never had an Acer computer before, but I have used Acer hardware in general in the past, and it has always been faulty.

Anyways, take a look. Tell me your opinions, thoughts, flames, etc. Oh...and what do you guys know about Asus? My friends tell me they have quality hardware, but I dont have any experience with Asus, so I dont know. What about you guys?

P.S. the reason that there are Intel Core Duo processors listed under the Asus computers is because I configured them barebone, and I have to buy the CPU separately.

Don't go Dell. Your budget is somewhat limited unfortunately. But Dell will increase it after the warranty expires. I'm almost sure of that. I had nothing but trouble with mine which now sits inside a box in my laundry closet. I know a couple more cases of Dells being problematic. But like with everything else, it may have just been bad luck. However, hard drive failures being the case on all three... doesn't give a good name to "just bad luck".

I would strongly suggest Acer first and only then Asus. Or wait a few more months if you can and add 200 more to your budget to get into the juicy Tecra line Toshibas

Yes I have considered MacBook, but they START at $1099, and even then the BASE model only has 512 MB of RAM, and no DVD-RW like the others. The hard drive is also significantly smaller, although honestly I could probably do with a 60 GB hd. I am not a huge space user...I dont really download movies and stuff. The main blow to the MacBook, in my opinion, is the lack of RAM, and just to modify that and increase the RAM would take me up to $1200. THEN I would have to pay another $250 to get the 1 yr warranty that they offer. That brings it up to $1450. Worth it to have a Mac? Not under my budget it's not.

Dealing with the Acer - Like I said previously, I have never had a full Acer computer, but I have dealt several times with individual pieces of Acer hardware such as CD-ROM drives, etc., and they have always managed to ........ me off in several ways. I am not sure if that is a thing of the past, an isolated incident for me, or whether Acer hardware is just plain unreliable. Whatever the case, the Acer actually looks quite nice on the specs sheet, coming with Gigabit ethernet, a nice large hard drive and lots of memory, and good vid card.

I, personally, haven't heard too many horror stories about Dells, although I do occasionally hear them. I have heard that their Customer Support, however, is quite nice. I included the 2 year warranty with those because I presume the 1 year warranty might not be adequate.

My friend just tipped me off to check out IBMs, so I might go over and check them out.

Okay....I have rethought it all...and only 3 computers are left in the running.

1 Dell
1 MacBook
1 Acer

You might ask why I inserted the MacBook, when just a little bit ago I had said I dont want to get one. Well, I thought...there is a student discount! The student discount actually was only about $50...so it wasnt too much, but they are offering me a free ipod nano, which is intriguing.

What are your opinions?

I put the table up at imageshack as an image. Check it out:

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7...parisonlj1.jpg

Acer!... no, Dell!

Wait! MacBook! No, Acer!...

eh...i bought the Dell :-)

yeah I would love a Mac...but maybe when my budget is a bit bigger.

I won!

I've got a dell latitude d820 and I love it Granted, the first two they sent me had minor faults, but this one has been running with no problems.