Laptops

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mwenman

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Buena Vista, Colorado, USA.
What is a good moderately priced (under $800) brand of laptop to have these days? my current one, Toshiba, finally quit working because it had endless overheating problems that the company supposedly fixed. A previous Sony Viao also had heating and other issues that caused it to die after approx 2 yrs use as well.

I have had an HP brand before and that was one dread after another beginning right after I got it out of the box, so probably won't go with them or compaq.
 
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We got a Gateway from Best Buy, for about $700
My Mom got a Dell from Wal-Mart for $800

I would recommend either one.
In my opinion the most important thing to look for in a computer of any brand or type is memory (ram) get as much as possible. Most new computers now come standard with 1 gig of memory, and some have 2 gigs.

Good luck
 
I've always been a fan of Gateway and Dell. You can't go wrong with either. I have a Gateway I purchased from Office Depot and haven't had a lick of trouble with it.
 
Check this one out (Dell Vostro 1400 for $549.00 regular $849)
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1400?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab

They have a $300.00 off until 12/20/2007.
 
Hi Mike,

Have a look at these guys: http://www.nanosys1.com/
I've bought a lot of stuff from them and they are great people to deal with. Good gear and good prices, and they'll ship anywhere in the continental US. Pay only for what you need and have them build it up for you, instead of getting something at a big box store with all the junky add-on s/w loaded. The site has a cost calculator so you can play around with it a bit and determine what you want and can afford.

Give some serious thought as to whether you want Windows Vista or not. There hasn't been a Service Pack issued for it yet, and there are lots of bugs in the OS. Many corporate IT departments are holding off for that very reason, and some who have migrated over to Vista have switched back to XP. I'm sitting tight with XP for now, and have a "wait and see" attitude towards Vista.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for all the input. One thing that is definately appealing regarding Dell is that on their website, they are still offering Windows XP as the OS where others are forcing Vista.
 
If you are interested in a dell laptop and aren't addicted to that gee whiz brand new feeling, and don't necessarily need all the latest bells and whistles, give this page a shot. some as low as $350, loaded for under $650 usually.

http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/

Best prices anywhere on dell laptops returning from corp. lease programs. You can get the service tag id from the sales listing and check at dell's main web page to see if any factory warranty is still left, some do, most don't, but all have been covered by service agreements and refurbed.

I work for GE, and they used to give us access to this site through a corp. link, but now it's open to anybody.
 
Originally posted by mwenman
<br />Thanks for all the input. One thing that is definately appealing regarding Dell is that on their website, they are still offering Windows XP as the OS where others are forcing Vista.
Click to expand...
Not on all of them. We just ordered a new computer for me from Dell. Vista was the only option for the model I needed. We are using the "We'll see how it does, and install XP as a second OS if we have any issues" mantra.

I'm a finance guy so most of my uses will be Excel, Word, and Outlook. My big demand was that it have a built in 10 key keypad, So I had to get a 17 inch model. Should arrive this week.
 
You may wish to consider a 'cooling pad' for your laptop. I can't remember the proper name. It's the same width & length of the laptop but much thinner. The laptop sits on top and there is a fan cooling thing that stops the laptop overheating.
 
Don't have any experience with the lap-top, but when I upgraded my last computer, I went with Dell... if I had it to do over, I would NOT... I've had hang up problems, noise problems and just generally poor service... not happy with it at all. My step-son is a truck driver and hauls his lap top everywhere he goes... he went with HP and hasn't had one bit of trouble with it.
 
I have a Toshiba Satellite that I took in for repair last month. I was surprised to find they repaired if for free even though the warranty was up! There was a class action lawsuit filed against them and they ended up extending the warranty. I would contact an authorized Toshiba dealer and ask them about the extended warranty.
 
We just bought a couple of personal laptops and selected Lenovo's. They bought out the IBM thinkpad line and are a great product for a great value, put any OS you want on it. It's worth a look.

(Not affiliated with Lenovo in any way :) ).
 
Originally posted by Milpaul
<br />I have a Toshiba Satellite that I took in for repair last month. I was surprised to find they repaired if for free even though the warranty was up! There was a class action lawsuit filed against them and they ended up extending the warranty. I would contact an authorized Toshiba dealer and ask them about the extended warranty.
Click to expand...

The one I just had was a Toshiba Satellite that amazingly, when I had called them just a few days ago, the "extended" warranty had just expired the middle of November BUT I could send it to them and they would fix it for a mere $425.00 plus round trip shipping costs.

After they told me that, I might as well just purchase a new one. I had just had this unit supposedly repaired just 4 or 5 months ago because it kept shutting down from overheating. As somebody suggested in a previous post, a cool pad. Had already gone that route, but because the fans for the toshiba are on the bottom, the cool pad fans actually starved the laptop for air, so that didn't help at all.

Looks like I may be going back to another Sony Vaio. Had one before that seemed fairly good and did outperform the Toshiba I just had and a previous HP. Probably won't make my final decision until I can actually get in to the city to a Best Buy etc. Not sure if that will be anytime soon with all the snow that is getting dumped on us here at the moment. A little over 2 ft the past 2 days and another 6 - 12" predicted starting tomorrow afternoon so won't be making the 110 mile drive in that.

Thanks again for all the info / suggestions.
 
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