Phoenix Gold Phorum

So I'm in the market for a new laptop....... Always liked the Sony, HP and Dell units as they seem to be alittle more reliable and I see them everywhere. Planning on spending in the $500 range for a good web surfer........

Any ideas or suggestions?

I went with asus after a little bit of research and have been very happy with the choice. They are a new name that has been around for some time...

I use an Acer that I've had for 2 years now and runs just as good as the day I got it.

Proper maintenance is always required for any computer to remain reliable and fast.

I've got an older Toshiba, had it for 4 years now ... still works pretty good ...
but now I use my alienware a lot more

I'm looking at last years acer @ costco for a deal but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I went and looked at BESTBUY today and got some ideas too. The salesman told me I'd get a kickass deal if I wait until black friday as he's heard their gonna have some sony's and HP's that are old models with upgraded goods......

Unfortunatelythe new Ivy Bridge processors are pushed backto late Q1 2012 now. I would assume april or May for those. That being said, I dont think you will be seeing any significant price reductions on the current lineup. It looks like you can get a pretty nice i5 setup with average specs for around your budget. However, what is the primary use for the machine? Is it just web/music/basic use, or will you be doing a lot of intensive things on it (photo/video editing, rendering)?

For the record I had an acer for 4 years that I put through hell and it just started acting up to a point I couldnt handle. The hinges also broke and the power cord was hit or miss. Although, it was one of the $400 specials at best buy, so I definitively got my moneys worth out of it. I would have no problems going back to them

For lappys, I almost always prefer Toshiba's. Just got my mother one off newegg.com for a great price. Runs well with no hiccups, just like my monster lappy at home. You can get a dual core with decent GPU Toshiba lappy on there for around that price.

I don't use many PC/Laptop brands on a daily basis anymore but I do like Lenovo, Toshiba and Sony from the recent PC laptops I've used, but they've all been in the $1000+ range too I don't know about the $500 range so much. I wouldn't buy a Dell personally, but I do know several people who are happy with theirs (they have the "Vostro" models).

HP are exiting the PC business soon by spinning off their PC-division into a separate company (and maybe selling it). It's unlike that this would affect support, warranty and other service but it's worth thinking about.

Asus and Acer are decent brands where you can get good performance bang for your buck but I found in the past that the build quality suffers as a result.

I bought a Dell Precision M4300 used off eBay a few weeks back. It was listed as refurbished, and indeed it was. There were no signs it had ever been used before, and came in a factory Dell box.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0341869328

Only $299 shipped.

Best feature of the Precision M4300 is it has a 1900x1200 resolution, which is something I needed for CAD work. Sure looks nice for browsing the web on as well.

I would prefer the next model up, the M4400, but it was twice the price.

I found this to be up my alley............

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavili ... Id=2881467

Only $430

He said in his opening comment that it would be mainly for web surfing and the whatnot.

From that projected load, any descent mid-line $400 - $500 laptop will be more than sufficient. My laptop was $500 and it does web, music, videos (up to 720p), and everything else wonderfully as long as I'm not trying to emulate PS2 games or high end PC games.

I was reading reviews and other stuff about this unit and looks like this is the way to go for me. Seems the only real issues it has are from the provided software as all the negative reviews are about that. But performance for price range is the most stated upside.

They have a thing going the gives me no interest for 18 months and $20 off any accessory and another $20 off Microsoft office aswell.

I'll have it this evening................

Yeah, the main thing with PCs is to unload all the garbage software installed by the Manufacturer. It's always useless bloatware with 30 things all set to startup at every login with stupid ugly GUIs.

If you've got a vanilla copy of Windows (or Linux!) install that right away and live happily.

fuzzysnuggleduck wrote:Yeah, the main thing with PCs is to unload all the garbage software installed by the Manufacturer. It's always useless bloatware with 30 things all set to startup at every login with stupid ugly GUIs.

If you've got a vanilla copy of Windows (or Linux!) install that right away and live happily.

I wouldn't do that since you'll lose manu. specific drivers. Just uninstall the bloatware then create a backup from there.

Just download the drivers from the manufacturer's web site prior to doing your reinstall, and throw them on a USB stick.

Really the most important one is networking (wired or wireless), as once you have that working, you can get the rest going with little effort. Windows (depending on the version) will download a lot of its needed drivers on its own.

With every computer I have ever purchased since the mid 90's, the first thing I did was format the drive and reinstall the OS using the options I wanted. I have done this for all my Macs as well.

FUK!!!!
I went to go get it lastnight and they don't have anymore from here to seattle. I guess it'll have to wait another month untill they start the xmas adds.................

Francious70 wrote:

fuzzysnuggleduck wrote:Yeah, the main thing with PCs is to unload all the garbage software installed by the Manufacturer. It's always useless bloatware with 30 things all set to startup at every login with stupid ugly GUIs.

If you've got a vanilla copy of Windows (or Linux!) install that right away and live happily.

I wouldn't do that since you'll lose manu. specific drivers. Just uninstall the bloatware then create a backup from there.

Is that still a problem? Laptops with crappy hardware with drivers only available from the OEM? I've only really been using Macs and Linux for the last many years so I guess I thought that since Linux works out of the box on pretty much any modern Laptop, that vanilla Windows 7 would too.

I'm not a big fan of uninstallers on Windows. They tend to leave a lot of shit behind in the registry and sometimes in the file system. Oh well.

fuzzysnuggleduck wrote:

Francious70 wrote:

fuzzysnuggleduck wrote:Yeah, the main thing with PCs is to unload all the garbage software installed by the Manufacturer. It's always useless bloatware with 30 things all set to startup at every login with stupid ugly GUIs.

If you've got a vanilla copy of Windows (or Linux!) install that right away and live happily.

I wouldn't do that since you'll lose manu. specific drivers. Just uninstall the bloatware then create a backup from there.

Is that still a problem? Laptops with crappy hardware with drivers only available from the OEM? I've only really been using Macs and Linux for the last many years so I guess I thought that since Linux works out of the box on pretty much any modern Laptop, that vanilla Windows 7 would too.

I'm not a big fan of uninstallers on Windows. They tend to leave a lot of shit behind in the registry and sometimes in the file system. Oh well.

Not necessarily a problem, just more of a pain.

But like Eric said above, just DL the drivers beforehand and put them on a flash drive before reformat.

I finally picked up a new laptop. 17" Toshiba A6 quad-core with 4gb(expandable to and 500gb HD. Paid $400 and then bought the 1yr accidental and a new wireless printer which I got for $40 because I bought both at the same time.

First impression is that the screen is very vibrant and its fast as hell. I removed alot of the garbage that comes with it but since I'm below the average tech with computer knowledge, I didn't wipe the whole thing. I'm just not 100% sure I'd be able to do it correctly or I'd give it a go.

I also really like the win7 premium over the starter I was using. Allows me to edit movies and pix and then copy to disk........ XMAS gifts are gonna be easy this year......