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PC Laptop People?

Sara

Sara

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Jul 9, 2009
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Are you one? Have a PC laptop?

I was a PC desktop girl for the longest time and recently became a Mac laptop girl and all is happy in the world.

BUT DG is a PC laptop guy and his is almost 8 years old now. And it's definitely not superawesome. SO....I'd really love to get him a new one for our anniversary. I've been saving my pennies and can't wait to kick his old one to the curb.

Since he travels a lot it needs to be a laptop and I've VERY little experience with PC laptops.

If you have one...or if you have experience..can you point me in a good direction? What kind do you recommend? Or have you had any nightmare experiences with one I should avoid?

Pretty please and thank you!! :flirty
 
Just bought my son a new Toshiba laptop, i7 processor, 8 gig ram, 750 gig hard drive, 15" monitor at Best Buy. My boss said it was a great buy for all that it came with and he is a PC guru.

I have a Gateway that is a real workhorse and had an HP before that which lasted forever.

My daughter has had crappy luck and an awful time with customer service on her Dell.

Just our family's two cents worth...
 
My Dell's have run hot, so for that main reason I would stay clear of them!

I have an Asus right now. It's an i7 with 8g ram. I bought mine online from Tiger Electronics. So far so good, but it's only about 8 months old!
 
ooh my dell used to get to hot too and cut out so id steer away from dell to even tho they look lush,mine is a packard bell,id love a mac but i think for the money id pay for the basic i could get a top of the market pc one
 
I don't recommend gateway either... and Gateway and Acer are the same company now. They are absolutely horrible. They busted up my laptop and I had to fight for 6 months for a new one.

If I had to buy a new one... I'd consider an HP (only b/c my husband works there now, although not in the computer division and most of their employees are overseas or in Mexico)...so if anything does come up, then that could be an issue but they have a lot of options and some great pricing.

I would search online for reviews before you buy. Anything you get him will be a huge improvement. I'd avoid Best Buy, I have ALWAYS had trouble with their laptops, every single time and if an extended warranty is available, get it.

Dell supposedly has the best warranty plans but the running hot issue could be a big problem.
 
Had had a conversation with The Todd recently about laptop brands/configs if I were to get a new one now. I'll be back with what he recommends.
 
Thank you so much for these replies so far!! I've heard the most positive feedback about HPs so I'm leaning that way at this point.

I'm looking forward to hearing The Todd recommendations Christine!
 
scarletsierra said:
Thank you so much for these replies so far!! I've heard the most positive feedback about HPs so I'm leaning that way at this point.

I'm looking forward to hearing The Todd recommendations Christine!
Click to expand...

I agree about the HP's. I know they had a rough "bout a while back and for a while I thought I'd deemed that brand unusuable. Then when bought a desktop which (knock on wood) has been great and was reasonably priced. Now that hubby is a software engineer for HP, I at least feel I know more about the company and what to expect. They are steering their business more to software development rather than personal computers/laptops, etc... but the ones they have been putting out recently seem to be good quality.
 
My Toshiba has been the best laptop I've owned, but I don't use it much anymore. Tom just commandeered it as his primary computer now that his HP tower is failing. We bought one for Nicholas two years ago and he MOST ASSUREDLY does not take good care of it and it's still in tip top shape.

My laptop would run hot after a while but it was usually because the intake would get clogged, I would have Tom blast it with the shop vac and it would be cool as a cucumber again for several months.
 
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i will never never never ever ever buy another dell. ever. it burned through a fan and the onboard ram. that sucker ran so hot it would burn my legs if i actually used it on my lap (imagine, a LAPtop on your lap!?)

i now have an Asus and have been pleasantly surprised! i was a little leary of buying it because i hadn't had an asus before. but hubby is a super geeky techy guy and did a bunch of research before we bought. i like it. have had it for about 8 months and have had no issues.
 
I have an ASUS lappie as well. I like it and have had it for 3 years.

But my next one would be a Lenovo (IBM spinoff).

The Todd's recommendations:

Lenovo Thinkpads are generally regarded as most comparable to Apple in terms of build quality. That's not to say a $600 Lenovo will have as nice a screen as a $2400 Macbook Pro. It won't. But their mid-high end models will all have a nice keyboard, a nice trackpad and a good screen. That's why I recommend them. Of course it's a good idea to head down to the office store and look at a couple to see if you actually like the keyboard and screen.

One other issue to consider. A couple months ago, Intel release a new processer line named "Ivy Bridge." The main advantage of Ivy Bridge is better battery life at the same power. If that's important to you, you might consider getting one in that line. It's probably a $150 or $200 premium over the previous generation (Sandy Bridge). Ivy Bridge will sometimes be labeled "3rd generation core" or sometimes the part number is listed which will be something like i5-3xxxx. If this was too much mumbo jumbo, forget it, just get the cheaper one.

One good way go is to see what's at the outlet. Note that everything in the outlet will probably be the last generation (not Ivy Bridge).

start at outlet.lenovo.com
click laptops in the upper left
Start clicking checkboxes, whatever is important to you. If you don't know where to start, here are some suggestions
Click ThinkPad
A price range, such as 500-799
Core i5 AND Core i3
4GB AND 6GB of Memory
14" AND 15" screen

That gives me about 36 choices right now (inventory changes) but some of them are listed as out of stock.

As an example, I picked this model which has an extra solid state drive (that will make booting up faster and probably internet browsing too). But you can pick whatever best fits your budget.

***end of advice from The Todd***
 
I had Toshibas for many years but their lives were always short - less than 2 years. Meh.
I think I told you on the phone the other day that I switched to HP last year. I have the pavilion dv7t with quad core and the big screen 17 something. It runs very well, even with Photoshop, Lightroom and ACDSee all being used at the same time. The only thing I don't like is that the paint started rubbing off the keys after only a few months. Otherwise, I've been very pleased.
 
We have 2 Dell laptops, an HP desktop and my Macbook (new).

Like Deb mentioned, my Dell's run quite hot as well. I had to buy and cooling thingy for one of them. But you know...my Mac is a wee bit warm too. Maybe it's me? lol
 
Yes on the Lenovos! All of my super hardcore engineering friends (read: CS majors and ME majors who use laptops to run Solidworks and such) have Lenovos.
 
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