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Need Help buying PC laptop (I know...I know)

Mavimao

Mavimao

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2005
857
15
Lyon, France
If this thread needs to be moved, please do so.

Hey guys, my brother is buying a laptop and he's asking me which one to get. I would recommend a mac, but his business is PC-centric and he wants to just walk into Best Buy and get it soon. You understand, right?

Anyway, I know NOTHING about PC laptop quality. Does anyone know which brands are good? I'm looking at a Gateway, an HP and a Toshiba.... If that helps.

Thank you again.
 
I worked for Dell at one point, and if you do buy ell, hich I wouldn't recommend, make sure you definitely buy the extended warranty. Appr 80% of their laptops need warranty work within 4 yrs. I would personally recommend Sony, but HP is decent, too
 
I would sugguest Dell or Toshiba. A ton of freshman here at Drexel use the Dell E1505 (or something like that) (or macbooks) and they all seem to get the job done right.
 
Budget?


And what is he going to do?

Personal I'd go for a Ultra-Portable! I had a Vaio as desktop my first, and it was a great computer, it cost a heck of a lot(gift from my grandfather to my family) around 3,500 and boy was it a great computer. It had a Vaio game section(full screen couldn't see Windows Tool Bar) I though that was equal to the normal screen(with the start button) then my Uncle upgraded the PC to Windows 98...and the Vaio gaming room was gone...I was pretty upset!

(I was real young at the time 3-4 year old)
 
I have always had good luck with HP laptops. Probably because my old man got them free. I also really like my buddies IBM Thinkpad. It is rock solid. Oh, and I really really like the slim Sony Viao sz, I think thats it.
 
another vote for the hp/compaq column. sell a lot of laptops, and have lots of dell systems come back for repair, not so much with the hp/compaq stuff. think that whatever brand you pick, the extended warranty with a laptop system is a good idea. gravity is always on, and they always break....:(

i would also look for one running xp with a vista upgrade option. vista is a dog right now, and they will need a few months to work out the problems. run xp, get the vista upgrade, wait for sp1 to install. profit!
 
My last laptop was a Toshiba, which is 15 months old now and without problems. I gave it to my mom when I got this macbook.

About Sony Vaios, my mom had one that came with Windoze Millenium and it was a perfect piece of crap, in terms of how utterly craptacular that terrible operating system was. Makes Windows XP look like OS X.
 
Thanks a lot guys! This really helps! His budget is probably 1000 USD or lower. He just wants it for emails, pictures, internet and to do Skype.
 
well i had an hp laptop before i switched, and it served me fairly well. yes, i did have problems with it, but i'm pretty sure 99% of them were windows related and had nothing to do with the hardware. one thing i can tell you is do not let him get a compaq... from my experience they are awful, awful machines.
 
IBM and Sony are top notch for quality wise. They do have a small premium, ok huge in Sonys case.

Otherwise Id go Toshiba because they are rock solid and well priced.

But Dell isnt half bad either. Always a good deal.

Toshiba or Dell for his case. And I recently was looking up some PC laptops for my gf, specifically what she wanted was my 12" PB that ran XP. I said sorry baby, this little sucker (which all the chicas envy) is no longer for sale and especially not with XP. Either way, I cam down to Lenovo, Dell, and Toshiba and then she was like why pay more for the dell XPS? (Its hella fast thats why!) I only need to do light stuff. Understandable..... and the Lenovo and the Toshiba look the same except this one has a longer battery life, spill proof keyboard, and is cheaper. Toshiba it is then. I thought they were all equal (Money for extra power, or extra quality, but I guess in the end she thought the Toshiba was rock solid enough). The 12" Satellite. Its a good price for what it gives check it out.
 
BenHoleton said:
I worked for Dell at one point, and if you do buy ell, hich I wouldn't recommend, make sure you definitely buy the extended warranty. Appr 80% of their laptops need warranty work within 4 yrs. I would personally recommend Sony, but HP is decent, too
Click to expand...

Amen to that, my dad has a Dell Latitude CPxJ750 from about summer of 2000. So far he has had the following work done to it.

3 x Motherboard changes
2 x LCD Panel changes
1 x LCD Panel to Motherboard cable replacement
3 x CD-ROM drives
1 x Hard drive
3 x Keyboard replacements.
And he has gone through 4 batteries which have all bitten the dust.

And the motherboard has just failed again but he has written the laptop off due to age and lack of warranty.

Chris.
 
Mavimao said:
Thanks a lot guys! This really helps! His budget is probably 1000 USD or lower. He just wants it for emails, pictures, internet and to do Skype.
Click to expand...

You said earlier his business is PC centric....why does it matter if he's going to use it for emails, pictures, internet, and skype? That doesn't seem very business oriented.
 
aaronw1986 said:
You said earlier his business is PC centric....why does it matter if he's going to use it for emails, pictures, internet, and skype? That doesn't seem very business oriented.
Click to expand...

His business is in used cars so he needs it for pictures (to take pictures of his merchandise), emails (duh), internet for a potential website and skype to talk to our mother who lives in basingstoke, UK.
 
Mavimao said:
His business is in used cars so he needs it for pictures (to take pictures of his merchandise), emails (duh), internet for a potential website and skype to talk to our mother who lives in basingstoke, UK.
Click to expand...

A Mac sounds perfect for that. In my experience a Mac "just works" with cameras (via iPhoto), can easily make websites with iWeb, Skype (including with video) is supported. Does he have some special used car software that needs a PC?

(Obviously internet and email is a given)
 
I know he can't just walk in and buy it, but a refurb MacBook and XP/Vista through Bootcamp?
 
cblackburn said:
Amen to that, my dad has a Dell Latitude CPxJ750 from about summer of 2000. So far he has had the following work done to it.

3 x Motherboard changes
2 x LCD Panel changes
1 x LCD Panel to Motherboard cable replacement
3 x CD-ROM drives
1 x Hard drive
3 x Keyboard replacements.
And he has gone through 4 batteries which have all bitten the dust.

And the motherboard has just failed again but he has written the laptop off due to age and lack of warranty.

Chris.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I still recommend a Dell for a PC.
Any laptop you buy will come with a great chance of something going wrong with it. Buying a Dell might increase those chances, but if you get the on-site warranty for it, I find that the service is speedy, they don't ask you dumb questions, and of course parts are replaced free (I've even had gotten a 2 year old laptop replaced with a newer one that was about double the performance).
 
cblackburn said:
Amen to that, my dad has a Dell Latitude CPxJ750 from about summer of 2000. So far he has had the following work done to it.

3 x Motherboard changes
2 x LCD Panel changes
1 x LCD Panel to Motherboard cable replacement
3 x CD-ROM drives
1 x Hard drive
3 x Keyboard replacements.
And he has gone through 4 batteries which have all bitten the dust.

And the motherboard has just failed again but he has written the laptop off due to age and lack of warranty.

Chris.
Click to expand...

Many Apple notebook owners have similar repair stats. These things seem to come with the territory when in comes to notebooks. Although, I've owned seven notebooks, of various brands, over the years and only one has ever had to go in for repair.

Which one had to go in for service? You guessed it, my Macbook. Of the notebooks I've owned, it's still my favorite too. These things happen.
 
Mavimao said:
If this thread needs to be moved, please do so.

Hey guys, my brother is buying a laptop and he's asking me which one to get. I would recommend a mac, but his business is PC-centric and he wants to just walk into Best Buy and get it soon. You understand, right?

Anyway, I know NOTHING about PC laptop quality. Does anyone know which brands are good? I'm looking at a Gateway, an HP and a Toshiba.... If that helps.

Thank you again.
Click to expand...

Have you considered IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad? For 1000 bucks, he could get a nice R60, or, if he's willing to spend 100 bucks more, even a T60 with Core 2 Duo. These things are very sturdy, several of my colleagues are working on IBM Thinkpads that are more than 5 years old. And I kinda like the design, too.
 
well, goto bestbuy and check, remember get the one with largest RAM, (better graphic card too if possible).
 
Toshiba. I had one for over 5 years and still on occasion dust it off. Never needed to be serviced, however right before the warrenty expired I sent it in for "Fan trouble", but I basically wanted them to look at it before the warrenty expired and they ended up replacing my left speaker. It had not worked from the begining, but I had no clue lol.
 
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