Laptop purchase help

[thewolfe]

Laptop purchase help

Got a friend who needs to buy a laptop for their son who's going to college.

Will be using Office and downloading music, I'm sure.

They don't have big bucks so I'm thinking $1000 or less.

Any brand you would recommend? Any you wouldn't?

They don't want to do the "over the Internet" thing so Dell is out.

Also, Can you still buy w/ XP or is everthing Vista now?

[PrntRhd]

You can buy notebooks with XP but will have to look for it.

[thewolfe]

Just seems like the cheaper notebooks won't have enough RAM, etc to allow Vista to do it's magic. That's why I was thinking about XP.

[PrntRhd]

I am still recommending XP over Vista until a SP is done on Vista. The performance of the hardware with Vista is another issue to be considered.

Back to the first question,
You can find XP laptops easier online than in retail outlets. The retail outlets are all carrying Vista because they loaded it for the big Vista launch event. You may be able to get one built if you order it with XP.

[Erik]

From what I see XP is still available mostly on laptops designed for business, as many don't want to move to Vista yet. Only shopping locally will be a bit of a problem to find a decent laptop for that price with XP.

As far as RAM is concerned I would say get at least 1GB, even with XP. Many laptops seem to come with 512Mb as standard. The good news is that adding the additional RAM shouldn't be very difficult at all.

I am a fan of IBM. I think they make some of the best quality laptops in the ThinkPad line. Another good maker is Toshiba. I also have a lower priced Acer that I have been happy with, but wouldn't want to travel with much.

When looking at laptops I think the major points to consider are how often it will be carried around, and how long you want the battery to last. Many of the "uber" laptops will be way to bulky to carry around regularly, and have next to no battery life.

[classicsoftware]

You will need to buy on line to get XP.

Several good choices here (http://shopper.cnet.com/4566-3121_9-0.html?filter=1000036_5245355_500016_103445_&sort=lowPrice9+asc).

[smith04]

I have a daughter starting her junior year in college, her first away from home though. I have been shopping for laptops and last week found an Acer 5610-4610 (Core Duo (1.86-2.0 GH, 1GB DDR2, 160 GB Hard drive, Vista Home Premiun) for $499 at Best Buy. This week it was $549 in their Sunday newspaper advertisement.

The salesperson said they were clearing out their previous years models in prep for the new models arriving in a couple of weeks.

smith04

[smith04]

A similar spec (see my post above) Toshiba Satellite was $599 at Best Buy. Again this seems to be year end clearance. I don't usually find great prices at Best Buy but did this time. I was looking there because I wanted a place that had a repair warranty that would be close to my daughter's college.

[classicsoftware]

Best buy does NOT repair on-site. They send it out. It's just as good as the manufacturer warranty where you send it back.

Please check with college your daughter is accepted to as they might NOT support Vista.

I would stick with XP-Pro. That is your best and safest bet. If you get Windows Vista, you need up the RAM to 2GB. I doubt either of those PC's will support all of Vista's features or will perform in an acceptable manner.

[smith04]

You are of course right, Best Buy doesn't usually repair on site, they send away. However, they will do some simple work in house. And for my daughter who is away from me, she will have some simple things she will not know how to do and will take it to Best Buy and they can fix it if it is simple, or send it off.

I have been concerned about using Vista in the Acer laptop. I have been using it for a week and it seems to run fine. Of course, I don't play games, haven't tried video editing or any heavy lifting. It checks email, searches the web, and does Word great. That's about all she'll be doing. One of the reasons I have been using it is to see if I should load XP on it. I have an extra licensed copy, but so far have been satisfied with how it runs Windows.

My worry has been the unfamiliar (to me) Acer brand. However I have noticed a couple of the guys here at PCG point out Acer laptops.

[jlreich]

My worry has been the unfamiliar (to me) Acer brand. However I have noticed a couple of the guys here at PCG point out Acer laptops.
Yes Acer is good. One of the top three brands in my opinion. They are great at giving good specs for far less than other top brands.

[thewolfe]

Thanks, for the posts.

[classicsoftware]

Acer gives you the best bang for the buck. I am on my second Acer Notebook.


1) ACER One: Celeron 700 mhz with a 20 Gb hard drive and Windows ME. The battery is shot but the thing still runs like a champ even though it is seven years old.

ACER Two: Pentium M 1.5 ghz with am 80 GB HDD and CD-RW. It survived a 3 foot drop off of my workbench (your results may vary). It is great. the battery life is very close to 4 hours. I can't say enough good things about thus unit...