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Thread: Laptop Recommendations?

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Elfert View Post
    I wasn't recommending anyone pay $2500 for a Mac. I was pointing out how ridiculously expensive they are. I use Windows PCs and I do not have a Mac.
    I wasn't impling you were, just expanding on how crazy expensive they are in comparison

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
    You can spend as much as you want. I gave up buying expensive machines a while ago because the price never makes sense in a longer scheme.

    5 years ago, I bought an HP DV7 format laptop (17"). They are hulky, but if you're not traveling on business a lot, it's no big deal. It cost me $600 with 4 gb of memory back then, and a dual core AMD processor. I think chasing high processor speed is a waste of money, everything is finite with computers, just my opinion. I could easily buy two laptops for what a lot of people pay for 1, and certainly at 5 years+ per PC, my second PC will be faster than a single "better at first" PC for years 5-10.

    The HP we use is getting a bit long in the tooth now, but it still works fine, and the only problem I've had with it was something any woodworker could solve - the socket that the charger plugs into became a little loose, mostly because my very young daughter as soon as she learned to walk took to tugging at the power cord. I glued it a year ago, no problems since.

    Apple is off their rocker on price (in my opinion - pretty much on everything they sell), and I am by no means a "poor" fellow. I just don't agree with throwing money at people unless they have a really convincing reason for it, and keeping a platform exclusive to jack up prices isn't a good reason to me. When the DV7 poops out, I will probably just get another one.
    I have a relative who also bought a DV7 at the same time I did, he's also still using his, except he uses it for work all day. Mine probably only gets 3 hours of use time a day, or maybe a little more between my wife and I. I'd consider that a lot of use, but we no longer watch TV. My mother also got the same computer at the same time. She managed to allow her dogs to extract keys from the keyboard permanently by leaving the computer on a chair that the dogs jumped on and ran across (my parents can't keep anything nice for long, it's sort of a natural skill they have).

    All of us have had longevity issues with the power supply cord - I'd say they last about 12-18 months before the computer rejects them (HP branded or otherwise doesn't seem to make a difference), but they cost $7 each, so that's not really much of an issue.

    In my view, 95% of very nice costs 1/2 to 1/3rd as much as 100% of very nice. I'll keep my money for other things.
    It's not just HP's power adapters. It's the number one replacement item, as can be the power jack on the laptop that it plugs into, followed by keyboards. The adapter and the power jack both take a lot of abuse if the laptop is moved around much.

  3. #33
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    I've never owned a Toshiba laptop, but I have worked with people that did and the rest of us always gave them a bad time about how it sounded like a jet engine when the fans were on. One fella even had a separate platform with fans it in that he would set his laptop on to keep it from overheating. This seems contrary to what others have posted here, but since that is what I saw you can be sure I'll never buy a Toshiba.

    I've had an HP laptop at work that I couldn't wait to get rid of. It just wasn't very mechanically sound and there were tons of issues related to docking and un-docking that was a huge pain. My wife had an HP laptop that was about 5 years old and one day it just turned off while she was using it and wouldn't turn back on.

    I jumped at the opportunity to get a Lenovo as a replacement for my work laptop as I find them well suited for work use. I doubt I would ever get a Lenovo for personal use though.

    My Dell laptop is 6 years old and still chugging along fine with Linux, but does a face plant with the same WinXP that it was shipped with. Can't blame the laptop for that, it's bloating of the OS and software over the years that has done it. After a year of ownership I upgraded the RAM as it had become dirt cheap and a few years later dropped in a much larger hard drive. At about the 5 year point I replaced the battery with a $35 aftermarket one and just recently have been having to repair the cords on the power supplies. This is a laptop that is usually running 24/7 and gets used every day. For the first 3 years it traveled to and from my office every day in a backpack. If I was to be looking for a replacement I would probably get a Dell with the fastest hardware that I could afford, focusing first on the CPU and video as those can't be upgraded later, and upgrading the RAM and adding a solid state drive if the budget allowed it. If I didn't get a Dell then it would be because I got a...

    MacBook. I've never owned one, but when the wife's HP died we went to the Apple store and came home with a 13" MacBook Air. She really likes it and it works well for her purposes. Thanks to the solid state drive it starts up very quickly and goes into and comes out of sleep in just a second or two. Nothing opens your eyes quite like seeing someone reach over and grab their laptop that is powered down, flip open the lid, and start typing immediately. Now that I have a time capsule providing our wireless I don't have to worry about backing up her data and have even used it once to restore a document that she messed up and was unable to undo the changes to it. If I had to describe her laptop in one sentence it would be "It just works." The price is a big issue for me on the bigger MacBook laptops, but if they come out in a smaller form factor and with Intel Sandybridge processors at the end of April as rumored then they just might win me over.
    Last edited by Steve Meliza; 04-20-2012 at 1:23 PM. Reason: clarification

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill ThompsonNM View Post
    $2500 sounds like a lot, but the comparable Dell machine, the M6600 starts at $2500 also and has options up into the$7000 range. You can't compare prices on machines with completely different specs. In the past year I've purchased a Dell laptop and a Mac airbook and like them both. There are gloatable deals at the Dell outlet store, but it takes some time to compare the bewildering number of models.
    Apple has no options for a 17" display besides a $2,500 model. Windows 17" laptops can be purchased for around $600. Certainly the CPU and other specs won't be the same, but if your main criteria is the 17" screen then you have no other choice with Apple.

  5. #35
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    The Dell I bought in November I immediately upgraded to an 80GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. The SSD and RAM were less than $150. Very fast machine and the battery meter shows over 9 hours although I have my doubts on the battery lasting 9 hours.

  6. #36
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    Wanted to thank everyone for their input - it sure helped. I said I would update this once we made a purchase... and today we picked up a Toshiba Satellite P755-S5387 Laptop from Officemax. Colleen has really enjoyed the laptop so far but that mouse thing sure is a little different than the desktops we are used to!

    Once again - Thanks to everyone for voicing their suggestions! I am sure Colleen will be very happy with her new laptop!
    Steve

    “You never know what you got til it's gone!”
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    Become a financial Contributor today!

  7. #37
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    I carry a real mouse with me even when I travel.


  8. #38
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    I also use a wireless mouse with my laptop. Target always seems to have a good sale on them.
    "Remember back in the day, when things were made by hand, and people took pride in their work?"
    - Rick Dale

  9. #39
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    Thanks guys! I will check into that option!
    Steve

    “You never know what you got til it's gone!”
    Please don’t let that happen!
    Become a financial Contributor today!

  10. #40
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    I think you'll be happy with your Toshiba. They've have a pretty good rep for durability I believe.

  11. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Lehnert View Post
    Target
    Probably the same one I have for my personal laptop. We've gotten some at Costco too that are really nice for in the $35 range. Make sure you get one with the "Nano" receiver that you can just leave plugged into a USB port full time.


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