Hey,
i need advice on laptops, mostly the companys, as the specs and that stuff i can figure on my own. Those of you who have any advice on which companies to go with would be nice. Ill be using the computer for school, but also for games. I dont want some fancy looking laptop with neon light and that stuff lol..

ty in advance
-venderz

I've been told Acer and Dell make good laptops, and my HP Compaq isn't all that bad, but the screen sucks. Fine in a room, but if the sun shines on it you're not seeing anything (and from what I've seen, this is the case with any HP laptop). There was another company I was told made good laptops, but I cannot for the life of me remember their name.

hmm, anyone have any experience with this laptop? Seems nice, but well, cant be sure as companies always make everything look nice

personally i would never tell anyone to get a dell especially not a gaming laptop (oxymoron!), as you want an AMD turion really

Quote from Jakg :

personally i would never tell anyone to get a dell especially not a gaming laptop (oxymoron!), as you want an AMD turion really

wrong yonah/core duo is just fine for gaming

you should just get one of the more well known names and youll be more or less in the clear

Quote from Jakg :

personally i would never tell anyone to get a dell especially not a gaming laptop (oxymoron!), as you want an AMD turion really

Though there desktops are lacking, they do make good servers, screens and laptops (well pick the parts for them all anyway). But the name is the same so people get all arsey about it.

As for battery life, you don't really want a power house. I get around 3 hours with my Cent, but a guy at uni with a Turion gets about 1 hour and a half (yes he does have a real graphics card unlike mine which is intergrated). So if it's on mains all the time, no issue, but for life, which is what you need in uni, forget a power house.

if you don't want something flashy looking, but what something nice, reliable, and powerful, I'd go with IBM/Lenovo. In my experience, they are absolutely bulletproof, they last forever. They are not flashy, no bright silver, no blue LEDs, but they work.

I'd go with the T series personally, they're light and quick and have rubberized magnesium cases, which are very nice.

I wouldn't advise buying a Dell; PC or laptop. (server, I don't know). For me, it's not just the performance of the items that put me off Dells, it's the crappy service they give you. From my experience, Acer is second to none in customer service.

I have an Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi notebook. AMD Turion mobile chip (2 GHz I believe), ATI Mobility Radeon X700 graphics card, and a 100gig Hard drive, which came from the shop partitioned into 2. It runs LFS at a respectable 50-75 FPS at 1280x1024 6xAA 16xAF. Beautiful I get about 2 1/2 - 3 hours battery life doing normal classroom tasks, about 1 1/2 hour gaming I'd guess. (I've never played games on battery power for extended amounts of time)

The only thing I've noticed with it is that on occasion some keys on the keyboard don't like to work. This is extremely rare, and usually only occurs at the XP login screen. A quick reboot (and I mean Quick!) fixes it. Like I said already, customer service is top notch as well!

Recent Tests show that a Core Duo processor is the best currently, and if you have some extra $$ to throw around, maybe think about a Macbook Pro, running XP on them is a simple job of installing Bootcamp, and they are quoted to be "The fastest Windows XP laptop" and they come with a pretty decent GFX chip in them (Radeon X1600). Just be sure to not get a standard macbook if you look the apple route, because the macbook has a lame old intel integrated graphics chip and shares it with the mobo memory.

Sort of a Mac Fanboy post, but they are very good Windows Laptops, Fast, and look excellent. The only requirement is going to apple, downloading the bootcamp.dmg and you need a Windows XP (Home, pro or media center) and it must be Service Pack 2 patched (Slipstreamed or bought that way). and 1 CD-R, to burn the windows drivers.

Quote from 96 GTS :

if you don't want something flashy looking, but what something nice, reliable, and powerful, I'd go with IBM/Lenovo. In my experience, they are absolutely bulletproof, they last forever. They are not flashy, no bright silver, no blue LEDs, but they work.

I'd go with the T series personally, they're light and quick and have rubberized magnesium cases, which are very nice.

I'd second that.

I've always had to repeat myself... but if you want a quality Dell laptop that will last, you always have to buy their top brand. It may sound "typical", but it is true. A lot of their low-end models are crap and it is pretty much identical for any other computer company. I've owned this maxed-out Dell 8200 laptop for more than 3 years now, and it still is holding up very nicely. If you go and buy a nice gaming Dell laptop, trust me, they kick ass. Same goes for their desktops.

To be on the subject of laptops, I suggest that you:

-Don't go with Acer, Gateway, Fujitsu, HP (some are good, but they are risky) Sony, IBM, Lenovo, Sager... hmm I can't put my finger on any others at the moment

-Do go with Dell, Alienware (if you want to pay a lot), and I think Toshiba's are alright. Just don't get any cheap models! Trust me. For gaming and quality, they are quite nice.

And yet nobody will echo my Macbook Pro suggestion...

I back up the IBM suggestion. These are well done laptops. Though they tend to be on the pricy end...

Samsung also makes good laptops. Very light, well build, good screens, come with a silent-mode to disable the system fan, often cheap because of student/pupil-discount (at least Samsung Germany has many of those deals, but I guess that is an international guideline).
A friend of mine made very positive experience with the Acer desklets. Those are laptops with tiltable screen so you can use them as a desklet if you want to. Also all devices in it are modular. So if you want you can replace the DVD drive with a secondary battery anytime you want within 30 seconds.
I'd also like to use this post to warn you about Fujitsu-Siemens laptops. You get a cheap laptop for few money. These things fall apart within an instant. I can recall no less than 5 people with Fujitsu-Siemens laptops who had to return their laptop more that two times within the first year.

Vain

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Though there desktops are lacking, they do make good servers, screens and laptops (well pick the parts for them all anyway). But the name is the same so people get all arsey about it.

my experience of dell is through my pda, a Dell Axim X51v, it has tons of problems, ie Bluetooth doesn't work properly (some features like Obex missing), Dell know it doesn't work, and yet they wont admit it when EVERYONE who has one says so! eventually the main forum for Dell pda's (Aximsite) found out that Dell had a new line, the new about the problem, but it wasnt worth fixing it, they customer support is lacklustre to say the least. it has a 624 Mhz processor, and it take 1:40 to reboot, when my old 520 Mhz Fujitsu took 10! Just read above post, my experience with Fujitsu has been VERY good, only problem being their repairs are rediculously expensive

before you say, yes i know that HTC make it (HTC Make 90% of them for them to be rebranded), but its not like Dell have approached them for help, they just keep hiding the issue so that people will still buy it. I just hope that someone buys one for the express purpose of Obex and then sues when they find out!

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

And yet nobody will echo my Macbook Pro suggestion...

it is a good idea, ill give you that, just get a white one and hope it doesnt discolor or burn you!

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Recent Tests show that a Core Duo processor is the best currently

You measleading some informations.The recent test are of Core 2 Duo and not about Core duo.Mobile versions of Core 2 Duo will come next year.

Quote from Tweaker :

-Don't go with ...IBM, Lenovo

Not trying to cause trouble, but any reason why?

Quote from 96 GTS :

Not trying to cause trouble, but any reason why?

I'd also like the reason for not going with Acer?

For gaming? IMB or Lenovo are not something to tinker around with. Those are some heavy duty business work laptops, and to be honest, you get your value for that. But all I hear is that those laptops are not in contention at all with the top rated laptops intended for gaming (that is the focus of my picks in my last post). I used one that my friend's boss just bought, and a lot of the keyboard arrangements and other little quirks are just terrible. I've never liked some of the IBM laptops especially because it feels rather old.

Acer is not bad, BUT they have way too big of a line to try and get into the gaming market, and more than half of their laptops are just cheese. All these "Ferrari" laptops are a joke for review sites, and it is kind of funny that they primarily market to gamers with their laptops and they have some of the worst cooling designs ever. Acers are like the topbrand of Sagers (crap).

I went for an iBook myself and am very happy with it although I didn't want it for games. You'll know best yourself how likely you are to take care of your laptop, if you need something in destructable then a Dell is best and they do have good warranties that cover accidental damage. The Dells never seem to run as well as they should even the top spec laptops I've seen are frankly crap. Unless you really want one I'd stay away from a widescreen laptop, they're too big and impractical.

As for screens, don't ignore it it's a very important part of choosing I'd go down to your local PC store and compare them, you can get laptops that are totally ruined by a crap screen, some of the widescreen Dells come to mind. Without being a Mac fanboy you will get the best quality screen with them, I've never seen a Windows laptop come close to a Mac on screen quality.

Why else am I buying a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, they are lovely awesome, yet very expensive but pretty.

I've only heard good things about gateway, compaq, and sony. But you should consider getting a barebones laptop, asus makes some really good stuff aswell.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Why else am I buying a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, they are lovely awesome, yet very expensive but pretty.

Lmao, how random. They use the same panels as the Dell equivalent btw, and the dells are better specced at a lower price.

I must say I do like Acers, they seem fairly good value for money. I'm considering getting a laptop in the next few weeks, but will probably go with Sony for build quality and performance.

Oh and a standard ibook screen vs Xblack or Crystal Bright screens, no contest, the mac loses every time. And yes I've compared them side by side.

It was random, but I like Apple much more, and Dell just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I'd have to kill myself if I walked into my room with a 30 inch... *choke* Dell... Apple is much better looking and isn't a third rate Computer Noob company like dell is.

Lol ok.

Some people need to remove their blinkers on this forum.

I used my blinkers too often, they are broken :P