The best of laptops

[ramollari]

Nietzche, my advice is buy pre-built computers. The reason is cheaper computers for better performance and reliability. Computer companies have a hard won experience of which combinations of hardware elements have best performance/reliability and suit the user needs.

 

[Lyuokdea]

Nietzche, my advice is buy pre-built computers. The reason is cheaper computers for better performance and reliability. Computer companies have a hard won experience of which combinations of hardware elements have best performance/reliability and suit the user needs.

you would think that would be true, but really PC companies just need to make computers such that they will sell for the most profit. For instance, buying RAM at Dell, sometimes a dell-pre packaged PC comes with 256 MB RAM, but if I need more they wanted to charge me $1000 to upgrade to 1024 MB RAM, i bought the same RAM at cost from IBUYPOWER for $140 I believe, maybe less. And if I bought the dell and upgraded myself, I lose the warrenty anyway.

Also, for a company like Dell, if they can cheapen the price of PC's by completely automating the process, then having maybe 10% of the computers have a componant fail, is acceptable, because it would take a lot of bad press to hurt a company like Dell, a small company on the other hand, has to deal with the fact that every bad component is an unsatisfied customer who will buy somewhere else. Thus the computers tend to be much better tested and the components are of a much better quality.

Lastly, if I call my small "out of the basement" company for tech support, at least the people I speak to speak English.

Remember, most of the greatest businesses in the world today started out of a garage, Microsoft is one example.

~Lyuokdea

 

[The_Professional]

AS far as desktops go i would never ever ever buy a pre built desktop PC. I haven't had one that i haven't built myself since i was 12. And especially never buy from Dell. I would go to Mac and give up any hop of ever seeing anoth computer game before i would get a Dell. Dell is the Walmart of PCs.

Laptops, unfortunatey i can't build my own, but i would still stay away from dell. And with what i've learned from vuilding desktops, myself i would find a place that would give me a custom to my specifications, it would be worth the cost. The less i rely on an assembly, all size fits one PC the better.

While I'm open minded about Macs I still won't buy them for regular use. Most programs are built for the PC and they're still being made with PC's in mind. And Macs usually cost about the same as the PC.

If you mean the Walmart of PC as being very,very cheap I won't necessarrily put Dell in that category. They're more Macy's ;) and can be Saks Fifth Avenue depending of course on your configuration.

The Walmarts of the PC world are the E-machines, ibuypowers, and other small no name companies.

 

[Sirus]

I make my argument for building your own PC here, post #7. Laptops are a little more difficult to build on your own, but it can still be done.

 

[rachmaninoff]

Originally Posted by Lyuokdea
If you don't mind getting laptops from small non-notable companies, there are a lot of good things to be said about companies such as Sager www.powernotebooks.com[/url] and Uniwill [url]www.IBuyPower.com/[/URL] both websites are for resellers of the Sager and Uniwill models, not the actual companies. I currently own an IbuyPower S-Turbo Series of the Uniwill model, very nice laptop and I've had no problems with it since i got it in August.
[/Quote]

I second the Sager recommendation. Mine has yet to fail. Also, they look cool.

 

[amuron]

Much depends on the end use application. In my case, I only buy older IBM's, before they went cheap.... But, a consumer grade laptop will not last. I have 2 Dell's that need to be cared for like glass... And 7 IBM's, with the oldest ones being the most bulletproof.

Then again, most people do not expose their laptop to the hazards I deal with. My 755 took a 13.56Mhz, 5KV hit on the serial port..... the cable caught on fire, but the laptop still runs, even years later. My 770's have seen rain, snow, sand, and other than the cases covered with battle scars, they still run fine. The T23, otoh, dies every few months... The keyboard is cheap, the LCD is cheap, everything is cheap... but still a lot more robust than the Dells. Ruggedized laptops are extremely spendy, as such, even the somewhat fragile T23, and its repair costs is still a bargain. Sure wish they designed them as well as the antique 755.... its never died.

 

[r3dxP]

Yea.. IBM just sold their company.. which sucks. I would now prefer getting a toshiba protege series. My parents friend who has one had no problem ever with it.. except when his son dropped it and had to get it fixed for 900$(monitor broke). :-)

 

[DrKareem]

Many of my friends bought HP, and they are having random problems with it. Also, a friend of mine that has a part time job dealing with puters, and he told me that the most troublesome laptops are Dell.

I have a Toshiba, it's great and almost pricless, i really like it. However, if i had more money, i would have defenitely bought an iBook.

 

[Moonbear]

Our department has several Dell notebooks and I have a Mac Powerbook, and know others with iBooks. While Dell desktops are pretty decent, their notebooks are terrible. There always seems to be a problem with them; I don't think they can take the little bumps that come with toting them around. Plus, they seem so big and clunky; just don't feel sturdy at all.

The PowerBook is great, feels solid, is light, easy to travel with, etc. One of my friends also has a PowerBook and managed to drop it hard enough to dent the case, but other than that small dent in the case, it's still fully functional. The iBooks have plastic cases, so don't have quite the same sturdy feel, but still seem more solid than a lot of PC notebooks I've played with.

Someone else I know has an IBM notebook (a few years old now though), and I liked that one. Seems to run well and sturdy, but I never got to play with it enough to really know how well it held up.

To me, a sturdy laptop is important, because I'm rough on them when I travel, and I travel a lot.

Oh, someone mentioned a weird battery problem on an iBook...I can't remember if it was for iBooks or PowerBooks, but there was a known battery issue where they recalled batteries for one of the Mac notebooks last year...I think it was that they overheated. Don't know if that was the problem your friend had.

 

[r3dxP]

what is happening with IBM right now? Couple months ago. i heard that IBM has sold their company to some chinese company or something. So some people discouraged me in buying a IBM thinkpad. Whats the deal?

 

[Asphyxi8]

That sounds kinda racist. On their part, not yours.