Advices & Tips in Buying Laptop

[rockingstone]

Hi,
I'm currently looking for a laptop computer within a price of +/- 1200 US $.

I'd like that laptop to be a PC replacement, not a computer that I would carry around.

The use I'm basicaly expecting to do is : Office, Internet and DVD films.

I live in Montreal.

I would like very much to receive advices or specific indications about computers I should look at or avoid. Also if you know any laptop review sites that analyse laptops specifications, please let me know their addresses.

Thank you very much for helping me in my search for a laptop.

 

[livvie]

I have a HP NX9100 and I would not recommend it. I had heard that HP were the best laptops. Maybe I was just unlucky but I'v had 12 months of trouble with it since I bought it. It is slow and noisy and the touchpad wouldn't work. I needed patches to get it to start up after standby etc etc

 

[ninja fetus]

IBM thinkpads are good if you can afford one. 1200 will get you a pretty good one.
Dell has a good line of laptops, compaq and hp's are tanks :(

 

[AXP]

With Dell you get the most for your money, IF you use coupons. The Inspiron 9300 is great for a desktop replacement.

Dell Coupons: http://www.xpbargains.com/best_deal.php/laptop_deals.htm
Dell Inspiron 9300: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=i9300S1&s=dhs

I just configed a 9300 on Dell's website, but it may not be exactly what you want...

CPU Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Display 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
Memory 256MB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 1 Dimm
Video Card 64MB ATIs™ Mobility Radeon™ X300
Hard Drive 100GB Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD/DVD Drives 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
Wireless Networking Card Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) No productivity suite - Corel WordPerfect word processor only
Security Software No Security Subscription
Digital Music Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic
Primary Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options No Extended Service, Support or Ltd Warranty
Digital Imaging Photo Album™ SE Basic
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service & Support
Financial Software No QuickBooks package selected- Includes limited use trial

TOTAL: $1,942.00
- $750.00 coupon (1$RM$82?PZZT26)
=$1,192.00
+$108.99 Transcend 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM Notebook Memory (256MB is just not enough and Dell's 1GB cost wayyyy too much)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820208024

Total $1300.99

This will do great for Office, Internet and DVDs. If you want to play the latest games, I would suggest the 6800 Go and maybe change the hard drive to a 60GB 7200RPM, the CPU to a down to 1.6GHz. You may not want a DVD burner either. It just depends what you want.

Here is a nice review of the 9300:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2256&review=Dell+Inspiron+9300

 

[rockingstone]

Thanks for your info but 256 RAM seems to me a little slow.
What do you think of Toshiba Satellite A70 line. I'm more specifically refering to A70 - KM2 ; A70-RW1 ; ML1 ; M30-001.

Also I've heard about the Acer AS 1690-WLMi and Acer TM 4101-WLMi

Thanks again for your help.

 

[AXP]

Thanks for your info but 256 RAM seems to me a little slow.

Yes, read towards the bottom of my post. $1300.99 is with the 1GB of RAM added from Newegg. (1.25GB total) Dell charges more than twice that for a gig of ram.

 

[InspironUser]

Hi AXP;

How do you know that the RAM from "Newegg" will work well with DELL.

Is there any way you can make sure or run a test to find compatibility.

Yes, read towards the bottom of my post. $1300.99 is with the 1GB of RAM added from Newegg. (1.25GB total) Dell charges more than twice that for a gig of ram.

 

[AXP]

Hi AXP;

How do you know that the RAM from "Newegg" will work well with DELL.

Is there any way you can make sure or run a test to find compatibility.

Yes, I have a Inspiron 9300 and use this exact stick in it along with one of the original 256MB sticks that shipped with it. There are many users on www.notebookforums.com that use this memory also. :good: