Laptops

[Bassboy1645]

Looking into a laptop for school next fall. Despite school use being the obvious reason, what else is a laptop good for besides fishingmn and myspace ?? Any suggestions price ranges on laptops w/ wireless internet?? thanks.

[slotlimit]

I would just recommend the dual processor. I also know my next computer will not be a dell or an HP (and I'm sure others I just don't know about)because they outsourced their customer service to India. Even though most things aren't made in the USA anymore. When I'm on the phone with someone it's nice to be able to understand them. Funny how I can't understand someone speeking English.

[Sandmannd]

For sure get wireless, I think most come with that. I bought a lower Acer and it's a good laptop, just wish I would have got the DVD burner in it. Other than that it does all I would ask of it. As for outsourcing to India, all you have to do is politly say you can't understand them and that you want to be transferred to the US. I do this with any service for any item I have to call on and it works. I don't even give them my name, just say to transfer me. I got that from a tech at Vonage that I finally got in the US.

[slotlimit]

Hey Thanks! I'll try that the next time.

[Daze Off]

I bought my daughter a Dell Latitude this fall for her first year of college and it is pretty impressive. Should last her all 4 yrs and is Vista capable. Went up from the cheaper lines Dell offers for durability - plastic vs. metal, etc. Well worth it - total unit came in around $1,300.00 with Anti-virus and service contracts.

Good luck - get as much as you can afford!

Daze Off

[Borch]

I just bought my daughter a top end Dell Inspiron. If you look around you'll also find additional coupons online. We got an additional 20% off of the price with an online coupon code. I've used Dell, Acer, Compaq, HP, Packard Bell, Toshiba, IBM, many custom boxes and now Macs at work. They all have there issues, (Yes even the Macs). HP and Compaq are one and the same. Acer has fewer service centers in the states. Toshiba makes some very nice laptops with good bang for the buck. Macs??? Well, you've seen the commercials.

[Valv]

Go to the Dell web site, choose wether Home or Business then click on Outlet.

You will have to learn how to use the program but I bought many systems this way and they are up to 50% less then new, in fact I bought a brand new desktop 2 days ago for $ 289.00 delivered, and it has Vista on it, which is $ 200.00 at the store as an upgrade, practically I've got a new computer for $ 89.00.

SO far I bought 2 laptops, 2 desktops, and 3 LCD monitors (they have 19" for $ 185.00 !!! )

[MN Mike]

I too would recommend a Dell Latitude, if you don't mind spending the extra money ( Inspirons are good too ), HP makes a business notebook nc or nx models, you don't find these at the big box stores and they are great laptops. I don't think I have seen a new laptop that doesn't have wireless not built into it.

I would do a little homework on what version of Vista you want to get too. You will want to get some requirements from the school too and they offer some dang good pricing on certain software.

I use my laptop for many things, streaming music, downloading from ITunes, run my GPS just to name a few.

Good luck.

Mike

[Jimmy Jay R]

Depends how much you want to spend.. I'm reading this forum and typing on a HP nc6400 14". I love it. Best laptop Ive owned. Customer service? Ive never called. No problems using this. Go with the dual processor for sure. Everything on this laptop is automatic and very well secrued. You do not have to be an expert at all to use it. If your just using it for internet and messing around save yourself some dough and buy a cheaper one with a good processor.

[fisherdog19]

I've got a latitude that is over 2 years now, and I love it. No real issue's with it, mostly software ones.

[loejay]

Do the dual cores run hotter? I've been told they do.

Any input on this? Thanks.

[Sandmannd]

Get one of those USB coolers that go on the bottom of your laptop. I got a targus one and works great.

[Daze Off]

Almost forgot - depending upon the school, you should be able to get software at pennies-on-the-dollar - my kid got MS Office Professional Suite 2003 for $5.00 through the U.

Daze Off

[loupepsi]

First of all you dont need to spend alot of money to get a laptop. If you buy a top dollar, high end, dual core processor 1300 dollar laptop chances are you are not even going to use half of its power. Unless of course you are a media head and demand multipe programs running or are a serious gamer, but i would recommend buying a desktop for thoose kinds of things. If your going to use it for school work and surfing the internet I would look at the middle to low end laptops. That dont cost an arm and a leg probably around 500 to 800 dollars and i would wait until they are on sale. The second thing I would look at is customer service and warranty. HP has great customer service probably one of the best. Toshiba, sony. In my personal opinion i would stay away from dell. Dell is popular because they are very good at advertiseing their product. There are much better brands out there for laptops. Third i would look at features you want. What size of hard drive? If your going to have a lot of music on it or something else that would take an unessasary amount of memory i would look at a big 100gig plus hard drive. If not a 60gig will be fine. Word documents take up virtually nothing on your hard drive. I recommend a widescreen, very, very nice. Possibly look at a 64bit processor, just for future opperating systems and programs. But i think before "everthing goes" 64bit your will need a new laptop because yours will be worn out. I still use windows 2000 a lot and its 2007. But thats because i like the operating system and its still compatable with everything. Firewire, USB 2.0, DVD-R/RW drive, once again these are all things you have to look into to see if you would want and use. Finally don't buy any of the virus protection and firewall mumbo jumbo they try sell you. you can get good programs on the internet for free that will do the same thing. Possibly a extended warranty if you need. good luck

[loupepsi]

I forgot. I have a middle to low end 1.79GHZ 64bit AMD Turion processor with 80gig, and dvd-r/rw. I do alot of media work on it and still dont use all of its processing power. I purchased it from HP a year ago for 800 dollars. Perfect for me.

[mechanictim]

You asked about uses for a laptop outside the classroom. For an outdoorsman a laptop has many uses.

you can view digital camera and digital trailcam photos in the field even with the low buck cams. Really helpfull in deciding weather to move the cam or leave it in place. If you travel to bear hunt seeing what is going on at your bait station in the field is sweet.

Even some low buck GPS units and the right software will make finding your way around a lot easier. Some of the map software from DeLorme and others lets you keep a log of your outdoor activities.

Portable DVD player to watch those monster bucks dvd's in hunting camp.

If you get an after market chip for your vehicle a laptop will let you change parameters to maximize performance or economy while driving. You need someone else to drive or run the program.

I am just giving a few examples as Iam sure there are many other uses for a laptop to an outdoorsman.

[Whoaru99]

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Looking into a laptop for school next fall. Despite school use being the obvious reason, what else is a laptop good for besides fishingmn and myspace

?? Any suggestions price ranges on laptops w/ wireless internet?? thanks.

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I've had Dell, Toshiba, and Acer laptops and never a lick of problems with any of them.

I picked out a sweet machine for a friend not long ago from Best Buy sale. It was a Toshiba. It was loaded up pretty good with a Core 2 Duo processor, large HDD and 2gb RAM, wireless, widescreen, DVD RW, pretty much you name it... Came with a fitted case and a few other gadgets for like $900 +Uncle Sam's cut.

Anything else I tried to configure with similar features directly from Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq, et al, was a minimum of $200-$300 more.

So, the point, IMO, is to figure out what you want/need for features and power then be poised and ready to move on a sale from any of the major mfg.

[echotrail]

What else are they good for? Well, they make a pretty good tv tray and most of them have a button somewhere that makes the cup holder pop out....sorry, couldn't help it.

[Seabass77]

Macintosh all the way. Easy to use, great quality, virtually no security issues.

[Polar Bear]

I've owned 3 laptops: one IBM and 2 Dells. I've never had a single issue with either of the Dells. IMHO they can't be beat.

[upnorth]

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Macintosh all the way. Easy to use, great quality, virtually no security issues.

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There are security issues starting to show up and will get worse as more people start to use them. Hackers and Virus programmers won't bother trying to exploit a seldom used operating system. So the more people that move to MACs the more security issues you will see. I get a gov bulletin weekly and the list of possible exploits with MACs is growing all the time.