Shopping for new (basic enough) laptop

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isune

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#41300 14-Sep-2009 13:57

Hi everyone,
I am looking for a notebook to mainly do assignments on and to surf the net.
Ideal price range $700 - $800 but can pay up to $1000.
Windows OS
At least a 15" inch screen
Doesn't need to be anything flash as I say, I wont do any gaming or heavy graphics work on it.
Any deals would be greatly appreciated or any brands to stay away from (in your opinion!)
Thanks guys.

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#255603 14-Sep-2009 15:10

In my opinion stay away from Acer's. I know from past work experiences that when the original sub-1k notebooks came out from them we had an over 50% return rate due to failing parts and even an entire shipment that was sent out with bad drivers that it took them 6 months to admit to and another 3 or 4 months to fix. Saying that they may be better now seeing as it's been a few years since I used to sell them.

Personally I like Compaq/HP, ASUS or Lenovo. I'm using a great little Lenovo G530 at work and, even though we did have one of the HDD's die on one of the 3 we got (it was replaced within a week so I was happy with that) it has real nice specs for work related activities. May be a little outside the price range but I think they have a cheaper slightly lower spec machine.

If you are just wanting to do the things you mentioned above, dont worry about getting something with a graphics card, shared video memory should be fine. In saying that, if you will be running windows get at least 2gb of ram, especially if it's shared memory, and other than that you should be fine.

Paulthagerous

698 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 16

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#255639 14-Sep-2009 16:19

For the price you are looking at, I think the a good one would be a sweet deal:

http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/computers/notebook-computers/pc-notebook-computers/compaq-cq61-218-2gb-presario-cq61-218tu-notebook-2gb-ram-upgrade/prod108132.html

3GB of ram for $900 is hard to beat, has a 15.6 screen as per requirements. Processor is single core, but to be honest for what you are using it this shouldn't really matter. I think it is a really good deal.

tchart

2396 posts

Uber Geek
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#255640 14-Sep-2009 16:20

Yep, recommend Compaq/HP. If you can stretch it I rate Toshibas the best and you can sometime find one for around $1000. Had mine for over 3 years and never had a problem - except its been so wel used some of they keys are a bit non-responsive.

Personally Ive never had any problems with Acer laptops.

Only problem with cheap laptops is they usually give you a cheap battery which wont do if you are out and about. If you are always going to have it plugged it can kill the battery over time - so make sure its one of those that switch to power when the battery is full.