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Help me buy a new laptop


BardicKnowledge
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My wife needs a new laptop, as her old one is very quickly dying off. We'd like something that will last a while and won't kill our budget. $1000 is the high point for what we'd like to spend.

She's not a big gamer, so we don't need anything top of the line etc. in graphics, but something that isn't integrated would be nice so I can run off with it now and then. :P

Any recommendations?

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I got a Toshiba myself, Satelite 300D something something. It was about 600 bucks, and does the job with "regular" games (it runs Oblivion, at least). However, it doesn't support my USB audio interface properly (Native Instruments Rig Kontrol), apparently that's a known problem with most Toshiba laptops.

If she's just going to use it for "regular" tasks, I don't think you can go wrong with any choice, really.

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things to look for:

-dual-core processor, preferably intel. huge difference in quality, reliability, and performance. don't go lower than a pentium dual-core (don't touch anything with celeron in the name), and remember that FSB (where the cpu connects with the system) is just as important as clockrate. my wife's is a 2.2ghz pentium dc, and it's pretty nice. handles vista pretty well (nothing compared to a desktop, though).

-whatever you get, max out the ram as soon as you get it. laptop ram is stupid cheap - like 4 gigs for under a hundred - and really easy to install yourself. plan on it when you buy. ram generally costs a lot more from the salesperson than from newegg (and they rarely stick one larger chip in, they'll usually clog your ports with two smaller ones) so buy low and install high.

-large, bright screen. seems dumb, but screens die with age, so aim for one that's more than enough for what you want.

-not much bloatware. all that extra crap just slows you down.

-discrete graphics are pretty expensive nowadays for some reason, probably related to the high cost of PCBs. buy accordingly. if it's nvidia, don't buy anything that's got numbers lower than 8500 in the name. 9600 would be excellent, but it's pricey. the 9500 is great, an 8600 is definitely capable. the 8400s and 9400s aren't worth the cost of the solder on the chip.

-hard drives are cheap. if you 'order up' on a custom-built deal, make sure it's worth the cost. check newegg or something. if it gives you a choice, choose a 7200rpm hd over a 5400rpm, and choose standard over ssd. sata over ide/pata of any kind. if they offer two drives, don't buy the second from them. just get one and buy the second when it goes on sale for half the cost, and install it yourself. there's not even any plugs to worry about with lappy drives =)

whatever she gets, wipe all the crap off of it immediately and load firefox and all that on there right away. that other stuff is terrible for performance.

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Ram can be procured for even cheaper than that... but then you're going into the whole 32-bit vs 64-bit operating system issue. (only 64-bit operating systems can fully utilize 4GB or above of RAM) You might as well pick up 2 2GB sticks of RAM even if you're going with a 32-bit version of Vista if the laptop doesn't come with that much already, and you can probably do so for less than $50. If you buy direct from a manufacturer like Dell, you'll probably not get a good deal from them on the ram.

I've been using a Toshiba laptop as my main computer for a while - 2.0 ghz dual-core Turion RL-70 w/3 GB ram. Runs Vista OK (i've never had vista anywhere else so I don't know how fast or slow it's running) and it runs Ubuntu snappily, like nobody's business. Still, I too recommend getting an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, or Pentium Dual-Core at the least.

$1000 nowadays should be able to get you a very decent laptop. Check out websites like tigerdirect, newegg, fry's (or in store) and even some manufacturers' websites like Dell - just look for a sale. Heck, if it's not used for heavy graphics processing and stuff, you can probably get an ok to good one for $400-800.

If you find some and you're not sure about which to choose, feel free to provide details / links to them and i'll try to give my honest assessment of them (and I guess anyone else here might too).

edit: yes, there's this handy website here. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html - it lists and ranks mobile graphics cards.

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woot.com's selling a great laptop with a 17" widescreen for 800$. it's a refurb, but it's got 500 gigs of hd space (5400rpm, though), 4 gigs of memory, and a t5800 cpu. wireless n, esata...it's a pretty nice machine. no warranty, just a 30-day thing.

it's 64-bit vista, though, so compatibility might be an issue.

edit: and it's got a bluray player/dvd burner.

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The new macbook pros are nice, but a little pricey. Depending on how much screen/keyboard real-estate she wants, a netbook might not be a bad option. Newer ones get really good battery life, though the displays (and keyboards) are quite small. In general, anything beyond integrated graphics increases cost and decreases battery performance. The best thing to do would probably go window shopping at a major electronics store, then finding whatever she likes for much cheaper online.

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