Notebook manufacturers

[Kanthos]

My wife is considering getting a new notebook. The "do it yourself" option mentioned in Zircon's thread about getting a new desktop doesn't apply here, since, as far as I know, there are little or no companies that offer do-it-yourself notebooks. She would generally use it for watching DVDs and web surfing.

I have two questions. Which notebook manufacturers are and aren't good? She currently has an HP, and for the most part, it's been fine, although it's had a tendency to randomly restart recently (hence the consideration to buy a new one) and has been running hot recently.

Secondly, which notebook processors are/aren't good, and is there any easy way to determine the clock speed of modern processors, particularly AMDs?

[Effef]

Acer and Toshiba make good laptops. For a proc, go for a Intel Core 2 or Core 2 Duo. ( I think they are listed at the same price..i think)

AMD has the Turion 64 mobile, but both Intel Cores kick its butt in power, battery life, and thermal performance.

[Shadow Wolf]

At the risk of starting a flamewar, I recommend Dell. They don't have any proprietary shit on their drives, so if you're willing to wipe out their recovery partition, you can install whatever OS you want on the drive. They're cheap, they're fast, and the screens are nice. Also, Dell has an outlet where you can get new and refurbished systems for hundreds of dollars off at outlet.dell.com.

[Arek the Absolute]

Toshiba Toshiba Toshiba Toshiba (satellite)

Did I mention Toshiba?

Seriously though, toshiba is by far the best laptop developing company that I have seen.

[Old Man Time]

hmm... this interests me as i'm going to get a notebook for college soon, but don't have a great idea of what i want. i'll have to keep an eye on this topic.

[Hellcom]

I recently bought a laptop for my mother from Lenovo. They bought the Thinkpad from IBM about a year or so ago, and their laptops even at the low end seem to be pretty great.

http://www.lenovo.com/

[Katsurugi]

I recently bought a laptop for my mother from Lenovo. They bought the Thinkpad from IBM about a year or so ago, and their laptops even at the low end seem to be pretty great.

http://www.lenovo.com/

I was about the recommend the same. IBM Thinkpads are great notebooks which perform well and are very reliable/durable. Though the older IBM Thinkpads were a bit unstylish, performance was great. I'm not too sure how Lenovo has evolved the Thnkpad line, but I'd still bet that it's a good product.

I have known people who do own Dell notebooks and for the most part, they do work. I haven't heard of anything detrimental or horrifying. But I would trust a Dell notebook to do menial tasks like internet browsing, listening to music and watching movies. Very basic type of stuff and nothing too specific.

Personally, I have had a Gateway notebook for about 4 or 5 years now, and it's been great. I have had no complaints with it with the exception that the screen is a bit dim. But that's more or less a technology jump back then when I purchased it. Probably the only main difference betweene Gateway and Dell is the customer service. Any time I've called Gateway, whether in the dead of night or in the afternoon, I've gotten someone who is a native english speaker... I can't say the same for Dell.