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Need advice on a laptop

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: Buyers Banter (ARCHIVES): Need advice on a laptop users admin

Author Message
Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Friday, July 09, 2004 - 10:47 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I am thinking about buying a new laptop for going away this winter. It is just getting to be too much stuff to lug around with external floppy drives, ethernet adapters and now wireless adapters, so I am thinking about getting a new laptop with all that stuff already integrated. And a bigger hard drive.

My current laptop is a year 2000 refurbished Gateway Solo 1150 with maybe a 6 Gig hard drive, maybe 10, not sure, and Windows ME, 500 Mhz processor. It was bottom of the line then but has held up fairly well after they replaced the modem in the first year.

I don't have any extraordinary requirements, don't need great sound. I will be editing amateur photos that we take with our digital camera.

I can afford to wait for some sales, won't really need a laptop until early November.

I am thrifty but not destitute, just like to save my money for important things like traveling all over the place, so I would like to spend around $1000, but could go a bit higher.

Oh! And somebody already squealed to me that they think Seamonkey and Weinermr both got new laptops in the not too distant past.

Let's all help Juju shop! Just think of what a good job y'all did with those bedroom lamps!


Lkunkel
Member

10-29-2003

Friday, July 09, 2004 - 10:52 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I love my Toshiba Satellite 305 and use it for everything.

Good luck on the hunt. I went through Tiger Direct, and was really happy with their prices and customer service.

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 12:30 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju, "Queen of the Deal", my dear, if you're interested in good deals, you can often find really great buys at Dell's 'Outlet' site - it's a little tricky to navigate because they have incredibly high turnover - I've seen machines appear and disappear (sold) in a matter of minutes - then more are added all the time. It's not too bad to navigate but I suggest you 'play' with it for a little while before you seriously try to buy a machine there. Link to Dell Outlet

Here are a couple of current examples - keep in mind these will probably be gone by the time you read this, only replaced with different but similar deals:

Inspiron 5150 (System Identifier E6V374EG)
Dell Inspiron 5150 Notebook: Intel ® Pentium 4 Processor, 2.66 GHz, 533MHz Front Side Bus, 15 XGA Display
Microsoft® Windows XP Home
System Price $1,050.00
Promotion Discount ($175.00)
Discounted Price $875.00
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP Home
Memory: 256 MB DDR SDRAM, 333MHz (1 DIMM)
Hard Disk Drive: 30 GB EIDE Hard Drive (4200 RPM)
Video: 32MB DDR NVIDIA® GeForce? FX Go5200 AGP 4x Graphics
NoteBook Screen: 15 inch XGA Notebook Screen
Modem: Internal Modem
Network Interface Card: Internal NIC
CD Read-Write Drive: 24X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
Note: No wireless network with this unit - but I'm fairly sure you can add to it.


Inspiron 5150 (System Identifier FXBHJFHG)
Dell Inspiron 5150 Notebook: Intel ® Pentium 4 Processor, 2.8 GHz, 533MHz Front Side Bus, 15 XGA Display
Microsoft® Windows XP Home
System Price $1,135.00
Promotion Discount ($175.00)
Discounted Price $960.00

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP Home
Memory: 256 MB DDR SDRAM, 333MHz (1 DIMM)
Hard Disk Drive: 30 GB EIDE Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Video: 32MB DDR NVIDIA® GeForce? FX Go5200 AGP 4x Graphics
NoteBook Screen: 15 inch XGA Notebook Screen
Modem: Internal Modem
Network Interface Card: Internal NIC
Wireless 1350 Internal Wireless
CD Read-Write Drive: 24X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive

Hope this helps.

Halfunit
Member

09-02-2001

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 7:57 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju - I am a self confessed Dell fan, having purchased my 3rd laptop just a few months ago - It's an Inspiron 8600 and I LOVE it. ( Also have had 3 Dell desktops too. )

I just wanted to get "politics" out of the way, lol.

One question for you:

Aside from price, what single item is most important to you?


Weight?
Screen size?
Wireless options?

Try these links to Comparison Chart and New Dell Notebooks and see if anything grabs you.

I am thinking an Inspiron 600m for you. :-)




Karuuna
Member

08-31-2000

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 9:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Can you say iBook? No viruses, no worms, no spybots, no need for AdAware... I'm just sayin'.....

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 9:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL, Karuuna ...

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 10:18 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju.. you do NOT want advice from me.. what I got is a Fujitsu with gigantic sceen but for travel, you'd want to hire a Sherpa to tote the thing for you..



ETA: gigantic = 16" square gorgeous display, not a widescreen. Heavy as a boatanchor, but really fast :-) and a gig of ram.. slots and bays for pretty much anything.



Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 1:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Karuuna, we already did that obsolescence thing with the Sony Betamax.

Half, thanks for the link to the chart. I DO have the latest Dell catalog I just got at home, and they seem to be having a good sale on the Inspiron 8600, 60 Gig hard drive, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, wireless, $1299 after rebates. The 600m does look nice, though! I think you picked it for me because of the weight?

Dra, I think you have me pegged. I can't wait to get over to that outlet page.

Seamonkey, yeah, traveling on trains and planes with the laptop does get a bit wearying. I should weigh the one I have now. It seems to weigh a ton by the time you have lugged it all over a major train station, and Bigdog refuses to carry it for me. I was never so happy as when I met SpongeBob in Union Station in Chicago, and they had refused to take my laptop in the temporary luggage check, and Spongie immediately offered to carry it for me.

LK, I will check Tiger Direct. I have heard of their good prices before but forgot about them.

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 5:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Juju.. I've travelled with old (new then) Toshibas that were relatively heavy (but the power supply was built in.. that was so cool) and IBM Thinkpads..

Oh this new boatanchor one also has a really hefty power supply compared to the one for the Thinkpads..

So if you are comparing two or three models and weight is one consideration, if you can find out about the weight of the power supply, that might tilt in the favor of one or another.

My SIL has a very light IBM for travelling.. and she travels far and wide on business (like The Netherlands, Israel, Australia, etc..) and then has a docking station at home for it.. but my brother had moddable phrases about that keyboard :-)



Melfie1222
Member

07-29-2002

Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 10:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Another Dell fan here . Dell desktop at home, used to have a Dell desktop for work and it was recently replaced with a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop. I've been very happy with all of them.

Beachcomber
Member

08-26-2003

Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 1:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have used IBM Thinkpads for years in my business and they travel very well and are getting lighter each year it seems. The one problem I had with a bad motherboard (insert your own joke here!) was quickly fixed by IBM.

Lkunkel
Member

10-29-2003

Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 1:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
JuJu: I was reading the 7/20/04 Woman's World last night and ran into this snippet on page 26: "Name Your Price For Vacations, Computers, Jewelry, and More!"

quote:

Buy Computers For a Song!
Need a computer? Some auctions start bids on this type of pricey hardware as low as $24.99! Best Sites: CompUSA Auctions, Dell Auctions. Recent Hot Deal: $302 for a HP Pavilion 7935 computer--more than 50% less than retail!


Anyway, good luck.