my son the geek needs a laptop....

My son, the geek, is taking some formidable online courses, several of which require windows for playing cd's. I admit it, 4 computers in the house and not one PC; all Mac's. Yes, we are Mac heads. sigh.
Any rate, I am excited about the prospect of entering the world of PC's. I've always felt daunted by the other side. It is like learning calculus as an adult....
Suggestions? I figure this is the right camp. I can help you with questions regarding prose, livestock, managing a classroom full of hellions, when and where to plant your garlic this fall, or anything musical (pedagogical, at least). But PC's.... h-m-m....
I need a laptop because I plan to get him a serious tower setup in a few months, so this is to be his low end, traveling computer. We travel a bit. I have looked at a neat little Toshiba (11.6) and several Dell's. There is a Compaq at Walmart that looks dodgy.... but the price is right.
Thoughts?

 

Also I would recommend looking for a name that you are familiar with.
Something from a low reputation company could be worse than "dodgy".:cry Look for a company with a good rep for quality and service.
Could maybe find a good deal at a local pawnshop. Most will let you start them up and check them out before purchasing. Be sure to check System properties for the CPU speed and RAM amount, then check on the drive size as mentioned.
I have found some great deals at those places where the person was just needing some extra cash and sold it to the shop for next to nothing.
Just get a receipt from the pawn shop that shows the make,model, and serial number. Just because the other person may not have been too honest.rolleyes

 

Agreed with the above...

I always advise customers to set a price range, narrow down to 2 or 3 models, and then scrutinize the specs...if at all possible, find an outlet that will let you and/or The Geek Son physically handle the machine: ergonomics assumes a larger role when talking about portables...

 

I'd also run the windows experience index on as many of your final choices as possible. That means you have to be present at the computer shop, or ask the seller to run it for you. ( and report back to you, or email you a screenprint of the results )

What is the Windows Experience Index?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-is-the-Windows-Experience-Index

OR do a Google Search for Windows Experience Index for heaps more links.

Doesn't Mac have the option of running Mac and Windows on the one Mac machine? That may be something to consider.

Bazza

NB: Screenshot of my older Toshiba Satellite Pro P 100, upgraded for Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit laptop

Baz

 

Your budget will need to be known. What I would look for in a decent laptop if the keyboard size and arrangement, the size of the screen, would look for one with a separate GPU with it's own RAM, and look at battery life. Size vs portability would be a consideration as well. I prefer a larger laptop for use, but I am not moving it around much either.

You might even consider getting an inexpensive one, toss some RAM and a larger and faster hard drive in it. Have a nice little PC for not a whole lot of $.

 

Yes, it does. You buy a copy of Windows and install bootcamp and you're off. However, with the outrageous price tags Microsoft puts on their operating systems it is cheaper to buy a low-end PC with Windows pre-installed...

With laptops, and with everything else in life, it's usually easier to decide what you want or need, set your budget, and then look for something that fits in the niche you have just created.

And I'm interested in what you know about planting garlic...

 

I have been thinking about planting some garlic. Maybe a How To could be made in the Home and Hearth forum... :cool

 

I agree with most of what has been posted here. I have knowledge of Gateway, Dell, and HP laptops . . . while not owning one myself - they have been purchased for family.

Out of all of them the HP's have had the best track record. My son's first lappy was a Gateway. Its board was dead in just a year. The second college lappy was an HP . . . it is going on three years old and has performed flawlessly (except when his fiancée stepped on the edge of the screen with a high-heel . . . It's all fun and games, son, till someone loses a monitor :-D). Even then we were able to Frankenstein a screen on it till he could buy a replacement part (we used the screen off the aforementioned Gateway).

Out of two Dells the family has owned, one had done OK for a few years - but seems to eat up the battery. A second one still works but developed two vertical lines in the screen just out of the blue . . .

My wife currently owns an HP laptop running Win7, and we love it. It performs very well . . . there are three years between my son's college lappy and my spouses, but the quality of construction seems to have remained the same.

Just based on my limited experience, I'd have to suggest HP.

 

2 major factors that I considred were needs and then price.

If you set the budget too low, you may not get the features that you need.

Since my needs were minimal, I was able to get away with a low end Acer 5516 for 299.99 on sale, but it has more than done the trick for me. Purchased about 1 year ago at Microcenter.

As for a used laptop, I would stay away unless you personally know the owner. There are way too many things that can go wrong and in some cases, you may end up wasting more money than you saved versus buying a new machine.
Good luck.

 

http://3btech.net has some fairly good deals.

Have you considered WINEing though? It might be a simpler solution to the problem.

 

wow, what a great lot of advice! Thanks! Said geek son has hunkered down today to whittle it down to a few. We are a good hours+ drive from the nearest town, and it has a Best Buy and a Walmart, neither of which is stocked so well. We may be buying online... not perfect, I know.
The Best Buy has a neat little Toshiba I am looking at but the salesguy knows little more than I do. The Walmart is pretty scary... I usually only buy garden supplies there....
Windows Experience Index.... never heard of this! We'll check it out today! Nor WINEing.... what is that? Some great links too; thanks so very much!
Oh, Mimsy and FredG, I posted a brief Garlic Planting How-To on Home and Hearth. If you have any questions, let me know!

I'll be in and out of this forum today as we narrow down our search.

 

got it! I am out of breath.... After hours of cross referencing, I decided to go w/ an HP from Best Buy.... almost went with a refurbished Toshiba at 3btech...then I was smitten w/ a neat little refurbished Dell.... but I really wanted a long term warranty. I spent more than I'd planned: 599, plus tax and shipping, and I went for the black tie warranty so I can renew it after a year for four years. Here's what I got:
HP-Pavilion Laptop / AMD Phenom™ II Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory-Brushed Aluminum-dv6-3025dx
This little gadget has more under the hood than my Macbook Pro. My son says it is a better computer.
Thanks so much, all, for your great advice and help! I have so many cool links now that I did not have before.
My son is excited! So am I!

 

The one with the 64-bit Win7 preinstalled?

Also saw a 4.4 out of 5 customer rating.

 

Sweet! Make sure you check out the PC Decrapifier if it's loaded down with bloatware.

Good job! :highfive

 

that's right hrlow2, preinstalled 64-bit windows 7! Decrapifier... oh my, love the name. I will check it out! :-D

 

you could also try revo uninstaller http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html it uninstall programs and searches the registry for registry entries for the uninstalled program
and you can always get a hp laptop (i have one and it's a few years old but it's good)

 

Pssst... she did get an HP laptop...

Tess, if you want to make life easy for yourself, once the pre-installed antivirus trial period runs out, make a new thread in the Software forum about that, and we'll get you set up with some completely free and very effective antivirus, firewall, and anything else you need to keep the laptop malware-free. That's what we do here.

 

oh my, you guys are too awesome! Im'a have to start posting recipes next.... I just do not have much to offer tech-wise!

 

Recipes are good!

 

Recipes are great!

I think the "what's for dinner?" thread in the home and hearth forum is still pretty easy to find...

 

you got it!