So where is the best place to go get a Laptop computer?

I just need it to do.....

1) MS office stuff

2) Look at the internet

3) Watch DVD's while traveling

4) Tune my car

 

I like Dells.
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i have one . i love it- - a lot- - fully loaded base model
thinkin of maybe selling it.

 

you forgot to mention "cheap" as a requirement, Dan.

 

Ditto...

 

San paid under $600 for his and it's brand new although I think it was marked wrong but it's a HP or something like that

 

Costco usually has good priced Toshiba's. That's where i look first.

#3
By the way, i just wanted to comment on #3. It might be sort of a let down when you actually try it, for a few reasons. First (unless it's changed) most laptops don't come with a DVD decoder built into the hardware. This is ok because they just make use of a software decoder, however, this requires more CPU power to decode the DVD in real time enough for you to be able to watch it. Because it's such a CPU intensive process this requires a lot of battery power. Also, watching a DVD requires the DVD drive to be spinning the disk. Both of these activities strain the battery. You may, at best, be able to watch an entire film and then the battery will be dead.

Additionally, most laptop CPUs have a "mobile" mode when on battery. They step down the amount of power they have by about 1/4 up to 1/2 to save battery power. In this scenario the CPU might not even have enough power to decode live like that. The DVD may then appear jerky.

Other factors are there to consider like the buss speed of the laptop and such but i'll skip those.

Don't misunderstand me by thinking it won't happen. I just wanted to warn you it might not always behave like you expect it to.

#4.
I'm not familiar enough with tuning interfaces, but if it requires a serial connection make sure the laptop you're looking at has one. Don't just assume. It seems to be a trend now days to leave the serial port off on lower to medium cost machines. While you can purchase a USB-to-Serial adaptor, it's just another wire to lug around and just another thing to get tangled up in. Do yourself a favor and find a laptop that has one built in.


One other word of advice speaking of "built in". As much as you can, choose a laptop that has things built into it. Manufacturers will commonly offer one drive bay and give you a floppy and CD/DVD drive. You can "swap" them out by removing one and inserting the other. This can be irritating and challanging when you're installing software that comes on a floppy disk but requires the Windows CD ROM (had this happen to me once -- just moved the setup CABs over). Also, as i mentioned before, it's one more thing to lug around. It's best to get everything you can built into your laptop. I think Dell is usually good about this, and most Toshiba's are too.

That's it. Good luck.

 

www.powernotebooks.com

Awesome prices (they beat all of the above posts) the BEST laptop brand. Sager was the original company that started going mobile with computers back in the 70's.

Do NOT get HP or Compaq. Remember that the main importance of a laptop is battery life, HP's and Compaqs might get an hour use at most. Dell, Sony, Toshiba 2-2.5 hours. I get 3+ hours of use on my Sager.

 

I agree with Solarian. I would stick with the Toshiba, Dell and Sony. Amongst the 3, my first choice is the Toshiba, I have never had problem with them.

 

Ditto on the Toshiba!! :banana: But definatly get one that has a serial port, my usb ports have flex some how and now i have problems (sometimes) keeping a good connection. I'm sure it was something i did but a serial port just looks tougher too.

 

You really should buy off the internet, if you look hard enough you can find great deals. Don' t waste time with amazon though. Go to shopping.com and enter in the specs of what you want and it will search over 2k retailers and come back with the best deals.

 

i have a toshiba.....

but hey...i dont have UTEC..........yet...... :-)....just waiting for a few more paychecks to come in...hehehe...

 

i know i might be taboo in saying this but


i told dan he should get a ibook/powerbook
reasons:
sick and tired of spyware crap on MSIE
can still use MSOFFICE
can use tuning software via softwindows or any PC Emulator
edit movies/graphics

 

Apple if you want user friendly and a reasonably reliable and secure OS. But they are the opposite of cheap, so most people choose insecure and unreliable instead. (I have a Windows PC at home for running games, my iBook and Linux PCs suck at games.)

Dell recently lost me (and the group I work for) as a customer over some crap they pulled when we bought a server from them (which we later returned) and remember they've moved their consumer (non-corporate) customer support out of the US, if that bothers you. In the past I've mostly liked Dells . . . maybe if you're not buying a server they are ok.

Edit: as for a serial port, I bought a $20 USB to serial port cable for my iBook and have no problems using serial port devices (mostly GPS in my case).

 

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