Okay, lately I've been tossing around the idea of buying... well, new tires, new car, beater, turbo kit, individual throttle bodies, house, new tv, etc etc etc. But TODAY I've been kicking around the idea of buying myself a laptop.

For the past many years I've been going off a desktop and I think it's time to get a laptop for myself.

I don't do any type of photoshop, music, video editing, or anything like that.... so all I need is something rather basic. My primary use for computers is web browsing, instant messaging, and occasional movie watching.

My budget is rather low, as I have a decent desktop I'm not trying to invest thousands on a laptop too. Here is what I've found so far :

1 : I built one with Dell - about $650. It had 60gb Hard-drive, 1gb sd ram, amd athlon 64 x2 dual-core processors

2 : Best Buy $750

3 : Radio Shack $770 - minus girlfriends 10% discount

4 : Circuit City $650

A lot of these specifications are gibberish to me, however some of you may be able to understand this writing from another planet.

What do you guys recommend?

 

I truthfully would not go with any of those. I consider those disposable laptops

 

Additional recommendations are not only welcomed, but appreciated!

 

If you go with Circuit City, you'll have to deal with the equivalent of the Geek Squad for service... which is worth shit, IMO (and that of many others, just surf the web for Geek Squad complaints).

Radio Shack... well, what else can I say... those guys don't even understand how a relay or an LED works, do you really want them servicing your computer?

Dell offers decent pricing on decent quality products. So that's my suggestion between the three, regardless of what the system specs are.

Also, make sure you get XP loaded instead of Vista... they'll try and foist that on you since it's a new system, but if you don't need the gee-wiz features and all you care about are the apps mentioned above, stick with XP.

 

Lenovo has a new 15% off Thinkpad X61 series laptops USPSUMMER available which stacks with their current $300 off promotion. Thanks Selma

You may also get a Canon PIXMA iP1800 Inkjet Printer free after $50 rebate (add it on page 2 of configuration).

1. http://slickdeals.net/?pno=10066&lno=3&afsrc=1
2. Select the following options:
1. ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ [subtract $45.00]
2. 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [$0.00] (If you are planning to upgrade memory separately)
3. Add to cart, apply coupon USPSUMMER
4. Your final price should be $901 with free shipping + applicable taxes

Specs:

* Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 (1.80GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
* Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
* 12.1" XGA TFT
* 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
* 80GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm Serial ATA (2.5")
* ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe US/EMEA/LA/ANZ
* ThinkPad X60 Series 4 cell Enhanced Capacity Battery
* 1 Year Depot Warranty

 

I'd go with #4 Circuit City, it has a slightly better processor and is the cheapest. Most if the specs are very similar across the last three links.

 

If they let you, I'd definitely do this.

 

Not going with vista for a non power user is a HORRIBLE mistake.

This forces the end user to upgrade at the very end, therefore spending more money several years down the line when they need to run Windows Office Vista 2010.

I personally find vista very very constricting. However half the processes I run are open source and illegal in nature. That's probaly the reason why.

 

Yeah, but by then the laptop itself will probably be too slow to run those fancy Vista applications by 2010. And plenty of folks still use Office 2003 instead of Office 2007, and 2007 lets you save in 2003-compatible format.

For web browsing/moviewatching and IM, I think XP will serve Chad better for the life cycle of the laptop.

 

Thanks! To date I've yet to need any type of service to my desktop, so I'm hoping the laptop will be just as good. If that works out, then I wont really have much need for service advisers.

My girlfriend works at Radio Shack, which offers me an additional 10% discount. Plus I'm interested in the Sony Vaio a bit. She told me that she has them available - so I tossed that into the equation.

My desktop was purchased through Dell and so far I've been rather happy with the setup. Personally I am not too familiar with the difference in processors (AMD vs Intel), however it appears that the Dell setup has significantly less features than the competitors.


Thanks for the recommendation on Windows XP versus Vista - I'll make sure to do that! I believe though that with that I'll have to customize a laptop, since the other places have the computers shipped to them as is - not sure if they'll be willing to remove Vista, install XP, and reinstall all the other Office stuff.