T1B

My son, soon to be age 21, is needing a new computer. He would like a portable computer
ie.. laptop, notebook.

What do you recommend?

I was looking at Dell, because I get a 10% discount. Then I have the choice of
Inspiron vs. XPS.

I am not stuck on Dell but want to stay in the $1,000 (and below) proce range.

What do you suggest.

Primarily used for school but he is a kid, so music, gaming, video, etc. re also important.


I appreciate your input!

I would say you can't really go wrong with Dell for a Windows laptop. The first question I would ask is how do you expect your son to use the laptop? Do you want it to be good at gaming or just to be acceptable? In other words if a new FPS game came out next month, do you want your kid to be able to play it?

If so, the important part of the laptop will be the separate Video card. In other words, most laptops use the same memory for Video as the system memory. The problem here is that this type of memory is slower.

Aside from that, I would go with a standard High-Def 15.4" LCD Inspiron probably but if you really want to blow him away, you can always see about an XPS.
HD - you want a minimum of 80Gb, he can always buy an extra external drive to store his files/audio/video and backup.
Memory - aim for 1gb minimum, but 2 is quickly becoming the standard. If you get 1gb, make sure the 2nd slot is available to upgrade.
OS - XP...Do Not get him VISTA yet. He can steal a copy when it becomes stable in a year.
Video memory - 128mb is good for a gaming system but it will probably cost you a bit.
CPU - A Dual Core Duo 1.4Ghz CPU should be the basic but if you want to keep the laptop for a while, you may want to spend the extra $100 to $200 for a Dual Core 2 Duo thats closer to 2.0ghz.
Optical Drive - standard CD writer/DVD player should be good
WIFI - 802.11g/b is the minimum, 802.11n just came out but its far from being the standard. Schools will only be using g or even b wireless networks.
Battery - standard is fine, he can always pick up an extra if he carries his laptop a lot.
Sound: basic sound is good

As far as software goes, if he is at a university, most will give him free copies of Antivirus. He will probably need a copy of MS Office and since he may still be doing presentations, you'll want to get a version that does Powerpoint. Microsoft Office Home & Student (MS word, excel and powerpoint) runs $150. On the other hand, you can load it with Open office for him so he can do work and if he wants MS Office, he can steal it like the rest of the students do.

My biggest problem with the $1k limit is the fact that if he is in school or starting a job, he may end up carrying his laptop around a lot, which can easily lead to problems. By default you only get 1 year of warranty and thats for regular problems that might crop up, like the video card fails or the LCD screen has problems. On the other hand if you drop it, you may be screwed when the LCD cracks, which is the most expensive part of a laptop and can easily run $1k to get it repaired once its not under warranty. Of course if he is in school, theft rates are high. You may want to think a little about what this investment is worth and see if an additional $300 is worth not having to buy a laptop guaranteed for 3 years for example.

Anyway, I just built a Inspiron 1520 with these settings (minus the extra warranty and protection for just under $900. The XPS systems are a little more expensive but you should still able able to hit the $1000 mark. I'd however seriously look at your kid. At 21 he may already be past the gaming phase. Also I'm not sure where he is with school and graduating and if he plans on getting a job or going back for some more school.

Anyway, its probably not a huge issue either way since laptop prices have come down a lot now. Worst case scenerio you can always buy this laptop: http://laptop.org/

i'm guessing that as long as it plays pron acceptably, you'll hear no complaints from him.

I'll second El Taco's recomendation on the Dell Inspirion 1520. I bought one a few months ago a little bit out of your range at $1650, Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, 2Gb ram, 160 Gb 7200 sata drive, 256 Mb NVidia 8600 GT, intel wifi, bluetooth, 1440x900 trulife screen. I definately have been very happy with it. If you find a decent online coupon you can assemble an adequate system in the $1K +/- a couple hundy. I've seen baseline systems running around $650 - 700. You might also want to look at the Dell Vostro line, they look like like they can be configured almost the same as the Inspirion line for a little cheaper. The 1400 and 1420 series might be better suited for him if he going to be lugging it around campus, etc.

While I will admit El Taco seems alot more knowledgeable than my self in this arena, personally I haven't had or experienced any problems running Vista, but then again I have it dual bootable with linux and am running Ubuntu 7.04 about 75% of the time.

Here is a link to site a for Dell Coupons as well as a some decent reviews and discussions regarding laptops in general.

Notebook Review

Thank you all!

I was leaning toward the Dell 1420 (due to size, screen view, 120 MB HD and portability). Base Price - $699
All computers come with Vista, so I can't wait until it becomes stable.

I appreciate the coupon link.

He will use it for school and his IPOD. He is not a gamer. Yes, he plays but not intensely or often.
He does have a life.




Maybe the other kid in this pic will get a computer for Christmas.
(Computer versus Food)- I would choose food.
and where do you plug it in?

Taco,

I'm getting one for my wife - basic home office usage to replace her desktop.
Next to none on travel - and for network she'll just use the wireless here at the house

On Dell - if you choose XP instead of Vista, you can only get the AMD package.

Any thoughts on the difference between the AMD vs. Intell / NVDA packages?

Jack,

I would suggest you invest in the extended in home warranty that dell has.

I bought a dell laptop about 4 years ago. I use it extensively when I travel. It gets moved constantly, and is jiggling around in a car a good amount of time, not heavily abused because I'm the only one who uses it, but just the natural wear and tear is a lot when you travel.

I forget the exact price of the warranty (I think it was less than $300), but in the last three years, the screen went out, and something happened to the motherboard at two different times.

Both times, a tech came out to my house and replaced both items at no cost to me. The techs are hired from a local pool of people, so this warranty is good anywhere, as long as you are there for a few days.

This resulted in no down time for me, and a savings of perhaps $1,000. Well worth the cost.

I also got one for the wifes laptop, which does not go anywhere but around the house. that was $139. (My laptop originally cost $2400, hers was a cheaper one as all she does is email and browsing so the warranty was cheaper)

Last June she did something that caused the wireless card slot to malfunction (or maybe she didn't. but I blamed her anyway :) ) They sent a tech out to the house the next day and replaced the motherboard. Again, for free.

Dell has an awesome extended warranty, and laptops are by nature prone to breakage because they just cannot be built as ruggedly as a desktop box.

KC Scott wrote:Taco,

I'm getting one for my wife - basic home office usage to replace her desktop.
Next to none on travel - and for network she'll just use the wireless here at the house

On Dell - if you choose XP instead of Vista, you can only get the AMD package.

Any thoughts on the difference between the AMD vs. Intell / NVDA packages?

Ok so here are some thoughts:
You should look at both Dell and HP as HP and some other companies are actually out selling Dell as of this quarter/year. This could mean a few things such as Dell may throw some really good deals for xmas to make back some market share or the other companies may beat Dell deals to continue to kick Dell's ass. As far as XP vs Vista goes, I'm not planning on buying/installing Vista for a while, but for a home machine I wouldn't care too much either way. For doing emails and web surfing, vista will be just as good/bad as XP.
As far as AMD vs Intel goes, for a home computer used for email and such, I don't think there is that much of a difference. My home PC is running AMD. Intel has more to offer on the high end market, but for the home market, either will do just fine and AMD tends to be cheaper. I would say that right now, AMD will match the last Generation Intel chips equally, and sometimes may even beat them.

Last but not least if you do have your heart set on a Dell laptop with XP you do have many choices. One is buy the laptop of your choice, then call MS and downgrade to XP. They have extended their downgrade program because of all the Vista issues. Your other choice is to buy from Dell small business. They tend to do better prices in general, although occasionally the home deals will kick ass, and on top of it, they still sell a variety of systems with XP on it. You can also call Dell and request XP on some machines that don't show XP online, but if you do this, a lot of times you lose certain free shipping deals.

In other words, I'd concentrate less on the OS/Hardware and more on thinking about warranty and support.

If you need help finding the right system, let me know what you are looking for and I'll poke around.

ElTaco wrote:
Ok so here are some thoughts:
You should look at both Dell and HP as HP and some other companies are actually out selling Dell as of this quarter/year. This could mean a few things such as Dell may throw some really good deals for xmas to make back some market share or the other companies may beat Dell deals to continue to kick Dell's ass. As far as XP vs Vista goes, I'm not planning on buying/installing Vista for a while, but for a home machine I wouldn't care too much either way. For doing emails and web surfing, vista will be just as good/bad as XP.
As far as AMD vs Intel goes, for a home computer used for email and such, I don't think there is that much of a difference. My home PC is running AMD. Intel has more to offer on the high end market, but for the home market, either will do just fine and AMD tends to be cheaper. I would say that right now, AMD will match the last Generation Intel chips equally, and sometimes may even beat them.

Last but not least if you do have your heart set on a Dell laptop with XP you do have many choices. One is buy the laptop of your choice, then call MS and downgrade to XP. They have extended their downgrade program because of all the Vista issues. Your other choice is to buy from Dell small business. They tend to do better prices in general, although occasionally the home deals will kick ass, and on top of it, they still sell a variety of systems with XP on it. You can also call Dell and request XP on some machines that don't show XP online, but if you do this, a lot of times you lose certain free shipping deals.

In other words, I'd concentrate less on the OS/Hardware and more on thinking about warranty and support.

If you need help finding the right system, let me know what you are looking for and I'll poke around.

OK - best I could price Dell Inspiron Laptop was around $840 for

My Components
PROCESSOR AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-58 edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home edit
LCD PANEL Anti-glare, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800) edit
MEMORY 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability edit
VIDEO CARD ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated) edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps) edi
This also included 36 mo. of Trend Micro internet security

The Small business was a Vostro 1000 that came to $638

My System Details
PROCESSOR AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual-Core processor TK-53 (1.7GHz/512KB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Anti-Glare Display edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 Dimm edit
HARD DRIVE 120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability, Cyberlink Power DVD edit
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (integrated) edit
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Wi-Fi Mini Card edit
My Accessories
BATTERIES 29 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
My Software
PRODUCTIVITY Microsoft® Works 8.5 Does NOT Include MS Word edit
SECURITY Norton Internet Security 2007, 36-months edit
ADOBE SOFTWARE Adobe® Acrobat® Reader edit

Is this as good as I'm going to get? - Is there something else I should be looking at?

Thanks for the help

doing some more researh - saw the Toshiba rated pretty well - found the A205 at Office Depot for $800

The Toshiba Satellite A205-S7458 is a high-performance wireless notebook that offers lots of memory, a large hard drive and powerful dual-core processing. It has a 15.4" widescreen LCD display with TruBrite® technology, 2.0GB of high-speed memory, a 200GB hard drive and Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology — featuring an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5250, Mobile Intel GM965 Express chipset and Intel Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g, for on-the-go connectivity with increased battery life.

It also has an advanced 8x DVD SuperMulti Double Layer drive to burn and play DVDs and CDs. The drive is compatible with 11 CD and DVD formats, including DVD-RAM and DVD±R Double Layer, with 8.5GB capacity per disc.

The 5-in-1 memory card reader lets you transfer photos, music and other files from these flash memory card types: Secure Digital (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD-Picture Card.


The Satellite A205-S7458 includes:
15.4"-diagonal widescreen WXGA (1280 x 800) TruBrite LCD screen
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5250 operating at 1.5GHz
2MB L2 cache
Up to 667MHz frontside bus
2.0GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory
Maximum memory capacity: 4.0GB (Available system memory will be considerably less than this amount and will vary by model and system configuration. This is due to the use of shared video memory and operating system limits.)
200GB 4200-rpm Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive
DVD SuperMulti drive with Double Layer support (reads/writes DVD±R/RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R Double Layer, CD-R/RW)
5-in-1 media card reader: compatible with SD, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD-Picture Card
ExpressCard slot: supports ExpressCard/34 and ExpressCard/54
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g) wireless LAN
10/100Base-T Ethernet port
56K V.92 modem
4 USB 2.0 ports
1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port
1 S-video out port
Built-in Webcam and microphone, for video chat and still photos
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with from 128MB to 358MB shared memory
Built-in stereo speakers; headphone output jack and microphone input jack
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery (4000 mAh); 75W AC adapter
Dimensions: 1 9/16"H x 14 3/10"W x 10 1/2"D
Weight: 6.0 lb

Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium operating system comes installed, providing enhanced security and productivity, and new ways to organize, find and share information. Other software included:

Microsoft Works 8.5 (word processor, spreadsheet, database and calendar)
InterVideo® WinDVD® 8 SD
Ulead® DVD MovieFactory® 5
Google™ Desktop
Google Toolbar
Google Picasa
Adobe® Acrobat Reader
Yahoo! Music™ Jukebox
Sun® Java™ 2 Runtime Environment
Toshiba ConfigFree®
Toshiba Disc Creator
Toshiba Game Console
McAfee® Internet Security Suite (trial, with 30 days of free updates)

The Satellite A205-S7458 is backed by the manufacturer's 1-year warranty

As for comparison between AMD and Intel - found this at youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOmMAasqto

Granted, we won't remove our cooler and watch it melt - but interesting still

That video is 7 years old. AMD uses thermal throttling now too.

If you care about battery life, stick with the Turion. It'll be more than adequate for all your needs.

AMD has always had some heat issues so to speak. They seem to run a little hotter and their Thermal sensors react a little slower. With that said, i have an AMD machine at home that works awesome.

I'm finding some really good deals on the Toshiba on Ebay - Dual Core 1.5 mgz, 2 gb, 200 HD for around $600-700

Taco - what are your thoughts on the Toshiba?

ElTaco wrote:AMD has always had some heat issues so to speak. They seem to run a little hotter and their Thermal sensors react a little slower.

You slept through that whole "Prescott" thing?

So here's what I ended up buying today for $649 after rebates

Gateway MT6916 15.4" Widescreen Laptop Computer
Processor brand Intel®
Processor type Core 2 Duo
Processor speed 1.50GHz
Bus speed 667MHz
Level 2 cache 2MB
Memory RAM 2GB
Memory type (RAM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
RAM expandable to: 4GB
Storage/Drives
Hard drive speed 5400RPM
Hard drive size 160GB
Burns DVDs Yes
Graphics and sound
Screen size (diagonal) 15.4"
Maximum screen resolution 1280 x 800
Video memory 384MB
Video memory type Shared
Ports
USB 2.0 4
Firewire 0
Infrared port No
PC card No
Express card Yes
S-video out No
Media card slot Yes
VGA Yes
TV tuner No
Internet/networking
Dial-up modem Included
Ethernet Yes
Wireless 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth No
Built-in webcam Yes
General features
Operating system Windows® Vista Home Premium
Fingerprint reader No
UPC 827103140088
Manufacturer's part number MT6916
Dimensions
Height 1.4 inches
Width 14.1 inches
Depth 10.4 inches
Weight 6.2 lbs

Software bundle:
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Works 8.5, Money 2006, Office 2007 Student and Teacher Edition (60-day trial), Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player
Gateway Games Powered by WildTangent
Adobe Acrobat Reader 8
CyberLink Power 2 Go
Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition 2006
BigFix
LoJack
Google Toolbar and Desktop Search Tool

Gateway MT6916 15.4" Widescreen Laptop Computer • Intel Core 2 Duo T5250
• 160GB hard drive
• Built-in wireless 802.11abg • 2GB of DDR2 memory
• Burns DVDs and CDs
• Built-in webcam

Customer rating: 4.3
Lexmark X2580 All-in-One Printer/ Copier/ Scanner • Color Inkjet
• Up to 22 ppm black
• Color scanner • PC-free copying
• Borderless prints
• USB 2.0 connectivity

Customer rating: 3.2
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008 • Stay protected online
• Detects fraudulent sites
• Firewall protection • Complete security
• Security updates
• Mobile Internet security

Customer rating: 3.8
D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless-G Router • 802.11g and 802.11b
• For wireless home network • Four ethernet ports
• Firewall/parental control

I don't really need the printer or router - Hello ebay

here's a link if anybody else needs a decent deal

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/192 ... eDetail.do

I posted some Dell deals under another thread that are going on now if you guys want to check.

As far as Toshiba goes, and I know this is a late reply, but they are a decent company with some solid products that are reviewed fairly regularly and seem to do fairly well. At the same time, they just aren't as big a player as they once were because of the abundance of products out there. The Toshiba laptop line has been around forever. I don't necessarily think that they do anything that stands out per say but I have used Toshiba Satelite laptops that are 7 or 8 years old and running perfectly. I can't tell you much about support, you may want to look into it. I personally don't generally look at them but I doubt you can go too wrong with them.

Gateway seems to be keeping up for the most part but they are also not a leading seller like they once were. I don't see them much in the business world at all and thanks to Dell, they aren't selling as much as they used to in the University environment either.

You guys should all look at Acer if you are looking at laptops. They have been a quiet company, but this year they are suddenly the #2 seller of laptops in the world. They also make some other decent products, including some decent LCD screens. Again, i don't see them being a huge player in the US business market but as a company they have been around for a while with a decent name. Also I can't tell you how good or bad their actual support is.

If you have a little extra $$$$ and want to get something nifty, I'd seriously look at Apple. Apple used to suck for two reasons: Hardware and their OS. They always had awesome apps, specially if you wanted lots of neat multimedia stuff and they always had a decent interface. Since releasing OS X (10) and moving from the G4 to the G5 and now the Intel line, they have not only fixed their OS issues, but have surpassed the Wintel boxes in some ways. Add to that the fact that you can run Windows and Apps in a VM environment and the possiblity that Vista may eventually dual boot on the Apple machines and you are looking at a fairly cool laptop. I haven't really had a chance to play with an Intel based laptop yet (My brother has one and loves it) but I did have a G4 and it was kick ass. It was thin, very usable and to this day I was blown away by the fact that it had a tiny battery/capacitor inside so you could switch batteries without having to shut down. Brilliant!

HP has been catching up to Dell for a while and this year they have done so. They have been in a price war of sorts for about 5 years and have been offering at least as good deals if not sometimes better then dell. Their hardware is based off of fairly decent specs and their support isn't too bad. I have an HP desktop at home so I've actually had to deal with them and I can't complain. I can also say that they do crediting better then dell does so if Dell wont' approve you for credit, give HP a try.

If you are looking for a tiny cheap Linux laptop that does most everything you need to do and is easy to carry around, check this puppy out:
the ASUS EEE PC: http://eeepc.asus.com/global/
Its small so don't expect it to replace a real laptop or desktop but I bet its much better then using your phone as a computer... I may pick one up next year after the holidays.