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12-03-2008, 03:23 PM   #1
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Laptop Needed

The wife said she would buy me a Laptop PC for my B-Day next month. I have never owned one or no anyone around here that I can ask which brand to buy. Like for Battery time and quality
I'd like to stay within $400 to $700.
I mainly just want a 15" screen or better. and 2 gig of ram. I want to use it for traveling and photography storage.

Thanks
Jack

12-03-2008, 03:38 PM   #2
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Check Best Buy and Staples/Office Depot type stores. You should be able to nab a Compaq (which is now HP) for that price range & exceed your specs too!

I've gotten two for my girls college use. They came equipped with wireless networking and a host of additional features. CD or DVD burning is usually included as well. A great feature for archiving pictures.

If you're internet savvy and have accounts with eBay and Paypal, you can pick one up on eBay and get 30% cachback from Microsoft 'Live' search engine. Nothin' like a corporate subsidy! Shoot me a PM if you'd like to know how it's done.
12-03-2008, 03:42 PM   #3
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Thinkpad T series, 15.4". You can get a T61 for your price range on eBay using Cashback.
12-03-2008, 05:40 PM   #4
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Have a look at the Dell range as well.

12-03-2008, 06:55 PM   #5
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Well, since we all have an opinion...

I got an open-box Acer Aspire 5630 with 15" screen, 2 GB ram, 160 gb hard drive, DVD burner and Vista. They wanted $519. I got it, minus the battery, for $419. A generic battery cost me $65. So far, I use it only for photo stuff on vacations...seemed a better choice than just Wolverine storage as I coud do some basic chimping and JPG extraction for comparison.

After the holidays I would look for deals. There are bound to be open-box or close-outs at the bigger stores.

Last edited by SpecialK; 12-14-2008 at 09:21 PM.
12-03-2008, 07:18 PM   #6
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We use a couple of Toshibas here. They had the nicest screens of all the ones I checked out (though HP wasn't bad!). Spent $649 for mine back in June or so (TL58 Turion dual core, 2GB ram, 160 gig HD) and $499 for the wife's (core2 duo 2.0, 1 GB ram, 160 gig HD) a month or two later.

I like Macbooks a lot, but I was targeting the $500-600 range.
12-04-2008, 04:48 AM   #7
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Whatever way you go with choice, as you want to use it to travel get something not too heavy.

I travel quite a bit with laptops (mine and work) and the lighter devices are much easier to lug around. My current work laptop is a Dell with removable docking station that holds the DVD burner and extra ports. Disconnect it and you reduce the weight by 1/3.

As for storage, consider an external HDD rather than just the laptop - the laptop will quickly fill up. If your budget can stretch it, go for NAS (network attached storage) with RAID (usually two drives that mirror - so you don't lose data as easily if one fails) - that will secure your images. They are getting quite cheap now. If I can convince my wife......

Happy hunting.....

12-04-2008, 10:10 AM   #8
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I have seen some really good deals lately, the best being a $349 Acer at Staples. It was not advertised but an "in store special". I was in there to buy printer ink. I kicked it around a little and went back the next day and it was gone. Got to buy quick for deals like that I suppose. I purchased a Gateway Convertable Tablet for my daughter when she started college and it is still going strong now halfway through her junior year. She is on a sports team and travels a lot and it has held up well and the tablet features are great for photo editing. With the economy the way it is I think the lower end models will sell out but I have seen some great prices on higher end laptops, stuff thats usually over a grand selling for 750-800. I'll bet they will be lower in jan. Look for a large hard drive (240Gb or bigger), a DVD burner, built in card slots, 4GB memory and a Core 2 processor or X2 Turion. Avoid bargains with Celerons, Semprons, or Pentium D's. Thats real old stuff. Look for models with a graphics card also. By late jan, after the holidays and after the spring college semester starts is when I will be looking for some real deals.
12-04-2008, 01:25 PM   #9
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I heard that Dells support went to chit. I have a dell 24" monitor and love it, but never had to call them for anything. I won't purchase anything built by Sony, just my thing.. I would love to get a Macbook pro but the wife would kill me before I got to turn it on.
12-04-2008, 01:30 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Fl_Gulfer Quote
I mainly just want a 15" screen or better. and 2 gig of ram. I want to use it for traveling and photography storage.
I have a Dell XPS M1530 and I love it. The screen isn't perfect for photo editing, but few, if any laptop screens are.

You mention travelling - depending upon how you're travelling I'd consider something smaller - 15" laptops are pretty heavy. Even a 14" one starts making your shoulders pretty sore when you're carrying it through your third airport in 24 hours.
12-11-2008, 12:12 PM   #11
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I just got this one refurbished for 450.oo shipped to my house.
I hope it's good enough.

Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7815 Athlon X2 QL-60 1.90 GHz 17-inch Widescreen Notebook


General Features:
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed w/COA
AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core QL-60 1.9 GHz processor
3 GB PC26400 DDR2 SDRAM (4 GB max. supported)
160 GB SATA hard drive
DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer Drive with LabelFlash
ATi Radeon 3100 graphics
Integrated audio with built-in stereo speakers
Modem
10/100 Ethernet
Atheros 802.11b/g wireless-LAN
Keyboard with TouchPad
Control buttons
17-inch widescreen TruBrite TFT LCD at 1440 x 900 native resolution(native support 720p content)
5-in-1 Bridge Media Adapter


Supported Media Cards:
Secure Digital
Secure Digital High Capacity
Memory Stick
Memory Stick PRO
MultiMedia Card


Expansion slots:
ExpressCard/34 and ExpressCard/54


I/O ports:
15-pin VGA
Microphone in
Headphone out
Three (3) USB 2.0 ports
RJ-45 Ethernet port
RJ-11 Modem
Volume control dial
12-12-2008, 01:10 PM   #12
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Sounds decent for the price. Toshiba makes a decent laptop. I have and old Tecra with a Pentium (266mhz) that still works fine that I use as an OBD2 scantool for fixing the cars.
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