What kind of laptop are you looking for? A basic laptop that can’t play games and has a 9" screen, or a monster laptop that has a great graphics card, 18.4" screen and costs $2,000?
What are you using it for? What size screen do you like? Travelling with it a lot or just an “at home lounging on the couch” deal?
First step is to go to bestbuy and look at physical sizes of laptops and say “I like that screen size” and then start to dig deeper into the inside items and pricing.
Overy on newegg.com a month ago I was pricing out a reasonable gaming rig with a GeForce 8600M GT video card and Core2Duo 8400 processor for just around $1,000. The processor number is important for intel chips. The higher the number, the better it is. They could all be 2.0 GHz in speed, but the Cache and FSB are the important numbers. Don’t just say “a Core2Duo 9300 is more expensive than that 4100, and they’re the same speed… I’ll get the 4100”
Post up the link first. If you only need something to fly around the internet, buy FIOS
3GB of RAM is the least of your worries when buying a laptop… you can buy more at any point, as it is one thing that IS possible with a laptop.
Go for a Core2Duo 8400+ processor for great zippy performance. Or, the 7450 is nice as well.
On newegg, you can do a power search and select everything above 8400 and check pricing. You can also select the screen sizes and then sort by lowest price.
Warranty = 1 year on newegg.com laptops. With the cheap price of laptops now, it’s almost not even worth it to spend $200 more on a larger warranty. If it dies, just buy a new one… (My philosophy since they’re not $2,000+ anymore)
Post up your findings before pushing that BUY button!
$949
Only thing to note is that it’s 32-bit Vista. It can play games, has 3GB of RAM and plenty quick. 320GB hard drive, no tax, free shipping. Literally would be $949 out the door.
BTW, I’ve purchased three HP laptops of different types in the last 3 months and I love the look and feel of them.
MSI are decent as well. Use the pictures to take a closer look at the styling too. “No name” brands to you may be very well known… just not sold retail like Dell/HP/etc. MSI and Acer are great companies. Support for all companies is hit and miss, and I’d never buy a laptop based on the warranty repair services of a company. Acer is said to be bad, but that’s only if you have a problem… and I’ve had problem with Dell and HP repairs too, so it’s always hit or miss really.
i just got a newer lenovo thinkpad and its been very nice. Alot of people i know have had problems with hp/compaq, but some of them were repaired under warranty, some of the same ive heard with acer, but i only know a few people with them right now…
You can’t beat the prices on Dell Outlet, if you don’t mind refurb. Twice the computer for the same price. Spend some of the savings on an upgraded warranty and you’re set.
At my work they marked down Dell Latitude D630 (14.1) and D830 (15.4) notebooks. They also have 2+ years of warranty and CompeteCare (Accident Protection). They are brand new and still in the box.