I'm pretty impressed that my laptop lasted as long as it did! I had a Dell Inspiron 5150 from 2004, and it no long turns on It's probably just something with the battery, but I'm taking this opportunity to buy a new laptop! Problem is, I'm clueless while looking at them all. I have a few requirements: - No Macs! - Need ample memory for music/photos - Don't want to break the bank! - Wireless card (these are probably in every laptop now...huh?) With those parameters...recomend me a laptop! Or teach me a thing or two about what I should be looking for! *No gaming will be done on it *No audio/video editing will be done on it
Large amounts of HD space and RAM, past that... will you game on it at all, audio/video editing with it, or is it just a web browser / email checker?
How much memory should I be looking for? I really am clueless. Average amount of music and photos...I'd rather have too much than too little. Just from looking around, I assume 250gb would be okay?
Do you own a house or an apartment? If you have tons and tons of music and photos, I'd suggest finding an old computer that someone is selling for dirty cheap (under 100 bucks) and toss a second hard drive in it for again, under 100 bucks. Total investment is around 150. If you are wireless networked at home, you can put all your music and pictures on this cheap computer and access them wirelessly from the network. 250GB is a decent amount for a laptop though in terms of storage. And it may be fine for you. I'd spend around 750 for a decent laptop.
What are you going to use the laptop for? Netbooks are a nice option by way of price point but I wouldn't use them for much more than internet/music purposes.
Internet/music is really all I use my laptop for now that I'm out of school. I was looking at laptops in the price range of $550-$750. Come April, I will be in an apartment.
2 gigs of ram...but most come with that stock because of the fact most run vista...and in terms of hard drive space you'll probably find nothing less than like...150..maybe more..i haven't really looked cause i haven't been in the market for one myself..but that's typically what iv found id recommend something about 250 and up but that also depends on how much music you'll be putting on it... wireless cards usually come built in the laptop itself...and work excellent as for brands...Dell and HP and Toshiba are typically the ones i recommend as they have lasted the longest....but its not like you are going to do high intensive things like that haha Dell is the cheapest of the two but from what iv experienced NOT the best help desk to deal with......but typically are good for daily use ONE LAPTOP BRAND I DO SAY STAY AWAY FROM IS ACER they are absolute crap...and their track records show that their screens are the first to go sooooooo in short 250GB of hard drive space 2 gigs of ram this will do you just nicely
+1. Don't get less than 2GB of RAM, 4GB is better. Then choose the biggest hard drive that maxes out your budget. I've also had good luck with Toshiba and HP laptops, but have nothing but trouble with off-brand stuff. It's not worth saving $100 off the purchase price to then have to spend 10x that amount keeping it working during the first year of ownership. Stuart.
My girlfriend has an Acer. 6 years old and its working great. Never a single problem, even got stolen and thrown around. :dunno:
4 gigs of ram is only recognizable with a 64 bit OS. Vista 64 is BLOATED for a laptop. Stick with Win XP and get 2 or 3 GB of RAM.
i used to sell laptops at officemax and i also did desktop support on the side...3 out of 4 times the Acers came back with problems on their screens i also noticed this when i worked on them... :S but i guess there's always a couple good fruit in the basket of bad ones
Ooh, what kind of fruit? I like Starfruit. :yumyum::yumyum: And I say go to Microcenter, play with laptops there, find what you like, then search online for a better price. :biggrin:
I've seen quite a few Acer's go quite a while without problems. I personally consider them equivalent in quality to basically all the other "main" laptop brands - Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc., etc. But, I have far less experience than the internet as a whole, so read some reviews. If I consistently read a particular brand had screen problems I would run from it. If I like to save $100 on a laptop a go to tigerdirect.com and order a refurbished one. Have done that half a dozen times for people and all have been great so far. Not to pick on you, but that's not accurate. 32-bit OS can use all 4GB of RAM - just not in what's called the "user space" - it can use the other 'unshown' gig in the kernel. And machine's with Physical Address Extension will map more into user space. More memory never hurts - but, for example, if you are configuring a Dell that started at 2GB and up it to 4GB - you are getting RIPPED OFF! Seriously. They charge an arm and a leg and a left nut for the upgrade from the factory. I would recommend 2GB as a bare minimum.
why would you say this if hes just doing music? i don't recall surfing the interwebs and doing music something that could use up 3gigs and up ram LOL i can do a **** load on 2 gigs of ram infact..i can run itunes have steam running PLAY left 4 dead with AIM MSN and a crap load of background things running all at the same time..and barely notice a difference and thats running on vista hell i can even have Visual studio open while im doing all this XD im also running off a two gigahertz processor
I'm not suggesting more than 2GB. I'm just suggesting no less. Why? Because you don't save ANY money going with 1GB and its cutting it awfully slim on a Vista machine. I could suggest an XP machine (more $$) or downgrading (requires tech knowledge) and then 1GB would be okay - but you'd still be able to find an exactly equivalent laptop with 2GB for the same price. A couple years from now that 1GB ain't going to be holding up as well as it barely would today, IMO, and the OP didn't sound like the type who'd wanna upgrade it himself later or pay (out the a**) to have someone else do it. So, yeah, 2GB is what I recommend.
lol..i run vista on my laptop with 1 gig of ram...runs just fine... to be technical...a gig and a half would be bare minimum but thats just because im a bastard XD
But going above 2GB from the manu. does cost $$ - often quite a lot more than actually ordering a whole 4GB from newegg or wherever and swapping out 2 for 4. lol Figure that one out. Though, I am starting to see a few 3GB units here and there priced with the 2GB ones.
seriously though 2 gigs is all ya need for basic use...i know ONE TARD that spent 3k on a super gaming computer just to play solitaire.... :\ 3 weeks later...he spilled coffee on it
I dual boot 32bit WinXP Pro and 64bit SuSE Linux, and 4GB works great for me. Yes, you don't get to use it all in XP, but we aren't all slaves under the MS yoke. Stuart.
To anyone who is interested in understanding all the geeky tech stuff behind the 3GB/4GB talk here, start here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html
