Laptopz

I repair laptops and get asked frequently for recommendations.

I do not suggest purchasing any of the 'economy specials' meaning the Dells, Gateways, HPs or Compaqs under the $600 pricepoint.

In my opinion, Toshiba's Satellite series is a superior machine and well built for the price. It tends to run a little more expensive but WILL last.

But whatever you get, don't get a laptop with a damn power connector that goes into the rear. Get one that goes into the side. More of those things break out of the motherboard by rocking the laptop backward; it's just a poor design.

If you go with a mainstream company, typically anything in the $800-$1000 price point will be satisfactory but beware; The Big Four have LOUSY product support. In fact, almost nonexistent.

So that's my recommendation.

Thanks, I appreciate your advice greatly. However, it looks like now I'm almost going to have to get a Dell. When I decide to get a new one, I'll remember your recommendation.

I think ASUS do good, quality laptops.

As far as parts are concerned, try to look for an "Intel Quad-Core" processor and 4GB DDR2 or DDR3 RAM.

The video card is unknown to me as I only know desktop models.

I hope this helps, even thought it might sound a bit complicated.

I got myself an HP Pavillion dv7. Works with whatever I play. It depends on how new gaming you want. However, if you're out for only gaming... Have a look at an Alienware.

Hardware specs depend on what you're doing with the PC. If you're running Windows Pista of course you're going to have to spend the (unnecessary) money on the extra hardware just to drive the silly operating system. If you're doing graphic rendering or gaming, it's another story.

For average use you can save some money on 'downgrading to XP' and saving the hardware.

All my computers are running 2000 pro on early P4's. Why? It's stable. plus I got my hands on a corportate copy of 2000 and installed it on all my PCs; saving the cost of XP licenses. I do like XP pro though.

I have a Compaq Presario V2000 (Or so the Label on the bottom says) it's a royal piece of shit that crashes if I'm on youtube too long, but I got it for 5 hours of Yardwork. Had to buy a new power cord, mind, but it was worth it.


Oh, don't get a Presario V2000. They're shitty.

Definatly Pilot, I have a P4 with 1Gb RAM and I can play moderate games and design graphics with it still being stable.

Also Windows Vista Ultimate runs fine on my PC. I usually switch between that and XP. I have a separate Hard Drive for the OS

It's a bit slow at times because I have crappy IDE Hard disks and a ASRock (A cheaper division from ASUS) motherboard.

That all came up to about £140.

My only advice is not to get a laptop for gaming, but that's just my preference. No matter what companies will tell you, laptops are not and never will be built/suited for heavy gaming. Heat is the number 1 problem here. Components are becoming smaller, more densely packed, putting out more heat, you name it.

Also, don't go with Dell. They might be cheap, but they are cheap for a reason. Hardly any customer support and their hardware almost always fails after a year or 2/3. Especially those high end models because of reasons mentioned above. Out of all manufacturers the Dell logo came by on my repair table most.

i bought a laptop VERY recently, as in about 2 months ago. its a Toshiba harman/kardon or something, with Windows Vista.

i'd have to agree with Havoc, i dont think laptops are designed well for hardcore gaming, seeing as mine failed to play a number of games that are about 2 or 3 years old. its got good ram and plenty of space. must be the graphics card.

to be honest i dont know.
and good luck!

If your a hardcore gamer get a desktop with an SLI motherboard. SLI means you can have two graphics cards installed that act as one but with double power.

Also batteries on laptops are rubbish anyway. Running a game will eat it all up in probably less than an hour.

Gaming definately is not the most important thing to me in a system. I think I just need lots of memory and a good capacity for things like cameras and webcams, if that even makes sense.

That's okay, just don't get anything by PCShits (PCChips )

And as for hard disks, nothing wrong with good ol' dependable IDE. But on that note I remember when I worked in a data recovery house for a couple years and the WORST hard drive I EVER saw was the damn Maxtor 40gb slimline drive... I still remember the model, Maxtor 6E040L0. They would get corrupt firmware zones if you sneezed on them and mis-identify as Maxtor N40P.

We went through GAYLORDS of those.

Actually that makes perfect sense. Any computer with a sensible specsheet and price should do you right.

I think I've come to a decision. I'll post it on here when I remember what it was. Thanks for all the help guys.

The tribal elders have decided....... now we wait.

make sure you get one with a good graphics card, i learned the hard way. also i would suggest one of them alienware laptops.(if its in your budget)

Alienware is in no ones budget unless you can splash out £3,000+ on a computer.

Are Maxtor unreliable? I have a 40Gb and a 320Gb. I can't afford to loose anything on the 320.

I plan to do more writing than gaming anyway.

My last office only had Dell laptops and I never heard any complaints.

I can't comment on every Toshiba laptop, but my last one was shite. It was so badly designed that I had to place books underneath it to give the fan opening more space, otherwise it would overheat and crash. Also, the heat exchanger got clogged with dust and I had to pull the whole laptop apart to clean it out.

This is a problem on many laptops with ultra-fine cooling fins on the CPU; particularly HP/Compaq.

I had a P4 HT that overheated. I don't know why. In winter I had to keep my PC right next to my window and keep the window open fully, and it was still running at 75C and very unstable. God.

Yes.

Course, it didn't help that my Toshiba laptop had a desktop processor rather than a notebook one. Heat ahoy!

Can you do that?! I thought the sockets would be different for laptops.