Laptop shopping... again

[Jondot]

Right, so I'm going into the 6th form in September, and I really need something decent to replace this Compaq.

Basically, the more portable the better, but I've sort of come to the conclusion that I won't get anything decent smaller than a 15.4 inch widescreen. I'm going to be carrying this around practically every day, so the more lightweight the better.

I'm open to specifications, but there are a few guidelines I'm going by:

• Atleast 1GB RAM
• Atleast 100GB hard drive (negotiable)
• Dedicated graphics of atleast 128MB (the more performance the better)
• Dual core or Core 2 duo or whatever processor (that throughly confuses me, but it's got to be fast
• Between around £600-1000, but I'm willing to go a little over if it's excellent... or a Mac

Other than that, I'm open to suggestions. I don't care what OS it's running, as long as it's not Vista Basic. XP, XP Proff., XP Media Centre, any Vista, Mac OS X, don't mind.

For the record, I'll be doing stuff like CAD, Web Design, General designing (Photoshop, Illustrator, whatever), video and sound editing and the occasional note-taking. Multimedia is the priority, and most of my Media studies work will be carried out on Macs anyway.

Anyways, I'm open to suggestions

At the moment I'm looking at Macbook Pros (despite the obvious faults and high price) and just about any other reasonably priced notebook within my specs. It's thrown up a few Toshibas, a couple of HPs and the odd Acer, but I really need some advice on what not to head for and what to look at. Also, does anyone actually know where I can buy an Asus? It sounds odd, but I can't find an actual store anywhere.

Anyways, any help is appreciated 👍

Thanks

 

[Sage]

Just FYI, Apple sells refurbished units on its online store – good way to knock the price down a bit. Or you can buy new with a student discount.

 

[Casio]

What I just brought (More or less)

Does everything you need and not stupidly expensive. However, it is a tad heavy to carry around all day.

 

[PLmatt91]

Mac Book =) =) =)

13" White Mac Book
1GB RAM (2x512) But order some RAM online if you want more. Apple's price for RAM is super expensive.
120GB Hard Drive
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

That's what I'm getting soon most likely. You won't be disappointed with your purchase Jon, trust me.

 

[Sage]

If you’re going to get a MacBook (which I don’t think Jondot wants, because he said he wanted dedicated graphics), I wouldn’t recommend getting the middle-range model. The differences between the low-end model and the mid-range model are $200, 0.16 GHz, 40 GB, and a SuperDrive. The 0.16 GHz makes almost no difference whatsoever; the harddrive is super-duper easy to replace; you really don’t need a SuperDrive (the only reason you’d need one is if you for some reason need to burn DVDs while on the road – since that’s probably not the case, just buy an external burner, which will be much faster). Buy the low-end model, then use that extra cash for whatever you need.

 

[Jondot]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys

Just FYI, Apple sells refurbished units on its online store – good way to knock the price down a bit. Or you can buy new with a student discount.

Yeah, I've been playing around with those for the last few weeks. sadly they don't actually have that many refurbished units available in the UK, and I've found MBPs for £1100 from a PC retailer near me (albeit on their website). That's the best discount I've found so far - Mac's shop, even with Student discount comes to £1200. Tempting, tempting...

What I just brought (More or less)

Does everything you need and not stupidly expensive. However, it is a tad heavy to carry around all day.

That's one of the ones I've been looking at, more or less. There's so many combinations of specs it's confusing... You do get a fair bit for your money, which is what I like. And they're pretty sexy. Graphics aren't quite as good as the MBP, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper and I suspect that if it comes down to price, that's what I'll be going for.

Mac Book =) =) =)

13" White Mac Book
1GB RAM (2x512) But order some RAM online if you want more. Apple's price for RAM is super expensive.
120GB Hard Drive
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

That's what I'm getting soon most likely. You won't be disappointed with your purchase Jon, trust me.

I think I would, though. I hate the sharp edges on them, I hear the screens are poor quality and I just couldn't live with integrated graphics, let alone ones that have less memory than what I have in this. If I had to have a Mac for £800, that's what I'd go for, but I'm just not that desperate. If I do spend £1k, I'll head in Apple's direction though.

If you’re going to get a MacBook (which I don’t think Jondot wants, because he said he wanted dedicated graphics), I wouldn’t recommend getting the middle-range model. The differences between the low-end model and the mid-range model are $200, 0.16 GHz, 40 GB, and a SuperDrive. The 0.16 GHz makes almost no difference whatsoever; the harddrive is super-duper easy to replace; you really don’t need a SuperDrive (the only reason you’d need one is if you for some reason need to burn DVDs while on the road – since that’s probably not the case, just buy an external burner, which will be much faster). Buy the low-end model, then use that extra cash for whatever you need.

That's exactly what I thought when I was looking at them. £130 for a superdrive and 20gb more hard drive? No thanks.

 

[Keichi Tsuchiya]

Personally, this is what I'll be getting: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...e&v1=Entertainment&series_name=dv9500t_series

• 2 GB RAM (4GB is also available but at $400 extra)
• 240 GB HDD
• Core 2 Duo
• 388 MB Geforce 8600 GS ( The 500 MB GT is available, but a bit too much $$ for me)
• Fingerprint Reader+ Webcam
• DVD/CD/etc. Burner (HD -DVD reader is available but at $400 or so.)

If I can I also hope to include a TV tuner which will add another $100 onto the price tag.

And with my bulleted options above it comes to around $1500.
If you want, however, and dont mind a Geforce 7600 instead of an 8600, and an AMD processer, you can start off with the older (same look, though) version. It would probably end up a lot cheaper, at around $1300 or so.

 

[Jondot]

Great specs, sadly it's too large in size for me. I can put up with 15 inch widescreen, but 17 is just too big for me to carry around. I have seen the 15 inch model with similar specs to that, though.

Are they actually reliable though? The problem with the HP notebooks is that because of the endless numbers of product ids, it's near impossible to actually find any reviews. It does worry me how quickly mine has turned into a near useless bit of machinery (I'm getting BSOD screens nearly every day now and the screen appears to be backlit by a candle, not to mention the speedy wear and tear on the materials it's made from). I'm fine with that if I'm spending £600, but I don't want to blow £1k and end up replacing it in as little as 2 years time.

Does anyone have any experience with Acers? A few people have told me to look at those, but I really have no idea about them. My mum has one, but it's a low low low spec one and isn't used much at all.

 

[CDailey]

Well I'll tell you that you can't go wrong with a MacBook Pro (SantaRosa or not) if you want a Mac, but don't want integrated graphics.

 

[Eric.]

Since you said you wouldn't mind going a little over...This would definitely be my choice if I was to get a new laptop (only because its cheaper than the MBP though...I'd like to have a Mac to play with).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220182

 

[Burnout]

Since you said you wouldn't mind going a little over...This would definitely be my choice if I was to get a new laptop (only because its cheaper than the MBP though...I'd like to have a Mac to play with).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220182

He already mentioned he was having a hard time finding a place to buy an Asus. Nice laptop though.

Acer is a fantastic company for laptops. Their name was associated with crap for a couple years, but that was due to a horrible line of value-desktop computers. They actually pulled out of America completely for a while and a few years back starting back in with Laptops. Since then they've stolen much of the market (or at least for a few years work).

My company resells Acers for both value and power users (laptops only though). We have never had a problem. I personally own one as my laptop actually and after nearly two years, it's still chugging along wonderfully (granted no performance beast, but I'm using it right now and it's snappy).

 

[G.T]

This is a great deal!

http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/acer-travelmate-travelmate_5720g_302g16-laptop-3-n2.htm

Although, I'm struggling to find anyone else who is selling that in the UK other than those guys... The same laptop can be found with the older graphics card, the X1700 (this has a X2500), but not with the new one...

 

[Jondot]

Thanks again for the suggestions 👍. Rep for everyone who helped. Sorry Matt, I need to spread some more around. I'll hit you later

Well I'll tell you that you can't go wrong with a MacBook Pro (SantaRosa or not) if you want a Mac, but don't want integrated graphics.

Excellent 👍. That's what I wanted to hear. Any gripes about yours so far?

Since you said you wouldn't mind going a little over...This would definitely be my choice if I was to get a new laptop (only because its cheaper than the MBP though...I'd like to have a Mac to play with).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220182

That's the Asus that I'd be looking if I could find a retailer. I don't mind buying online, as long as it's through the manufacturer or they have a store near me. Otherwise I'm a bit wary of handing over my money and not getting any support.

He already mentioned he was having a hard time finding a place to buy an Asus. Nice laptop though.

Acer is a fantastic company for laptops. Their name was associated with crap for a couple years, but that was due to a horrible line of value-desktop computers. They actually pulled out of America completely for a while and a few years back starting back in with Laptops. Since then they've stolen much of the market (or at least for a few years work).

My company resells Acers for both value and power users (laptops only though). We have never had a problem. I personally own one as my laptop actually and after nearly two years, it's still chugging along wonderfully (granted no performance beast, but I'm using it right now and it's snappy).

Great 👍 If I do go for Windows, I'll head in their direction (even if they don't make particularly attractive notebooks).

EDIT

James, that Acer is perfect 👍 *Bookmarks*

 

[Eric.]

I'm guessing you aren't in the US, are you? Newegg has great service from everything I have heard. I've only had to deal with returning my Logitech G7 that went faulty, but that was a pretty quick exchange.

Edit: And speaking of G7s, that ASUS comes with it's wired brother the G5.

 

[Jondot]

Yeah, I'm in the UK. Hence why I can't find an Asus anywhere.

 

[CDailey]

Excellent 👍. That's what I wanted to hear. Any gripes about yours so far?

The only complaints, and I mean only complaints I have is hard drive space and for gaming, the X1600 mobile video card isn't the greatest thing ever. Other than that I have absolutely no complaints. Although, the hard drive space (or lack thereof) can easily be remedied by adding an external hdd or even upgrading the internal.

 

[Eric.]

The only complaints, and I mean only complaints I have is hard drive space and for gaming, the X1600 mobile video card isn't the greatest thing ever. Other than that I have absolutely no complaints. Although, the hard drive space (or lack thereof) can easily be remedied by adding an external hdd or even upgrading the internal.

And your other problem can be fixed by buying a new MBP with the 8600m GT. I wonder how hot that card gets.

 

[Jondot]

The only complaints, and I mean only complaints I have is hard drive space and for gaming, the X1600 mobile video card isn't the greatest thing ever. Other than that I have absolutely no complaints. Although, the hard drive space (or lack thereof) can easily be remedied by adding an external hdd or even upgrading the internal.

Good to know. Thanks 👍

And your other problem can be fixed by buying a new MBP with the 8600m GT. I wonder how hot that card gets.

I was debating whether to go ahead and do that. It saves me £100 to buy the previous model, and once you've upgraded the RAM there's only £60 in it. Oh well, we shall see

 

[Mx²]

I've been looking at MacBooks myself. Sage, do you recommend buying an AppleCare plan with it?

I've narrawed it down to a base MacBook either with or without the Best Buy or Future Shop protection plan for $279 for MB. It's a tad under $1600 with the warranty, which is damn expensive... :S

 

[Eric.]

I can't tell if they ship overseas or not, but www.ibuypower.com has amazing deals on their laptops. I built a Core 2 Duo laptop (they actually use the desktop series of processors over there!) with the 2.4Ghz, 2GB of 667Mhz RAM, and an 8600GT (500MB). It was around $1800 for a laptop that would pretty much tie my gaming PC for less.

 

[Sage]

I've been looking at MacBooks myself. Sage, do you recommend buying an AppleCare plan with it?

Well, that’s a bit tricky to be honest. Personally, I’ve had two Apple laptops – an iBook and now a MacBook – and I’ve never bought AppleCare.

The thing with AppleCare is that if you ever need it, it’s really, really nice to have. I mean, just one little thing goes wrong, and they’ll usually replace that part with no hesitation. You really do get first-class service if you have AppleCare – I can’t remember ever hearing somebody complain about AppleCare service. Even if something’s totally your fault, they’ll often repair it without charging you.

Problem is, if you happen to never need it, then, well, you’re out quite a bit of money. With that said, if you’re the kind of person who babies your electronics, I’d lean towards not getting it. I had my iBook for four years, and my battery died a bit prematurely, but that was $120 to replace – that was the only thing I ever had to replace, so it was still good that I didn’t get AppleCare. If anything goes wrong with an Apple (or I guess laptops in general), it tends to be either the hard drive, battery, or display. If something’s wrong with the display, it’ll probably occur the very first time you use it, so no big deal to get it replaced (remember, you get one free year of AppleCare with any computer). Hard drives are relatively cheap to replace, as are batteries, and I kind of doubt that you’d have problems with both. And if there are major component failures across the line, Apple tends to be good about doing recalls even for out-of-warranty products.

So, um, it’s really hard to say, and if you ask on any Mac forum, they’ll usually say the same thing – learn towards not getting it, but it is wonderful to have if you need it. But I’d still lean towards not getting it.

 

[Burnout]

The thing with AppleCare is that if you ever need it, it’s really, really nice to have. I mean, just one little thing goes wrong, and they’ll usually replace that part with no hesitation. You really do get first-class service if you have AppleCare – I can’t remember ever hearing somebody complain about AppleCare service. Even if something’s totally your fault, they’ll often repair it without charging you.

An ex-employee of mine had purchased a MBP shortly after they came out with the Core 2s in laptops. He immediately began experiencing heating problems and thermal throttling on the CPU. His battery was also one of those affected by the 'exloding problem', for lack of better words.

He ended up spilling a drink near the laptop a few months after he purchased it, before sending it in for repairs on the heating and battery issues. Long story short, the laptop still worked fine after the spill, he cleaned it up the best he could, sent it in, and they said 'No way.. We think it's your fault, because there was some Pepsi-condensation near where the battery mounts.'

Likely.

Anyways. He got it back, we took it apart and put it back together with some Arctic Silver (holy GOD did they use way too much thermal compound when first assembling the thing.. I've taken apart my fair share of laptops, and this was by far the worst job I've seen). It cooled it down considerably and he no longer had overheating problems. He got the battery fixed by conning Apple and using a different name than his own. I was in the room with him for a few calls to Apple Support, and they were both condescending and some of the least helpful support I've heard.

Perhaps their higher tiers of support would've proved a better example of Apple.

 

[G.T]

My Uncle has a MBP, and he's starting to have issues with his battery. Even though the life is pretty impressive, even on the network, it now has started to give him false readings. It says it's almost empty, yet the computer would last at least another half an hour/ 45 minutes. It's only 6 months old too... He has come across another issue too, but I can't recall what it was.

And yes - they do get quite hot. His was like a frying pan when it was running something intensive for a long while.

But overall, I'm pretty impressed. Great build quality, great OS, suprisingly light, and great speakers for a laptop!

 

[Jondot]

I've been reading up on Apple's user support service, and if I'm honest I don't know what to think. All the complaints I've found have been related to people spilling things on their notebooks and then expecting apple to fix it. It seems to me that Applecare just don't want to fix anything that they can put down to a user inflicted problem. The answer? Don't spill anything on your notebook, which is easy enough to manage... until you spill something.

Nonetheless, if I end up with a Mac and I buy it direct from Apple, I probably will go for Applecare (why didn't they call it iCare?). I tend to be a pretty heavy user of notebooks, so it's probably not a bad idea. It worries me how little I might actually be covered, though (the policy I have now lets me drop my laptop on concrete, for example).

 

[Joel2]

I've been reading up on Apple's user support service, and if I'm honest I don't know what to think. All the complaints I've found have been related to people spilling things on their notebooks and then expecting apple to fix it. It seems to me that Applecare just don't want to fix anything that they can put down to a user inflicted problem. The answer? Don't spill anything on your notebook, which is easy enough to manage... until you spill something.

Nonetheless, if I end up with a Mac and I buy it direct from Apple, I probably will go for Applecare (why didn't they call it iCare?). I tend to be a pretty heavy user of notebooks, so it's probably not a bad idea. It worries me how little I might actually be covered, though (the policy I have now lets me drop my laptop on concrete, for example).

Funny thing is, if the MBP had any sort of feet, it wouldn't have been a problem. I've spilled a few things by my laptop, but it always goes under it thanks to the tiny magical rubber pieces.