Best choice for a laptop?

[Ringel05]

Hands down - HP. My last 4 have been HP and I'll never purchase another. I did give my son a Toshiba, that's proved reliable.

I've bought my last oem desktop. It's some much cheaper just to build your own nowadays. I'm putting together a medium level gaming unit what retail, oem, would cost 2 to 3k for around $400 to $500. A good upgradable motherboard (mobo) and chip (Phenom IIx2) will cost about $200, add an extra $100 if you go with an X4. A higher end mobo with high end video output built in will cost an extra $50 if you want to build a multimedia unit saving you from having to add a high end video card. If you want to go Intel as opposed to AMD it will cost a little more, the i5 and i7 chips are not cheap. There are tutorials all over the internet on how to, that's were I learned some of what I know. Taking apart my old ones was my primary learning experience.

 

[Cold Fusion38]

Wow well building a comp may be a bit beyond me. I agonised over a new comp for YEARS because I new the moment I bought one there would be some king of quantum leap in tech that would make mine outdated before I could even get it hooked up. The good thing is I did get a high end Dell and it has PLENTY of upgradebility. Even if I went with an external HD to back up all my important docs should be pretty easy upgrade.

 

[Ringel05]

Wow well building a comp may be a bit beyond me. I agonised over a new comp for YEARS because I new the moment I bought one there would be some king of quantum leap in tech that would make mine outdated before I could even get it hooked up. The good thing is I did get a high end Dell and it has PLENTY of upgradebility. Even if I went with an external HD to back up all my important docs should be pretty easy upgrade.

It's actually very simple, this is my first one. It's the mobo that makes all the difference. The one I'm using I can upgrade to a x4 chip at a later date not to mention the fact that it has a gig of on board graphics and high end ethernet built in virtually eliminating the need for a video and ethernet card. More open slots for greater upgrade options. Plus if I chose to go 64bit I can install 16 gigs of memory. A 650 watt power supply more than handles it and the board/chip combo is set up to handle overclocking using about the same power than a typical P4 uses. I determine what case I want to use allowing me the opportunity to add multiple HDs and optical drives, etc. Besides I'm moving my OS to Ubuntu (Linux) so I don't have to deal with all the extra crap HP, Dell, etc. load on their machines.

 

[Cold Fusion38]

Well like I said my dell can be upgraded into a monster i gig of memory slots for a video card with a t.v. tuner with a 750 GB hard drive I should be fine forever for memory but if I feel I need more I think I can add another internal but I would probably just get an external. GREAT PC I haven't even BEGUN to utilize the capabilities.

 

[Ringel05]

I will have to buy a new keyboard . prob wireless an MUCH more ergonomicly designed. Beyond that one complaing though this unit is a BEAST.

I currently use an IBM Lenovo T60, their first duo-core. Picked it up recently on E-bay for about $250 shipped, 1 gig of RAM, DVD/RW, 30 Gig HD, wifi, OS is XP pro. That's almost $100 less then what most are asking. Light but built like a tank and Lenovo is known for it's tight keyboards. Had a HP laptop I accidentally dropped from about two feet onto a carpeted floor (over wood) and the damn mobo broke. A couple of weeks ago I accidentally hooked the power cord to my Lenovo pulling it off the desk onto a lightly carpeted cement floor (about 2 1/2 feet). It bounced twice before stopping face down (open), I put it back on the desk checked every thing and no problems, everything works properly. I am definitely sold on IBM Lenovo laptops.
The T61s average between $400 and $700 on E-bay, and if you have the $$ W500 (High end graphics machines) will set you back about $1300.

 

[Andrew2382]

don't buy a mac

 

[Andrew2382]

Well like I said my dell can be upgraded into a monster i gig of memory slots for a video card with a t.v. tuner with a 750 GB hard drive I should be fine forever for memory but if I feel I need more I think I can add another internal but I would probably just get an external. GREAT PC I haven't even BEGUN to utilize the capabilities.

Yeah, but Dell sucks ass though. The memory that most dell uses are dog shit...meaning the speed of the memory. Even if you buy an upgrade it's still gonna be at dog shit speed.

They also use shit bag motherboards.

Building your comp is the way to go. It's very easy to put together also..pretty much like legos everything fits in.

Some websites will build it for you if you buy everything from the site.

I built myself a monster gaming machine for 1100 bucks that prob would have cost me over 3 grand from dell and would still outperform it.