[CONSUMER ADVICE] Laptop Buying

The "what normal people do" is crucial. The Powerbook I bought in 2001 still does what I want it to do just fine. It runs new browsers and so the WWW just loads more slowly than it used to when everything looked like ILX. On the other hand I do my writing on a typesetting system that predates the PC so computer speed's not a big concern for my work; maybe my needs are abnormally undemanding. As far as I know you wouldn't have to upgrade any Mac software...b/w OS X and what's available freely, software needn't be a huge expense if you're on a Mac---this depends a ton on what software you use, though;

"What normal people do" = yeah, I probably wouldn't be bothered, specs-wise, for a long time, if it weren't for making/recording music stuff. Although I guess a good share of normal people play games, which is pretty obvious driver of computing needs.

I mean, is there anything on the horizon that's about to get everyday users to scramble up?

aside from that megalomaniac gates and his memory guzzling OS?

I've used XP on my last 2 laptops for about 5-6 years now and it's never given me a moments hassle. Im amazed at how often MacOS has updates. Ive not changed OS for almost this whole decade, I think. No hard drive deaths, no registry screwups, no viruses, no loss of data, no slowdowns (apart from needing faster video cards for gaming). Perhaps I dont do a lot of demanding things on my system, I dunno.

(I cant see myself going to vista in a hurry, is what Im sayin)

i'm in the middle of a windows special episode right now, so please allow me some gates hate

ps i'm using XP too :(

XP was a great operating system, it ran more or less without any issues on my dell desktop for six years. I finally got a mac but the windows install I run on vmware fusion is XP and it still works really well.

darraghpc vs darraghmac

If you get a new Mac you can run Windows natively on it, using the Boot Camp software which comes with 10.5. However, your programs might have to be upgraded to run on 10.5. If you have license keys, the upgrade should probably be free.

It used to be that you could get refurbished Macbooks (refurbished meaning hand-checked by Apple, re-bathed in unicorn tears, etc.) from the Apple Store for less than 900 - however it seems their stock has run dry at the moment. I would keep an eye on their refurb page to see if any Macbooks pop up.

I've got a Dell that's 5 years old that mostly works fine but a) has become increasingly slow at i) booting up, ii) opening Firefox, iii) seems to run out of memory more and more, and b) has a relatively small hard disk that constantly has me burning stuff to CDRs and offloading to my external HD (which I try not to use too often in order to preserve it).

So, having been out the game for 5 years, which brands are the ones to look at? Dell and Lenovo ThinkPads? What's the word on HP and Toshiba (for which I see a lot of ads/coupons/deals)? Should I be willing to spend more money to get a better/faster processor, based on the idea that it'll be more useful for me for a longer time?

i really liked my toshiba but it died in 2 years which i kind of expected. i ended up getting a macbook pro this time because i couldnt stand the thought of using vista.

How old was it when it died? (RIP.)

2, probably closer to 3 years old. i wasnt exactly gentle with it though.

and i think it was only the fan

A faster processor is nice, but I'm more focused on getting gobs of memory (I'm about to buy a computer and am opting for 4GB of memory instead of the standard 2). In general, I've decided that getting a high performance computer, despite the higher cost, makes sense. $200-400 extra bucks for a considerably less frustrating computing experience is a no-brainer for me.

I also hate windows, but the whole mac/windows debate is hella boring so I want press.

I bought a brand new laptop today and there seems to be something wrong with the soundcard or something. When I use a traktor-like program to mix mp3's there are serious and frequent audio dropouts. In addition, the laptop speakers are pretty much unlistenable, there's a lot of distortion on the midrange, i.e. there's a lot of clipping at low levels. This is a brand new computer, and I'm prepared to return it, but I have to make a decision tomorrow.

Anyone have any idea about this, it's a compaq laptop

this thread is relevant to my interests. Current laptop (3 year old Thinkpad) seems to be dying, seems like it would be more cost-effective to just get a new one. Any suggestions? Should I wait until Windows 7 is released? Looking to spend about $6-700, less if possible.

it's a compaq laptop

hit the eject button, now

Definitely wait till windows 7 is both released and has had enough chance to bed down. Give it a few months. It seems to be garnering good reviews from the people who panned vista so worth waiting for.

Also laptop speakers are by definition unlistenable. No idea about the audio dropouts but worth listening to on headphones before condemning it entirely. Audio is still a nasty warty mess in windows so your audio program may not like your sound card or your driver. Check for updates to the drivers and also check to see if any other audio programs give similar problems.

A good time to bring this up, maybe: I really want a netbook, rrrrobyn convinced me! What does anyone know about them? Looking at the new Acer "Aspire One" with the 11-inch screens but they start at $350. Should I go used instead, for the money? Is this market moving so fast that I shouldn't get bogged down with anything too expensive?

A netbook is what it is and they are not moving as fast as the rest of the market. Not sure if there is much benefit in getting an 11 inch screen over a 10 inch screen and you save $50 by staying small. Second hand should be no problem at all if you check the specs. Lots of people buy netbooks and then discover that they aren't really all that powerful and struggle at some of the things they want to do.

Samsung and HP netbooks also seem to review well and would be worth a look. I'd consider this wee thing, for example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hp-Mininote-2133-2GB-RAM-120GB-7200-RPM-Webcam-netbook_W0QQitemZ230366885340QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_comp_laptop?hash=item35a2efb5dc&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_500wt_924

or this

http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-NC10-Netbook-Laptop-Blue-Upgraded-2GB-RAM_W0QQitemZ300338867384QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_comp_laptop?hash=item45ed976cb8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_500wt_924

Will they be able to watch streaming video ie my "Instant viewing" on Netflix? That plus ILX plus Facespace etc is all I really care about. I'm never going to have $1500 for a mac so it's time to say "fuck it" and move on.

Yeah, it should be able to, Laurel. PCs are much better than Macs at doing streaming video, particularly Flash video. Do you know what format Netflix streams in?

That's a good question which I am not fully able to answer, video is relatively resource intensive and people seem to have mixed results, particularly with netflix, depending on the netbook.

Netflix is silverlight, which seems to be more resource intensive than flash, if more reliable.

So what spec should I look for to make sure it can handle that video load, Ed?

It is difficult to say, Netflix says a 1.2Ghz processor should be sufficient. Most of the grumbling seem to be around March this year, specifically naming the Acer Aspire one, but since then there has been a major upgrade to silverlight and there seems to be a marked decline in grumbling.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10199350-56.html

Might want to ask someone who has one or try it out in the computer store.

I tried rrrrobyn's at my house once, and watching tv on hulu was impossible due to lag between picture & sound and stop-start issues, but I'm not sure whether part of that was our occasionally dodgy stolen wi-fi. Thx for advice.

Definitely wait till windows 7 is both released and has had enough chance to bed down.

I'm seeing a lot of ads for free upgrades to Windows 7, and I'd rather take advantage of the back-to-school sales. In the meantime, I can always downgrade to XP, right?

Should I look for a 64-bit CPU to give myself the possibility of upgrading to > 4 GB of RAM? Or will 32 continue to last me for at least a few more years?

anybody have anything to say about asus laptops? i'm kinda tempted to get one in a few months but haven't used the brand before.

I will probably have to get a PC for work. To much software not available for the Mac, parallels/bootcamp not really good enough either.

Lenovo X201 is the thing to beat, I think.

hey guys

don't ever buy an eee pc

most frustrating piece of shit i've ever owned

i've literally spent the last four hours trying to get a torrent client to work

picking through linux forums and shit

fuck this goddamn

never again

microsoft for fucking life

a poem, by Big Hoos.

but yeah, I went several months using ubuntu (linux). You needed a fucking add-on for EVERYTHING. The built-in music player needed 3!! downloads before I could start playing mp3 files. You need to download the separate supports depending on what filetype you wanted to view a video in (.avi, .mpeg, etc). Word .doc's were incompatible WITH THE OS - it refused to simply just let me save them and transfer them to a usb-stick. It was infuriating.

oh, but no viruses.

lol it took me a few years to realize that the 'open source = the best!!' line of thought was a bunch of bollocks and a grand swindle perpetrated by geeks evreywhere

yeah i've been using linux on all my computers since 2007 or so and this is just the last fucking straw

i shouldn't have to wade through hours worth of outdated forum posts to find a damn repository that's still active

a hoos should buy a mac imo

don't ever buy an eee pc

i've had two eee pc's and been pretty happy with them! the screen on my one is broken now i'm looking to replace it with something ideally just as portable but more powerful (i guess i'm looking for an 'ultrabook'). the asus zenbooks look pretty cool but they are almost as expensive as macs!

yeah that was written in a fit of blind rage, it really wasn't all that bad.

i just bought the zenbook UX31E

my eee pc has been pretty great. i can type on it and my battery life is 8+, it's just what i need given that i carry it by bike. biggest problem is video can choke it pretty easily ime.

damn this thing is fast

this thing == ilx obv

i need a new one to replace my '09 Compaq Presario

so, roughly equivalent

low to mid $, will stream video (mostly live baseball)

i got a couple of these for the office recently after doing some scouring and i've been impressed
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BJLGJ9H

is that low to mid $$$, wouldve thought that a v decent spec

$700 which I guess is mid given that you can buy a MacBook or a Dell for 1500 easily. I have the i5 version of the above and it was nearly £600 with a big anniversary discount about 1.5 years ago.

You should be able to go quite a lot cheaper than that though, you don't need an i7 and ssd to watch YouTube.

ya think it's OK to buy something "certified refurbished"?

https://www.amazon.com/Elitebook-840-LED-backlit-Professional-Refurbished/dp/B07FSRST8M/

I do it at work all the time, but only if the seller is Amazon themselves or Amazon Warehouse. They will accept returns without much fuss. Third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace you have no idea if they will honor a returns policy or (more frequently) they'll be too incompetent/indifferent to do it correctly.