Author Topic: Looking to buy a good laptop at good prices. (Read 7035 times)

einstien101 · « **on:** September 06, 2006, 07:55:43 PM »

Yeah i just started UTT and i want to get a laptop so i knew this would be the best place to ask where sells dells at good prices. i say dell because i assume they would be easier to get fixed, but if i'm wrong please correct mee. i need it for mainly photo editing, AutoCAD, and i guess a bit of gaming.

Carigamers · « **on:** September 06, 2006, 07:55:43 PM »

SPK · « **Reply #1 on:** September 06, 2006, 10:02:20 PM »

www.dell.co.tt

Crixx_Creww · « **Reply #2 on:** September 07, 2006, 10:00:11 AM »

ide say DUDE DONT GET A DELL

yu say ease of fixing? hmmm right yeahh

anyways alienware currently has a superb line of cure 2 duo laptops

i just specked out one for a friend of mine doing engineering in UTT as well.
she needs it for all the things yu do as well and the are 51 m5550 is just right for those purposes.

the one i configured came in at 1200 us and that was with 1 gig of ram and a 120 gig hd and a dvd burner.
comes standard with a x1400

think yu should give it a try
conroe dude!!
dell doesnt have conroe laptops yet bleh

Heady · « **Reply #3 on:** September 07, 2006, 12:24:53 PM »

hadda ask wats a good price

Crixx_Creww · « **Reply #4 on:** September 07, 2006, 12:29:03 PM »

if yu want a laptop these days but not looking to go over insane on pricing

be prepared to spend 1200 dollars for a "good" laptop with enuff fancy stuff to keep yu going for a few years. 1200 us that is eh

cheap mcs like trini yuh hadda make sure an specify

Carigamers · « **Reply #4 on:** September 07, 2006, 12:29:03 PM »

W1nTry · « **Reply #5 on:** September 08, 2006, 03:15:07 PM »

Yuh could call down an Acer lappy with decent specs for 1200USD as crixx said. Dell.. bleh, a reason to go with dell is should sometign go awry you 'should' be covered. However as I've seen Acer is best on price. Yuh could get a Core Duo 1.8GHz, X1400/X1600 1GB ram, 120GB HD, Win Pro for 1000-1200USD. HP makes some decent laptop too in the business class. Most important I guess is to get one with support. 1 might argue dell has the best support, but then you'll NEED it with a dell. So to each there own. I'd check out acer though. I have an Aspire 5670 a while now and its held up well to the lix and it plays some games pretty well. In the least yuh could beast WC3 and a few more recent FPS like COD2.

einstien101 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 09, 2006, 10:45:04 PM »

price isnt the issue if i know its good and it will be good for a while(which isnt long in the world of comps), vut will not be too far obsolete.

SPK · « **Reply #7 on:** September 09, 2006, 11:15:01 PM »

Well I also in the area of looking for a laptop, decently priced (1100 US + shipping max)...

disciple · « **Reply #8 on:** September 10, 2006, 02:17:42 AM »

if you gonna be schleppin that around campus, make sure you cool with the weight..

those gaming rigs are decent, but they weigh a ton,

whatever you get, try to avoid integrated graphics...

if yuh have the money, i'd say got for a t series ibm.( lenovo)

they are light, well supported by *nix( in the event you need to install it for some course) ,reasonably tough, well made and has an attractive design ( imho)

they come in any colour you want, as long as it's black :-)

http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10000001&catalogId=-840&langId=-1&categoryId=2035724

http://www.cdw.com/shop/tools/productfinder/productfinder.aspx?webclass=C3&hubpage=%2fhardware%2fnotebooks.html&mfrn=5768679

Beomagi · « **Reply #9 on:** September 10, 2006, 02:38:00 AM »

what screen size? you looking at portability and battery?

gpu important? what you going to be doing with it? dual core is advisable, though i dont think you need to worry about which dual core so much as the rest of the system. I'd say merom over core duo and that over turion x2 - but if you're getting the gpu and formfactor you want over the core duo and core 2 - go for it. The differences are not incredible, though for a laptop the size and gpu are things you just can't change. If you're into video, THEN I'd say the importance of the cpu goes up and core 2 is advisable.

if you or a friend is living in the us, snag this acer
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=336978

it is 15.4 inches, core duo, x1400, and comes with 2GB of ram - that's the big deal with this one. usually they skimp on ram and use both slots but 2GB ram and a decent card for a laptop under $1k is fantasic. No delivery, so you'd need to visit compusa.

I recently got an s271, upgraded the memory to 2 GB buying the extra (gskill) dimm off newegg.
It's available at Avadirect for $1064.
I like it cause it's small - 12", slim - 2cm, cheap, solid and decent video. plays dungeon siege 2 WELL on max res, and nwn. wont play quake 4 worth a damn at any setting though.

Now formfactor is extremely important as it's restrictive. There's only one laptop I know of that's 12" with a dedicated videocard, and that's dell's xps 1210. Also It's difficult to find ultraportables for cheap, especially dual core models. The msi with turion is certified to run vista (yeah i know it's not out yet) but dont expect a good experience running linux - ACPI is buggy so you'd have to boot linux without it - i.e. no battery readings.

how important is durability? there's 2 notebooks people look at for durability - panasonic toughbooks - ALSO known for extreme battery life, but the sacrifice is ULV core solo or pentium-m chips which are pretty weak. IBM's thinkbad line is also known to be solidly made. Asus is also pretty good, and is supplying apple's notebooks.

If you want batterylife, always go for the extended battery.

Note - 2 current espansion options. expresscard, and pcmcia. look at cards you want may be interested in to help you decide what you may want - e.g. tv, sound, networking.

generally for coursework, using *nix, vmware is good enough usually, as most courses I took didn't need direct asscess to special hardware. One needed opengl but I just used lap machines.

no matter where you get your laptop from, reformat yourself. My laptop came with a craqppy install and crashed often till I reformatted. Now it's rock stable.

SPK · « **Reply #10 on:** September 10, 2006, 07:09:55 AM »

...and if I want to have it delivered to Trinidad directly? (If I could have waited, I would wait till December for my cuz to buy it in NYC)

Cuz otherwise I would have looked at other options...and I also want to make sure it has a decent video chipset, minimum 1GB ram, 80GB HD, DVD burner, 15.4" screen, once weight is below 8lbs I'm cool (plan to be using a backpack to tote it around anyway).

Looking at those options are nice, but ain't worth one crap if it doesn't allow me to be able to have it shipped directly (no intermediary delivery forms like Skybox etc.) So, if decent ones can be found, let me know, cuz otherwise the Dell which I have configured isn't looking too bad for $1075 USD.

Specs for that laptop (well main specs anyway):

Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2050 (1.60 GHz / 533 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, English
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife
1.0GB,DDR2 SDRAM,2 DIMM,533MHz
8x Dual Layer CD/DVD +/-RW Burner
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300
80GB Hard Drive at 5400rpm
1 year warranty in parts and labor with onsite or at home service
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (85 WHr)
Intel PRO Wireless 3945 802.11 a/b/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Integrated Network Card and Modem
Carbon Fiber QuickSnap

Spazosaurus · « **Reply #11 on:** September 10, 2006, 11:24:47 AM »

That lappy Beo spotted there is really sweet and the price is even sweeter. Nice find!

SPK · « **Reply #12 on:** September 10, 2006, 11:53:37 AM »

The Acer he spotted there is really nice, but once again, not available for direct shipping here...

disciple · « **Reply #13 on:** September 10, 2006, 12:31:15 PM »

i seein it at other joints that would allow for direct shippin, like at cdw, and even on amazon, but the price goes up by a couple hundred

Beomagi · « **Reply #14 on:** September 10, 2006, 04:16:46 PM »

If you search for the model, CDW does have it, with 1GB ram, and an x1600 for $1100
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/specs.aspx?EDC=995829

and from newegg for $1060
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115246
same config as cdw - x1600 and 1 GB ram

W1nTry · « **Reply #15 on:** September 11, 2006, 01:47:44 PM »

Actually Acer has a retail outfit down here.... I REALLY can't remember the name of the company, however if you send an email to acer global they should respond to you as the requests are fwded to the representative for that region. Of course if you buy it through them it'll cost you more, however you will have a warranty option which Beo's alternatives will be harder to maintain. That is the major issue with buying systems (laptops in particular) from say newegg and such. Should something GOD FORBID go wrong, you either have NO warranty or have to send it back to the US for the Warranty to be honoured which would cost you more in TIME in the long run than the extra money for it locally. I would advise you get it locally if possible. Whilst the others are great for the price, the LAST thing you want is a crash with a critical project and you have no TIME to do it over or recover. Crapo smoke yuh pipe at that point.

As a side note, I noticed these 2 laptops and seeing as both Acer and HP have retailers in T&T these might be available to you:
HP nx9420 and Acer Aspire AS5672WLMi-ATI

I'd prolly take the HP though, yuh could get a better warranty with them and they have a more professional finish (read: better materials)

Crixx_Creww · « **Reply #16 on:** September 11, 2006, 03:38:58 PM »

and i would beg to differ on the hp front.

for the past 2 years ive been inundated with nothing but hp machines here at the office.

and for the past few months nothing but hp laptops.

If i had to pit an acer v an hp i would go for the acer.

THey are more tech friendly for one.
if yu play yur cards right, you could end up with an acer that has a mobo and chipset that allows pretty decent over clocking on air.
Ive tried with these hps. bleh nothing going.

THe new hps have an ibm esque finish to them which is pretty ok. But the acer isnt bad looking and feeling either.

W1nTry · « **Reply #17 on:** September 12, 2006, 11:05:28 AM »

I never said they were bad looking, however having used/seen many a acer of late, their quality of materials is not as high as HP. And this is something other ppl around the world experience. I read an article on it lately in fact. I for 1 can first hand attest to the buttons starting to 'shine' as teh top layer of plastic gets worn out. The display itself is not as firmly attached and rocks with little effort and the actual plastics used feel cheaper (read thinner and lighter). As for OCing. My laptop has NO Ocing capabilities (core duo or not) not even the video can be OCed. The bios is VERY basic and for waht you're talking about I am sure he's NOT lookign to do as such. Also in case you don't know as I only recently found out, ACER ranks as one of the WORST environmental tech companies WORLD over by GREEN PEACE. Along with Lenovo (because of their chinese facilities) and another company. They weren't EVER RANKED on the Green scale to show how many non-environ friendly materials go into these things....

Crixx_Creww · « **Reply #18 on:** September 12, 2006, 01:07:56 PM »

i did mention that if yu played yur cards right on the acer buy.
Meaning if yu did yur research into which models have the oceable chipsets and mobos. I did alot of research and found out that there is a thriviing community of ocers in love with acer laptops for this ability.

Interesting about the waste thing though
equally interesting that acer is the third worst and apple is the 4th
while lenova is the worst.
Hp was alot worse off not to long ago though

W1nTry · « **Reply #19 on:** September 12, 2006, 03:47:09 PM »

Yuh know what didn't even occur to me? dude get an APPLE laptop. Those new Macbook Pros as SWEET. Once yuh see dem, no matter how beast yuh DTR is, yuh go get laptop envy. I remember being in training in the US not too long ago and a man had one... I was like GG.... duyamn that's pretty. And of course easy to use, well spec'd lightweight, durable.... *sighs* dread yuh know yuh could get e 20" iMac with Core 2 Duo for < 1600USD??? we talking 1GB memory standard, X1600 256MB video, built in webcam (which i've seen in action and they're better than ANY other brand I assure), 2GHz dual core not to mention it'll save yuh real estate on a desk.

Carigamers · « **Reply #19 on:** September 12, 2006, 03:47:09 PM »

Author Topic: Looking to buy a good laptop at good prices. (Read 7035 times)

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