bulldogod Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 Im looking to buy a laptop and soooo much choice out there, anyone got any recommendations or advice. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gannet Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 spend the lil extra and get a good one, dont waste ur money on a cheapie, and wait till boxing day and get 20% off thats what i did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 Advive is always good to get What did you want to use it for? If you wanted to do pretty much anything other than surf the internet I would advise trying to find one with a video card not video card shared with ram, you can get ones with 256 geforce cards built in makes it go soo much better, we got an NEC laptop have since found they are hunks of junk so would stay away from them, would also go with at least 2gb ram and as large a hdd as you can afford unless you want to go with a portable hdd which are cheap on trademe.. I think Dell do some good laptops online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slevin12 Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 dell i good as one on]line at the moment pretty good one for $1099 but think today is last day of the special Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fmxmatt Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 My work sells both Sony Vaio and Acer laptops. I've got a Sony Vaio myself, and prior to that I've had about 3 different acers. I found the Vaio to be superior in many ways, and wont be buying anything else. Yes they're expensive, but you actually are paying for the quality. Only prob is that now they're all running Windows Vista, which I find terrible. What we need to know though, is whats your budget. With cheap entry level laptops, you are getting what you pay for, and it doesn't really matter what brand you buy. Not saying thats a bad thing, but being in the industry and seeing a whole range, theres a big difference in performance & quality if you are willing to spend an extra $500 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 yea ive been thinking of getting a lap top for school next year. like bulldogod i dont know what one to get. ill ask questions later so i dont hijack the thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 As others said it depends on the budget. We have sold many Acers over the years and found them to be reliable. Not the highest performance but good value for money. Have a Toshiba for my own use and have sold a number of Toshibas as well. No problems with them. The Sony Vaio are very good and also look good! I don't consider them particularly good value for money but then they perform well and are very well built. If looks and top build quality are important then seriously consider the Sony range. Many makes are still available with XP Pro. Certainly Acer and Toshiba have a number of laptops available with XP Pro. I would rather buy XP than Vista for my own use. If you do get one with Vista then you will need and absolute minimum of 1Gb RAM. Many low end machines only have 512Mb fitted when you should really specify 2Gb for Vista to perform. Low end ones usually have an 80Gb HDD so bear that in mind as well. For best performance get one with separate video RAM, not shared with the main RAM. Not too important for basic office type use but a must for graphics, video etc. Check out the number of USB ports and what other ports are available. Very few have a serial port now. Probably not important for you but it is for my use which is why I bought the Toshiba as it was one of the few that still had one. Also check the DVD is not a CD writer with DVD playback only. Ensure it's capable of writing double layer DVDs. Some aren't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 Im on a Toshiba down here at the bach with wireless connection. I must say that no problems with the lappie but wireless is as slow as dialup. The recpition isnt all that good down here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozski Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 Of course specs are more important than brand, but I have to say the ASUS laptops that both my dad and I have are brilliant. A computer knowledgeable (read: computer geek) friend of mine recommended them. When dads first Dell laptop got stolen he took the advice and got an ASUS and loves it (dads a computer geek too haha). No problems with mine either And I'd say try to avoid Vista. The laptops out now still arent quite capable of handling it (last time I checked), so vista slows everything down quite a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 No apple converts out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldogod Posted December 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 Go ahead Wilson, I can learn from what you ask to. Was planning on spending around $1500, but maybe I need to spend a bit more. Thanks for the feedback so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.qian Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 It depends on your budget of course. But I would avoid DELL, my mum bought one and it's the most annoying piece of cr*p I've ever seen. So many unnecessary start up items and features that wastes your resources. I would go with Toshiba or ASUS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_elmo Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 I would go with Toshiba or ASUS. i agree, both those brands are value for money i have a very high end sony vaio and i only think its ok not great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 I think any laptop I got, first thing I'd do is nuke and pave whatever OS was on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishandchips Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 have you thought about if you would be wanting to get something better latter on in life as laptops are extremely difficult to upgrade. If you could handle a desktop then they are easier to upgrade in the end. I have used, serviced and bought heaps of laptops for the place that i work for and have never had a problem with Toshiba's. i own a dell myself but if i was going to every get another computer i would get a desktop as they can be upgraded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 I would stay away from Celeron and Duron chips as they are slow and there isn't much different in price to get better performing chips like Intel dual core cpus and athlon chips. Get the best you can afford.... in 6 months time new models will be out in the market to replace the one you just bought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted December 25, 2007 Report Share Posted December 25, 2007 Looking to get a laptop, which of these would be the best and value HP Pavilion dv9612TX Notebook http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... iew/XC5779 HP Pavilion dv9611TX NB http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... iew/XC5800 HP Pavilion dv6615TX NB http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... iew/XC5801 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vindy500 Posted December 25, 2007 Report Share Posted December 25, 2007 get a zepto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sub.z Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 I would definately not recommend compaq or hewlett packard :evil: :evil: Ive nothing but problems with them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 We wouldn't recommend them either :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoshark Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 i agree, both those brands are value for money i have a very high end sony vaio and i only think its ok not great Agreed with all of the above. I actually sell them, as i'm currently on a public forum, and not in shop I can say what I honestly think about products. - HP - Average at best. - Compaq - Frustrating. Same company has HP, dont have the same support service - Acer - "I've got an acer, its a great machine"... "How many did you have before you got one that worked?" - Dell - I hate dell with a passion. - Sony - Overpriced as all hell. - IBM / Lenovo - Haven't really delt with them - Toshiba - Market leader in many ways, great _b) - ASUS - I own one, and love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markoshark Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 Looking to get a laptop, which of these would be the best and value HP Pavilion dv9612TX Notebook http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... iew/XC5779 HP Pavilion dv9611TX NB http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... iew/XC5800 HP Pavilion dv6615TX NB http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... iew/XC5801 Don't buy the DV / DX series notebooks. They are the "Retail" models, and don't have the build quality of the NX / NC series, don't have the support really.. and.. Eww compaq. Mine died 3 times in a year. Never again. And each time the bloody technicians diagnosed the fault wrong. Whiney sound top left hand side. They replaced the battery and monitor. (faulty capacitor on the m/board). System would not boot. They ordered a new power pack & battery. Was the CPU. Catastrophic failure of the mainboard (Smoking) they ordered the keyboard. I know this, because I rang the technician and asked whtat was wrong and what parts they had ordered to fix them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 We sell them too and only disagree with one - Acer. We have only had trouble with 1 in 10 years. In fact we have one company that specifies them because they have had no trouble with all the ones they have had over the years. We have had 3 ourselves with no problems. Presently have a Toshiba because it had a serial port which was essential for Grant's work and they were the only one that had it at the time. Good and reliable. Have sold a few ASUS without any problems too. \Big problem with Dell and HP/Compaq is that they tend to have all sorts of other rubbish software they think is essential, commonly known as crapware and a good reason to stay away from them, apart from their reliability problem. Always cringe when someone rings up with one needing repairs (and we get a lot of them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 would definately not recommend compaq or hewlett packard Why? most parts are the same as any laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casper Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 i to would not recommend HP or Comaq, i know some have had "issues" with dells but ive only ever owned dells and the've beet fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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