New Laptop

[62896dude]

Hello everyone,

I am currently looking into buying a brand new laptop, but as this will be the first time I buy my own, I'm not entirely sure what to look for. I don't want to pay more than $650.00 for it, and I don't want to build it myself (I know some have suggested that, I just don't have the time unfortunately).

Any advice/recommendations would be great! Thanks everyone!

~Kevin

P.S. My current laptop has the following:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5250 @1.50GHz 1.50 GHz
Memory (RAM): 2038 MB
System type: 32-bit Operating System

To me, that doesn't really mean much, as I don't know what all of that is really, but I just know that it isn't doing too great of a job right now. Any comments on what I currently have/what I should get as far as RAM and GHz goes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

[hallsofvallhalla]

whatever you do DO NOT BUY A HP OR A COMPAQ... for the love of god do not. Biggest crap made, worst customer service!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140048

[Jackolantern]

whatever you do DO NOT BUY A HP OR A COMPAQ... for the love of god do not. Biggest crap made, worst customer service!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... T70-140048

I have to disagree on "worst customer service" lol. They are at least tied with Dell, because I don't know how it could physically get worse. Dell wants to charge you $20 - $50 to talk to someone for 15 minutes who doesn't speak English who is just phonetically speaking from a flow chart

[Chris]

I'd save up a little more and get something that will last a few more years. Look up ultra books. Some of them come with 9 hours of battery life, and the batteries can be recharged loads more than standard laptop batteries.

[62896dude]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I am currently looking into this one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+1 ... RRWidgetID

I've always been a fan of Toshiba, and it's Windows 7, 64 bit, 2.4 GHz, 6GB RAM, 640 GB of memory (that's like, 5x what my current one has!!), and basically everything else that I want in it. My only complaint is size, but even then, it's not too bad. It's a bit over my budget, but I think it's well worth it. I've got a few paychecks laying around anyways that I can contribute to it. Let me know what you guys think of it!

[Jackolantern]

That looks pretty nice! I have no experience with Toshiba, however, nor does anyone I know.

I did not peel deep into the specs on it, however. Does it have any kind of graphics capability? Like even just a step-up in the integrated Intel video card? With Windows 8 looming on the horizon, you may want to be sure any new computer you buy from here on out could have the juice to run it well. I think you would be set with everything except maybe graphics, which I am not sure of.

[62896dude]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure. I don't know much about where my graphics should be at, what would a minimum be in your opinion? (however it's measured, hahaha)

[Jackolantern]

Graphics are hard to come by on laptops, unfortunately. They just don't have the cooling capacity to run powerful cards, and a desktop-like card would also drain away the battery in about 10 minutes lol. But there are some out there. The most basic is a standard Intel integrated. This is basically shipped along so you can display output to the screen and run a GUI OS like Windows or Ubuntu. There are a couple of step-ups to the Intel integrated cards, like..errmm...I can't remember their names, but basically if it says something like "Intel [some letter][some number] Graphics", then it is one of the step-up types. I have one of the slightly better ones and it runs Windows 7 great and a few older games (like from around 2003/2004 or earlier lol). After that you can pay a fairly hefty amount to get an NVidia or a Radeon full, separate video card. I believe I have heard that Radeon actually makes better laptop video cards right now, whereas many people prefer NVidia for desktops.

I looked at the card on the one you linked, and it is an Intel HD, which is basically the default, basic unit for the Intel i# CPU line. Don't get me wrong, though, even one of the step-up Intel integrated is not going to make a huge difference: it won't be a gaming rig either way. But the downside to getting a separate video card is that the other specs are going to take a serious dive for that same amount of money. I got my laptop about 2 years ago, and spent about $650 to get a Core i5 2.4 GHz CPU with 4 gb of RAM and a 500 gb HDD. They had another, slightly-different model in the same line that came with a decent (for laptops) Radeon card for the exact same amount of money, and it was something like a Core i3 2.0 GHz with 3gb of RAM and a 300gb HD. So as you can see, it would have been a large sacrifice for the video card. However, with Windows 8 coming out soon, I hope I made the right decision and will be able to run it well.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, since Windows 8 is really aiming at the tablet market, I bet there will be good versions of it that can run in lower memory, lower graphics situations. So I guess just get the best CPU, RAM and HDD you can get for the money in a good brand!

[62896dude]

Thanks a lot! Very helpful, I'll be sure to keep that in mind if I decide to upgrade the graphic card, but I think I'm just gonna go with this laptop, as I don't have a need for heavy graphics at all, and even this Intel HD card will, I believe, be better than the one I have now. Not to mention, along with the increased RAM and overall screen display which will help a bit. Honestly, anything is improvement from the beast I have right now

~Kevin

[Jackolantern]

Sounds good, and I hope I don't wreck your confidence about your purchase, but:

I'll be sure to keep that in mind if I decide to upgrade the graphic card, but I think I'm just gonna go with this laptop

I just wanted to mention that there really is no upgrading laptop video cards or CPUs. I believe you can upgrade the RAM, but unless it is designed to do so by the manufacturer, you will likely need a professional to do it and they will charge an arm and a leg because they basically have to take it completely apart, insert the RAM and then rebuild it. It is about 50x more complicated to upgrade a laptop versus a desktop. I think there are usually only about 1 or 2 mobile graphic cards on the market at any one time, they are very high priced and scarce since no one buys them and even if you did get one, it is insane to actually install it. And that is if your laptop will even accept it.

So basically, make sure you are happy with what you are buying spec-wise, because there really won't be a way to give it much of an upgrade later.