Comments | profgreg: Laptop advice wanted

profgreg

Laptop advice wanted

Mar 03, 2004 07:33

So I'm probably going to be getting me a new laptop soon, and I wanted to pick anyone's brain what's willing to be picked. If you have no advice on the subject, or are not inclined to share what advice you have, you can probably just skip ( the rest of this. )

Comments 6

omega697 March 3 2004, 18:18:08 UTC

1) What brands have you found to be reliable/inexpensive/crappy? What about customer service? Particularly curious what people think of Dell and IBM, although I'm not necessarily leaning towards either of them ( ... )

omega697 March 3 2004, 18:34:40 UTC

I just looked at Dell's online store.

Here's my recommendation:

Inspiron 5100

Bump up the screen to the 15.1" SXGA

Add the 802.11b/g integrated (Mini-PCI) wireless card.

Bump up the graphics card to the 64 MB ATI Radeon 7500

Remove the $50 surge protector.

total cost: $1,149 after 10% online discount.

profgreg March 5 2004, 09:35:10 UTC

You rock, Kurt. Thanks much for all the info. We're going to still be looking for awhile, but this gives us a great place to start. I'll let you know what we decide on.

silverhawk March 4 2004, 12:00:10 UTC

My advice comes in two flavors, based on my experience. First, don't get Compaq. Mine fell apart. As in the hinge broke. Second, get the service agreement. After mine fell apart, I was able to get a new laptop, a model that wasn't out when I got the first one, for the price of a new service agreement and a new case (since the new laptop didn't fit in the old laptop case).

Other than that, it might be useful to go into a store and ask the salespeople about the different laptops they have. If they recommend one over another, ask them why. And then to really piss them off, decide what you want and walk out of the store to buy somewhere else.

profgreg March 5 2004, 09:42:01 UTC

Thanks for the advice... I think I will follow all of it :-)

willworker March 30 2004, 11:27:05 UTC

You don't know me (randomly surfed over here-- a number of your students are friends of mine), but I'll put in my $0.02 on laptops anyway (in case it's not too late ( ... )