Topic awaiting preservation: Laptop Shopping Woes..

Hey Asylum Rescue Squad!! I need your help!

I need a new laptop but have no real time to find one. These are the specs of my old machine and I'm looking for something similar.
Sony VAIO
Processor: AMD Athlon
HD: 40GB - 60GB
RAM: 256MB - 512MB
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce4 --or thereabouts
Drives: DVD\CD+RW --DVD±RW would be nice but not a big deal
Price: $1,000 - $1,500

Here's the thread from the last time I went shopping but I could garner nothing from it. Com'on, let's go Shopping!

I tried looking in all the usual places (and their google caches) and all the places that worked for me last time. I hit Google but it didn't hit back- it just kinda laid there like some sad puppy road-kill-thing... Hence my request...

... Help me find this laptop!!

Please? I am seriously lacking on available free time and connectivity and I can't find myself a sweet machine. ...Pretty Please?

Com'on, Inmates! I burn for orange glow and schitzo ramblings!! I am counting on you...

(Edited by Petskull on 11-01-2004 00:04)

Pet: check this place out too. It might help. http://www.pricewatch.com/


'Hey, take it easy and enjoy life.... or in your case, death.' -- Yoh Asakura, 'Shaman King'

Wolfen's Sig Site | WolfenMedia | Cell #226 | Fun Link | E-mails of Wisdom | Wolfen Deviantart

I'm in your same boat. I need to buy a laptop around January for my next term classes (some of which will require a laptop). I don't need a desktop replacement, just a laptop for when I'm out and about. I'll just be running linux on it probably. Hardly any gaming, but I'd like some 3D acceleration, and preferably some that doesn't steal my system ram. 256 or 512mb ram would be fine, but I'd really really like it to be expandable to a gig so I can just buy more ram in the future. A big HD would be a plus but I don't plan on dual booting like you do Petskull. Processor also doesn't need to be amazing. My biggest requirement is the size. I want a small laptop. Not so small it has no optical drives though =) Heaviness doesn't matter so much to me as size.

I've been looking at Vaios and Thinkpads mostely. I'll post any bargains I find. Good Luck in your search as well!

i know i'll be written off as a mac zealot for suggesting this but i absolutely adore my iBook, i have no desire to ever use a pc again, i've had to hard reboot it once in the time i've owned it and have absolutely no virus concerns whatsoever. it is a bit slower than a pc could be, but the fantastic os and general ease of use/peripherals/aesthetics/etc. far outweigh that for me.

$1500 will buy a 1.33ghz iBook with a 60gig hd and a superdrive (dvd-r/cd-r) if you're curious

chris


KAIROSinteractive | tangent oriented

Apple computers are great. I've been tempted several times. But they don't resist to the fact that for same amount, maybe less, you can have similar PC ( with a DVD burner and all the rest ) ... but way faster. Don't use IE or Outlook ( nor Office ) and you can say bye bye to viri and spywares.

For instance, here goes 3 laptops.
COMPAQ - Presario R3304EA
COMPAQ - Presario R3332EA
Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M 1425-72511



(Edited by poi on 11-01-2004 08:48)

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

i can recommend the fujitsu siemens amilo. i bought one earlier this year and i am absolutely satisfied with it.

B | T | E | P | L

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

I heard about Averatec here almost a year ago and poopoo'd them because of the price. Then a few weeks ago my laptop was crappin out on me and i borrowed one for a trip, it was an averatec. I got to try the thing out for about a week and was extremely impressed. Then I checked the hardrive space, there was less than 10% free and it was still hummin along at lightening speeds, suprised me that Windows wasn't crabby, I was sold.

I bought one for 999 at Sam'sClub whose sepc's were slightly better than the web site's, 60gb DVD burninator etc. I spec'd the same thing from Dell and it ended up 2700 bucks.

This thing is great, dunno how long it will last but there's alot i like about it, esecially at the price. Worth serious consideration.

poi, when it comes to the speed issue here's my question: are you doing something that requires that much speed (or more speed)? sure, faster is nice, but productivity is a whole lot more than raw cpu power. rarely (if ever) is what i need to get done not getting done fast enough because of my cpu.

chris


KAIROSinteractive | tangent oriented

Fig: You're right. Generally a laptop is not a primary computer, and as such it doesn't need to be top notch. Though I enjoy playing Q3 on my laptop. There's two important things to consider :

• the softwares available on Apples and PCs and if one can switch smoothly and won't get lost because this or that software known by heart is not available.
• the lastability of the computer. It's neither easy nor cheap to upgrade a laptop, so you'd better buy one that will last longer and thus that have something in the guts at the time you buy it

Apple Portable iBook G4 12" - 1GHz @ 1029?
Acer Aspire 1622LM 9200 - 15" 3Ghz @ 1199?

i'd agree, tho in my case my laptop is my primary machine. aside from games if you're doing web/graphic stuff there's not much difference in software from mac's to pc's that i've found, and actually as a designer i've found it to my advantage to be on a mac when working with printers and design firms. as far as "lastability" (i like the word ) i've actually found mac's in general to outlast pc's, i've been to a lot of design firms that still have their older macs getting put to a lot of work.

not trying to sell anyone here (even tho it does sound like it), but my point is just that raw horsepower isn't everything. honestly, other than games (and windows 2009, or whenever it comes out) what's really pushing cpu speeds to increase? other than maybe some 3d rendering apps and realtime video work (which is kinda a mac thing actually) what else are you going to be doing where cpu power is the most important factor. for me ease of use, installation and peripherals, etc., contributes a lot more to my productivity than cpu speed does.

chris


KAIROSinteractive | tangent oriented

JK, those avertech look enticing. They even have a laptop/tablet conversion model at only 1200 which is really taunting me =) I was afraid of avertec before because the prices seem too good to be true, I'm glad you can vouch for them because now I won't have to lose an arm and a leg when I get my laptop.

I'd actually recommend staying away from Apple's laptops. After my initial excitement over receiving my Powerbook I've simply come to regard it as the worst piece of shit I've ever owned. Apple makes a pretty OS and nicely designed cases but the reality is thats what you pay for. My software freezes noticeably more often on OS X then XP. YMMV.

I've never had a problem with Dell or Sony thought.

I don't know for Sony's computers, but the Dells are excellents but expensives.

Fig: Again I can only agree with you. I'm in the web business, which explains why I see no clear advantage to be on either computer except that UltraEdit is my editor of choice since the v5.xx, and alas it's not available on MAC and that I can also play anytime on PC. If only had the incomes I'd like to buy a PowerBook to have another test & development platform.

A co-worker, who worked with Eclipse, had brought his PowerBook at work. The experience to have both a MAC and a PC seemed really enjoyable.

It is, poi, it is...

To have instant access to multiple platforms is so very nice indeed

After this weekend the setup at my place will include the following:
My regular PC with XP
The Mrs new Dell with XP
The kids game PC with w98
My 12" PowerBook
One 24/7 PC running Suse 9.0 acting as file/print-server
(probably Suse that is, I'm setting that up this weekend)

All on a wireless network at home

The Mac addition to the collection was superb, I love it, totally!
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?Computer games don?t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we?d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.? (Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.) }-

dan, i have to say that sitting on the couch and checking my e-mail on the laptop is way too cool, i looooove being wireless tho i'd love to have a dual g5 to work on video with i don't know that i'll be able to bring myself to buy another desktop.

poi, being able to work cross-platform definitely has its advantages, especially when it comes to web work. a recent site i designed was for a musician who's also an audio engineer, his audience is heavily mac-based due to being users of pro tools and the like. i had to incorporate a wicked style sheet hack or two to get the page centered in both pc and mac browsers, this was before i had my mac and i was building the site on a pc. it was weird to be on the phone with the client and him looking on his mac going "its halfway off the page" while i'm looking at the same page on my pc going "no its not"

jestah, sounds like you got a bad apple, no pun intended. i've got several friends/roommates/etc. with powerbooks and none of them have had any probs whatsoever, and i couldnt crash my iBook if i tried. have you tried taking it in to an apple store to get it checked out? you should still be under your initial warranty period.

chris


KAIROSinteractive | tangent oriented

(Edited by Fig on 11-02-2004 16:23)

Hearing about the averatec not burning a whole in ones pocket excited me. When i checked them out on the website if found that they dont really seem to be upgradeable in terms of memory. Has anyone here owned one, and if so are they upgradeable? Also if anyone knows of a cheaper place to get a notebook than newegg or price watch I would greatly appriciate the link.

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

InI: please read my lips, I said : " the Dells are excellents but expensives. "
And you post echos what I already said and even pointed by giving a link a PowerBook 1Ghz 12" @ 1029? and a P4 3Ghz 15" @ 1199?

sb, manaman (loooong time no see!): I can only vouch for the averatecs in relation to suitability for my needs, I needed a backup solution (this gives me a large HD to transfer files offsite, or DVD burner) and something to take on the road witth me and be able to get on the internet and do my bidness, that'd be email, web browsing, web dev stuff using some semi-resource hogging software like DW and PS. I have a beefy desktop that takes care of the every day stuff and this laptop more than fits the bill for my needs when mobile.

sb: I was looking for one of the tablet PCs to try out but couldn't find one to test around here, sorry.

manaman: the expandability of the rAM is something I had a question on too, but in the end I decided it didn't matter for my requirements anyhow so I snagged it. I did crack it open and look for you and there's a single card wedged in there, have no idea if you can up it or not, I'd assume yes, most modern mobo support a gb don't the? Don't know much about laptops. There are customer support and sales emails listed on the site if you wanna holler and see what they say, I've just done so myself out of curiosity.

The other thing that swung me to averatec and away from Dell whom I'd grown to trust over the years is the fact that I could go to their simple "Accessories" page and purchase an extra power supply. Sounds simple but try that with Dell these days. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with "Dell" talking to some eastern accented lady who couldn't/wouldn't give me part numbers so I could call and order later, it was terribly expensive, then when I decided to hand up she went all "used car salesman" on me, promising that "if you buy now I'll make ou a good deal!". Last time I called support, that's been outsourced too and I spent 10-20 times longer than I should waiting for the trainee on the other end of the line to work through their prescribed trouble shooting steps (that are apparently mandatory) and get to my actual problem. End rant.



(Edited by JKMabry on 11-03-2004 16:53)

Thank you JK, I took your advice and gave averatec a call while at work and asked them about the tablet PC's as well as the rest of the 3000 models. None of these models have upgradeable memory, it's capped at 512mb. The 6100 and the 6200 on the other hand have upgradeable memory upto 1 gig and 2 gigs respectively. The tablet pc doesnt sound at all as great after talking to the customer service rep. but I can't really dis it without trying it. I think that best buys carry a couple models of averatec so sometime this weekend I'll probably take a trip over to BB and check them out.