Recommend a laptop please…

[dr]

I need to purchase a laptop for my daughter to use in grad school. I did a search and found some good information and recommendations in a thread from April of this year. Since things change fast in this industry (and hopefully price) I am looking for any recommendations, ideas, where to buy, where and what not to buy, ECT.
Thanks in advance for the help.
David

[mrfixxall]

I have had great luck with my toshiba satellite.Going on 6 yrs same battery and been used every day,its like a old timex watch takes a licken and keeps on ticking.....My neice bought a dell,nothing but problems since day one..she must have got a lemon...

[gcarter]

I just got a new Dell D610 after having a C610 for about five years. Had a couple of small issues with the C....however their warranty work and response was excellant.
The D has one gig of memory, 80 gig HD, built in WIFI, but most import, I use a docking station at my office so I can use one computer as much as possible. The docking station is topped w/a 20" monitor. Many laptops don't have the docking station option, I find it invaluable.
Another option the Dell has that I find useful is a second battery that installs in the hotbay, you know, CD etc. With the second battery installed, it will run for almost eight hours, rather than two or so hours with one battery.
There's a lot of them out there with a lot of features. The docking station and second battery were important to me.

[txtaz]

TOSHIBA!!!!!
Sorry George, they smoke your Dell. Basically all laptops are the same apples for apples. BUT the TOSHIBA has a nicer screen. It's larger and brighter. Plus after two years I have yet to loose any pixels and my Dad's Dell has.
Da Taz

[gold-n-rod]

I asked this same question back in April and the responses were so far spread over the board that they weren't of any real use. Ended up with a Dell Latitude X1. That's not what your daughter needs, however.

I suggest one of the Dell $750 specials. We got my wife one last summer (Inspiron 600M, if I recall correctly). Good basic machine and unless she's going to be crunching some serious data in grad school, it should have the needed grunt. It should last her 3 or 4 years. That's all you can realistcally expect from a laptop anyway. If your worried, get the 3 year, in-home service pack. You'll still come out for about a grand. $250-350 bux a year for a laptop is nuttin'. Wait until the first tuition bill!!!!!!!!!!:bonk:

[gcarter]

TOSHIBA!!!!!
Plus after two years I have yet to loose any pixels and my Dad's Dell has.
Da Taz
I think everything Toshiba makes is good. Especially monitors.
However, I've never lost any pixels, and this is the fifth Latitude I've owned.

[Trueser]

It depends what you want to spend. You get what you pay for. We maintain close to 5000 laptops in the Chicago are and I see the good and the bad.

Toshiba, has a pretty screen, nice but they are hard to get parts for and they have multiple problems. repairs can take days.

Dell, they change like the wind. I order parts daily and I don't care for them. Sorry George. Some models are repair at Dell onsite only, What does that tell you.

IBM, Cost more. They very rarely break. And if they do I get the part next day almost every time. More of a high end unit, If you can handle the cost this is a good choice.

HP, Midrange cost and starting to compete with Dell. Except they make a better product and parts are available. Business models.... Not the Best Buy ETC models.

Warranty is something you also need too look at. Make sure it's three year.

If you would like some models to look at send me a email and I will give you a couple of models to look at.

Good Luck.

[Mac]

The two major players are Dell and IBM, about 18 months ago IBM came out with the "beat Dell" program. they would beat any Dell quote apples to apples.
I have bought and supported over 250 laptops in the past several years, IBM is the best in terms on reliability and next day service, whatever you decide on make sure you get the 3 year next bussiness day on-site warrantee, it is worth it no matter what brand you get, the low price leaders from Dell often only include a 90 day warrantee and if the screen or motherboard dies it will cost more than the laptop to repair it.

[joel3078]

Having tons of luck here with older IBM Thinkpads, Compaq Presario, and Toshiba Satellite. Again these are 5+ year laptops and still going strong. The original batteries are dead of course. Most new/fresh batteries last 2 hours before recharging. Gateway had a few that came with 4 hour batteries - nice for real world use.

Problem childs have been Dell - hit or miss on them but the poop out early - 1st year or 2. The 3 year warranty is a must if you are buying a new laptop.

I would suggest buying a preowned IBM thinkpad that is a couple years old. Your past the early burnout stage and will save a ton of money over a new one.

If you have money to burn, get yourself a Panasonic Toughbook. These are built like tanks and are used in field work quite a bit. You can drop them and they keep going. As I recall, they are mil-spec rated for the government.
http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/toughbooks_home.asp

[Formula Jr]

I was thnking along the same lines about the Panasonic Toughbook.
I've killed three laptops in as many years mainly due to keyboard spills.
All laptops should be more rugged than they are. or at least beer proof.
:)

[joel3078]

Here is some food for thought...... The items that usually pukes on a laptop are the keyboard, mouse, or the screen. When I am at home using the laptop, I always plug into an external keyboard and mouse - get a ps/2 to usb adapter for this. Also plug in an external 15" monitor. There is a keyboard switch usually on the laptops's function keys to send the video signal to an external monitor. Basically hook up the external stuff - takes 10 seconds, turn on the laptop, close the laptop cover and start computing. No need to worry about burning out screen pixels or spilling beer (which is alcohol abuse) on the laptop keyboard. All this stuff costs less than a hundred bucks and will keep your laptop in great shape for much longer.

[joel3078]

I was thnking along the same lines about the Panasonic Toughbook.
I've killed three laptops in as many years mainly due to keyboard spills.
All laptops should be more rugged than they are. or at least beer proof.
:)

Look this up on ebay
USB washable keyboard
Bunches of them for less than 10 bucks.
:beer:
Here is another example
http://www.pc4usa.com/detailSales.asp?ProductID=234&Catn=1&scatn=1

[dr]

Trueser you’re offer to discuss in detail is appreciated and I may do that….

Joel mentioned buying a used IBM and I confess that intrigues me…for years this was my “style” in regards to cars, boats, almost everything but with age comes time and energy constraints and money becomes less of an issue…this would allow me to buy more pc...

Where would one look for a ‘reliable’ used IBM… understaning the potential liabilities that comes with buying used…are there web sites…any vendors on ebay lets say? You’re thoughts? Thanks again .

[Mac]

I re-read your origional post, seeing as this is for your daughter in grad school, if I was you I would want something that was very reliable that if there was a problem it could be fixed easily and quickly with a warrantee, or if there was a problem with the OS or installed software she could call support and get some help.
If you buy used you have no warrantee and no idea what was done to it previously or what issues it may have, it would be one thing if you where looking for a laptop to just browse the web but if you daughter school work depends on it get a new machine with a good warrantee, when there is a problem, not if, you will be much happier.

[joel3078]

If you buy used you have no warrantee and no idea what was done to it previously or what issues it may have, it would be one thing if you where looking for a laptop to just browse the web but if you daughter school work depends on it get a new machine with a good warrantee, when there is a problem, not if, you will be much happier.

Kinda sounds like buying a car, truck, boat, etc. Think about the pros & cons and wallet factor and decide for yourself what is right for you. All of this talk about laptops is the exact reason this donzi.net board is here. People helping people out. Good job all. :yes:

[joel3078]

Where would one look for a ‘reliable’ used IBM… understaning the potential liabilities that comes with buying used…are there web sites…any vendors on ebay lets say? You’re thoughts? Thanks again .

Tons on ebay - although finding a reliable one is somewhat hard to nail down. You can only trust feedback scores so far.

For years I have bought tons of good stuff at this place.
www.supercomputersale.com.
Comes to Minneapolis, MN 2 or 3 times a year. Lots of local vendors getting rid of their excess inventory at cheap prices.

[txtaz]

You might try here
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=ENDECA&N=0&keywords=laptops
Da Taz <<-- Toshiba all the way. wireless everything...cool.