Friends,

I am in a dire and immediate need of a laptop computer. In fact, I will be driving out to BestBuy, Circuit City and Microcenter to purchase the notebook this afternoon. So I have about 4 hours to decide what I want and run out to buy one.

Here are my criterias:

1. It has to be light, not necessarily ultra-light, but light enough.

2. Pentium Centrino M processor preferably ( I heard it is good for mobility and allows the battery to last long). I don't know about comparable AMD chips. Can you tell me about what AMD chip to look for? And what about the Hyperthreading technology and processor speed (how high), etc. etc. What should I look out for?

3. Dual core - I have been hearing a lot about it. I have to run lot of scientific and mathematical programs, some graphic intensive. I heard dual-core chip is the way to go. What say you?

4. Tablet feature and widescreen would be nice.

5. My budget is in the range of $1500 to $1700.

I know I want DVD writer, tons of - usb, firewire, s-video - ports, integrated wireless connection capability, etc. etc. What other features should I ask for?

Help!!!! I have 3 hours 56 minutes left to decide.

If you like Dell check this

http://www.deals2buy.com/delldeals.htm

Tonnes of stuffs, and best price ever. Do not go for Compaq or HP I have had bad experiences, Good Luck

After 2 yrs, be sure to throw your Dell laptop!!

Its Laptop, not a Soccerball. Treat it like your loved one it will last years.

Besides Dell's got the Best Tech support. Atleast you have someone to ask questions if at all you need one. Sony, Toshiba, and all suck in terms of Tech Support. You can purchase extra warranty if you want.

DC_Girl Panasonic has got ToughBook, its meant to last for Years. You might wanna give it a try.

Thanks for your suggestion, guys, but my friends - not one, not two, but five - have had serious trouble with Dell laptops within 2 years of purchase. Most problems have been with the screen.

On another note, should I go for Pentium Centrino M processor or AMD Athlon 64 bit processor?

AMD costs less.

Nevermind are you tech-savvy? eerr..you look like one, i meant, are you a comp sci major? i'd trust less- cause i've seen ppl with computer degrees not knowing ANYTHING about hardware. so take my word for it- 2 yrs, any computer can go out the window- but Dell will be the first one. I've had hp and dell both- dell's support is good, but hp lasts longer.

Well DC_Gurl, not totally, but I do have my head dipped in. I have had problems with HPs and Compaqs for the reason I was trying to use multiple OS in same machine using Linux, XP Pro, et al. Had really terrible time finding drivers, tech support was not the best so had to return those. I knew that was coming so was smart enough to try whatever I needed as soon as I bought them, did not work so returned immidiately.

Well if you are working on OS that came with the Laptop then, well, there is not much excitement. any ways would you not like to try and feel stuffs like Longhorn, Vista and all. Well all depends on choices, but I just realized that I am lil more techno savvy that I thougt I was. Thanks for making me realize that.

AMD way better than intel.
Intel are suckers.

divdude... any reason why would you say Intel suckers and AMD better? any inside knowledge

nevermind, i also use Ubuntu/XP on HP and the only reason i bought HP was KPPONIX was running soomthly where as dell had lots of X11 problem and even network driver problem. i tested on more than 15 computers before buying this nx9000 (but that was almost 18 months back). screen had a problem which they exchanged at no cost.

i would suggest IBM, they are pretty solid.

Good stuff, guys.

divdude probably means Intel are for suckers because it costs more than AMD while providing the same level of performance. I don't know if that is true, but some people told me so.

AMD Turion has 64 bits capability, which is nice to have when Vista gets released - I heard its release date got further postponed. But Intel's Duo Core chip sounds interesting too. Oh... which one to choose?

Have the quality of Thinkpads gone down since it has been taken over by Lenovo from IBM?

Jeez... I have an hour or so left now to make my decision.

I would suggest IBM ThinkPad. They are great laptops. They last really long and all of them come with 3-year warranty. I always had IBM ThinkPad and recently I bought a T43. I am very happy that I stuck with ThinkPad. Especially, I like the marker in the center of the keyboard- cannot live without it anymore. Dell laptops are cheaper compare to others but not so dependable. If your budget is around 1700 go for T42 or T43. You can customize it the way you want, just go to Lenovo webpage.

After visiting Circuit City, Office Depot, Best Buy (two), CompUSA and Micro Center, here's what I found.

The latest and greatest chip (heart of computer) out there is Intel Core Duo which has two processors that allow you to multi-task easily.

Only Sony and Acer have models out(at least in the stores I visited) that contain these processors.

Among those, my final two choices are:

Sony VAIO VGN-FE550G
- $1450 after $50 instant rebate and $150 mail-in rebate at CompUSA

Acer Aspire 5672WLMi
- $1399 at Micro Center

After much analysis, I bought Acer Aspire from Buy.com because it was cheaper there ($1,188.99 + delivery).

Specs are:
- Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
- 1GB Memory, extendable to 2GB
- 120GB SATA Hard Drive
- DVD +-RW 8x double layer
- 15.4" screen
- Integrated webcam, microphone and two speakers
- 4 USB 2.0, 1 Firewire, 1 Fast Infrared, 1 S-video ports
- 8 cell battery
- ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 graphics card with 128 DDR memory
- Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi ready

I hope, by posting my experience of buying a notebook, I have helped other folks here at Sajha who are considering the enjoyable challenge of making an investment on a laptop themselves. It has been fun!!!

Cheers.

Hi Admin,

Why is this thread relegated to Immigration Section?