Which notebook to buy?

[Grego]

Im thinking of buying a notebook since I think it would be an asset in my studies. Since I do not know very much about this area I hope someone has an informed opinion

The criteria is as follows:
No gaming - this is strictly wordprocessing.
It has to have a tft display
A minimum of 64 mb of ram
And of course a few gb of hdd for all those nifty programs.
Since Im a student I do not have a fortune to spend

At the moment I would prefer an IBM, but I was wondering, is ASUS any good? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Jesper

[Gurm]

You're thinking about it wrong.

You want brand-name. The bigger the better.

Why? Support.

ASUS is a fine laptop, no question. Also it uses industry standard parts so if you want to put a new OS on there (Win2k, Linux) the drivers will be less of an issue.

HOWEVER, if your laptop breaks, IBM will have you a new one in a couple of days, airlifted from the factory to you. Swap the hard drives, and bingo! new laptop.

ASUS RMA's take a bit longer.

I can personally highly recommend new Compaqs (they've gotten better, honest) and NEC laptops.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Jammrock]

I hate to say this, but stay away from Toshiba for the time being. My company uses Toshiba laptops exclusively and they are very troublesome. Our biggest issue right now is hard drive failure. And I mean data not recoverable by conventional methods dead. Just got done rebuilding a laptop that's hard disk died after 3 weeks.

The best laptop's I've seen/used are Dell. They have a good RMA system and support is great. My friend has had one for about a year and it's worked flawlessly. A good Dell fitting your description will run about $1200 USD. You may be able to get a refurbished cheaper, and I think they have student discounts, but I'm not sure.

Jammrock

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Athlon 650
256 MB PC133 CAS3 from Crucial
40 GB storage from WD
Matrox G400 (it's not dead yet!)
SB Live! the original full retail, still going strong
Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400, the PC speakers that goes BOOM!
Hope Matrox releases the G800 before rebuild time, becuase the end is near!

[SteveC]

I agree with Dells - I like their laptops. If style is your number 1 concern, it's got to be a sony!

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[spoogenet]

Dell laptops are okay. Their Inspiron line tends to be a little cheaper, since it is more geared for the home market, while the Latitude line is geared toward the business market. I would look into the 8000 or 3800 lines of Inspirons. Can't assure you that it'll always work flawlessly, but then again, I can't assure anything will.

For IBM, I only have experience with their ~2 year ago models, which were rather nice. Compaq, same time frame, but rather crappy back then (someone said they're better now).

b

[Grego]

Thanks for the advice, I have some research to do now, but at least now I know what to look for!

Jesper

[Gurm]

Your biggest concern from a compatibility standpoint is who makes the components. Is the machine touted as DVD capable, but the video chipset is made by Trident or NeoMagic? Watch out then!

Just exercise some common sense.

And as for other brands I like or don't:

Sony - nice and compact and hi-tech, but they get pricey when you start getting reasonable configurations.

Dell - a brick of a notebook. Boring technology, but very reliable.

Toshiba - used to be great. Now, suck.

Winbook - JUST SAY NO.

Gurm

[thecurse]

at the place I work now they used to buy micron laptops.. what pieces of junk.

I switched and buy only from dell. the last batch of laptops I bought where inspiron 4000 piii 850, 512megs memory, 10gig hd, built in modem and nic, and docking station (with built in nic) for a little less than $4500 each. only had 1 problem in the 3 years at my current job with dell computers, a video card flaked out. since it was under the 3 years next business day have to fix it they gave me the option of them actually sending a person or just fed ex next day am delivery of a new video card.

plus buying from dell you know they will still be around for a long time to come. hp is hurting and micron is hurting worse.

kinda off subject but did anyone else see what Retired General Powell is doing? He called up Michael Dell (the head of yeap you guessed it Dell) to have him send in some people to see how the state department can make better use of computers and technology.

[xortam]

... but Toshiba sold chips to the communists!!!

Dell is the industry standard. Most companies in the valley use Dell notebooks.

[Paulr]

Go Toshiba, good build quality, very reliable and they can take the odd trip down the stairs.
Steer clear of Sony, very flimsy and so far I'm on a "Worked on 2 Sony's, both had problems" will refuse to authorise the purchase of any more Sony's.

[This message has been edited by Paulr (edited 27 January 2001).]

[Grego]

I'm currently considering the Dell inspiron 8000 with a p3-700 + 256mb and a 14.1" screen running win2000. It will cost app. 20500 dkr which equals about 2440 USD.

Any comments appreciated!

[Paulr]

Dell's are nice.
No doubt about that.
I rate Dell highly as a company (buy all my servers from them)
Great support & backup and everything inside will be very standard.

[spoogenet]

As I had mentioned before, I would also rate the Dells highly. They put together a good product and do exhaustive testing for compatability. Can't guarantee that you'll be happy with it, but I think you will be.

Let us know what you get and how you like it.

b

[Grego]

I will! Thats the least I can do when my fellow murcers have replied as I asked

[ALBPM]

I just got a Notebook at work last week.

IBM T-20, P3-700, 256MB, 12GB hard drive, DVD-ROM, 3.5 Floppy, WN 2K.

I have a nice docking station at my desk with a 19" NEC Trinitron monitor and a keyboard /mouse.

Seems like an expensive way to go for work but I do like the flexibilty. Most of our conference rooms have Projectors which makes giving presentations easy.

I do hate the little rubber mouse thing on the IBM but that's the only thing so far.

If I were to buy a Notebook for myself I'd go with Dell because of their customer support. It can't be beat.

Paul

[This message has been edited by ALBPM (edited 04 March 2001).]