Buying a Laptop

[BeauJangles]

I was looking at a laptop under $2000. I mostly would use it to program, email, and light gaming. I had thought about Dell, but they seem a little expensive. Anyone have thoughts about Toshiba, IBM or any other company?


Also does anyone know if current lappies support USB2.0 or firewire? If they don't any ideas when?


Thanks much!

 

[Adul]

toshiba makes nice laptops

 

[asabour]

get the Compaq that anand just reviewed. Great for gaming, and you get a killer system for under $2000. You can buy FireWire PC cards to hook up to your laptop i know....

 

[MWink]

I would not even consider IBM. They are by FAR the most expensive (though they are probably the best). I'm not sure I like Toshiba anymore. I just got to work with a Satellite 5000 series and I am not at all impressed. They cut some major corners and it shows. They used a desktop CPU and a very small Li-Ion battery. The battery lasted a whoping 1 hour.

I would recommend you look at Dell or Gateway. I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 after doing a good bit of research and pricing. It turned out that in the end Dell the Dell had the most bang for the buck. The one I got was only $2007 (before some minor upgrades 😉 ) and it could easily outperform a good number of desktops. See sig for specs.

 

[bacillus]

don't forget to look at a refurbished dell on their website for value!

 

[Derango]

Originally posted by: bacillus
don't forget to look at a refurbished dell on their website for value!

Also, before you notice the price of the refurbs on dells site, dell basicly overhauls the entire laptop. They're like brand new laptops, and dell stands behind them fully.

 

[Stripe]

My refurbished Dell 8100 is six months old and has firewire built in. The lappy has been flawless.

 

[Stripe]

Need to update my sig. The gforce2go driver caused an occasional bluescreen until a patch was issued. Got it in a Windows Update. Never a problem since.

 

[heartsurgeon]

why get a laptop?

you don't seem to have a compelling need for portability,
for the money - you will get less performance from a laptop
a reduced ability to add on or upgrade unless you have a real (not "perceived") need for a portable machine, you will end up using it like a desktop computer.
so why not just get a desktop! for the price of a average laptop, you can get a kick@ss desktop machine with room to grow.