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Help me choose a laptop (edit: added Gateway Solo)

N

NTB

Diamond Member
Been looking at laptops for the last few days, and have narrowed my choices down to three that are available around here. Before anybody says "get a dell", I thought about that, but a) I'd like to get it as quickly as possible and b) If anything goes wrong, I'd like to be able to return it as easily as possible. That said, here are the ones I was looking at:

Compaq Presario 710 US -
1.0GHz Duron
256MB RAM
20GB HDD
8x DVD
Integrated Ethernet
Dial-up modem
Microsoft WinXP Home
--------------------------
$1150

Toshiba Satellite S157 -
Intel Celeron 1.06GHz
256MB RAM
15GB HDD
DVD-ROM (speed not shown)
Modem
WinXP Home
-------------------
$1100


Toshiba Satellite S207 -
Intel Celeron 1.1GHz
256MB RAM
20GB HDD
CD-RW/DVD combo drive (speed not given)
Ethernet
modem
------------------
$1249

Edit: I did this in a rush this afternoon; Now that I've got some time, here are the details: This is not going to be a gaming machine; I knew that from the moment I started looking. My main intention was for this to be a work machine. Toughest thing it's probably going to do is an occasional DVD or Divx movie. So video isn't all that important.

A couple of other points, as well:

1) I do need an ethernet connection, since I have cable internet access at home and a network at school. This knocks the S157 out of the race, unless I can get a seperate ethernet adaptor fairly cheap. I'd have to look into that.

2) The "celeron" on the S157 looks suspiciously like a P3 - 256KB cache & a 133MHz FSB. Good deal if it is, right? Unfortunately, I don't like the smaller HDD and like I said before, no ethernet.

3) Is there such a thing as a "mobile Duron"? or is the processor in the Presario just a faster version of the Duron sitting in my brother's tower?
 
celeron is basically a P3 with less Cache (P3-M's have 512Kb) and no Speed step, if battery life is important, go the P3, otherwise, go the Celeron

You can get reasonably cheap PCMCIA Network cards so that is not a worry unless you need 2 PCMCIA slots.
 
You can get the Toshiba Satellite S157 - for $800-$900 after rebate(s) at places like bestbuy, officedepot and circuitcity. Their is a MFG rebate for $100 and those stores usually have their own $100 rebate at times.
 
I've had Compaq and Toshiba laptops before, and what more can I say than: AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!!! My Compaq's hard drive mysteriously died, my Toshiba had screws falling out of it and then the screen mysteriously broke, and now I have a Sony VAIO, and it's been running well for a year. If you want quality, go Dell, Asus, WinBook, Sony or Hewlett Packard, but stay away from Compaq and Toshiba. They have cheap parts and are underpowered.
 
OK, did a little more digging around. How about a Gateway Solo laptop? I can get a deal on one (I think) through school. Haven't confirmed this yet though, so I don't know what the final price will be, but I did go an outfit one on their website:

Gateway Solo 1450

P3-M 1.2GHz
256MB RAM
30GB HDD
8x DVD
56k modem / Ethernet
14.1" XGA screen
3year Parts & Labor warranty
WinXP Home
----------------
$1368

Any of the three listed in the original post were going to be near or over this if I got the extended warranties.

Nate
 
i've got a gateway solo 9550. it's awesome. it cost about $500 less than a comparable dell or sony.

it's a little heavy, but who cares. i can do everything with it that my desktop does, and then some.
 
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