Recommend me a good notebook get for under $1000?

[adelgary]

I never bought a laptop/notebook before and I know almost nothing about which brands/models are good and what not.

What can I get for $1000? Things I'd like to have: A good quality large-ish screen, I need Composite/S-Video TV-Out (there's no component video out is there?), CDRW/DVD-ROM combo drive, DSL internet capable. A DVD burner would be great, but I understand that'll probably add a lot to the cost so it's by no means necessary... What other features should I be looking for?

If you can provide direct links to where it can be ordered online that would be great.

 

[cheesehead]

Well, if you keep an eye out, you can get a Compaq 3000z with combo drive for about 600$. If you require something a bit lighter, Cyberpower has a budget Centrino laptop for about 1000$, although you'll likely end up adding more RAM to the stock configuration. And, if you feel like making the switch, you can get an iBook G4 for exactly that price, plus 17$ for the TV adapter.
If you really need a DVD burner, look for a FireWire drive enclosure, and put a dual-layer DVD burner in it. You'll save about 150$ off the price of the laptop DVD burner upgrade at most computer stores, and you can burn disks at up to 4x the speed of laptop drives, as well as being able to use the newfangled DL DVD+R's. The main advantage to this approach is that you can attach it to any computer in the house, providing it has FireWire. (USB 2.0 works too, but the transfer rates are a good deal slower.)
EDIT:
I figure that you might apprieciate a synopsis of assorted products and their pros and cons, so I'm including one.

IBM:
Pros: Generally awesome
Cons: Generally very, very expensive.

Apple:
Pros: Small, light, and easy to use.
Cons: Although durable, mac laptops have a history of motherboards that die prematurely. Also, they're pretty expensive.

HP/Compaq
Pros: Cheap, better quality than dell
Cons: Remarkably few.

Dell:
Pros: Convenient
Cons: Low quality, awful tech support, and graphics cards that go up in smoke. These are just a few of the problems with my Dell laptop.

Acer, Sager
Pros: Good quality, good deal for the money
Cons: They're small, so tech support is liable to be imperfect.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Cheesehead has some great information.
Let me get some more info to specifically direct you: do you plan on using this out and about? If you need good battery life, then a 3000z might not work. If you don't care, then a 3000z would be great. Write back and we'll get you squared away.

 

[adelgary]

Cheesehead, thanks for the info... What about Toshiba? In the past I used to always hear their notebooks are among the best.

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Cheesehead has some great information.
Let me get some more info to specifically direct you: do you plan on using this out and about? If you need good battery life, then a 3000z might not work. If you don't care, then a 3000z would be great. Write back and we'll get you squared away.

Well battery life isn't a huge factor for me, but then again I wouldn't want something that eats it up too quickly, so let's say about mid-range battery life. How many hours is average? And how many is considered high?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Avg battery life is about 3 hours, high battery life is 5 hours+.
This should help give you some idea:
I configured an HP ze2000 (15" XGA screen) with a Pentium M 1.6GHz, 40GB 4200RPM, 256MB, Broadcom 54g Wifi, CDRW/DVDROM, and the kicker: a 12-cell battery. I've tested the 12-cell on the dv1000 and it got ~6 hours on BatteryMark. If you're just surfing the web w/wifi on low brightness, you'll break 7 hours EASY. Cost was $999 before $50 Mail-In Rebate.
For reference, a dv1000 (14" widescreen) configured the same with a BrightView screen runs $1124 before $50 MIR. On both of these models, I recommend picking up a used stick of 256MB PC2100 RAM on FS/FT here or a lot of other places, will run you about $30.
The ze2000 should be ~6.5lbs with the 12-cell battery, the dv1000 is 6lbs with the 12-cell.

The HP zv5000v series (HP equivalent to the Compaq R3000z, 15.4" screen) has some good deals right now. There are free upgrades to the BrightView Screen ($25 value) and from 40GB -> 60GB (Like $50 value). I spec'd it the same: 40GB, 256MB, Broadcom wifi, etc. The changes are that I included a 64MB GeForce4 card w/Firewire and an Athlon 64 3000+. With this pretty powerful notebook your prices comes out to $1049 before a $50 MIR. You can save $50 and go with an Athlon XP 3000+. You should get about 3-4 hours with the A64 & 12-cell, 4-5 w/the AXP & 12-cell. However, the A64 should be a good deal more powerful than the AXP. Also note that for the A64 you should use PC2700 RAM, with the AXP PC2100 (PC2100 is cheaper). The non-integrated graphics card will help speed up performance also, Intel Extreme Graphics saturates the system bus and hurts 2D performance compared to integrated Craptacular graphics.

The Centrino package will be pretty powerful and run a LOT cooler than anything else on the market. But the ze2000 is a pretty basic notebook and I personally HATE 15" XGA screens, not enough desktop real estate. If you won't be taking it around a lot and you don't mind a 7-8lbs notebook, the zv5000z is a good choice for the performance you'll get.

There are a lot of other options for you, I'm just personally more familiar with HP models off hand. Do you have a screen size preference?
Hope this helps!

 

[fbrdphreak]

BTW, a review on the ze2000 was just posted here
And you can read my review of the dv1000 here

 

[Uppsala9496]

What about the Dell Inspirion 6000?
Pentium M 730 - 1.6/533 fsb
15.4 WSXGA+
512MB DDR2 (2 dimms)
integrated graphics
40GB HD
24Xcd burner/DVD combo drive
802.11 b/g

total: $912 pre-tax after $500 off and free 2nd day shipping.
Seems like a pretty solid notebook for under $1,000.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: Uppsala9496
What about the Dell Inspirion 6000?
Pentium M 730 - 1.6/533 fsb
15.4 WSXGA+
512MB DDR2 (2 dimms)
integrated graphics
40GB HD
24Xcd burner/DVD combo drive
802.11 b/g

total: $912 pre-tax after $500 off and free 2nd day shipping.
Seems like a pretty solid notebook for under $1,000.

:thumbsup:

 

[crabbyman]

Stay away from Toshiba... My experience has been horrific with them. My gf has a Toshiba laptop. She got it about a year and a half ago. The warranty was up in a year. Her hard drive flopped at one year and ONE day. Toshiba wanted nothing to do with it. Would not provide support or anything. Ended up taking it to a third party fixer and getting a new hard drive. Nothing was salvagable from the hard drive. Nice support there Toshiba! I was considering one of their laptops until this happened.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: crabbyman
Stay away from Toshiba... My experience has been horrific with them. My gf has a Toshiba laptop. She got it about a year and a half ago. The warranty was up in a year. Her hard drive flopped at one year and ONE day. Toshiba wanted nothing to do with it. Would not provide support or anything. Ended up taking it to a third party fixer and getting a new hard drive. Nothing was salvagable from the hard drive. Nice support there Toshiba! I was considering one of their laptops until this happened.

This is true with almost any manufacturer. You get a 1 year limited warranty and that it is. Not trying to be ugly, but its not Toshiba's fault. They make decent laptops at a decent price, but I wouldn't buy any laptop I wanted to keep without a decent warranty.

 

[RedWolf]

I've had two Toshiba laptops and they were great. I got one at Best Buy for $500 after rebate a few years ago (S103 IIRC). I sold it to a friend of mine and he loves it. He hasn't had any problem with it at all. Toshibas are solidly built and are a pretty good value, too. Any manufacturer can have problems with a few items. A hard drive failure is not uncommon. Take a look at notebookforums and read up on Dell's track record. Dell used to have some of the best build laptops and their latest line had some major dissappointments.

 

[crabbyman]

I was just saying how much of a cold shoulder we were given by Toshiba. Not even a sorry...or we'll replace it at cost or anything.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: crabbyman
I was just saying how much of a cold shoulder we were given by Toshiba. Not even a sorry...or we'll replace it at cost or anything.

I understand what you're saying, but you should expect that from almost any company. The only people who I would be surprised at doing that would be like IBM. I hear Winbook has good support also.
But most major corporations like Toshiba, HP, Dell, etc have a specific warranty time period and have to enforce it; for their benefit and the customers. Consider owning a laptop without anything beyond the basic warranty a "cold shoulder"

 

[RichieZ]

the best laptop under 1000 IMHO is the ibook, but you can get a IBM thinkpad t42 for 1049 if you have the EPP discount, the warrnaty is only 1 year though

but i am selling my ibook b/c i got a powerbook