Recommend me a laptop for under $1k?

[Fenixgoon]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine is looking for laptops. I'm directing her towards the Turion X2 / CoreDuo / Core2 Duo, but I don't know much about the laptop market. If anyone has some preferred picks, I'd love to see them. Below are a few that look nice on newegg, though I don't know how they rate in the grand scheme of things:

Acer Inspire w/ Turion X2 - $950 + s/h

Acer Travelmate w/ Turion X2

Acer Travelmate w/ CoreDuo

Priorities: decent combination of battery life and speed.

Thanks!

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
Hi guys,

A friend of mine is looking for laptops. I'm directing her towards the Turion X2 / CoreDuo / Core2 Duo, but I don't know much about the laptop market. If anyone has some preferred picks, I'd love to see them. Below are a few that look nice on newegg, though I don't know how they rate in the grand scheme of things:

Acer Inspire w/ Turion X2 - $950 + s/h

Acer Travelmate w/ Turion X2

Acer Travelmate w/ CoreDuo

Priorities: decent combination of battery life and speed.

Thanks!

i'm not sure why you're only looking at acer. if she's stuck on these though, here's whati think:

the first one has the slowest possible parts. 1.6GHz turion (slowest dual core), DDR2-533 ram, and a 4200rpm hard drive. only the hard drive will really slow down the computer but at that price, you can easily get better parts

your 2nd and 3rd links are both the same thing, fyi
it's better than the 1st one but you can get something better at that price. also, none of the laptops you've listed are core2duo.

if your friend is cool with macbooks (it's 13.3"), with student discount it'll be about the same time as the acers, and faster.

is your friend looking for a 15.4" only? cause you can go to HP and get a decent HP DV2000t or 6000t for under $1000. the 2000t is 14.1" and 15.4" for the dv6000t.

Lenovo's Thinkpad R60 is pretty good, too. it's better built than the acer and has great support. the parts for a $1000 one is good too.

also, look into the dell latitude d620. you can get the same stuff as the acers you've listed plus 3 years business class warranty (standard on the d620) for the same price

 

[SickBeast]

If I wanted a laptop I would want a mac or nothing else.

 

[moosey]

look here as well and customize to your prefered specs
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...tertainment&series_name=dv6000t_series
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...ay+computing&series_name=V6000T_series

Check these also
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834146194
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220110
(a little over budget)

 

[Fallen Kell]

Stay away from Acer. They hid a remote exploit in their laptops to allow them to run arbitrary code from their website (or anyone else's for that matter). http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/08/0515200

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: alimoalem


i'm not sure why you're only looking at acer. if she's stuck on these though, here's whati think:

the first one has the slowest possible parts. 1.6GHz turion (slowest dual core), DDR2-533 ram, and a 4200rpm hard drive. only the hard drive will really slow down the computer but at that price, you can easily get better parts

your 2nd and 3rd links are both the same thing, fyi
it's better than the 1st one but you can get something better at that price. also, none of the laptops you've listed are core2duo.

if your friend is cool with macbooks (it's 13.3"), with student discount it'll be about the same time as the acers, and faster.

is your friend looking for a 15.4" only? cause you can go to HP and get a decent HP DV2000t or 6000t for under $1000. the 2000t is 14.1" and 15.4" for the dv6000t.

Lenovo's Thinkpad R60 is pretty good, too. it's better built than the acer and has great support. the parts for a $1000 one is good too.

also, look into the dell latitude d620. you can get the same stuff as the acers you've listed plus 3 years business class warranty (standard on the d620) for the same price

wasn't bent on acer.. just saw those laptops and they looked like they had decent specs.. as i said, i dont know much about the laptop market

edit: Kell, let's just assume I recommend the Acer laptop.. would there be any reason (void of warranty or XP license, etc.) why I couldn't do a reformat? just out of sheer curiosity.

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: alimoalem


i'm not sure why you're only looking at acer. if she's stuck on these though, here's whati think:

the first one has the slowest possible parts. 1.6GHz turion (slowest dual core), DDR2-533 ram, and a 4200rpm hard drive. only the hard drive will really slow down the computer but at that price, you can easily get better parts

your 2nd and 3rd links are both the same thing, fyi
it's better than the 1st one but you can get something better at that price. also, none of the laptops you've listed are core2duo.

if your friend is cool with macbooks (it's 13.3"), with student discount it'll be about the same time as the acers, and faster.

is your friend looking for a 15.4" only? cause you can go to HP and get a decent HP DV2000t or 6000t for under $1000. the 2000t is 14.1" and 15.4" for the dv6000t.

Lenovo's Thinkpad R60 is pretty good, too. it's better built than the acer and has great support. the parts for a $1000 one is good too.

also, look into the dell latitude d620. you can get the same stuff as the acers you've listed plus 3 years business class warranty (standard on the d620) for the same price

wasn't bent on acer.. just saw those laptops and they looked like they had decent specs.. as i said, i dont know much about the laptop market

edit: Kell, let's just assume I recommend the Acer laptop.. would there be any reason (void of warranty or XP license, etc.) why I couldn't do a reformat? just out of sheer curiosity.

no a reformat would be fine

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Might want to check here too
http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=51&flcache=9987693&entercat=y

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Might want to check here too
http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=51&flcache=9987693&entercat=y

but i'm asking about hardware.... a lot of hardware... in a case.... a small case... like a notebook....damn!

 

[moosey]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
Hi guys,

A friend of mine is looking for laptops. I'm directing her towards the Turion X2 / CoreDuo / Core2 Duo, but I don't know much about the laptop market. If anyone has some preferred picks, I'd love to see them. Below are a few that look nice on newegg, though I don't know how they rate in the grand scheme of things:

Acer Inspire w/ Turion X2 - $950 + s/h

Acer Travelmate w/ Turion X2

Acer Travelmate w/ CoreDuo

Priorities: decent combination of battery life and speed.

Thanks!

the first one kinda sucks (especially considering the price) and the 2nd one (which is both the 2nd and 3rd links) is better than that. Both are overpriced for what you can get looking at other things mentioned in this thread

 

[Judechap]

HD RPM 4200rpm ????

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: Judechap
HD RPM 4200rpm ????

yes i know, 4200rpm.. but that would help increase batter life, yes? also, the aspire has 2gigs of ram.

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: Judechap
HD RPM 4200rpm ????

yes i know, 4200rpm.. but that would help increase batter life, yes? also, the aspire has 2gigs of ram.

VERY little, if any (maybe 2 minutes). but think of this...the additional time u need to spend opening things/using hard drive is going to make u probably use more battery to do the same thing

 

[Tuktuk]

I bought a Compaq V3000 and love it.. mine was $550 after rebate, but I don't have dual core or much memory. I'd check out what HP has to offer.