which B&M store to buy a laptop?

[andylawcc]

my friend want to get one and hesitent to get it online.. so which store has good one?
Office Max, Office Depot, Compusa, Fry's, Staples, Bestbuy?
any place else?

 

[nnnyyy]

Circuit city? Just to let you know though, Dell has nice prices and no tax so that saves a bit of money.

 

[andylawcc]

no tax on Dell's?????? what?
and that's only availble in Circuitcity?
what about Gateway's "I will beat your price" gurantee thing?

 

[XMan]

Sam's Club, possibly? They always seem to have great deals on laptops when I'm there.

 

[andylawcc]

do I need membership for Sam's Club? and where are they in South Cali?

 

[Oyeve]

I think he meant no tax if you buy it online.

 

[azztec]

CompUSA sucks for laptops along with many other things.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Best Buy seems to be listing an HP **Athlon4** laptop in this weekend's flyer.

-SUO

 

[RossMAN]

Your friend will get ripped off by going to a B&M to buy a laptop. They'll either get one of two kinds:

1) Crappy Compaq, Horrible HP, slow, slow, slow, overpriced.
2) Nice Sony, Toshiba or IBM, very overpriced.

Or they can do the smart thing and get the best of both worlds, a good laptop at a good price.

I would recommend the Dell Inspiron 4000 for $1,437.00

Pentium®III processor, 700MHz 14.1" XGA TFT Display
Memory: 128MB,SDRAM,2DIMMs
Primary Hard Drive: 10GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Floppy Drive: Modular Floppy Drive
Operating System Software: Microsoft® Windows® Millennium
Modem: Internal 56K Capable V.90 + 10/100 Mini-PCI Combo
Modular CD/DVD Drives: 8X Max Variable DVD-ROM Drive
Inspiron 4000 Setup Video: Dell Inspiron 4000 Setup Video
Bundled Software: New Microsoft TM Works Suite 2001 with Money 2001 Standard
Anti-virus: Norton Antivirus® 2001
Primary Battery: 53 WHr Lithium-Ion Battery with ExpressCharge®
Service and Support Options: 1 Yr Ltd. Warranty-1 Yr Mail-in Service + 1 Yr Phone Support
Internet Access Service at no additional charge: 6 Month DellNet by MSN® Internet Access
Digital Imaging Software: Image Expert® 2000, Dell Edition ($0)

 

[spamboy]

We got a great deal on a new Toshiba at a CompUSA B&M. Wasn't expecting to find something good there, but they surprised me. PIII700, DVD, 10 GB 10/100, great screen, only like $1400 or something.

 

[kingz]

Dell seems to be getting some really good OEM part deals. Their laptops are the cheapest around. Go get a Dell Inspiron 8000. I recommend this config:
$2,266 (Plus $150 Rebate)
Intel® Pentium®III Processor, 1GHz, 15.0" UltraXGA TFT Display
128MB,SDRAM,2DIMMs
32MB DDR 4X AGP NVIDIA GeForce2 Go?Vid
10GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Modular Floppy Drive
Microsoft? Windows? Millennium
Internal 56K Capable V.90 + 10/100 Mini-PCI Combo
8X Max Variable DVD-ROM Drive
Microsoft® Works Suite 2001 plus Money 2001
Norton Antivirus® 2001
3 Yr Ltd. Warranty-3 Yr Mail-in Service + Lifetime Phone Support
6 Month DellNet by MSN® Internet Access
Image Expert® 2000, Dell Edition

Remember, it is always cheaper to buy parts outside. So sell the 2 64MB SODIMMs and that 10GB HD, and buy a 128MB stick ($46.74) and a 256MB stick ($123.24)from Crucial and get a IBM Travelstar 32GH HD 32GB 5400RPM from goldsource.com. It wouldve cost you $900 to just UPGRADE the RAM and HD. You can always install W2K & Office XP from your company/friend, grab an external CDRW (which by the way, is much better than a module)...etc...

Your final price would be:
2266
-150 Rebate
-40 Selling 2x64MB SODIMMs
-70 Selling 10GB HD
+169.98 Crucial 384MB RAM
+329 IBM Travelstar 32GH
-----
~$2500

 

[Gunbuster]

Compusa usualy has the best selection

Bestbuy is better priced but has less high end models


RossMAN, IBM has not sold in the retail B&M channel for around 2 years

 

[astroview]

Sorry, but your friend is wrong if he doesn't buy a Dell or IBM. All else is subpar.


I used to see IBMs in some stores I think, but nowadays you need to buy them online mainly. Dell is better though.

I work with all kinds of laptops at my tech support job and most others suck. From Dell and IBM you get great performers that last long and have nice RMA policies.

Compaq's higher end stuff is ok, its better than before. But both Compaq and Gateway are bulky and poor performers (slow to start b/c of junky OEM software). At least format the thing if he buys from Best Buy.