Wife is shopping for a new laptop...

So I was going to post this in the off-topic forum, but I'd like the advice of the tech-savvy.

A few weeks ago, my wife's cheap dell laptop croaked. I can not get any OS to install on it. I tried the restore disk with Vista, Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I then replaced the RAM and HD. Always got the same issues. I'm guessing it's a motherboard issue so we started looking for a new one.

Here's what she had...
Dell Latitude with an Intel processor (I don't remember which)
16" display
DVD
150 Gig HD
2 Gig RAM

You know, something basic. This cost me like five bills. She only used it for Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo and to sync her Zune and iPhone.

So we go shopping last week for a new laptop. Of course I start looking at the things I want and leave her to find herself a replacement. I catch back up with her after an hour and asked her which ones she liked. Her first choice was an Alienware for around $2400. I laughed and said I might get that for myself and asked her what was next on her list.

Of course, it was the Alienware next to the previous one for only $1800. Instead of calling her crazy, I explained why she didn't need to spend that much for an Alienware. I had one because I can actually put a computer to work for me.

She breaks it down for me, she wants...

17.3+" Display (prefer 18"+)
Blu-Ray
backlit keyboard

She cares nothing about other features. She was arguing with the guy at the store because they couldn't get her a "gaming laptop" with out the gaming video card.

I can't talk her out of the dang Blu-Ray. I have found decent laptops that meet her and mine (must be Intel i7) requirements but without the Blu-Ray.

I'm currently looking at these laptops....

Toshiba Qosmio - I use to love Toshiba, then moved to Alienware and then to Dell. I don't know how Toshibas are anymore
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0347129

Asus G73JW - I can get this one at Best Buy with a backlit keyboard but without Blu-Ray for just under 1k.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0347996

I'm thinking I'll just get her this one though...
Asus - Refurb
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+F...&skuId=1675468

Any advice is welcomed. The only Asus I own is a netbook which the cruddy GMA video just recently went out on so I don't have the best first impression. But I do understand how cruddy the Intel GMA video is.

Also, I will not buy Sony or a Mac.

Macbook Air.. all the way.. LOL..

If you do not want a Mac, (which is a great choice, but apples and oranges to a pc) then an Asus is not a bad option. I get less technical support calls for them at my job.

I'd like the Air for my iPhone app development! I'm not going to spend that kinda cheddar for my wife to browse facebook though ;)

Thanks for the info on the Asus, Swingline.

I was just talking to a co-worker and he suggested Gateway to me. I've always put them on a low tier, what are your thoughts?

imo go mac i have one ill never go back to PC but you can get a mac for as cheap as pc's now but if i had to choose from the list id say go Asus G73JW but just my opinion

Go with the Toshiba it's what I have always had and I have never had any issues. I recently replaced my 7 year old one with a new i3 and couldn't be happier it has everything I need and is reasonably priced.

I'd go with the Asus, they are an amazing company and are making some really nice laptops. My next laptop will probably be an Asus. Plus, that is one bad mamma-jamma!! No worries on overheating that i7 with the size of the vents on the back of that!!!

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Originally Posted by dembonez

imo go mac i have one ill never go back to PC but you can get a mac for as cheap as pc's now but if i had to choose from the list id say go Asus G73JW but just my opinion

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As stated previously, we're not going to go with a Mac. She has never used one and she can barely even figure out how to use FaceBook. I couldn't expect her to grasp a new OS all on her own. Thanks for the suggestion though. I'm currently running Snow Leopard on a VM for iPhone development and it's pretty slick. But there's nothing a Mac can do that I can't do on my windows machines :D

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Originally Posted by ed4281

Go with the Toshiba it's what I have always had and I have never had any issues. I recently replaced my 7 year old one with a new i3 and couldn't be happier it has everything I need and is reasonably priced.

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+1 for Toshiba.

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Originally Posted by jbean7916

I'd go with the Asus, they are an amazing company and are making some really nice laptops. My next laptop will probably be an Asus. Plus, that is one bad mamma-jamma!! No worries on overheating that i7 with the size of the vents on the back of that!!!

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Asus has made many strides in the last 10 years. I use to always use their hardware in my custom built rigs. They seemed to have perfected the netbook, I wish they would make more PMPs though. I have yet to hear anything bad about their current laptop models.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

you might look at some of the netbooks. They are smaller less expensive and are great for the average web surfer and Facebook player.

If compromises are possible I've seen a Toshiba at BB that's a 17" with 4gb Ram and 500gb storage for $600. No Blu Ray and no backlit keyboard.
They also have a Dell with a 17" and 640gb storage 6gb memory and i5 processor and Blu ray along with 4G Wimax capabilities for $880 which is pretty good considering specs.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

you might look at some of the netbooks. They are smaller less expensive and are great for the average web surfer and Facebook player.

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She wants something with a very big screen. A netbook would be perfect for what she wants to do, in fact I was trying to talk her into an iPad. She wants an iPad for my netbook replacement, but I won't get one for myself until the new one comes out in April.

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Originally Posted by waltah!

If compromises are possible I've seen a Toshiba at BB that's a 17" with 4gb Ram and 500gb storage for $600. No Blu Ray and no backlit keyboard.
They also have a Dell with a 17" and 640gb storage 6gb memory and i5 processor and Blu ray along with 4G Wimax capabilities for $880 which is pretty good considering specs.

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I'm sure we'll have another look at BB. Pretty sure we saw that Toshiba. I wish she didn't have these silly requirements. After talking with her yesterday, she's pretty much made up her mind on the Toshiba and Asus models linked above. Any advice on Gateway that you can give me?

Thankfully, we're waiting until after the holidays to make this purchase so we have a little time. Hopefully we'll be able to catch a sale too.

As for Gateway, my gf uses a Gateway laptop and has had zero issues with it in everyday use. I will say that the battery was pretty useless after about 6 months, but it doesn't travel so it's not a big deal. By useless I mean it lasts about 25 min. Performance wise other than the battery it's been solid with no hardware or software issues.
The Toshiba you listed is sweet, but after playing with one it weighs as much as a Honda. lol
The speakers are pretty awesome on those for video playback and stuff so if she wants one that large it's a solid choice.

I know Toshiba laptops are in the top 3 of quality laptops that hardly have any issues. The Gateway we had, kept killing the motherboard plug to charge after the 2nd time we said screw it and switched to the Toshiba 17in full keyboard, haven't had an issue out of it yet.

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Originally Posted by onna_shinigami

I know Toshiba laptops are in the top 3 of quality laptops that hardly have any issues. The Gateway we had, kept killing the motherboard plug to charge after the 2nd time we said screw it and switched to the Toshiba 17in full keyboard, haven't had an issue out of it yet.

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Make sure with Toshiba you do not get one of the models with wireless card issues. I get lots of calls of people having problems. Don't get me wrong, my laptop is a Toshiba. Gateway is just junk.

IMO, Toshiba laptops overheat and shutoff.. I have had one in the past and I know a lot of people who have them, and they simply overheat and turn off. These were lower end models.. But I think the newer higher priced models are the absolute ugliest computers I have ever seen. Big shiny plastic everywhere.. Your wife may want a blu-ray player, if that's the case, I would go with Sony Vaio. They are priced a little higher, but I previously had one with a blu-ray player(which ended up being used twice) and I really liked the Vaio to be honest. I now have a macbook pro, but I never had a problem with the Vaio I had. I wouldn't say gateway is a lower end model, it's just not popular. I know a few years ago I knew some people that had one, that's not the case now though.. but between all of the big names out there now, I don't know how they are keeping their heads above water! I have had most of the big brands of computers.. HP, Dell, Vaio, Toshiba, Apple.. I would seriously consider a Vaio. Haven't heard much about the Asus computer, so I'm just basing it on what I have had and what I personally thought was the best.
Thanks

A Vaio isn't an option. I had a Vaio before my Alienware and the Vaio just sucked. This was right before Vista came out and they gave me a free upgrade. When I got my upgrade disk and upgraded, some drivers were not supported yet. I also had the DVD drive go out. I sent it in under warranty, they ended up giving me a new drive and mobo. Two months later the drive went out again and sent it in and they mysteriously replaced my HD. I raised hell about that because there was nothing wrong with the HD and I had to reinstall all my crap again. The wost of it was my VMs which I don't back up. Anyway, I got it back and again the drive went out after it was out of warranty. I sold that to a college student for a couple bills and got the Alienware.

The Alienware was awesome, except for the weight. I ended up selling that and getting a Toshiba. I sold the Toshiba last year and have been doing all my development on a Dell Precision with the Intel Zeon in it. The more and more I am looking into the i7 laptops, the more I want to get one for myself. It would be nice to work where ever I want again. Maybe I'll do that this afternoon. Lol, wife will love that.

As far as the Bluray, tell her you'll buy a seperate blu ray player for the house and buy yourself a PS3 lol.

We already have a blu-ray player in our bedroom as well as a PS3 in the living room. That's why she wants the blu-ray in her laptop, because she (we) have invested so much into the movies, unfortunately.

Please remember, if you have not used win7 before, when you do get a new pc, several things are not compatible with win7. Make sure that your printer is not incompatible, not all things can have drivers d/l. Oh, and no win7 pc comes with a full version of Microsoft office, so make sure you plan to buy it if you want more than a trial version.

I have been using Win 7 before it even came out. I had driver issues with my ATI cards and couldn't run some of my old favorite games, but never had a problem with software that wasn't really old. I find the compatibility modes to be very nice in Win 7. Still can't play Total Annihilation though on my netbook but that's because of the Intel GMA video driver.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Macbook Air.. all the way.. LOL..

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This would be my suggestion. Once I bought my Mac I never looked back. As long as I can afford to buy Mac's you won't see me own a PC.

I'm just going to be ornery and point out that Macs are PCs, too.

Sure, but they deserve their own name when whey have the same hardware and charge 3x the amount ;)

I ended up getting myself a Dell today. I should have it tomorrow.

My wife still has her eyes set on the Toshiba, maybe my new dell can change her mind. Though I didn't get a big screen or backlit keyboard :rolleyes: It is an i7 with lots of ram though and Win 64 and I have three VMs ready to run on it once I get it up. I'm ready to see how the i7 performs. Having the Intel Zeon at work and a Quad core at home, I'm not expecting much, we'll see though.

Just personal opinions here so take it for what it's worth :):D

No matter what brand of computer you ask about someone will know someone, or be that someone, who has had MAJOR issues with it. I personally have a VAIO and while I won't say I haven't had any issues at all with it, I will say that Sony has always taken care of me. The have always sent techs out to my house to replace anything that might need replacing (1 fan and 1 power plug-in deal).

My boyfriend has an HP. I hate the damn thing. It gets WAY too hot, like so hot you can't actually use it in your lap. However, i believe that to be the processor and not the brand. IMO AMD processors (at least ones a couple years old) tend to run MUCH warmer than an Intel processor (not counting the i7, that is a heat producing son of a buck!!!)

My mom has a Toshiba and that is the slowest computer I've ever been on, even with Win 7. Now, does that have a lot to do with the specs, sure, but it's also had to have the screen replaced twice in 4 years because the connections when bad. Once was within warranty and took almost 2 months to get repaired, the second time was out of warranty and she found someone to do it in a matter of days (from when she called it in to when she got it back).

Gateway has made huge strides lately, I'm more and more impressed with the turn they've taken since Acer took them over in 2007. You can actually get a fairly nice computer for less money if you overlook some bells and whistles. Though one thing I'm not a fan of is the "table-top" style keys gateway uses, more than once I've seen people get something caught under the corner of one and pop that sucker right off.

Anyway, now that I've given you way more opinion than you probably wanted... hope you find one that fits for YOU (or your wife more specifically ;) )

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Originally Posted by jbean7916

No matter what brand of computer you ask about someone will know someone, or be that someone, who has had MAJOR issues with it. I personally have a VAIO and while I won't say I haven't had any issues at all with it, I will say that Sony has always taken care of me. The have always sent techs out to my house to replace anything that might need replacing (1 fan and 1 power plug-in deal).

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True, but in this case it was me. Also, a good laptop shouldn't ever need someone to come out and service it.....

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Originally Posted by jbean7916

My boyfriend has an HP. I hate the damn thing. It gets WAY too hot, like so hot you can't actually use it in your lap. However, i believe that to be the processor and not the brand. IMO AMD processors (at least ones a couple years old) tend to run MUCH warmer than an Intel processor (not counting the i7, that is a heat producing son of a buck!!!)

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HP has never been a name for quality, it's mid-tier.

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Originally Posted by jbean7916

My mom has a Toshiba and that is the slowest computer I've ever been on, even with Win 7. Now, does that have a lot to do with the specs, sure, but it's also had to have the screen replaced twice in 4 years because the connections when bad. Once was within warranty and took almost 2 months to get repaired, the second time was out of warranty and she found someone to do it in a matter of days (from when she called it in to when she got it back).

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Lemons do happen. My beef about Sony is that they replaced parts that didn't need to be replaced and replaced parts that just ended up breaking again. Made me feel like I was dealing with an auto shop. You know, go in for an oil change and end up having to rotate your tires, flush transmission fluid and replace all the belts ;)

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Originally Posted by jbean7916

Gateway has made huge strides lately, I'm more and more impressed with the turn they've taken since Acer took them over in 2007. You can actually get a fairly nice computer for less money if you overlook some bells and whistles. Though one thing I'm not a fan of is the "table-top" style keys gateway uses, more than once I've seen people get something caught under the corner of one and pop that sucker right off.

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My only issue with Gateway is that it was the absolute WORST computer you could get when they came out and for years after. My netbook display went out, it was Acer. I'd give them another shot though because I know it's not their fault. My next one will not have the Intel GMA in it.

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Originally Posted by jbean7916

Anyway, now that I've given you way more opinion than you probably wanted... hope you find one that fits for YOU (or your wife more specifically ;) )

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Thanks for all the input. I should have just made this a tread about if I should pay $400 more for blu-ray or not. Though I was really hoping that Walt would have given me a link to some magical laptop configuration that was exactly what she wanted but didn't make me cringe because of the price since she'll essentially be using it for browsing FaceBook. :D

I went kind of cheap on the laptop I bought for myself yesterday. I guess I won't worry about the cost of hers anymore :rolleyes:

Buy her a nice laptop and instead of paying for the extra for the blu ray drive, buy her an external blu-ray drive. This won't limit your options to what you can get. Judging by the screensize she wants, it won't be very portable and it's next to impossible to find cases for an 18 inch laptop.. My vaio I had was an 18 inch laptop and Sony sold one, but had to be ordered online.

We talked about getting an external drive....I'm against it only because I really don't think she needs blu-ray.

Now, we didn't even think about cases. I was planning on giving her my Alienware case which holds two 17" laptops in it. I was thinking that you could squeeze one 18" into it. I know the 17" I had, there was a little room to spare. But now I'll be using that bag for my new laptop. Looking at the Alienware site, I don't even see anything that is made for an 18" laptop :confused:

Not sure what people's opinions are on ASUS, but this is a pretty decent setup I think.
ASUS K72Jr-X5 17.3" Notebook, Intel Core i5-450M (2.4GHz to 2.66GHz with Turbo Boost), 4GB DDR3 Memory, 320GB (7200rpm) HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145 1GB, 802.11b/g/n, DVD Super Multi-Drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
On Buy.com right now. No BD, but everything else looks good.

Thank you, Walt!

I'll try and get her to go for a model without blu-ray again.

In other news, got my new Dell today. Here's some pics of my work setup now. The new laptop is on the far left.

http://tech-tiles.com/wp-content/gal...r/img_0376.jpg

Specs...
http://tech-tiles.com/wp-content/gal...her/laptop.png

Here's the other two machines I have at work. The little box in the back is my linux box. I use it mainly for VMs and running some scripts. The big Dell box is my workhorse. The other laptop is used mainly for working during meetings and giving demos.
http://tech-tiles.com/wp-content/gal...r/img_0377.jpg

So far so good with the new Dell. Came with Office 2010 and that's about it. I'll play around with it some more tonight. Looking forward to seeing how well VMs run on the i7 as well as doing some compiles.

Random question not related to this particular topic, but how is the 64-bit version of 7 working for you? I finally managed to upgrade from Vista to the 32-bit (I'm a little behind... I know! Haha), and I absolutely love it. Of course, this is in comparison to Vista and have no good expectations for 7 whatsoever.

Have you had the chance to compare it with the 32-bit? Is it much faster or better in any other way?

love my dell 1545!!

justin

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Originally Posted by El_Dorado

Random question not related to this particular topic, but how is the 64-bit version of 7 working for you? I finally managed to upgrade from Vista to the 32-bit (I'm a little behind... I know! Haha), and I absolutely love it. Of course, this is in comparison to Vista and have no good expectations for 7 whatsoever.

Have you had the chance to compare it with the 32-bit? Is it much faster or better in any other way?

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It would be hard for me to say if the 64-bit version is any faster, as I don't have a comparable machine running the 32-bit version. You won't gain much speed at all though. The single biggest advantage for most users is the ability to use more ram.

Doesn't seem much faster than my quad core Win7-32 bit at home though, but I have not put them through many tests. It runs my VM's very well though, better than any other laptop I have used. I think the i7 processor has more to do with that though.

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Originally Posted by jfreels

She was arguing with the guy at the store because they couldn't get her a "gaming laptop" with out the gaming video card.

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This is true. If you don't have a good video card, I would no longer call the system a "gaming laptop".