Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

[NeverNeverland]

Ok, so I'm going to try to get my parents and my brother to go in and pay for a laptop for me for Christmas! And hopefully I can get a good deal at a Black Friday sale or online this season.

The main reason I want one is so I can be on the Internet and watch TV at the same time. I don't need to play games or do big graphics stuff or anything - I can use my desktop for that.


~~ So what's the minimum it can have - 1 gig ram for Vista, right? (I don't suppose any PCs are sold w/XP any more )
~~The hard drive doesn't need to be huge, a few gigs shuold be all right. I'm planning on getting a jump drive? to transfer any pics of whatever I DL on there.
~~ What are the good/bad laptop brands?

Anything I'm missing? Any help would be appreciated... I'd like to narrow this down to a few choices and watch for sales.

Thanks!!

[SCUBAbe]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

I got mine at a black Friday sale last year. It is bare bones, but it was only about $400.00. I have no complaints it does everything I need. It's an hp with windows xp on it.

I'll go pull it out to get the additional specs.....

512 mb of memory and I have not upgraded it.
1.86 ghx pricessor
80gig hard drive
lightscribe dvd/cd burner

it does what I need. basically internet for when I travel. It runs photoshop cs with no problems or delay, plays video and games....or the light games I play. I'm not a huge gamer. For the price I paid I'm very happy with it.

it also came with a free vista upgrade. i did not bother installing it. I've played with vista and I don't like it and I doubt the laptop would run it well.

[NeverNeverland]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Thanks scubabe. That's pretty much exactly what I want, though the burner's optional, since I have one on my desktop. I REALLY don't want Vista, but I don't think I'll have a choice

[pveticket]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

You most likely would not use all its features and so it may just be money down the drain, but even for everday things i highly recommend a Macbook

[NeverNeverland]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

I'd rather not have a mac but thanks for the suggestion

[pveticket]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

I'd rather not have a mac but thanks for the suggestion

No problem lol

[Sambo]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

We upgraded my wife's Vista laptop from one gig to two gig of RAM. Made a big difference in performance.

[NeverNeverland]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Thanks for the info, Sambo. I think I'll only be able to get a 1 gig one but hopefully will be able to upgrade in the future!
I'm leaning toward HP.

BTW I was on a comparison site today and they had a laptop that came with Windows 98!! That MUST have been a typo! )

[Sambo]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Thanks for the info, Sambo. I think I'll only be able to get a 1 gig one but hopefully will be able to upgrade in the future!
I'm leaning toward HP.

BTW I was on a comparison site today and they had a laptop that came with Windows 98!! That MUST have been a typo! )

My original Gateway laptop was a Windows 98...

Upgrading is often cheaper - much cheaper if you go to FRY's and then install it yourself...

[Westley]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Walmart had one on sale at a secret sale last Friday

looks like $500 shouldn't be impossible...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8532885&st=Compaq+Presario+C714N R&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1186008217237

[NeverNeverland]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Yeah, but that Wal Mart one was crappy from what I've read ) Acer, i don't want that.
Have to convince the family first
but that one you linked looks perfect!

question since you brought it up Sambo... would a laptop be cheaper at Fry's? I have heard a lot about them and there's one across from work but I've never been.

[aimster]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Thanks for the info, Sambo. I think I'll only be able to get a 1 gig one but hopefully will be able to upgrade in the future!
I'm leaning toward HP.

What you can do is get a flash drive that's enabled to use Windows ReadyBoost. It's a new feature with Vista that lets you use the flash drive to add more memory to your system without having to install "under the hood". My laptop came with 1GB or RAM and I use a 2GB flash drive with ReadyBoost enabled and it helps.

Most laptops come with a minimum 60GB hard drive, though several have 80-160GB drives in them.

As for brands.... HP's are pretty decent. My laptop is an mid-range Acer and it does what I need it to do.

[SCUBAbe]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

my Bf has an acer. It is way old...like 5+ years and it still runs like a champ. he lover his acer.

My Bf just came in and said it's the best computer he has every had and we have had quite a few. He's had at least 3 other lap tops prior to the acer.

[NeverNeverland]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

How funny... I keep hearing they're the worst of them all! LOL.

TY for that tip Aimster! I'll SOOO look into that if I get a 1 gig.

[SCUBAbe]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

How funny... I keep hearing they're the worst of them all! LOL.

nah, that would be dell...

[Sambo]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

What you can do is get a flash drive that's enabled to use Windows ReadyBoost. It's a new feature with Vista that lets you use the flash drive to add more memory to your system without having to install "under the hood". My laptop came with 1GB or RAM and I use a 2GB flash drive with ReadyBoost enabled and it helps.

Most laptops come with a minimum 60GB hard drive, though several have 80-160GB drives in them.

As for brands.... HP's are pretty decent. My laptop is an mid-range Acer and it does what I need it to do.

Yeah, you can add phantom memory via readyboost - but you lose speed over buss RAM. USB speed vs DMA parallel. It could even slow you down when rendering or heavy number crunching. Adding extra USB memory to run larger and multiple applications only to slow you down to where you were before adding the readyboost seems counter productive. RAM is really cheap, and readyboost is a temporary fix - not a solution.

[garbear]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Ok, so I'm going to try to get my parents and my brother to go in and pay for a laptop for me for Christmas! And hopefully I can get a good deal at a Black Friday sale or online this season.

The main reason I want one is so I can be on the Internet and watch TV at the same time. I don't need to play games or do big graphics stuff or anything - I can use my desktop for that.


~~ So what's the minimum it can have - 1 gig ram for Vista, right? (I don't suppose any PCs are sold w/XP any more )
~~The hard drive doesn't need to be huge, a few gigs shuold be all right. I'm planning on getting a jump drive? to transfer any pics of whatever I DL on there.
~~ What are the good/bad laptop brands?

Anything I'm missing? Any help would be appreciated... I'd like to narrow this down to a few choices and watch for sales.

Thanks!!

I believe it was bestbuy who had an option online for Laptops with Windows still might want to check it out.

[NeverNeverland]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Thanks for your help guys...
Here's the one we bought....
Gateway T-1620
Such a great deal. I can't wait to get it.
Yay early (only) Christmas presents!

[aimster]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

How funny... I keep hearing they're the worst of them all! LOL.

nah, that would be dell...

No that would be Compaq.

Yeah, you can add phantom memory via readyboost - but you lose speed over buss RAM. USB speed vs DMA parallel. It could even slow you down when rendering or heavy number crunching. Adding extra USB memory to run larger and multiple applications only to slow you down to where you were before adding the readyboost seems counter productive. RAM is really cheap, and readyboost is a temporary fix - not a solution.

Well, I pretty much just use my laptop for the Internet, watching DVDs while traveling, playing Majong/solitaire and random stuff. I'm not a gamer and I use my desktop for more "user intensive" stuff. So using the flash drive with ReadyBoost is enough to get me by until I have the time & money to upgrade the RAM under the hood. I just got a 4GB flash drive yesterday and noticed a big improvement over the 2GB flash drive I'd been using.

[SCUBAbe]

Re: Good Internet/General Laptop Recos?

Thanks for your help guys...
Here's the one we bought....
Gateway T-1620
Such a great deal. I can't wait to get it.
Yay early (only) Christmas presents!

I think my daughter got the same one...or the model down from that one. have you tried to use wireless internet yet? If so was it difficult to set up? My daughter can't seem to figure it out and now I have to go help. I'm just hoping heres is not broke. they bought the floor model and got an extra $100.00 off.....she doesn't even have a book for it and I haven't asked about the warranty yet. I don;t really want to know.