Need entry-level lappy suggestions

[TOAD6147]

I'd like to hear from people that have had good experiences with a certain manufacturer in terms of overall staisfaction, tech support, warranty repairs, etc. mainly in the $550- 650 range starter models. I've seen Compaq, Dell, and Acer units in this price range advertised here recently so I'd like opinions on these as well. Thanks for the help and guidance.

[nemowolf]

Dell Vostro or if you can spend a bit more get a Latitude. Business computers are built with stronger lighter materials and typically constructed with more accidents in mind IE sealed keyboards to prevent coffee spills from damaging internals.

I myself will be looking at getting a Vostro 1500 with the upgraded 8600 vid card and 2 years Accidental warranty and some other nice stuff for around 1200 bucks shipped. But thats because i want something that will do gaming (8600 vid card instead of onboard integrated) and be suitable for business.

Although it really depends on what your doing with the laptop. If your going to be doing lots of gaming, get an XPS/Alienware for your best performance or cruise through a gaming mag for ads. If your doing basic school stuff, any laptop you get MUST/SHOULD have a 2 year accidental warranty added on because that basicly gets you a free laptop sometime in the next year to two.

[TOAD6147]

Quote:

...any laptop you get MUST/SHOULD have a 2 year accidental warranty added...

I find your info very helpful. I was wondering about that. Is this because you feel the chances are good that it will get damaged in the first two years? I won't make it a gaming machine but it will be used for normal stuff for trips and playing DVD's for the kids. And I'm very leery about Vista.

[TOAD6147]

Catalog Number: 4 BLDWISD
Module Description Show Details
Latitude D531 AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Processor TL-50 (1.60GHz 512K)
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media
LCDs 15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel
Memory 1.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Internal Keyboard Internal English Keyboard
Graphics ATI® Integrated Graphics RadeonTM X1270
Hard Drives 80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM
Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive
AC Adapter 65W, A/C Adapter
Media Bay Devices 24X CD-RW/DVD w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™
Wireless LAN (802.11) Dell Wireless™ 1390 802.11g Mini Card
System Documentation Resource CD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers
Battery 9 Cell Primary Battery
Hardware Support Service 3 year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service
Installation Services No Onsite System Setup
Complete Care 3 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service
Ship Group US System Documentation, Power Cord
Miscellaneous Latitude D531
Purchase Intent Purchase is not intended for resale.
OS Labels Windows XP Label
$847.00 shipped

[nemowolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOAD6147

I find your info very helpful. I was wondering about that. Is this because you feel the chances are good that it will get damaged in the first two years? I won't make it a gaming machine but it will be used for normal stuff for trips and playing DVD's for the kids. And I'm very leery about Vista.

I spent a fair amount of time in retail selling laptops so i know how the warranty system works. Essentially, your not expecting to drop, damage, or spill anything on your laptop. You will do everything in your power to protect your laptop from those things. BUT, here is the kicker. Laptop technology is typically outdated in terms of the general hardware as it takes further r&d to micronize, shrink, and reduce power demands of todays devices to make them compatible with a laptop and its battery power. So, what does the warranty have to do with this?

When you purchase a desktop, over a couple of years you have options for advancement, upgrade and improvement which a laptop typically does not. There is no way to "install" an extra hard drive or DVD-Burner without going external and doesnt really "install". The warranty, depending on who and how much your laptop costs, will rang from say 100 bucks to say 600 bucks on the extreme high end. Typically its a large fraction of around a fifth to an eighth of the total cost of the laptop with a two year warranty.

Lets do some math now. If you spend 1k on your laptop now and in two years want to upgrade to a new laptop of the current standard costing 2k you are left with a Total Cost of Ownership at over 2k with sales tax. Now, instead of this you buy a two year accidental coverage which adds and additional 250 bucks, totaling the cost to 1.25k, big increase! Now this is where the math comes to life. In 1 year and 9 months you decide, im going to back up my data and drop this old laptop. A few hours on the phone with warranty customer service and suddenly you have a credit for the full price of the laptop, in this case 1k, to spend on a new laptop. So in you saved 750 bucks to get yourself a laptop because you spent an additional 250 up front.

Now you must be clear on what is covered by your warranty as many have User Abuse clauses that will attempt to protect the company from people who do just this sort of thing.

Even better, is if you do it through a retailer like Best Buy ... you can purchase a new 2 year warranty on your new laptop and start the count down all over again. The margain on the laptop is almost nil, typically 3-5% after TCO is considered so they make most of their money on the warranty, typically 70%, and the vast majority of people dont think outside the box to do this. Enjoy.

[nemowolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOAD6147

Catalog Number: 4 BLDWISD
Module Description Show Details
Latitude D531 AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Processor TL-50 (1.60GHz 512K)
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media
LCDs 15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCD Panel
Memory 1.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Internal Keyboard Internal English Keyboard
Graphics ATI® Integrated Graphics RadeonTM X1270
Hard Drives 80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM
Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive
AC Adapter 65W, A/C Adapter
Media Bay Devices 24X CD-RW/DVD w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™
Wireless LAN (802.11) Dell Wireless™ 1390 802.11g Mini Card
System Documentation Resource CD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers
Battery 9 Cell Primary Battery
Hardware Support Service 3 year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service
Installation Services No Onsite System Setup
Complete Care 3 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service
Ship Group US System Documentation, Power Cord
Miscellaneous Latitude D531
Purchase Intent Purchase is not intended for resale.
OS Labels Windows XP Label
$847.00 shipped

Stay away from XP Home, its worthless as an OS now. Integrated works alright, but you may want to drop the service to 2 years after reading my previous post and opt to upgrade something else.

I just built a Vostro 1500 for under 1k that might be a better choice, 987 with the works and 2 years service.

[TOAD6147]

How about something that comes with Linux on it? How about this system? But I thought the Latitude was the one you recommened. It's actually a few bucks cheaper with the 3 year coverage.

Vostro 1500 Qty 1
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Unit Price $1,133.00
Add to your 2-year limited warranty* term.
Limited time offer!


$264 OFF select Vostro 1500 systems from Dell Small Business!
Special offer
- $264.00

Catalog Number: 4 BQDWK3D
Module Description Show Details
Vostro 1500 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
LCD Panel 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
Memory 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
Video Cards 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
Hard Drive 120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated NIC and Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08
Optical Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability
Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Cards Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Wi-Fi Mini Card
Camera Integrated 2.0 mega pixel Web Camera
Bundle MS Works 8.5-Eng: Basic Spreadsheet, Word Processing & Calendar Program
MediaDirect Dell Exclusive MediaDirect™ Instant Play Software Application
1st Software No Pre-installed Anti-Virus/Security Software
Primary Battery 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Limited Warranty, Services and Support 2 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Next Business Day On-Site Service
Installation Services No Onsite System Setup
CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service 2 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service
Dell DataSafe Online Data Backup 10GB for 1yr Online Backup by Dell Datasafe
Network Assistant 1 Year Dell Automated PC Tuneup
Network Assistant Dell Network Assistant
Bluetooth Wireless Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate), Vista
Purchase Intent Purchase is not intended for resale.
Environmental Options Support Reforestation: Plant a Tree for Me
Processor Branding Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
Labels Windows Vista™ Basic
$869.00 Shipped

[GroundZero3]

Check your credit card, most have an extended warranty on electronics you purchase. It starts as soon as your warranty ends with the manufacture

I believe you can still get Xp with dell

[TOAD6147]

This is what I wound up ordering for $755.02 :

Vostro 1000, AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-53 (1.7GHz/512KB)

320-5883 1 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife, for Dell Vostro 1000 Notebook

311-7342 1 1GB, DDR2, 533MHZ 2 Dimm

320-5631 1 Integrated ATI Radeon X1150 Graphics, for Vostro 1000

341-4970 1 80G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

420-7164 1 Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic

420-7291 1 Google Small Biz Home Page Internet Portal

410-0983 1 Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.08, forVostro

313-5390 1 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability, with Cyberlink Power DVD

313-5383 1 Integrated Audio 2.0

430-2487 1 Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Mini Card

410-0982 1 No Anti-Virus/ Security Software requested

312-0568 1 29 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery , for Insiron 1000

410-0972 1 Microsoft Works 8.5 - English

412-0359 1 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve

960-7791 1 Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, 1YR Extended

987-7068 1 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Extended Year

983-4150 1 Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year

987-7067 1 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year

983-3920 1 Warranty Support,Initial Year

960-7621 1 Warranty Support,1 Year Extended

900-9987 1 Standard On-Site Installation Declined

960-7591 1 CompleteCare Accidental DamageService, Inspiron Desktop, 2 Year

412-0357 1 Soft Contracts - Business Complete Care

987-7479 1 VOSTRO,Datasafe 10GB,1YR(Incl w/price)

420-7368 1 Dell DataSafe 2.0 Online, 10GBfor 1 Year Free (for ABU only)

960-8851 1 1YR AUT. PC TUNE UP,VOSTRO, Included in Price

420-7367 1 PC Tune-up, 1 Year (For English OS only)

420-7189 1 DellNetwork Assistant 1.7

462-4506 1 Purchase is NOT intended for resell

466-8200 1 Thanks for supporting reforestation to offset carbondioxide emissions generated topower your system!

310-8627 1 You have chosen a Windows Vista Basic System

310-8977 1 S and P Drop-in-Box Marcom forBSD Systems Boxes

[TOAD6147]

UPDATE

I ordered the above machine on the 4th and they are telling me that it may not ship till the 18th with receipt between the 25th to the 28th. I'm very disappointed with this. Is this a common occurance?