Laptop

all the big name brands are fine

toshiba have very expensive support IME... and they arent all they used to be i a lot of ways these days.

much better value for money to be had with asus and hp or even dell actually.

$360 for a replacement dvd drive is more than enough reason for me to never want to buy one.

find the brand that has a service center nearest you would be a big one as well.

We used Dells at work until just recently ( dozens of laptops ) and they were very robust. I ran over mine with the Disco once, the screen cracked but it kept working !
Dell have some reasonably good online deals sometimes.
Work has now gone over to HP/Compaq ( contract renewal and I guess HP were cheaper ) and reports so far are these are not as well put together or as robust as the Dells.

This contradicts what someone earlier in the thread was saying, but you're going to get that of course.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waynep

Work has now gone over to HP/Compaq ( contract renewal and I guess HP were cheaper ) and reports so far are these are not as well put together or as robust as the Dells.

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many/most hps's have a 2 year warranty these days, dell have 1 year as standard last time i looked, which could have been a factor as well.

flame suit on, i see a lot of horror stories with laptops and all the worst ones so far have been dell and acer by a country mile, so i tend to agree with the djam1....

maybe dell have better QC on contract builds, dont know....

i have lost count the number of women i have come in here in tears over the way they get treated by some of these bigger companies, it astounds me to be frank. I show them notgoodenough.org and point them in the right direction...

do you apple guys realize the 'thief attraction factor' carrying any apple product carries with it?

ipods, laptops and flash mobiles would have to be the most stolen items in universitys... buying something flash is like putting a neon sign on her head saying "rob me please"... i say buy a decent brand's cheaper models and backup very regularly...

Thanks numptys missus,

I have numbed over to switch to mac or keep with a microsoft OS. I mainly use my lap tops to programme Clipsal c-bus or dynalight smart homes which at the moment only support m/soft system.

thanks for the read points taken,

cheers
Will

We use Dell's at work.
Sales staff are next to useless do you homework don't even bother contacting them BUT .........

The laptopas are exeptionally hardy ours get put through the wringer and in 4 years only two have died. They were working again within 24 ours thanks to Dell's EXEPTIONAL after sales/warranty/repair services IMO they have the best after sales care.
Also do yourself a favour and pay a bit extra and get the extended warranty you can now pay for Dell waranty for up to 5 years. It's worth it.

I am so impressed be Dell's service I bought a Dell for home. Dell notebooks, (never call them laptops, I'm sure you know why?) performance are pretty ordinary until you get to top models. We buy the D830's and 630ATG's can't fault them. Maybe XPS next time?

Saying that Toshiba have an excelent reputation but are very expensive, Dell's compair quite well with the likes of Asus and other hight street brands cost wise.