Thread: Need a lap top

Originally Posted by hoadie72

From my personal experience I definitely recommend Asus and I'd also look at Lenovo.

Lenovo (used to be IBM) are good - very well built. We have used them in the field and tend to withstand the occasional bump and less than perfect handling - not Toughbook standard though.

I think a key point here is that buying at this end of the market that if there are any failures outside of warranty it's likely that the machine will be a throw away. Laptop components are custom generally and so they tend to be expensive. A guy at work bought a dell and it went dead at 14 months. It was not economical to repair. So these computers are essentially throw away computers. If your son will be carting it around (outside of the house) a lot then they do get knocked around and the failure rate increases.

So, whatever you buy consider getting an extended warranty. They are expensive because they are often needed.

I would look at one of the eeepcs as all the pc's are pretty dingy (small dim screens, tiny trackpads, short battery life) and at least the eeepcs are cheap (and they have long battery life).

I've had an LG for ages. Has been a good laptop, but the hard drive gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago, and the cost to repair / replace was going to be almost more than a new laptop.

So I've defied the odds and bought a HP. My experience with them has been good - we basically only use HP's where I work, and I can't remember ever having any trouble with them, and these things run all day every day.

So fingers crossed ........................

My daughter bought a Dell on the internet a while back. She got a very good price and so far it's been without problem.

One thing that I have learnt is not to rely too heavily on the hard drive built into laptops. Other than mine failing, I've seen too many others go the same way, and there's nothing worse than not being able to recover your files, or having to pay someone $120 per hour to recover them when the hard drive dies. I have taken to using those portable hard drives now they're so cheap. Advantage is that I can take portable drive with me everywhere and simply plug into whatever computer is available, and always have all my files and info available, including all my various e-mail accounts, as I have each one save messages I want to keep to a common pst file on the portable drive. I run two 500GB portables - one for everyday use, and the second is a regular back-up of the first.

Looked at buying one of those mini notebooks the other day - I like them because of their size and portability, but unfortunately none of them has a CD/DVD drive, and this would not suit my requirements. But they're cheap - you can get them from about $500.

Just to be the Devil's Advocate, I have had a HP laptop for 1.5 years now.

It cost $499 after rebate and has travelled about 30KK in the car with 10 KK of that off bitumen.
It does everything I want it to, including seamlessly downloading Utube and displaying HDTV. I do not game. It scores 3.1 on the windows performance index limited by graphics.

It has suffered NO problems and taken very rough usage, and been charged from a JAYCAR 300W pure sine wave inverter while travelling. Battery life is nothing to write home about.
Ther main bitch I have with it is that the speaker volume is very low . I have tried to remedy this without success, so if used as a TV you have to add speakers.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by BMKal

I've had an LG for ages. Has been a good laptop, but the hard drive gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago, and the cost to repair / replace was going to be almost more than a new laptop.

So I've defied the odds and bought a HP. My experience with them has been good - we basically only use HP's where I work, and I can't remember ever having any trouble with them, and these things run all day every day.

So fingers crossed ........................

My daughter bought a Dell on the internet a while back. She got a very good price and so far it's been without problem.

One thing that I have learnt is not to rely too heavily on the hard drive built into laptops. Other than mine failing, I've seen too many others go the same way, and there's nothing worse than not being able to recover your files, or having to pay someone $120 per hour to recover them when the hard drive dies. I have taken to using those portable hard drives now they're so cheap. Advantage is that I can take portable drive with me everywhere and simply plug into whatever computer is available, and always have all my files and info available, including all my various e-mail accounts, as I have each one save messages I want to keep to a common pst file on the portable drive. I run two 500GB portables - one for everyday use, and the second is a regular back-up of the first.

Looked at buying one of those mini notebooks the other day - I like them because of their size and portability, but unfortunately none of them has a CD/DVD drive, and this would not suit my requirements. But they're cheap - you can get them from about $500.

You'll carry 2x USB HDDs but won't consider a USB CD/DVD drive? lol

For what it's worth, I used to go through HDDs on an annual basis for about 10 years. The failures were from a combination of shock and heat. The last 2 machines I've owned have both had much better cooling, both passive and active, and have accelerometers which switch off the HDD when the machine is being moved or dropped, and that's made the world of difference - it's been nearly 6 years since I've had a drive fail.

Originally Posted by hoadie72

You'll carry 2x USB HDDs but won't consider a USB CD/DVD drive? lol
For what it's worth, I used to go through HDDs on an annual basis for about 10 years. The failures were from a combination of shock and heat. The last 2 machines I've owned have both had much better cooling, both passive and active, and have accelerometers which switch off the HDD when the machine is being moved or dropped, and that's made the world of difference - it's been nearly 6 years since I've had a drive fail.

Haha - yes, I see your point. But I usually only carry one of the HDD's with me at work, and it fits in my pocket. Generally, I don't even take the laptop with me these days when I'm on site. Just plug the HDD in to whatever computer they give me, or use someone else's office computer.

Seriously looking at one of the portable notebooks to replace SWMBO's ancient desktop at home, and yes, a USB CD/DVD would go with it. That way, if I do want to take something with me to work, would be able to take the little one and leave the laptop at home for others to use. The little one would also be more convenient in the Disco when travelling.

USB HDD's are getting smaller (and cheaper) every time you look at them these days - just got my daughter a very small HP one for $50. It's only 120GB but it's all she needs for what she's using it for.

HP and Acer...they are from the same shed aren't they? My Acer of 3 plus years has taken a battering and still goes great and on a daily basis...Touch Wood.
John ( disco 44 )

Originally Posted by Disco44

HP and Acer...they are from the same shed aren't they? My Acer of 3 plus years has taken a battering and still goes great and on a daily basis...Touch Wood.
John ( disco 44 )

Don't think so, but could be wrong. I always thought that Acer was an Australian built brand, whereas HP are definitely yank.

HP and Compaq are now one and the same - HP bought out Compaq a couple of years ago (at least).