Thinking about a new laptop

ponderingturtle · 30th July 2009, 09:01 AM

So it seems that the hard drive on the lap top I got from my girlfriend crapped out. It is a 6 year old machine so it is not that suprsing. I am thinking about replaceing the computer and not the hard drive.

I would use the computer mostly for grad school, internet surfing, as well as hooking up to watch videos streamed on the internet by netflix and hulu.

What to people recomend as companies? Any good laptops that have both S video ports and HDMI ports?

I am looking for fairly cheap too.

jay.tarnoff · 30th July 2009, 09:38 AM

If you are a grad student, most computer companies offer academic discounts as long as your college/university has some type of partnership.

For example, www.delluniversity.com is a good place to get discounts on Dells.

Macs aren't cheap, but I prefer the Apple OS to Microsoft. This is more of a personal preference, though. Apple does provide academic discounts (usually saves you around $100-200).

Depending on how long you can wait, the price of laptops will probably drop another $150-300 when Google begins offering their OS for free (sometime in 2010?). This means that the mini notebooks can theoretically drop to about $200, give or take.

Other places I have shopped include: tigerdirect.com and microcenter.com

~enigma~ · 30th July 2009, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by ponderingturtle

I would use the computer mostly for grad school, internet surfing, as well as hooking up to watch videos streamed on the internet by netflix and hulu.

Translation: I need a laptop for some grad school use that will allow me to view porn on the internet as cheaply as possible

I Ratant · 30th July 2009, 10:22 AM

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I expect a new laptop should be eons ahead of any that are doddering into senility at 6 years.
I just got one for Sweet Thang at Walmart (an Acer) which has a lot of potential, from the short time I had it before she took it over.

stup_id · 30th July 2009, 10:30 AM

Well, the simplest way we can narrow suggestion down, is if you tell us how much are u planning to spend on the thing

ponderingturtle · 30th July 2009, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by ~enigma~

Translation: I need a laptop for some grad school use that will allow me to view porn on the internet as cheaply as possible

Nonsense, my desktop machine hooked to my 40" LCD HDTV is perfect ofr internet porn. And when I am at my girlfriends my use of porn is much less.

ponderingturtle · 30th July 2009, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by jay.tarnoff

If you are a grad student, most computer companies offer academic discounts as long as your college/university has some type of partnership.

For example, www.delluniversity.com is a good place to get discounts on Dells.

Do they give discounts to people taking non matriculated courses? My plan is to take a few courses then apply to the school based on my performance there instead of my undergrad record.

Quote:

Macs aren't cheap, but I prefer the Apple OS to Microsoft. This is more of a personal preference, though. Apple does provide academic discounts (usually saves you around $100-200).

Depending on how long you can wait, the price of laptops will probably drop another $150-300 when Google begins offering their OS for free (sometime in 2010?). This means that the mini notebooks can theoretically drop to about $200, give or take.

Other places I have shopped include: tigerdirect.com and microcenter.com

I don't like apples vertical intergration plans.

My price range would be pretty low as I was not planning on buying a computer and I had a fair ammount of work on my car to drain the bank accounts last week.

madurobob · 30th July 2009, 11:02 AM

If price is the key factor, consider this:
IBM Certified Used Equipment

That T60 for $540 is a pretty good deal.

stup_id · 30th July 2009, 11:07 AM

There are some 600-700$ range laptops from HP, called entertainment series which offer s video and HDMI, i think is the dv6000, my brother has the model with AMD processor and nvidia 8400M geforce, it can run some powerful things pretty good.

If you are thinking lower, some ASUS laptop on the 400-500$ range I think u can find them with s-videdo, but HDMI would be a little bit harder, not sure about that.

madurobob · 30th July 2009, 11:29 AM

And you might consider something like this for cheaper laptops with no S-video out.

grmcdorman · 31st July 2009, 09:22 AM

If the small size isn't a problem, some of the netbooks are nice: they are light, and tend to have good battery life. They are not really suitable for anything more than basic word processing & web browsing, though, and definitely not suitable for gaming. I don't know how well they do for video streaming, however. Prices can be a bit lower than full laptops, but not by much.

The nice thing about netbooks is that they are much easier to carry around. The drawback is that they have a small screen and keyboard, slower CPU, and often limited memory & hard drive.

You also say "for grad school". What does that involve? If it's anything using software other than office-type applications (word processing, spreadsheet), the netbook may also be inappropriate.

After that, it becomes a question of the trade-offs between size/weight, performance, and battery life - and price, of course.

eGadfly · 31st July 2009, 09:34 AM

I bought a Toshiba A305-S6916 at best buy a few months ago for 699 or 749 I believe. It has an ATI vid card so it is decent for gaming. I play Oblivion, COD4, WoW, Civ4, HL2, etc.. just fine.

It has HDMI out. *and Svid

My biggest gripes are that it's 1. Ugly. 2. Too slow to play 1080p. But other than that, it is an amazing laptop.

It was one of the cheapest I could find with a non-integrated vid card (they suck)

Dogbreath · 31st July 2009, 11:09 AM

Check out ecost.com the have quite a few refurbished/recertified laptops. They have many different brands. I saw an HP for around $600 , with 4 gb ram and comes with a remote and tv tuner.

negativ · 31st July 2009, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by ponderingturtle

What to people recomend as companies? Any good laptops that have both S video ports and HDMI ports?

I work at a large repair facility (not a technician, though; I do IT stuff) and based on the types of defects I see come in daily, I'd say go with Toshiba. I know the A500 series has HDMI; not sure if any of them have S-Video these days. Possibly one of the older Qosmios. Those are $$.

In my experience, Sony are also high quality, but absurdly overpriced.

If I ever buy another laptop, it will most likely be a Toshiba. YMMV.

King of the Americas · 1st August 2009, 03:06 PM

Apples are AMAZING machines, but compatibility issues have caused innumerable headaches.

"Acer" makes a quality machine, for good price, so the wal-mart sales guy says.

I have had nightmares trying to deal with HP, in the past, which is why I went to a Macbook.

Toshiba has treated 2 of my friends well, but they also purchased extended warrantees.

eGadfly · 2nd August 2009, 05:39 AM

Quote:

know the A500 series has HDMI; not sure if any of them have S-Video these days.

my Toshiba Satellite A305-S6916 has both s-vid and HDMI for around 700-800.

It is not a professional looking computer though... it looks more like a blinged out gaming rig with it's ultra glossy keyboard and oversized harman kardon speakers and "cool"(uncool) tribal graphic.

Bikewer · 2nd August 2009, 01:16 PM

We just bought an HP G-60 notebook. Got it as a bundle with a backpack (?) and a wireless mouse for 600 bucks.
I'd been looking at Newegg and Tiger, and this one had better specs for the same money as the models I was pricing online.

So far, we're quite happy. The wireless mouse is a POS, but I got it to work by bending the latch/contact so it made better electrical contact.
It's a Vista machine, of course, but you get a free upgrade to Seven when it's released.
That's pretty much what sold me.
Appears to do everything the wife wants; nice big display, fast, plenty of HD space and memory...

ponderingturtle · 3rd August 2009, 07:15 AM

I stuck with Dell, as I have generaly liked them. I probably spent more than I should but I got a nice machine. I went with thier studio 15, maxed out the video card it came with a 500 gig hard drive.

As I am intending on this being more my primary computer, and for example I might not get a new desktop if it died I would be happy with this for a while. Pluss I can register for a free copy of windows 7 when I get the computer, it would have been nice if I could have registered when ordering though.

30th July 2009, 09:01 AM	#1
ponderingturtle Orthogonal Vector Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 50,746	Thinking about a new laptop So it seems that the hard drive on the lap top I got from my girlfriend crapped out. It is a 6 year old machine so it is not that suprsing. I am thinking about replaceing the computer and not the hard drive. I would use the computer mostly for grad school, internet surfing, as well as hooking up to watch videos streamed on the internet by netflix and hulu. What to people recomend as companies? Any good laptops that have both S video ports and HDMI ports? I am looking for fairly cheap too.
	__________________ Sufficiently advanced Woo is indistinguishable from Parody "There shall be no poofing in science" Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Force ***** on reasons back" Ben Franklin

30th July 2009, 09:38 AM	#2
jay.tarnoff Scholar Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 63	If you are a grad student, most computer companies offer academic discounts as long as your college/university has some type of partnership. For example, www.delluniversity.com is a good place to get discounts on Dells. Macs aren't cheap, but I prefer the Apple OS to Microsoft. This is more of a personal preference, though. Apple does provide academic discounts (usually saves you around $100-200). Depending on how long you can wait, the price of laptops will probably drop another $150-300 when Google begins offering their OS for free (sometime in 2010?). This means that the mini notebooks can theoretically drop to about $200, give or take. Other places I have shopped include: tigerdirect.com and microcenter.com
jay.tarnoff Scholar Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 63	Last edited by jay.tarnoff; 30th July 2009 at 09:40 AM.

30th July 2009, 09:40 AM	#3
~enigma~ Banned Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 7,923	Originally Posted by ponderingturtle I would use the computer mostly for grad school, internet surfing, as well as hooking up to watch videos streamed on the internet by netflix and hulu. Translation: I need a laptop for some grad school use that will allow me to view porn on the internet as cheaply as possible
~enigma~ Banned Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 7,923

30th July 2009, 10:30 AM	#5
stup_id Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 262	Well, the simplest way we can narrow suggestion down, is if you tell us how much are u planning to spend on the thing
stup_id Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 262

30th July 2009, 10:53 AM	#6
ponderingturtle Orthogonal Vector Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 50,746	Originally Posted by ~enigma~ Translation: I need a laptop for some grad school use that will allow me to view porn on the internet as cheaply as possible Nonsense, my desktop machine hooked to my 40" LCD HDTV is perfect ofr internet porn. And when I am at my girlfriends my use of porn is much less.
	__________________ Sufficiently advanced Woo is indistinguishable from Parody "There shall be no poofing in science" Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Force ***** on reasons back" Ben Franklin

30th July 2009, 10:22 AM	#4
I Ratant Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 19,258	Not that there's anything wrong with that. I expect a new laptop should be eons ahead of any that are doddering into senility at 6 years. I just got one for Sweet Thang at Walmart (an Acer) which has a lot of potential, from the short time I had it before she took it over.

30th July 2009, 10:56 AM	#7
ponderingturtle Orthogonal Vector Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 50,746	Originally Posted by jay.tarnoff If you are a grad student, most computer companies offer academic discounts as long as your college/university has some type of partnership. For example, www.delluniversity.com is a good place to get discounts on Dells. Do they give discounts to people taking non matriculated courses? My plan is to take a few courses then apply to the school based on my performance there instead of my undergrad record. Quote: Macs aren't cheap, but I prefer the Apple OS to Microsoft. This is more of a personal preference, though. Apple does provide academic discounts (usually saves you around $100-200). Depending on how long you can wait, the price of laptops will probably drop another $150-300 when Google begins offering their OS for free (sometime in 2010?). This means that the mini notebooks can theoretically drop to about $200, give or take. Other places I have shopped include: tigerdirect.com and microcenter.com I don't like apples vertical intergration plans. My price range would be pretty low as I was not planning on buying a computer and I had a fair ammount of work on my car to drain the bank accounts last week.
	__________________ Sufficiently advanced Woo is indistinguishable from Parody "There shall be no poofing in science" Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Force ***** on reasons back" Ben Franklin

30th July 2009, 11:02 AM	#8
madurobob Philosopher Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Blue Heaven Posts: 7,401	If price is the key factor, consider this: IBM Certified Used Equipment That T60 for $540 is a pretty good deal.
	__________________ I love you and I vote.

30th July 2009, 11:07 AM	#9
stup_id Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 262	There are some 600-700$ range laptops from HP, called entertainment series which offer s video and HDMI, i think is the dv6000, my brother has the model with AMD processor and nvidia 8400M geforce, it can run some powerful things pretty good. If you are thinking lower, some ASUS laptop on the 400-500$ range I think u can find them with s-videdo, but HDMI would be a little bit harder, not sure about that.
stup_id Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 262

30th July 2009, 11:29 AM	#10
madurobob Philosopher Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Blue Heaven Posts: 7,401	And you might consider something like this for cheaper laptops with no S-video out.
	__________________ I love you and I vote.

31st July 2009, 09:22 AM	#11
grmcdorman Graduate Poster Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1,360	If the small size isn't a problem, some of the netbooks are nice: they are light, and tend to have good battery life. They are not really suitable for anything more than basic word processing & web browsing, though, and definitely not suitable for gaming. I don't know how well they do for video streaming, however. Prices can be a bit lower than full laptops, but not by much. The nice thing about netbooks is that they are much easier to carry around. The drawback is that they have a small screen and keyboard, slower CPU, and often limited memory & hard drive. You also say "for grad school". What does that involve? If it's anything using software other than office-type applications (word processing, spreadsheet), the netbook may also be inappropriate. After that, it becomes a question of the trade-offs between size/weight, performance, and battery life - and price, of course.
	__________________ "Hello. My name is Inigo Skywalker. You are my father. Prepare to die."

31st July 2009, 09:34 AM	#12
eGadfly Student Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 39	I bought a Toshiba A305-S6916 at best buy a few months ago for 699 or 749 I believe. It has an ATI vid card so it is decent for gaming. I play Oblivion, COD4, WoW, Civ4, HL2, etc.. just fine. It has HDMI out. *and Svid My biggest gripes are that it's 1. Ugly. 2. Too slow to play 1080p. But other than that, it is an amazing laptop. It was one of the cheapest I could find with a non-integrated vid card (they suck)
eGadfly Student Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 39	Last edited by eGadfly; 31st July 2009 at 09:35 AM. Reason: added and Svid*

31st July 2009, 11:09 AM	#13
Dogbreath Scholar Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 71	Check out ecost.com the have quite a few refurbished/recertified laptops. They have many different brands. I saw an HP for around $600 , with 4 gb ram and comes with a remote and tv tuner.
Dogbreath Scholar Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 71

31st July 2009, 05:26 PM	#14
negativ Graduate Poster Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,904	Originally Posted by ponderingturtle What to people recomend as companies? Any good laptops that have both S video ports and HDMI ports? I work at a large repair facility (not a technician, though; I do IT stuff) and based on the types of defects I see come in daily, I'd say go with Toshiba. I know the A500 series has HDMI; not sure if any of them have S-Video these days. Possibly one of the older Qosmios. Those are $$. In my experience, Sony are also high quality, but absurdly overpriced. If I ever buy another laptop, it will most likely be a Toshiba. YMMV.
negativ Graduate Poster Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,904	__________________ A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals. Eternal salvation or TRIPLE your money back!

1st August 2009, 03:06 PM	#15
King of the Americas Banned Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 6,513	Apples are AMAZING machines, but compatibility issues have caused innumerable headaches. "Acer" makes a quality machine, for good price, so the wal-mart sales guy says. I have had nightmares trying to deal with HP, in the past, which is why I went to a Macbook. Toshiba has treated 2 of my friends well, but they also purchased extended warrantees.

2nd August 2009, 05:39 AM	#16
eGadfly Student Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 39	Quote: know the A500 series has HDMI; not sure if any of them have S-Video these days. my Toshiba Satellite A305-S6916 has both s-vid and HDMI for around 700-800. It is not a professional looking computer though... it looks more like a blinged out gaming rig with it's ultra glossy keyboard and oversized harman kardon speakers and "cool"(uncool) tribal graphic.
eGadfly Student Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 39

2nd August 2009, 01:16 PM	#17
Bikewer Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: St. Louis, Mo. Posts: 12,924	We just bought an HP G-60 notebook. Got it as a bundle with a backpack (?) and a wireless mouse for 600 bucks. I'd been looking at Newegg and Tiger, and this one had better specs for the same money as the models I was pricing online. So far, we're quite happy. The wireless mouse is a POS, but I got it to work by bending the latch/contact so it made better electrical contact. It's a Vista machine, of course, but you get a free upgrade to Seven when it's released. That's pretty much what sold me. Appears to do everything the wife wants; nice big display, fast, plenty of HD space and memory...

3rd August 2009, 07:15 AM	#18
ponderingturtle Orthogonal Vector Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 50,746	I stuck with Dell, as I have generaly liked them. I probably spent more than I should but I got a nice machine. I went with thier studio 15, maxed out the video card it came with a 500 gig hard drive. As I am intending on this being more my primary computer, and for example I might not get a new desktop if it died I would be happy with this for a while. Pluss I can register for a free copy of windows 7 when I get the computer, it would have been nice if I could have registered when ordering though.
	__________________ Sufficiently advanced Woo is indistinguishable from Parody "There shall be no poofing in science" Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Force ***** on reasons back" Ben Franklin