Recommendation on Laptops

[4micaman]

I'm considering buying a laptop. Have taken a look around the web, they're all starting to run together. Any wisdom that fellow members could share, would be most appreciated.

I don't game atall. The machine will basically do the usual web, email, documents thing. Will use it on occasion to watch movies.

Some of the top things that seem to keep coming up in my research are:

1 - Poor battery life. Seems to be related mostly to the power usage of the processor - and secondly to the number of cells in the battery (4 vs 6).

2- Processor. Seems that the Intel Core 2 Duo seems to get the best reviews. I've used nothing but AMD on my desktops. Seems the biggest issue with a laptop processor is heat and air flow (or lack thereof).

3- HDD. Most of the laptops I've looked at come with a 5400 RPM drive. I don't see this as a big hindrance since most bottle necking "usually" comes from the bus speed and the speed/amount of RAM available. Am I thinking along the right lines here?

4- Graphics. I've read a few bitter comments about the X3100 (I think that's right) Intel chips. Any suggestions or comments here. I've only used Nvidia for the most part...

5- Screen. Any input? Seems the 15.4" is the most common.

6- Keyboard. Most of the ones I've seen don't have a separate number keypad. The ones that did have it, seem to require a 17" screen... ? True?

7- Brand. I'm not married to one brand or the other. Just looking for personal experiences with the brands you have or had. Input please.

8- Costs. I guess it's the thrill of it all but am considering buying a new unit. One nobody else has had a chance to spew Mt. Dew into the keyboard - or even worse fluids...! Ideally, I'd like to stay around the $800 mark.

Any and all input is welcome - and appreciated.

Thank you...

[444-4D]

I know almost nothing about computers. But I told my daughter that just started college to pick out a new laptop and I would buy it for her. She bought one of these. The $1999.00 one.

Apple Store (U.S.) - MacBook Pro

[cparks72]

I saw some good deals from Newegg.com.
Good website for cpu stuff.

[Toban]

About four months ago I picked up a brand new Dell 1500 Vostro. It is about the same as what you outlined and it has Vista Basic, which I'm not to happy about. I bought it on E-bay for $540.00 US plus shipping.

If you buy any computer, get the largest size battery that you can. I did, and my battery will run from 9 to 10 hours, on the lowest setting for performance. The large battery was included in the sale price.

The 1.6Ghz dual core processor runs just fine for me at that level.

[4micaman]

@ 444-4D: Thanks for that. I'm so use to not working with a Mac, that It didn't dawn on me, it being an option. Never had one but, have friends that do and would fight till the death if you tried to take it from them.

@ cparks72: Thanks - I'm a egg head (figuratively and literally *some time at least* speaking) for sure. NE has parted me with several thousands of dollars over the last few years. Always top notch service and usually the best pricing, if you know how to bargain shop.

@ Toban: Yes sir. I've looked at the Vostro's in depth but, they've all become a jumbled mess. This will be my first "real" laptop purchase. I have an old dinosaur (Presario 1275 with a whopping 366Mhz cpu and 4GB HDD) but it was a trade in on a custom desktop I built a friend. I've tried fumbling through ebay, looking for a laptop... talk about a needle in a haystack! I'll look more into battery specifics.

As for OS. I'm an Ubuntu sorta guy. I really need a couple of windows apps though, so I'll probably run XP in VMWare. Estimating jobs and job reports are killing me manually. I've yet to find a native Linux app to aid with that sort of thing.

[westvandude]

If you want something you can repair later on should you drop it, etc get a slightly used thinkpad. Such as http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-T43-1-86GhZ-1GB-RAM-40GB-HD-WIFI-CDRW-WINXP-PRO_W0QQitemZ140265520017QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 40265520017&_trkparms=72%3A1163|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3 A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

You can get workshop manuals on the net. Spare parts are plentiful. I've got an older T22 I fixed up as well.

You can get docking stations for these too.... have a nice flat screen monitor, external mouse, speakers, usb devices, etc. Plug'n'play for the docking station - no messing with cables.

Otherwise if you look around you can find some 17" widescreen laptops under $1000 with 7-8cell batteries (4-5hrs run time) like Future Shop: Computers: Laptops: HP AMD Turion X2 TL-60 Dual-Core Mobile 2.0GHz Laptop (DV9904) - Future Shop Exclusive

Apple's are nice but big $. If you're just surfing it's overkill.

5400rpm HDs are a major slow-down for laptops. That and inadequate memory (ie. 512mb or less).

[macmaniac1]

I would also go and a get an apple. If you go to an apple store you can get a genius(apple salesclerk) to help you choose the right one for you. I have had my current apple laptop for about four years with no real troubles with the operating system. Never have had a virus, etc yet and we don't even run anti-virus software. How reliable? I was talking with it for my internet and they tried to sell me their security software package for the internet until he found out that I had a mac. I was supprised when he said" You have a mac!, I guess you wont be needing the software package then.
The only real problems that I have had are that I went threw a hardrive on a really hot day(90+ degrees in our house and the kids were playing games all day.) when it was two years old. I try and to keep an air gap under it in hot weather now and a fan on it if it is really hot. You can buy heat sink pads for laptops now. They help pull heat away from the laptop by having a built in air gap and even fans. The other is we wore out the touch pad at about 3 yrs old.
By the way you can run windows for mac on a mac and still communicate with non-mac users. You can have best the best of both worlds.
Just my experience and my opinion.