GGG, Help. I need to get a new laptop. D:

[trampyre]

My laptop is dying. I'm afraid it's going to kick the bucket any day now eek

I've been looking at three different options:

1) An Acer Aspireone netbook + an external optical drive. I don't mind the tiny keyboard, and they appear to have fixed a lot of issues with the latest model that plagued the previous one. Having a netbook versus notebook would enable me to actually take my laptop out of my house and use it on the go. I think the reason my notebook started dying is actually because I took it out "on the go" too much.

2) One of the Lenovo Thinkpads. I'm not sure which one. Ideally, one with an optical drive (as not all of them have it), doesn't have to have tonnes of HD space. I know IBM to be good quality as I've owned an old Thinkpad in the past. I've done a bit of research though and it seems that their customer service isn't quite what I remember it to be.

3) I keep consistently hearing good things about Toshiba. I've never used one of their notebooks but my Uncle has, and my bf is always telling me they're good. Optical drive is a must.

Options 2 and 3 would be good because I would then not have to worry about connecting drives, but bad because of decreased portability.

Would really like feedback about netbooks, particularly the Aspireone, if anyone here has one. I read a bazillion reviews that all said they were great, but, I've never used a netbook before.

Opinions on other machines would be useful too. I'm not a Mac person, though D:  

[mechanical kitsy]

I really have no clue about laptops. Everyone I know seems to get Dell though... My boyfriend, dad, and brother all have one.
I dunno. My boyfriend got a Dell XPS. They're pretty good, actually. And if anything breaks, its replaced for free, I think. Under warranty, anyway.

I guess get the one that suits your needs. I had a friend that got an Acer to replace a laptop he had, he said it was okay. They're pretty lightweight, too.  

[the_underworks]

Personally, these are the things I think you should take in concideration when buying a new laptop.

1) Size: If You're going to get a laptop and carry it around everywhere well, you're better off with the more compact kinds of laptops due to weight and size. If you just leave it somewhere and carry it with you once in a while, you're probably better off with a 17 inch laptop. They feature a good sized monitor and a full keyboard which is really enjoyable when you've gotten man hands like mine XD.

2) RAM; Usually the first thing to be out of date in any computer is the RAM. Today, I'd say 2GB of ram would be enough and 4GB would be plenty. Anything over 4GB of ram to me personally is not worth it.

3)Price: The average laptop is only designed to last 2-3 years mainly because the components in the laptop will be out of date by then. So most laptop chassis will be busted after 2-3 years even if good care of the laptop is taken. So all this means, unless you require a powerful laptop, get the cheapest.

4) Video Card: A video card is not actually required for most applications, but its fun to have for when you want to play a game or run applications that require more GPU power.

5) Hard Drive: Some laptops sold today have these ancient 5400prm hard drives... AVOID AT ALL COSTS. 7200rpm hard drives are about 1.3 times faster and the price difference between between the both is very very very very very minimal.

Personally this is what i think about the brands of laptops I have dealt with

Good: Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, HP (good laptops, but are a bit flimsy)

Avrage: Gateway, Acer, Voodoo (if you have the cash lol), Sony

BAD: DELL (AVOID AT ALL COSTS), Alienware (JUST OVERPRICED DELLS WITH FLASHY LIGHTS ON THEM), and pretty much any b*****d brands are pretty risky to buy due to poor customer service and the lack of feedback from their small volume of customers.

Best: Just get it built by me xd I'm just kidding.

If you doubt on my pedigree in computers, I will just tell you that I have built over 100 computers, servers and laptops since I was 15. I am a major computer geek / gamer. I have had very little formal education on computers. But, computers are one of my passions and I think it reflects on this post.  

[the_underworks]

Quote:

I really have no clue about laptops. Everyone I know seems to get Dell though... My boyfriend, dad, and brother all have one.
I dunno. My boyfriend got a Dell XPS. They're pretty good, actually. And if anything breaks, its replaced for free, I think. Under warranty, anyway.

I guess get the one that suits your needs. I had a friend that got an Acer to replace a laptop he had, he said it was okay. They're pretty lightweight, too.

yes, they will replace it for free... after 3 hours of waiting on the phone for customer service that is located in the middle east and 3 months of wait. But they will replace it with a refurbished computer that will break as soon as you take it out of the box and then the process starts again... this is a personal experience that many others I know have shared. AVOID DELL AT ALL COSTS.

PS: For people who are looking into buying an alienware laptop, please note that they share the same customer service and policies and are just overpriced, plain dells with fancy lights on them.