What laptop to buy?

[Gondi Stylez]

I have been looking at a few differnt ones but the one that I keep coming back to are the Toshiba Satellites.

These are the ones I am strongly debating between:

Toshiba Satellite P30-RG1 $ 1700
Toshiba Satellite M40-YP3 $ 2300
Toshiba Satellite M40-JM3 $ 1900

My price limit is $2000
I want 1.6 HGz or higher, DVD burner, CD burner, 80GB hard drive, 15.4" wide screen (not bigger or smaller), decent graphics for watching movies and such

I want the laptop for school based work, buring music/dvd, watching movies, some gaming and i think that is it.... maybe more?

Which of these 3 would you guys buy? I will be upgrading to 1GB of RAM when I buy the comp so that will increase my speed greatly. I hate having my desktop crash all the time due to insuffiecnt memory etc (512MB) I want good wireless router inside (or whatever connects you to the internet?) and similar features.

PS - I searched and I really didn't find what I was looking for so please dont tell me to!!:)

Thanks!

[kaput]

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[BerserkerCatSplat]

I would suggest looking at the refurbished Toshibas at www.tigerdirect.ca , it has really good prices.

EDIT: check this one out, specifically.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1105662


No DVD burner, but I'm sure that you can get one for less than the difference between the $1400 price of this notebook and your $2000 price limit.

[GucciBoy]

Originally posted by BerserkerCatSpl
I would suggest looking at the refurbished Toshibas at www.tigerdirect.ca , it has really good prices.

EDIT: check this one out, specifically.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1105662


No DVD burner, but I'm sure that you can get one for less than the difference between the $1400 price of this notebook and your $2000 price limit.

1GIG ram wont speed it up "greatly"

[abyss]

For refurbished local you could try Computer Trends. My Toshiba laptop was from there (which isn't mine anymore but I'm sure it's being used to it's full potential by Dirty_SOHC :D ). We never had any problems with it for the 3 years we had it and it was a really great price. They're worth a quick look anyways.

[Gondi Stylez]

Ok that helps.. i will look at the refurbs!

kaput for the yp3 i can get a discount cuz a good friend of mine works at staples so i can get that for under 2g and i have accounted 2g w/o any upgrades!

btw. this may seem like a dumb question but do all laptops have the "stand" in the back to tilit the laptop towards you?!?!

[Despair*]

^ From what I've seen of laptops, I haven't really seen alot that come with a stand to tilt it.

[buddha]

Ever heard of ASUS??? They produce the top mother boards in the world. They also do laptops, the one I'm getting is at memoryexpress. It has everything you listed and it's only $1599.
I honestly would rather buy a ASUS over a toshiba any day.
I bet you that the mother board in that toshiba is a ASUS anyways.

[kaput]

.

[buddha]

not sure, about memex but the ASUS provides a 2 year global warrenty. Which means anywhere in the world if there is a ASUS they will service you. Check it out :

http://www.memoryexpress.com/


it's on the main page, just scroll to the bottem where all the laptops are, I think you have to move the page to the right but it's the ASUS A6000Ne. I had it checked out by some of my friends who are IT 's and the say it's worth every penny.

[GucciBoy]

Mines left - buddies right M30 and M40

I like M30, widescreen - trust me you will like it better.

[Gondi Stylez]

^^^ nice pic!:bigpimp:

[01RedDX]

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[buddha]

I don't know man, I've hear alot of bad stuff about Acer. A few guys at Memex told me not to buy Acer.

[DarkDream]

Acer has very bad customer support...

The toshiba M40-JM3 i had that laptop for awhile but i returned it....

But i still say its a good laptop..... The m40 has a very nice screen its crystal clear....

The processor speed i thought it was enough the 1.6ghz..... and another good thing is its the new sonoma chip.... so the FSB of the pentium is 533FSB I am not sure if you can upgrade the RAM to a faster speed so your gonna have to call toshiba about that.....

But the one thing that really caught my eye was the nvidia geforce 6600..... this can play any game now and in the future.... Its below the 6800 but the 6800 takes alot of power and you don't want that escpecially on a laptop and the lower model the 6200 is crappy cause its only 32MB dedicated and the remaining 96MB is shared from your ram so the Nvidia 6600 Is the happy medium.... I am not going to go through with the other specs becasue i am sure you already know it....


By the way i think the only differences between the JM3 and the YP3 is YP3 has a faster hard drive speed(5400rpm) and a faster processor speed

[hampstor]

if you're buying any notebook, make sure you ask what the warranty policy is, ask how it works, and make sure you buy what you need the notebook for - not the 'i think ill be doing this in the future'. You'll end up spending way more money on something that you -might- use later on.

[soupey]

1gb of ram is gravy..there isnt much of a huge increase in performance past 512mb on most computers.

[SwitchBlade]

Hey, which labtop did you end up choosing? I have also been looking at the Toshiba Sattelites for the exact same criteria as you. How much did you end up spending and where did you purchase it?

[Chandler_Racing]

Dunno if you open to suggestions, but here goes. I purchased a HP pavilion it came with p4 2.8 gig desktop processor, 512 ram, 128 ati 9000igp, 15.4 widescreen and 60 gig harddrive, cd/dvd burner for 1399. Its now priced at 1299 and is probably the best deal out there for the performace. To date I have had nothing, but good things to say about it even though i had my doubts because of the "Hp" american name.

I run the latest games (half life 2) smoothly and don't have any problems with crashes. The laptop comes with a wireless G card so you are good to go from that perspective. The only downside to this unit in my opinion is that it is not the smallest on the market, but still portable.

[Gondi Stylez]

Originally posted by SwitchBlade
Hey, which labtop did you end up choosing? I have also been looking at the Toshiba Sattelites for the exact same criteria as you. How much did you end up spending and where did you purchase it?

I still havent bought on yet! I have to wait until June since my cousin has a wholesaler, so I am still doing some research and looking at many machines!


Originally posted by Chandler_Racing
Dunno if you open to suggestions, but here goes. I purchased a HP pavilion it came with p4 2.8 gig desktop processor, 512 ram, 128 ati 9000igp, 15.4 widescreen and 60 gig harddrive, cd/dvd burner for 1399. Its now priced at 1299 and is probably the best deal out there for the performace. To date I have had nothing, but good things to say about it even though i had my doubts because of the "Hp" american name.

I run the latest games (half life 2) smoothly and don't have any problems with crashes. The laptop comes with a wireless G card so you are good to go from that perspective. The only downside to this unit in my opinion is that it is not the smallest on the market, but still portable.

Well, that one sounds good! Where did u get it? I have heard some good things about HP but i really startinmg to lean towards compaq!

One of my friends has an acer and he loves it. For 1300 you cant go wrong and since weight is also an issue (since its for school), so will see! still another 2 weeks!

[TurboMedic]

I bought bought an HP pavilion zv5000 for 1399 with the following specs:
AMD Mobile athalon 64bit 3000+ processor
512MB RAM
DVDRW/combo drive
60gig HD
15.4" Widescreen w/Brightview (Highly recommended!!!)
Harmon/Kardon sound
only 64MB VRAM, but meh, I don't game....
builtin wireless G, USB 2.0, Firewire, 4 in 1 media card reader
love it so far, kicks the crap outta my old dell!

[Chandler_Racing]

Originally posted by Gondi Stylez


I still havent bought on yet! I have to wait until June since my cousin has a wholesaler, so I am still doing some research and looking at many machines!



Well, that one sounds good! Where did u get it? I have heard some good things about HP but i really startinmg to lean towards compaq!

One of my friends has an acer and he loves it. For 1300 you cant go wrong and since weight is also an issue (since its for school), so will see! still another 2 weeks!
I used acers in the past and had nothing but problems with it. If it were my choice i would stay away. The $1299 Hp laptop should be availible at futureshop i believe. They say they are selling them below cost, but i dunno if i really believe that. When i bought mine they also threw in a printer. Like the other guy mentioned the laptop does come with harmon kardon speakers which sound really good.