Best Laptop for under $1000??

[badseed]

I would appreciate any input on this topic.

I'm in the market for a laptop under $1000 and was wondering if anyone had any reccommendations?

Thanks in advance!

[FreakinPrince]

more info would be great such as what are you planning to do with the laptop? games, basic surfing. music? etc

there are alot of options out there..and you can probably ask for the brands people likes

so far, HP, Dell, IBM, those are some popular brands


it all comes down to what are you really planning to do with the laptop and just reading the spec to make sure its doable and will last you long enough.

cheers

[buh_buh]

I'm curious as well.
I've been using a $400 computer I bought brand new for the past 5 years. For me, it'll be basically surfing, music and homework.

What about Macbooks? Whats with all the hype?

[natejj]

Covers all your needs, less then $700, you're set.http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...19338(ME).aspx

[djrocketodd]

COSTCO FTW

[modded46]

HP Are there any other laptops out there? Not for the quality and money that's for sure..

[Donmega]

Last day for this one. my brother has it, really good all around.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0093867&catid=

[badseed]

Thanks for the input.

Regarding use of the laptop, mainly I would be using it for web surfing, music.........no gaming.

I noticed nobody mentioned Dell, any thought on Dell?

[zoik]

i personally don't like dell.

if all you are using this for is surfing, music etc, find the cheapest one with the largest harddrive and most ram! that's all you'll need.

HP is the number one laptop company. acer is actually number 2, i personally don't like acer, but worldwide it's very popular. sony is overpriced for what you get. mac's, unless you need a mac don't worry about getting it, it would be overkill, and they are usually more expensive. hope this helps

[SpoonEK9@STRD]

Though hp maybe number one, I have owed a couple. They produce some pretty crappy units. A couple people I know with the same laptops, dv6000(black gloss top), have serious hardware issues. All of them have had network card problems, I believe all owners get extended warranty now because they finally found out its faulty mother boards. Both previous and current gen 'tops have dvd problems, with it contantly popping open.
My own, actually had 3 problems: network card failure, dvd didnt read, and finally why they gave me 2 free laptops the video card failed. Compensated, but it took them 3 - 4 months of down time to do it

I'v owned a toshiba. They have wicked technical support, they replaced a faulty mother board within 2 days! at a local toshiba authorized repair shop.

They are generally in the same price range.

I'm gonna get a HP voodoo next. haha. 3,500 for a decent machine.

[Kavy]

When did HP become #1?

I have a forbes in my bathroom that says Dell sold more laptops then any other company over the last 5 years.

I have owned alot of dell alot of Hp's an 2 Acers

Would only buy a dell again.

The new Inspiron Series are magnesium made with Santa Rosa Core and are by far the best bang for the buck, according to the majority of reviews out there. HOWEVER no one has worse customer service then dell, they are terrible when it comes to having to call in.

If you want MAC OS then thats why you buy a mac no other reason as the hardware can be had for half the price in a PC format laptop, and side note. the new inspirons can run OSX as I am typing in firefox on OSX right now

Buy a 1520 from dell for 700 and you will be more then happy.

[badseed]

^^ Thanks, I'm looking into a Dell.

Seems to be the best bang for my buck, Acer is my second choice.

[Euro838]

What do you guys think about this? I know it's more than $1000 but there is an exact version with a 1.6 ghz cpu, 160 vs 200 gb hd and only 1 gb ram for $900. I think it's worth it to spend the extra $300 for these items. Anyways, was thinking about picking this one up because it is light and portable. Only thing it really seems to lack on is the video card. But if you are only looking for surfing and light gaming, then I think this is a pretty good one. Any thoughts?

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...gon=&langid=EN

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by buh_buh

What about Macbooks? Whats with all the hype?

Hey dude, I think I can explain why Mac’s are so 'hip' right now.

I used to build gaming rigs ($3500+) systems. I now own a Macbook pro ($2800.00'ish)

Some things I really like about my Mac.
- The OS is awesome for basic things, like surfing the internet, word documents, pirating movies, etc

- The OS is super intuitive, meaning that there aren't crazy commands and not even a right click.

- Some downsides, PC has taken over the work world and gaming world, so some programs (AutoCAD, Etc) have Mac versions but they aren't as good. Same thing with gaming.

- The nice thing about the NEW Mac's is that they use the x86 architecture which is used by both PC's and Macs now, which means you can run windows natively on your computer. So I have xp running on another partition and when I want to run a game XP is there to serve me.

- For hardware there isn't really anything THAT amazing, Mac just seem to spend more time making sure that all the pieces are nicely put together.

If you have any other questions just ask

[Unknown303]

Mac are just all hype. Sure you can install Windows on the now. But if thats the case why not get a Windows based computer to start you'd save a hell of a lot of money by removing the apple logo from the start.

And Brendan i have yet to see you build a 3500 gaming rig. Me? Not even, I've only broken 2200 once and its my current system.

[The Cosworth]

Originally posted by Unknown303
Mac are just all hype. Sure you can install Windows on the now. But if thats the case why not get a Windows based computer to start you'd save a hell of a lot of money by removing the apple logo from the start.

i have yet to see you build a 3500 gaming rig. Me? Not even, I've only broken 2200 once and its my current system.

haha, I will bet you that the last one before I went to my mac was around $3500.00 now that was because I had like 3 different video cards, two diff. monitors, three diff. hard drives, two diff. towers, and so on.

Mis-representation on my behalf, but in the end I bet it cost me over $3g's to put it together, so now it didn't perform like a $3500 rig bought all at once, but that was the hit my bank account felt.



my only argument is I would build a rig again if I could run OSX on it. I bought my mac to be able to run OSX not really for anything else. But I think I will build a new one for gaming and use my MBP just for OSx

[dragonone]

Originally posted by brendankharris



Hey dude, I think I can explain why Mac’s are so 'hip' right now.

I used to build gaming rigs ($3500+) systems. I now own a Macbook pro ($2800.00'ish)

Some things I really like about my Mac.
- The OS is awesome for basic things, like surfing the internet, word documents, pirating movies, etc

- The OS is super intuitive, meaning that there aren't crazy commands and not even a right click.

- Some downsides, PC has taken over the work world and gaming world, so some programs (AutoCAD, Etc) have Mac versions but they aren't as good. Same thing with gaming.

- The nice thing about the NEW Mac's is that they use the x86 architecture which is used by both PC's and Macs now, which means you can run windows natively on your computer. So I have xp running on another partition and when I want to run a game XP is there to serve me.

- For hardware there isn't really anything THAT amazing, Mac just seem to spend more time making sure that all the pieces are nicely put together.

If you have any other questions just ask

Brendan

totally agree
considering their prices and build quality (and software ha) it's a good deal
have you held some of the cheaper hp/toshibas? they feel like toys
ram is 30 bux for 1gb at memxpress
so any macbook + 60bux for ram and ur set

[Kavy]

Mac's are still overpriced considering their hardware. Yes they look pretty sweet but you can base on decision on how something looks, OSX can be installed on PC's now quite easily.

[dragonone]

playing with a hackintosh is nowhere near easy, definitely not easy for someone that needs advice between a mac/pc
please don't make ur decision based on this
if u wanna read up on it try http://forum.osx86scene.com/ and find ur torrents at thepiratebay

[Unknown303]

Originally posted by brendankharris


haha, I will bet you that the last one before I went to my mac was around $3500.00 now that was because I had like 3 different video cards, two diff. monitors, three diff. hard drives, two diff. towers, and so on.

Mis-representation on my behalf, but in the end I bet it cost me over $3g's to put it together, so now it didn't perform like a $3500 rig bought all at once, but that was the hit my bank account felt.



my only argument is I would build a rig again if I could run OSX on it. I bought my mac to be able to run OSX not really for anything else. But I think I will build a new one for gaming and use my MBP just for OSx

I just figure you'd base the price of a machine on the parts current inside of it. Not the parts moved through it and sold over the course of a few months. Just trying to say that you may have spent lots on a gaming rig over time. But net worth at any one time not including parts resold would not have been that large.

I must admit you did trade up to a pretty decent machine.

I'm also one to bash Macs as i bought a Macbook for my girlfriend, but i was also buying it because its what she wanted not based on my idea of functional.

But for the OP's sake i think we can all agree that a Macbook (Pro or not) is not going to be a sub 1000 dollar laptop so isn't really worth mentioning.

I'd say best bang for your buck would probably be an Acer or Dell, both have very decent customer service, and are fairly competitive prices.