Suggestions for a Reliable Laptop

[stellerGT]

So my Dell XPS1330 just shit the bed. I did some googling on the issue and it turns out a lot of people have had the same problem. I'm out of warranty so I'm SOL.

I'm looking for a new laptop, a reliable one. I'm thinking of getting a business line of laptops. Do you guys have any suggestions? I hear Lenovo Thinkpads are pretty good as well as Dell lattitudes, but Dell has left a sour taste in my mouth. I would hate to give Dell any more business. I just want to know if anyone has any suggestions for a good laptop. I've tried a search but there isn't a whole lot of information, lots of threads go back to 2007, and a lot of things have changed since then.

For my requirements:
- must be RELIABLE
- no mac, I love apple but not looking for a mac this time around
- no netbooks
- between 13-15.6" in size
- decent battery, I bring my laptop everywhere: school, work, traveling.
- used mostly to surf the net, word processing, not much gaming. I'll might play StarCraft2, but thats it.
- budget at most 800

Thanks everyone one for any help!!

[Seth1968]

Here's a recent thread on the subject:

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/307421/no...uy-a-new-comp/

[Neil4Speed]

You picked a bad example of Dell Quality, the XPS 13" were poor in that respect.

Consder either the Lenovo, Dell Vostro (I just bought a 3500, only complaint is the screen resolution which is somewhat poor), or the Asus.

For SC2, you actually need a decent amount of power to prevent it from looking like SC1.

Something like this:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...5%28ME%29.aspx

May be suitable.

[Mitsu3000gt]

What actually broke? The screen or case or something? The brand of the laptop usually has little to nothing to do with the reliability of the components inside, which are all made by other companies (Intel, etc.).

[oilerfan4lyfe]

The laptop Neil4Speed pointed out looks like a good one. If you're looking for something with more battery life, check out the Asus UL series...they're good enough to play SC2 on medium settings as long as you buy the models with the Nvidia 310M and the battery life is unbelievable.

Here's one of them

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...28876(ME).aspx

Bestdirect has the same laptop for $910 so you can probably get MemEx to match it I would think.

Keep in mind that there are a ton of different ones you can buy in this series...some have the older SU 7300 processor, some have just the integrated video card (not recommended if you want to play games), some have a 6 cell battery instead of an 8. Prices range anywhere from $600 up to $1100 depending on what you'd like.

[megavolt]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
What actually broke? The screen or case or something? The brand of the laptop usually has little to nothing to do with the reliability of the components inside, which are all made by other companies (Intel, etc.).

I'm going to guess the Nvidia video chip fried itself. Usually the result of the inability of a user to clean the space between the fan and heatsink resulting in overheating. I've bought a few dead laptops and there are almost always 'dead cats' (as I call them) completely blocking the heatsink.

If I were to make one suggestion on the purchase of a laptop make sure that the cooling solution is user maintainable without ripping apart the entire laptop. Oh... and clean it regularly. Remember, heat kills computers.

[Neil4Speed]

Originally posted by oilerfan4lyfe
The laptop Neil4Speed pointed out looks like a good one. If you're looking for something with more battery life, check out the Asus UL series...they're good enough to play SC2 on medium settings as long as you buy the models with the Nvidia 310M and the battery life is unbelievable.

Here's one of them

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...28876(ME).aspx

Bestdirect has the same laptop for $910 so you can probably get MemEx to match it I would think.

Keep in mind that there are a ton of different ones you can buy in this series...some have the older SU 7300 processor, some have just the integrated video card (not recommended if you want to play games), some have a 6 cell battery instead of an 8. Prices range anywhere from $600 up to $1100 depending on what you'd like.

In spite of being an oilers fan, I think you have it right, This would be totally what I would recommend too.




A bit above the price point but worth it. Keep in mind though it has no internal optical drive.

[jetfire]

If the Nvidia GPU was the problem, Dell extended the warranty an extra year for the XPS1330 (only for GPU problem) because it was such a common problem. I had to get mine replaced a couple weeks after my 1 yr warranty was over. Sent it back, no hassles.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Neil4Speed
A bit above the price point but worth it. Keep in mind though it has no internal optical drive.

It says it has a "DVD Super multi double layer" optical drive, unless I am misunderstanding. A lot of smaller computer's don't though, my 12" netbook doesn't have one.

Looks like great little computer though, something like that is what I plan on upgrading to if my netbook ever bites the dust.

[YamahaV8]

I would go with a Toshiba for what criteria you have listed. My Toshiba has been dropped, stepped on and abused and has never broken aside form the power cable port which was an oops I did. Never had any hardware issues with a Toshiba and they are usually well priced for what you get. I have also had an Acer but it didn't hold up as well as the Toshiba.

This seems to be good for your price range. I don't think it can play Starcraft 2 though.
Toshiba laptop from Futureshop

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by YamahaV8
I would go with a Toshiba for what criteria you have listed. My Toshiba has been dropped, stepped on and abused and has never broken aside form the power cable port which was an oops I did. Never had any hardware issues with a Toshiba and they are usually well priced for what you get. I have also had an Acer but it didn't hold up as well as the Toshiba.

This seems to be good for your price range. I don't think it can play Starcraft 2 though.
Toshiba laptop from Futureshop

Looks OK but it does have integrated graphics...probably not so good for SC2 haha. It's coming out soon too!

[Tomaz]

Asus laptops seem to have great reviews. I own one and LOVE it!

I was shown product reliability rates one laptops from many manufacturers and the Asus came out on top. I would always recommend them.

This is the one i picked up:
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...0%28ME%29.aspx

[YamahaV8]

Originally posted by YamahaV8
I don't think it can play Starcraft 2 though.

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt


Looks OK but it does have integrated graphics...probably not so good for SC2 haha. It's coming out soon too!

I think he will have a tough time getting a laptop that has good discrete video memory for under $800 though. I know they can be found but then they usually lack something else to maintain that price range. By no means should he look for a laptop at futureshop though unless they have a sale. I just posted that link because it has a good breakdown of the hardware. I think that dedicated laptop shops generally have better pricing although I could be mistaken.

[Neil4Speed]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt


It says it has a "DVD Super multi double layer" optical drive, unless I am misunderstanding. A lot of smaller computer's don't though, my 12" netbook doesn't have one.

Looks like great little computer though, something like that is what I plan on upgrading to if my netbook ever bites the dust.

Your right, I can't read apparently! I am just all kinds of fail in this thread - I mistook this one for the UL30

[scat330]

lenovo ftmfw

[hampstor]

I usually get industry reports on laptop reliability... I believe the most recent one published (it was late last year on channelinsider) listed the top 5 brands as: Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony and Dell.

From experience, you see a noticable difference in long term reliability from the entry lines (ie: Acer / Lenovo L / Lenovo SL series/Dell Vostro/Toshiba Satellite) vs. the mainstream lines (Lenovo T-Series/Dell Lattitude/Toshiba Tecra).

The mainstream lines from top tier manufacturers might be just outside your budget tho... so I'd say take a closer look at the Asus lineup. You get a well built notebook loaded with features. My only gripe about Asus is lack of a decent service centre network and no onsite repair.

[stellerGT]

Hey everyone, thanks for the great replies. It looks like I'll have to bump up my budget a bit. It seems like at 800bucks I would be making compromises here and there.

For those who are curious as to what happened to my old laptop, I awoke it from sleep and I was surfing the net. All of a sudden the laptop turns off, shuts off completely. I check the powercord to make sure that its plugged in correctly, it is. However the led light on the power bar is off. I remove the power cord, and check my battery indicator, it says full charge. I try to start the computer with battery power only, nothing happens. I replug the power cord into the wall socket, the led light turns on, and as i plug it into my laptop the led light on the power bar shuts off immediately. The laptop will not take a charge, the indicator lights on the front of the laptop are off. Usually there is a blue light indicating that the laptop is plugged into an electrical source.

I Googled the problem and it led me here, a member on this site had the exact same problem as i did. The members of notebook review diagnosed it as failure in the power rail or motherboard, I dont think its the nvidia gpu.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell...u-failure.html

On a side note, within the first 5 months of owning the laptop, I had a problem where the screen would not show anything. The back light would turn on, but the screen was all black with some vertical green lines. The computer would boot up at least. I sent it into dell for warranty work, the computer has been fine until now.

[CapnCrunch]

I've had experience with a Dell and Lenovo. The Dell (cheap entry level laptop) broke literally one week after my ex got it. The hard drive went bad. 1 fucking week.

My Lenovo has had issues (software) too. It was buggy as soon as I got it. It would freeze up solid during random simple tasks like Using word or internet browsing. I'd have to hard reboot it. I eventually started removing drivers and such and managed to get it working well enough that it wouldn't freeze solid.

After that, It would still sometimes freeze up, but nothing out of the ordinary, and it was shipped to me with about 70GB of the 100 GB hard drive full of software. (It was Vista with a shitload of Lenovo software on it). A few months ago it crashed, Vista was corrupted, Lenovo doesn't include the Vista discs, so I was out of luck.

So I bought Windows 7, installed it, and honestly, it is a completely different machine. It boots up in seconds instead of minutes, the hard drive is empty, everything is faster. I imagine this is how this machine should have performed from the beginning.

I guess my point is, whatever you get, get a copy of the OS cd and do a full install to clear off all of the shit that will come installed on your computer. And use windows 7.

[Zhariak]

Lenovo is the way to go... (Formerly IBM Thinkpads).

AMAZING laptops!

[thetransporter]

vaio. yeah i knwo dell is cool. but a vaio well last long plus reliable battery life.


my vaio battery is a china clone, and i still get 8 hours of it, i purchased the battery in 06, just imagine if i bought a sony extended battery