Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

Lenovo bought the part of IBM that made desktops and laptops.

Anything in the $300-500 range with an Intel i3 and at least 4GB of memory will do what you need it to do.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

[quote=BDBohnzie;1008480]Lenovo bought the part of IBM that made desktops and laptops.

Anything in the $300-500 range with an Intel i3 and at least 4GB of memory will do what you need it to do.[/quote]

Basically this. The only time you really need better specs is when you're either gaming, video editing, or doing 3D Cad drawings. I guess it could also help to get a better CPU if you have extreme ADD like me and you open multiple multiple multiple tabs. The other day I was closing Firefox and I had a popup tell me something like "You're about to close 106 tabs are you sure you want to proceed?"

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

[quote=firstdown;1008168]Two of you have mention Lenovo I have never heard of them but that's not saying very much. The $400 to $500 price range was what I was thinking but I don't want a piece of crap that fails over and over again. I just don't need all the bells and whistles. I also don't know crap about computers.[/quote]


Ever hear of the old IBM Thinkpads? The indestructible laptops with the little red trackball in the middle of the keyboard? Lenovo makes them. They go by the Lenovo name now instead of IBM.
Old:
[IMG]http://homepage.univie.ac.at/l.ertl/thinkpadt40/thinkpadt40.jpg[/IMG]

New:
[IMG]http://www.computershopper.com/var/ezwebin_site/storage/images/ces-2012/new-lenovo-laptops!-the-thinkpad-x1-hybrid-t430u-and-more/lenovo-thinkpad-e530-open/971236-1-eng-US/lenovo-thinkpad-e530-open_slideshow_main.jpg[/IMG]

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

[quote=hagams;1008252]Once you go Mac, you never go back.[/quote]

I have a newer iMac for work and a Windows 7 machine for myself...I prefer Windows overall.

I've built PCs, ran Linux, used Macs and I keep going back to Windows. Win 7 if the best version they ever made.

I won't touch that POS Windows 8. I absolutely hate what they've done to it.


Choose a Windows 7 machine for the best bang for the buck.

Choose a Mac if you want your bank account to be sodomized by fruit.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

[quote=Monkeydad;1008569]I have a newer iMac for work and a Windows 7 machine for myself...I prefer Windows overall.

I've built PCs, ran Linux, used Macs and I keep going back to Windows. Win 7 if the best version they ever made.

[B]I won't touch that POS Windows 8. I absolutely hate what they've done to it.
[/B]

Choose a Windows 7 machine for the best bang for the buck.

Choose a Mac if you want your bank account to be sodomized by fruit.[/quote]

Windows 8 has some great positives. The kernel is cleaned up and runs really efficient, once Blue (Windows 8.1) comes out, you can set that as your default home which will bring back the start button/etc. At that point, I think I'll make the switch.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

[quote=Daseal;1008573]Windows 8 has some great positives. The kernel is cleaned up and runs really efficient, once Blue (Windows 8.1) comes out, you can set that as your default home which will bring back the start button/etc. At that point, I think I'll make the switch.[/quote]

Yeah to be fair I've heard similar critiques in favor of Windows 8 in that its more stable and efficient then Windows 7. It seems to be, with good reason, that the main gripe is the removal of the traditional start button as well as the system not starting in desktop mode in which case theres plenty of fixes out there from apps that you pay $3 through paypal to a couple free ones. Also as ThatGuy pointed out Microsoft is likely going to bring it back in an update.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

You need a tablet.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

same thing that's always true, did microsoft make it?
wait until service pack 1.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

Just reminded of something. Be very careful about getting a Lenovo. The one I set up for my Dad had a very funky touchpad mouse that in my experience was very unresponsive. Theres some interesting features like paging down by putting two fingers on the touch pad but it seems more often then not the mouse does things you had no intention of doing, like it has a mind of its own. There were also times where we had to click it like 3 or 4 times to get one left click to work.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

[quote=That Guy;1008596]same thing that's always true, did microsoft make it?
wait until service pack 1.[/quote]
This all day and twice on Sunday. I was an early adopter of Vista at work because we needed a SysAdmin up on it. It wasn't until SP1 that a good many of the daily quirks went away. I didn't wait on Windows 7, but only because it was pretty much a SP and then some of Vista. The Network Admin got a new laptop with Win8 and after a month, downgraded to Windows 7. Win8 is not very business-environment friendly, especially without a touchscreen.

Windows touchpads in general suck. That is one thing that Mac has done leaps and bounds better than Windows. The touchpad on the MacBook Air I have for work is amazing.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

i remember before SP1 in vista... try to copy 5,000 files - time remaining: 12 hours.
after SP1, time remaining: 2 minutes.


wtf?

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

Well we have finally moved so I told my wife to read this thread and to go buy something today.I told her she could spend up to $600 what's the odds she spends more?

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

So I had a Toshiba laptop that always ran hot, had it for years, and usually could resolve most quirks. The other day I came home, turned it on, and...
nothing. no bios screen, no home screen the power light comes on, but there is no harddrive activity whatsoever.

I took out the harddrive and reseated it, I took the ram out, and reseated it. I let it charge for more than enough time, and I took out the battery, and reseated it.

Still nothing. Anyone have any ideas, or is it officially dead?

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

No beeps? Sounds power related then. Take the battery out and use just the AC adapter. Then put the battery back in. I just had a 2 year old Lenovo that I was working on and that did the trick.

Re: Need Help Purchasing A Laptop
 

Thanks, no beeps, nothing. I did try just AC, and didn't work either. My assumption is that the bios chip overheated, but I have never actually seen a computer that didn't atleast read the bios.