Lap top computers.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Some people here have computers, right?

OK – while I’m a little computer savvy, I’m not “consumer savvy” when it comes to computers.

Our desktop right now is something I had some local guys build and it’s a piece of crap.

Our laptop is a “think pad” I bought off eBay for $125 and it’s old and slow.

So, we’re finally getting a laptop. I’m willing to spend up to about $900 IF I NEED to, but would like to get out of it for about $600 if it meets my needs.

Main use: “QuickBooks” for my wife’s small business.

Seconday: Probably a little internet surfing, but not much downloading of things

Tertiary: Managing pictures from the digi-cam. I’d like to be able to burn CDs.

Things I don’t need it for: networking, gaming, music downloads, video, fancy graphics, lots of floating point operations.

They all have wi-fi nowadays, right? Do they all burn CDs? (mine doesn’t)

What’s the big difference between Dell “inspiron” and “latitude”?

Does HP have a better rep?

Any likes and dislikes?

Thanks.

2

I’m not an Apple guy, but it looks like QuickBooks is on Mac. If you’re not going to be doing any gaming and you’re fine to get it used, a Mac should be fine for you and should be reliable. Of HP and Dell I would go for Dell.

Either way, you’re going to be going used at the $500 to $900 range, but yes I would imagine they will support CDs. WiFi I’m not sure but you should be able to determine that pretty quick.

3

How do you plan to use your laptop, or ‘lap top’? If you are going to use it on your lap, you will want to look for a intel moble chip, standard intel chips and most AMD chips even their mobile ones like the Turion 64 run hotter and are uncomfortable on one’s lap. Not that the torion is that hot, but for long term lap computing it’s not the best.

Do you want something very small to make it easier to travel with, or a laptop with a large screen?

BTW Quickbooks has a windows version and evidently a mac version.

4

QuickBooks is definitely on PC.

Also, Dell has plenty of new stuff for less than $900.

5

Considerations:

The chief consideration here would be speed and memory, but from the sound of things, any amount of speed and memory in a new laptop is going to be so far beyond what you are used to it’s not somethingyou even need to focus on.

Do you have cable or DSL internet? If you’re still on dial-up, wi-fi won’t do you much good, unless there’s a wi-fi ISP with a hotspot near where you are going to use the laptop. If you simply want wi-fi to be able to surf while lounged on the sofa, then, barring the hotspot situation, you will need to buy a wireless router and connect it to your high-speed modem.

If you are looking for wi-fi to sneak onto your wi-fi enabled neighbor’s high-speed connection, lemme just say that waiting for someone else to turn on their router so you can scam off them gets old real fast.

If you just want wi-fi just because you think you might use it one day, most models have it, but check. If you think you might be using it a lot while flying, I recommend a model with an actual physical switch that turns off the antenna, for convenience.

Many of them burn CDs and DVDs, but since you’re going budget, be sure to check.

How do you use your digicam? If you plug it directly into your computer, then just about every model will have a USB jack to plug it into. If you work mainly with memory cards, you will need to make sure the laptop you buy reads the cards you use, or buy a plug-in card reader for your type of card.

I don’t know the specifics of Dell laptop models these days, but I can tell you that in the four years I’ve owned a Dell desktop, customer service and tech support have taken a nosedive and are now firmly in swirly-water-land. In their desktop lines, HP has a rep for buying up the remainder of lines from small defunct computer companies and releasing them under the HP aegis, offerering little or no tech support a few months down the line. Don’t know if their laptop division works the same way.

In their 2005 survey of laptop-using subscribers (with 45,000 responses), Consumer Reports says that HP and Dell had about the same percentage of people reporting serious problems (18%), narrowly beating out Gateway and Compaq (19%), but being edged out by Apple and Toshiba (17%), and Sony and IBM(now Lenovo), (16%). CR says this small range of differences is not significant.

I have a Toshiba Satellite, and it’s sa-hweet.

6

Thanks, scott. I hadn’t really thought about Toshiba.

We used to ahve dial-up which we used for the crappy laptop and the desktop. We currently have Verizon DSL, connected to the desktop through an ethernet cable, but we’re calling verizon today about getting a wireless modem.

And, I do have a neighbor with wireless access who keeps his connection open.

7

The Inspiron is supposedly aimed at the consumer market while Latitude is aimed at the commercial customer. I have two Inspirons (8500 Widescreen & 5150) that both performed very well. I’ll soon (as soon as I can wipe them clean) be getting rid of them because I’ve just upgraded to a new desktop, but since you don’t seem to be interested in used goods, I’ll stop there :slight_smile:

8

Verizon may simply sell you a wireless router to hook up between your desktop and your DSL modem, in which case it’s not a bad idea to comparison shop at your local Best Buy/Circuit City/what have you. Wireless routers aren’t that hard to hook up yourself. Security once they’re hooked up takes a little time, but isn’t that hard either.

9

I selected their basic $449 Inspiron 1300 and by the time I upgraded the OS to XP Pro and 512MB of RAM it was up to $638. Looks like the NIC is wireless at no additional cost. Even though the screen is small (14") this seems like a decent machine for the basic needs you’ve described.

The catch here is that Verizon refuses to provide phone support for anything but their branded stuff which is sold (I think) at Staples.

10

You can definitely get a new laptop for less than $900 and it doesn’t need to be a crappy one. I hate used laptops because it is the basically the same thing as buying used underwear. The best way to do that is look for one of the weekly specials at Best Buy, CompUSA, or Dell online. They always have some laptop or other they have bought in mass quantities that week and you just walk in and buy. You might be able to get one as low as $650 although the good ones bought this way may run closer to $800.

11

What are you saying here?

I want to get rid of my desktop computer completely.

Right now, the connection goes:

phone jack – DSL modem – ethernet port on desktop

What I want is:

phone jack – wireless DSL modem – “magic” connection to laptop

That’s how it works, no?

12

Wasn’t sure what your intention was. I have phone jack - DSL modem - wireless router - Ethernet to desktop (for monitoring the router) and “magic” connection to the two laptops.

I haven’t worked with a wireless DSL modem combo, so you may be fine with just the laptop.

13

Yes that’s what Verizon offers - a one piece combo DSL modem+wireless router.

14

Yeah, that’s what I thought. I think they want $50 for it.

I might be able to do better pricewise, but I bet it’s only going to be about $25 better, and I’ve been happy with Verizon.

15

Well… Shows me for not doing any price checking before responding. :smack:

16

Make sure you check out www.dealnews.com or www.gotpaex.com for deals, epecially on Dell laptops. They often have 20% off coupon codes or specials Dell isn’t making easy to find on their own website. I got a $1500 laptop for about $1100 that way last Christmas.

17

You know. . .there’s a lot of stuff out there like that, but I always see deals for product lines that aren’t current, or at least aren’t listed on the manufacturer’s web page.

Or sometimes, they’re advertising something as a deal, that turns out to be shit. To wit,

this

and

this

Not that I don’t appreciate the effort.

There’s only so much research and digging I’ll do to try to save myself a few bucks.

18

It’s at the top of your price range but here in my job we just got a shipment of Dell D620’s

They are very nice machines. Nice bit of power and will play some pretty high end games with the on board graphics card.

19

I second the Toshiba mention.
Not a big Dell fan.
HP laptops are good, not impressed with Compac lately
Acer, if you don’t want support, is… cheap.

20

Yeah, that’s one I’d been looking at. A bit more power and functionality than I need, though, but I haven’t ruled it out. Maybe the d520 instead.

Don’t need much multitasking capabilities. Don’t need a superfast processor.