Saw a Dell Inspiron 17R SE with a nice big screen, spiffy audio, 8GB RAM, Windows 7, the works - basically everything I wanted, except it was a Dell. Micro Center was having a sale, and the 17R SE was very well-reviewed wherever I looked. It was a *relatively *high-end laptop last year at $1100, and Micro Center was selling it for $800.
So I bit the bullet and snapped it up. We’ll see how it works!
Hey, that’s exactly what I have. I got it last October I believe. It was around $700 refurbished. It’s a bit heavy, but I really like it.
So it is! 
Consider buying your laptop from the OEM or a laptop store…
Here’s a VERY good site:
Go there. They actually have a forum for “What kind of laptop should I buy?” That’s up to date with the latest recommendations based on actual owners/powerusers of these notebooks. The forums are hugely useful for research and reading what owners have to say and getting support for whatever you end up buying.
See, the thing to be aware of is that there are actually only a few laptop makers:
Quanta, Compal, Asus, MSI, Uniwill and Clevo, and that’s basically it (there are others, but these brands have market dominance). Almost all of the others you hear of, like Dell, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo etc are actually made by one of the above names.
For instance, Clevo makes the: Sager NP9750, Voodoo Envy u:709, Alienware Aurora m7700 and the Hypersonic Aviator FX7. They are basically all the same computer, which means if you buy a high end Sager you get the same innards as a Alienware at about 40% the price.
Compal makes laptops for Dell, HP and Compaq.
Quanta makes the Dell Latitude series, the Sony Vaio series and IBM Lenovo series.
ASUS makes their own laptops, so their support is simply top notch. You are dealing direct with the OEM/factory for support. No one is going to know the product better. Of course they’re known for all their other parts as well. Mainboards, video, etc. After doing a bunch of research, they became my laptop brand of choice.
There are a few others, such as MSI, FIC, Mitac, ECS, AOpen and Gigabyte, but some of them don’t sell direct to you and others are lower end stuff. The point here, is that if you want a very nice laptop, don’t go the way of the boutique makers or ginormous companies that just slap their label on and then outsource support to India.
Instead, go to the OEMs or one of the smaller online shops and you can get a MUCH better deal on the same equipment and better support. If you are NOT as mobile, able to leave your laptop someplace for days or weeks, then consider one of the 17" Sagers. It is simply the best bang for your buck.
A couple of US sites (useful for pricing and spec-ing)
Regards,
-Bouncer-
PS: I do not have any association with any laptop companies or resellers.
Alas, Bouncer, you’re about 14 hours too late. But I’ll keep the advice in mind when it’s time to buy a replacement.
Hey Bouncer,
Have any ideas about similar OEMs for barebones, small-form-factor PCs? I’m looking for something like a Shuttle PC/Intel NUC/Gigabyte Brix, basically something that’s in a small package but still user-upgradable.
http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/systems/ is a good site, and Gigabyte as well as MSI both make their own versions as well.
http://www.msi.com/product/desktop/Wind-Box-DC100.html
Regards,
-Bouncer-