Laptop for Christmas?

-GZ-

Im looking for a laptop for school but I'm not sure which one I should get. I have a budget of like $600. I was thinking of this one because it is pretty cheap and pretty awesome. Does anyone have a laptop they can suggest for me for school under $600?
 
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/25697
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/25735

These are examples of the sorts of deals you can get for $600 or so. I would absolutely not settle for what you would be with that compaq. Do not worry about bluray or something like that (which seems to be the only possible thing what you linked could have going for it) - your resolution is likely only going to be about 720p anyway!

The Toshiba deal still seems to be alive, but you can monitor this site (maybe check about twice daily, but also as many times as you want since some great deals run out within a half hour) for future deals, especially around black friday. If you are willing to settle for refurbs, then you can get some all right dells every now and then for about $300-$400.
 
Just don't buy an HP if it's one of the first models in that line of laptops, they typically break down >.<
Look up the tx1000 and weep
 
My friend has had experiences with two HP Laptops and now he owns 2 of them and an acer netbook(for school) none of his HPs have broken down, and HPs are one of the best PCs out there. I'm not looking for a Mac or anything, I have had experiences with them too, and personally I don't like them, and they don't even fit my budget. HPs seem to be affordable and I was looking into Toshiba's too. I'm just mainly looking for a school computer and personal use. A netbook would be pretty good but not too good for personal use, and it has no CD drive.
 
My Toshiba has been going strong since I got it in January 2007 and it was a floor model. I guess experience varies, although I can't think of anyone with a single positive thing to say about HP laptops. Everyone I know who has one has had terrible issues and needed to get them replaced.
 
I have a 7 year old Toshiba that still works fine. Of course that doesn't say anything about what the current models are like.
 
Toshibas I've heard are decent, but they have about the worst battery life imaginable, so I think that's their only major con. HPs are ok as well (used to have one), but meh...I dunno, just something I didn't care for. My current one (Asus) works fine, love it.
 
I use a HP laptop, and it was excellent for a long time, but recently I have had a few issues (just over two years old now). It goes through phases of the whole thing crashing like crazy for a day or two, then the problem randomly disappears. It's quite weird and doesn't effect me too much because I mostly use it for leisure, but it is hardly desirable. Also, I have to constantly put it on the highest performance because otherwise the screen goes black and just stops every 30 minutes or so, meaning I have to reload everything. This absolutely sucks battery life, and it's caused a few issues with overheating, where it turns itself off because it gets too hot. Just thought I'd chuck my experience out there.
 
Shinryu said:
Toshibas I've heard are decent, but they have about the worst battery life imaginable, so I think that's their only major con. HPs are ok as well (used to have one), but meh...I dunno, just something I didn't care for. My current one (Asus) works fine, love it.
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Had one, died in less than a year. Started developing serious faults in the first two months, needed a reinstall of Windows by the third due to a corrupt boot sector. Toshiba wouldn't replace it. Faulty RAM, HDD had bad sectors amongst many other problems, BSOD'd every five minutes, would freeze constantly and I lost a lot of work, internet was highly temperamental (wifi would disappear for days). Windows stopped working four times in the space of one month once. CD drive failed. Linux fared a little better. Battery was tempramental as fuck. Putting in the charger often caused the laptop to turn off.
Which was, incidentally, the fifth or sixth charger I had to buy, and they are expensive as fuck. The chargers kept not working. Toshiba wouldnt replace them, either.

I say it lasted less than a year; there was a period of about three months earlier this year where it just wouldn't turn on. At all. Then it started turning on again.



Used two of my friends Toshibas, they also suck and were beginning to show the same problems mine had.

It's probably not what you're looking for but I have the Samsung NC10 now. I love it lots.
 
Since this is a tech thread and all, I'm wondering if I could get some advice please?

I have this computer: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=3356598&lc=en&cc=ca&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=ca

It has a PCI expression x16 slot, and I really want to get rid of that Nvidia 6150 onboard graphics card so I can start playing some L4D1/2 and MW2. I want to get either one of these cards:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130313
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127412

Now my main two questions:

One of them is the 9xxx series from Nvidia and the other is 8xxx. I'm leaning towards the 9000 series, but will this be sufficient enough for me to play these 3 games?

And also my other concern is size. Will these two cards fit in my computer?

If anyone could help, it would be appreciated.
 
I'd suggest you google [model of card] review, they'll usually pop up with some tests that'll show what games it can run and what framerates it'll manage with them. I just finished building a gaming computer myself, but I threw one of these in it, so I don't think I'll be having graphics-related issues with anything I decide that I want to play on it. However, the damn thing is so big that it blocked all but one of the SATA ports on my motherboard, and I had to install a separate controller card just to run my DVD drive :(
 
I should also add Toshiba wouldn't send me another Windows disk because apparently I should have been able to reinstall Windows from the recovery partition. Trying to explain to Toshiba that the recovery partition was, in fact, corrupt as well got me nowhere. And people say piracy is never justified!
 
Eraddd said:
Since this is a tech thread and all, I'm wondering if I could get some advice please?

I have this computer: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=3356598&lc=en&cc=ca&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=ca

It has a PCI expression x16 slot, and I really want to get rid of that Nvidia 6150 onboard graphics card so I can start playing some L4D1/2 and MW2. I want to get either one of these cards:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130313
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127412

Now my main two questions:

One of them is the 9xxx series from Nvidia and the other is 8xxx. I'm leaning towards the 9000 series, but will this be sufficient enough for me to play these 3 games?

And also my other concern is size. Will these two cards fit in my computer?

If anyone could help, it would be appreciated.
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They're both pretty terrible. Will definitely not run MW2 at anywhere near acceptable quality. L4D is probably out of the question too, although they depend more on your CPU. Upgrading pre-built computers is tricky as the power supplies are usually of extremely low quality so you need a low enough power video card so as not to blow up your computer.
 
I will also agree with the Toshiba shitty battery life complaint, mine's not even 6 months old and lasts an absolute maximum of 2 hours, and that's when I'm not doing anything remotely CPU intensive. Then again, I must stress that I bought the laptop for pretty much the purpose of being a desktop that I can carry around the house when I need to (and because of the 17-inch screen); if I need anything ultra-portable (such as for taking to school), I use my netbook with its 9-hour aftermarket battery :)

akuchi said:
I should also add Toshiba wouldn't send me another Windows disk because apparently I should have been able to reinstall Windows from the recovery partition. Trying to explain to Toshiba that the recovery partition was, in fact, corrupt as well got me nowhere. And people say piracy is never justified!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't consider it piracy if you already own a valid serial key for it, but they're just being dicks and won't give you the actual disc. Besides, who wants all that crapware that comes pre-installed on your laptop anyways?
 
Firestorm said:
They're both pretty terrible. Will definitely not run MW2 at anywhere near acceptable quality. L4D is probably out of the question too, although they depend more on your CPU. Upgrading pre-built computers is tricky as the power supplies are usually of extremely low quality so you need a low enough power video card so as not to blow up your computer.
Click to expand...

Well... fuck. Any ideas? I only have a PCI x16 slot.
 
Eraddd said:
Well... fuck. Any ideas? I only have a PCI x16 slot.
Click to expand...
It's probably best to wait until you're ready to get a new computer altogether and get it custom built from NCIX. If you're looking to game, it's too expensive to go with a pre-built computer.
 
Firestorm said:
It's probably best to wait until you're ready to get a new computer altogether and get it custom built from NCIX. If you're looking to game, it's too expensive to go with a pre-built computer.
Click to expand...

I don't have the money or the time for that. Fuck. Well, I guess I need to wait another year to actually game again.

Edit: instead of MW2, will the video card be able to run COD4 and COD5? If they can, I'll buy it. I know that my power supply can run it, so it's okay.
 
lol I got an alienware laptop for close to 3000$ but already after 3 months one corner of the border around the screen is loose and getting worse every day. unfortunately I would need to send in my latop to replace the specialized screws so I'm kinda screwed.
 
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