Need computer help!

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gold68dart

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I am hoping one of the computer experts out there can help me. I need to buy a laptop for classes I am taking at night. I don't need anything really powerful, just something that can handle word processing, excel and powerpoint and websurfing. I will also need to download movies from you tube for class presentations. I am trying to spend no more than $500. I went to Best Buy to look but there are so many to choose from and I don't know where to start. Can anyone recommend me a good laptop based on the criteria I mentioned above and also where to get one? Is Best Buy ok to buy from or should I try on line? Thanks!!!
 
I know nothing about consumer grade computers. I will say that from what I've heard, Best Buy has a reputation for being anything but. So does CDW, but I'm contractually obligated to buy from them for my organization - oh well. I personally have liked NewEgg and Walmart.com (not necessarily what they have in the store, but you can ship to store which is great), and have heard good things about Tiger Direct.
 
I am able to get MS office through my work a very cheap price

Anyone buy from newegg.com or tigerdirect.com before? Are they ok to deal with?

AMD vs Intel processors????

HP vs Dell vs ACER vs others????
 
I buy from both Newegg and Tigerdirect quite a bit, both are very good to deal with. AMD VS Intel...its pretty much personal preference...unless you are getting into some high end computing.
I work for HP...so I'm a bit biased...but I would stay away from Acer. The HP probooks are more of a business grade vs a consumer/home grade
I purchased one for my daughter when she went to college...and has had no issues with it.
 
With laptops the trade-off is usually battery life vs processing power.
Unless you are doing a lot of high level graphics processing (or EXTREMELY high level math), I'd lean towards the battery life side of the equation.

Do you need video out?
SD slot is almost assumed present.
USB? probably the same, but actually starting to be absent from some smaller units.
Hardwiired network connection?
"N" spec wireless? Nice if free, but necessary??

The one I'm using now is almost 3 years old Centrino Duo 2.2 GHz with 2 GB RAM.
I run Photoshop, Visio, sometimes a little AutoCAD, multiple instances (12 or more) of Excell, multiple instances of Word and RTF docs, sometimes two browsers with 10 pages open each, (sometimes all at the same time) and I leave it on (allowing it to sleep after an hour, or when I close the lid) all week without a reboot.

It does just fine.
 
I have bought a lot from NewEgg, and always a good experience. I can vouch for HP's EliteBook line, as I work in an HP shop, and deploy a lot to my user base. If their consumer models follow suit, you won't be disappointed. Before we were HP, we were Lenovo, and they are nice also, but lots of battery and keyboard replacements. Plus you likely won't find a Lenovo - even an IdeaPad - in your range unless it's a refurb.
 
Newegg is great and probably the cheapest.
Used to be a big Tiger Direct guy until Newegg came along.
Sometimes Tiger has better selection of components if you're building a desktop from scratch.

Got my TurboTax 2011 from Newegg for $10 less than walmart and also got a free 16GB flash drive.
 
mattsinger said:
I buy from both Newegg and Tigerdirect quite a bit, both are very good to deal with. AMD VS Intel...its pretty much personal preference...unless you are getting into some high end computing.
I work for HP...so I'm a bit biased...but I would stay away from Acer. The HP probooks are more of a business grade vs a consumer/home grade
I purchased one for my daughter when she went to college...and has had no issues with it.
Click to expand...

I couldn't find the HP630 from newegg on HP's website. Don't they make them anymore?

Which model or series did you get for your daughter or the ones that are more consumer/home grade?
 
...and my centrino battery life is 5 hours or more. It's a Dell Lat 5500.
I've never been crazy about Dells, but this one's nice. The new 5520 is NICE but big (and $$$).

Our Lenovo rep has been trying to sell to us for years.

I used to work for IBM (which spun off the PC market into Lenovo), and they were HORRIBLE to work on.
However, the rep told us that they just got out from under the IBM design and supply commitment, and are no longer forced to use IBM parts and designs.
He shoed us a "mid-sized" notebook that is in between a tablet and a laptop, and it rocks. Great compromise in size and it has all the hardware i/o our 40,000 unit plant wants. Everyone who saw it liked it.
 
YY1 said:
With laptops the trade-off is usually battery life vs processing power.
Unless you are doing a lot of high level graphics processing (or EXTREMELY high level math), I'd lean towards the battery life side of the equation.

Do you need video out?
SD slot is almost assumed present.
USB? probably the same, but actually starting to be absent from some smaller units.
Hardwiired network connection?
"N" spec wireless? Nice if free, but necessary??

The one I'm using now is almost 3 years old Centrino Duo 2.2 GHz with 2 GB RAM.
I run Photoshop, Visio, sometimes a little AutoCAD, multiple instances (12 or more) of Excell, multiple instances of Word and RTF docs, sometimes two browsers with 10 pages open each, (sometimes all at the same time) and I leave it on (allowing it to sleep after an hour, or when I close the lid) all week without a reboot.

It does just fine.
Click to expand...

I need at least one USB port. Battery life is also important but will mostly likely be plugged in alont. I also need it to have wireless capabilities and ethernet connection as well as CD drive. I won't be doing high end math just some statistical work in excel, presentations in powerpoint and papers in word and occasionally download movies for presentations. Would also have multiple browsers when doing research. So I'm not sure what kind of processor I would need for that.
 
My stepson just bought my wife a Toshiba Satellite L755.

It's pretty dang nice, and it was last years model for $350.
 
I bought her a HP probook 4520s...they do't sell it anymore...and that was purchased about 8 months ago. Hers had a 2.53 i3 processor and 4GB ram. It does everything see needs it to do...web, videos, MS Office, Photoshop......
 
For the record, I'm not the hardware guy or the even the PC guy.
I'm the IT project team leader, and I work on servers and switches.
I do spec, build and repair server hardware, but it's not the same as desktops or laptops.

I just wanted to qualify myself as NOT being a laptop expert.
 
Next lap top I buy & it will be shortly hopefully will have a metal case as I have broken 3 laptops thanks to them being plastic. Levono might be my only PC choice....the scanner software I use on my truck is Windows based no Apple products for me....
 
YY1 said:
...I used to work for IBM (which spun off the PC market into Lenovo), and they were HORRIBLE to work on....................
Click to expand...

I could NOT disagree more

I've owned SEVERAL Thinkpads, and find them the opposite of horrible to maintain. In addition, IBM has/ had just about the BEST online support a person could ask for. You could (and in many cases still can) download most any manual, maintenance manual, and drivers you can imagine, for some pretty old models, too.

I suggest, if you think Thinkpads are bad, you try to get support for Acer

Or maybe HP. Before I bought this ill fated Asus, I tried to call HP support, and by the way, I've ALREADY had some bad vibes from those Alpha Hotels, and tried to crowbar out of them if they still supply physical restore disks and for how much. After wasting 45 minutes and being switched to 4 different people, most of whom could not speak simple English, I gave up.

Or my latest bungle, this P.O.S. Asus

First thing I did after I bought it was order the "factory burned" restore CD/ DVDs. This is because I wanted to "play" with Linux and wanted a "fer sure" backup. So I bought a new hard drive and the first thing I did was check the operation of the brand new restore disks. Not only don't they NOT work right, it's as if they are for the wrong computer!!! I had to screw around for hours the get the correct drivers loaded on the thing.

I bought this laptop 10/ 11. So here we are, 4 months down the road and...........

The "A" key, the S, X, L, comma and period are all completely obliterated.

Worse that is absoLUTELY no help at all from ASUS on Linux support.

So I've owned ONE. I will NEVER EVER own another Asus
 
Comp USA bought Tiger; new egg is good, bought many things from both, usually just parts, to build them. AMD is just as good, and cheaper. I had 4 cdexks, with AMD, built a bigger/faster Intel. The AMDs that were slower and 3 years older kicked Intell's butt.

Heard good from friends about Acer, never tried one. I taught myself how to build computers after HP sent me the 6th one, under warranty. To replace the original one. Too much bs in the operating system, and propietary.
 
Done forget eBay Laptops

For example -- here is a nice one..

HP Pavilion G7-1139WM Intel Core I3-370M 2.4Ghz
4GB Ram --- 500GB Hard Drive
17.3" display --- includes a WEBCAM
Manufacturer refurbished -- $468.00

eBay Link
 
Actually, I think Tiger bought the rights to the defunct CompUSA name.

The Lenovo demo model I saw had a semi-ruggedized edge around the lid that also overlapped the main body when closed, also providing for a bit of rain/spill resistance.
Seemed like an exceptionally well thought out product.

It's been over 15 years since I worked for IBM's service subsidiary.
Back then IBM was LESS "IBM compatible" than almost any other brand.
Remember "reference disks"??
The entire culture of the compnay was illogical toward PC and (as was grouped into our job description) minicomputer support (AS 400). I still have copies of some of the forms I had to fill out in septuplicate, and have LOTS of other horror stories.

We did have cool devices called 'PTs" that handled our call assignments, and we were considered "at work" as soon as we tuned them on. A VERY high tech forerunner of today's "smartphone (no voice, just text and data, but on the cell network)"....although for some reason I STILL had to fill out handwritten timesheets and handwritten defective parts return forms. BTW we had about a 70% new defective rate, but were told NOT to order more than one of the same part at the same time, even if for a customer with a 4 hour contract.

OK, OK, ONE more...speaking of 4 hour contracts, I could actually have a part delivered via helicopter to our local municipal airport, but if I needed a service manual for any given model, I had to order a form to be mailed to me which I had to fill out by hand, mail that back to a different office, and wait for them to mail me the hardcopy manual.
 
green1 said:
Heard good from friends about Acer, never tried one..
Click to expand...

Boy I have not. Their online and phone support is nonexistant. I had a dual core, and while it "generally" did not work that bad, one USB port (of only two, the only ports on the entire machine) went bad for no reason. When I first bought the thing, I tried to get the bracket which holds the hard drive, generally called a "caddy." So I called support, and they had NO IDEA what I was talking about. "Don't show such a replacement part."

(This, again, was so I could have two hard drives, one to play with Linux, and to "leave" the original alone to insure I didn't screw it up.)
 
I tried to get a case side from Dell once. A frackin' 18" piece of sheet metal, and after 18 months and three managers, COULDN"T do it.

We spent 2.5 million with them that year, and they couldn't find me a 18" piece of sheet metal???
 
I sell and repair computers and have been using them since the start of the 80's. Here is the order I would look at for reliability.
Asus - all my custom builds and laptops are these
Sony
Hp
then a toss up beween lenovo, toshiba and dell
and last on my list would be acer <- about 60% of all my repairs

If you want to download movies and use it as a media centre ... go with a intel core2 or quad processor. i5/i7 and try and get a 750GB hard drive or larger with a min. of 2 gbs of ram. Movies will take about 700mb per flick and if you start a library ...make sure the hard drive is large enough or you will run out of room fast.

If you get these min. then it won't cost u a ton to upgrade later, cheaper to do it right the first time. I personally like using windows 7 pro in the 64 bit operating system with 4gb of ram. If you use the 32 bit operating system ...then dont go more then 3gb of ram as that is all that a 32bit will recognize. If you have any more questions ...drop me a pm
 
Although I might not agree with his stated rankings, in general I agree with the basics SB69GTS laid out.

I apologize to the OP, as this thread has mutataed quate a bit.

Quite a bit...quite...'nother margarita?
 
Huh, learn more every day. As far as tech- I had a Hp tech tell me over the phone, after I had held the phone to the computer, and tell her the hard drive was bad, as you can hear the heads hitting the discs" hold on a minute, she came back, and asked if I was comfortable opening the computer?" sure. she then told me a wire was hitting something, and I needed to move the wire.

Duh, the hard drive is going bad, so I take it apart and move the "wire" ?
 
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