Shopping for a laptop - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

asudevil83 · 04-20-2004, 10:01 PM

Lately i've been going out with my mom to places like Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, looking for a new laptop for her for school. we arent looking for something amazing, but nothing bottom of the barrel

i've told her to by pass going with one of those Pentium Celerons, and if anything go for an AMD Athalon, just for the fact that i hear so many negative things about the Celerons.

what i'm asking is if anyone has any advice as to where to find the best deals, either online or in store. the best i've come up with right now is buying straight from HP, getting a AMD 2500, 256 megs, 14 inch, cd burner, wireless lan, 20g hardrive....all for $850. i'm pretty sure that i can find a better deal somewhere else, but i'm having a hard time.

MoNoXiDe_XXX · 04-20-2004, 10:23 PM

Definatly not a deal. but...
http://voodoo.ca/systems/m855.aspx

As well i bought a HP pavillion a while ago and had nothing but problems with it. Specialy the recharging unit.

Bossnass · 04-21-2004, 12:02 AM

In my shopping for laptops, I've had a hard time finding a better deal then dell for mid-range systems. My brother has a celeron based 1000 series inspiron, which was around 1000. Little heavier then I would prefer, but he has had no problems.

What are the negative things you've heard about celerons? I'm not that big of a computer enthusiast, but the architecuture of a celeron lends itself nicely (as a price compromise proportional to a performance comprimise) to a 'school' type computer.

The Athlon is the upper tier of AMD, which in fairness should be compared to the p4 or the p4m. Compare the AMD duron to the celeron. durons are slightly faster at the same speed, but are also slightly more expensive.

I understand that the (somewhat impressive) mobile-athlon-64 is being sold at a loss right now to gain some market ground against the p4m, although it is having terrible heat issues -in the laptops it was designed for. My source for this is a recent conversation with a programmer friend of mine, so it might not have any real basis.

I have also heard more bad then good about hp laptops. Heard more good then bad about toshiba satilites and most dells. If you're looking for a new machine around $850, you are somewhat limited.

04-20-2004, 10:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
asudevil83 Psycho Location: Scottsdale, AZ	Shopping for a laptop Lately i've been going out with my mom to places like Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, looking for a new laptop for her for school. we arent looking for something amazing, but nothing bottom of the barrel i've told her to by pass going with one of those Pentium Celerons, and if anything go for an AMD Athalon, just for the fact that i hear so many negative things about the Celerons. what i'm asking is if anyone has any advice as to where to find the best deals, either online or in store. the best i've come up with right now is buying straight from HP, getting a AMD 2500, 256 megs, 14 inch, cd burner, wireless lan, 20g hardrive....all for $850. i'm pretty sure that i can find a better deal somewhere else, but i'm having a hard time.

04-20-2004, 10:23 PM	#2 (permalink)
MoNoXiDe_XXX Psycho Location: Thunder Bay	Definatly not a deal. but... http://voodoo.ca/systems/m855.aspx As well i bought a HP pavillion a while ago and had nothing but problems with it. Specialy the recharging unit. __________________ ------------------------ I may be ugly, But at least I aint got no money!

04-21-2004, 12:02 AM	#3 (permalink)
Bossnass Détente Location: AWOL in Edmonton	In my shopping for laptops, I've had a hard time finding a better deal then dell for mid-range systems. My brother has a celeron based 1000 series inspiron, which was around 1000. Little heavier then I would prefer, but he has had no problems. What are the negative things you've heard about celerons? I'm not that big of a computer enthusiast, but the architecuture of a celeron lends itself nicely (as a price compromise proportional to a performance comprimise) to a 'school' type computer. The Athlon is the upper tier of AMD, which in fairness should be compared to the p4 or the p4m. Compare the AMD duron to the celeron. durons are slightly faster at the same speed, but are also slightly more expensive. I understand that the (somewhat impressive) mobile-athlon-64 is being sold at a loss right now to gain some market ground against the p4m, although it is having terrible heat issues -in the laptops it was designed for. My source for this is a recent conversation with a programmer friend of mine, so it might not have any real basis. I have also heard more bad then good about hp laptops. Heard more good then bad about toshiba satilites and most dells. If you're looking for a new machine around $850, you are somewhat limited.