Laptop brands to go for or avoid

[7-Dog]

Actually that $2500 CPU was about 4 1/2 years ago

At $55 per month that works out to be almost 3k over 4 1/2 years.

The $2500 CPU I bought & the other I mentioned.
That $2500 was not used for 2 years until I used it as a work computer, I had to get an extra 1gb of ram to at least make it barable.

$55 a month is all I pay, when I upgrade, that contract becomes void and I start a new contract.
As I am choosing a cheaper model with the same spec, my payments will reduce.
In 12 months after paying my monthly fee, I may be looking at a 8gb of ram CPU and still be around $55 a month.

This is only worthwhile for a CPU.

If you were looking for a new car, and have $50,000. Would you pay cash or get a loan?
I'd get a loan & it sort of works the same way as renting a CPU.
That $50,000 car in 3 years would be lucky to be valued at $20,000 (trade in value, not what it will sell for)
Or $X repayments over 3 years, trade in and upgrade your car, new car warranty, avoid the bigger services which cost big $. 3 years time you upgrade to a newer model your repayments will be around the same amount and you still have $50,000

[Media Park]

Toshiba.

As far as I'm concerned, and the IT doyen at work, it's the only thing worth looking at.

[Westsider]

Actually that $2500 CPU was about 4 1/2 years ago

At $55 per month that works out to be almost 3k over 4 1/2 years.

The $2500 CPU I bought & the other I mentioned.
That $2500 was not used for 2 years until I used it as a work computer, I had to get an extra 1gb of ram to at least make it barable.

$55 a month is all I pay, when I upgrade, that contract becomes void and I start a new contract.
As I am choosing a cheaper model with the same spec, my payments will reduce.
In 12 months after paying my monthly fee, I may be looking at a 8gb of ram CPU and still be around $55 a month.

This is only worthwhile for a CPU.

If you were looking for a new car, and have $50,000. Would you pay cash or get a loan?
I'd get a loan & it sort of works the same way as renting a CPU.
That $50,000 car in 3 years would be lucky to be valued at $20,000 (trade in value, not what it will sell for)
Or $X repayments over 3 years, trade in and upgrade your car, new car warranty, avoid the bigger services which cost big $. 3 years time you upgrade to a newer model your repayments will be around the same amount and you still have $50,000

LOL I'm sure the banks love you.

50k loan over 3 years.

Using figures from Westpac - repayments of 1671.27 per month

Over 36 months = $60165.72, sell for $20k = profit of 10165.72

I'd rather pay cash upfront, then have the full 20k after 3 years rather than rent an only have 10k.

[7-Dog]

Nah you never pay out the loan.
There will be a point in the cars life & the loan amount are roughly the same, you trade the car in and the trade in wipes out the current loan.
Start again, $50,000 car on another loan.

If you also make your repayments at the start of the month, you can save more as interest is charged at the end of the month. But the bank will always make the repayment date, As close to when the interest is charged.

[Psyber]

Nah you never pay out the loan.
There will be a point in the cars life & the loan amount are roughly the same, you trade the car in and the trade in wipes out the current loan.
Start again, $50,000 car on another loan.

If you also make your repayments at the start of the month, you can save more as interest is charged at the end of the month. But the bank will always make the repayment date, As close to when the interest is charged.

That scenario only makes sense if you can tax deduct all or most of the cost and are earning enough for the tax savings to be worth while.
Otherwise only the interest rate differentiates it from chronic credit card debt.

Even when my cars were fully tax deductible and my tax rate was high enough to make it worth while I always took a higher repayment lower residual deal. that left me with a bit more flexibility for negotiating the next car, and the interest rate on the finance. After all you are then free to just pay it out and give it to the wife. I used to trade the wife's old car on my new one because hers had been off the books for a while before selling and thus you could take cash for it and not be taxed. And, if you do trade the current car, you can find a way for the equity to disappear and not be a tax issue by the new car being declared a "Demonstrator" and then being discounted.

BMW con their punters with lower payments and higher residuals and the punter finds the only way out of the residual debt is to stick to buying BMWs for their guaranteed trade-in valuation..
It's a clever trick and a cycle not easy to get out of unless you've anticipated it and either kept the cash on hand to pay it out or lined up an alternative source to extend the lease with until the residual is low enough.

[Jimmy_041]

Not sure if you can still do it but I use to get a new one ever year using pre-tax dollars through a deal with my employer

[7-Dog]

Nah you never pay out the loan.
There will be a point in the cars life & the loan amount are roughly the same, you trade the car in and the trade in wipes out the current loan.
Start again, $50,000 car on another loan.

If you also make your repayments at the start of the month, you can save more as interest is charged at the end of the month. But the bank will always make the repayment date, As close to when the interest is charged.

That scenario only makes sense if you can tax deduct all or most of the cost and are earning enough for the tax savings to be worth while.
Otherwise only the interest rate differentiates it from chronic credit card debt.

Even when my cars were fully tax deductible and my tax rate was high enough to make it worth while I always took a higher repayment lower residual deal. that left me with a bit more flexibility for negotiating the next car, and the interest rate on the finance. After all you are then free to just pay it out and give it to the wife. I used to trade the wife's old car on my new one because hers had been off the books for a while before selling and thus you could take cash for it and not be taxed. And, if you do trade the current car, you can find a way for the equity to disappear and not be a tax issue by the new car being declared a "Demonstrator" and then being discounted.

BMW con their punters with lower payments and higher residuals and the punter finds the only way out of the residual debt is to stick to buying BMWs for their guaranteed trade-in valuation..
It's a clever trick and a cycle not easy to get out of unless you've anticipated it and either kept the cash on hand to pay it out or lined up an alternative source to extend the lease with until the residual is low enough.

True, however I don't understand much about Tax savings as we aren't really allowed to comment to customers about their possible Tax benefits. Because I brush it aside, I haven't cared too much about understanding it.

I do know there are many people who roll over their vehicle around the 3 year mark and they always have said to me they'll update the vehicle as long as the repayments are around the same and these people aren't using it as a Tax offset.

[Psyber]

I have two cars, one hasn't cost me a cent except registration, insurance, and maintenance costs since 2002, and the other the same since 2007.
The best economics is buy them tax deductible then keep them till they die.
The exception is when turning them over can turn taxable money into tax free cash trade ins as I described above.
The "never-never" is a mug's game only of benefit to the finance industry.

[Wedgie]

Anyone know where the laptop brands thread went?

[Psyber]

Anyone know where the laptop brands thread went?

Sideways into financing.
There wasn't really much more to be said on the topic.

[A Mum]

Anyone know where the laptop brands thread went?

My daughter had a pioneer laptop - nothing but trouble - sent it back to be repaired 3 times in 12 months

[dedja]

Nah you never pay out the loan.
There will be a point in the cars life & the loan amount are roughly the same, you trade the car in and the trade in wipes out the current loan.
Start again, $50,000 car on another loan.

If you also make your repayments at the start of the month, you can save more as interest is charged at the end of the month. But the bank will always make the repayment date, As close to when the interest is charged.

That scenario only makes sense if you can tax deduct all or most of the cost and are earning enough for the tax savings to be worth while.
Otherwise only the interest rate differentiates it from chronic credit card debt.

Even when my cars were fully tax deductible and my tax rate was high enough to make it worth while I always took a higher repayment lower residual deal. that left me with a bit more flexibility for negotiating the next car, and the interest rate on the finance. After all you are then free to just pay it out and give it to the wife. I used to trade the wife's old car on my new one because hers had been off the books for a while before selling and thus you could take cash for it and not be taxed. And, if you do trade the current car, you can find a way for the equity to disappear and not be a tax issue by the new car being declared a "Demonstrator" and then being discounted.

BMW con their punters with lower payments and higher residuals and the punter finds the only way out of the residual debt is to stick to buying BMWs for their guaranteed trade-in valuation..
It's a clever trick and a cycle not easy to get out of unless you've anticipated it and either kept the cash on hand to pay it out or lined up an alternative source to extend the lease with until the residual is low enough.

True, however I don't understand much about Tax savings as we aren't really allowed to comment to customers about their possible Tax benefits. Because I brush it aside, I haven't cared too much about understanding it.

I do know there are many people who roll over their vehicle around the 3 year mark and they always have said to me they'll update the vehicle as long as the repayments are around the same and these people aren't using it as a Tax offset.

Just out of interest ... you're not on the Port Power Board are you 7-Dog?

[7-Dog]

Just out of interest ... you're not on the Port Power Board are you 7-Dog?

[Brucetiki]

Back in the day, my parents bought an Acer desktop in 1997 for us on a Radio Rentals plan. Not only was it outdated after about 6 months (though we managed to survive on it as a glorified typewriter until 2006), my parents ended up paying through the nose for it (and I saw the folly of going on a Radio Rentals plan). Back then I vowed never to touch Acer again.

After that I went for laptops. I bought a Toshiba Satellite in 2006 on special - 256MB of RAM and a 40GB HDD. I upgraded the ram to 2GB in 2007 and it did what I wanted it to do until the middle of this year, when it wouldn't charge whenever it turned on (and the battery life was about 45-50 minutes on it).

So I went on the hunt for a new laptop about 4 months ago (around the end of financial year sales time). I broke my earlier promise and ended up getting a decent Acer Aspire - 625GB HDD and 4GB of RAM (reduced from about $1800 to $1199). Also has a blu-ray player on it and HDMI output, but annoyingly the copy protection kicks in on the blu-ray discs when you hook the laptop up to the TV, so the output is limited to whatever movies/TV shows I can pilfer off my mates hard drive and YouTube. Still, I can't complain about my computer. Does what I want it to do.

[Dog_ger]

Back in the day, my parents bought an Acer desktop in 1997 for us on a Radio Rentals plan. Not only was it outdated after about 6 months (though we managed to survive on it as a glorified typewriter until 2006), my parents ended up paying through the nose for it (and I saw the folly of going on a Radio Rentals plan). Back then I vowed never to touch Acer again.

The problem is radio rentals.

Great company to use for starting out but everyone learns through experience and we all grow financially.

Rental Purchace is Carp. But someone has to pay for easy technology. YOU.

[Mickyj]

That $1399 PC costs me $55 a month, which over 12 months costs me $660

You'd probably find if you shopped around that $1399 PC actually costs around $600

Yeah absolutely, unfortunately then it is close to being outdated. Computers have 8gb of ram at the moment & blu- ray burners. My CPU that I am about to upgrade has a decent 4gb of ram, but is still too slow.

In 3 years I have had 3 acer laptops. The 1st on rental was a $1799 CPU that 3 years ago was just 2gb of ram with 120gb hdd. Upgraded to a 4gb ram CPU that was valued at $1799 and had a 250gb hdd. Upgraded to my current laptop ($1399) which is still 4gb of ram (cheaper payments) and 320gb hdd. In total I have average around $70 monthly payments on those, which is $2520. Yeah I have spent more.

But at the same time, that original $1799 laptop needed to be replaced (way too slow) in I think it was after 8 months that I had enough of it. The screen was too small, the hdd not big enough, buttons not working, viruses and outdated operating system. To get that CPU to the level I have now, would have cost me a few hundred.
I keep the big dollars in my pocket.

I think your biggest problem is renting through Radio rentals.When I was married , my wife had a gold card.Was fantastic until they worked out she was just a house wife .They decided after many years as a customer she was to risky to deal with.As we all know house wives are .Needless to say the rental prices went through the roof!!!

Still think its better to buy out right but thats just me!

[Pat Malone]

Had an Acer, lasted 2-3 years before needing an upgrade, was back in the day when 60GB was a big harddrive. Moved onto a HP which was rubbish, kept getting it sent it and would take ages to get it back. Brother got same laptop at same time and had almost the same amont of troubles. Both lost battery power to the point that they only lasted 1-2 minutes off the charger. The power cords are rubbish as well, not long enough and flimsy end which we both ended up having to get replaced.

Have just moved on to an Asus as its specs and price range fitted with what I was after. Not sure if I just got a dodgy one or not but had to send it away to get it fixed as no Asus repair centre in Adelaide (will be as of Dec though). Having said that staff were great over the phone and organised pick up and delivery and a very quick turnaround considering it was sent to Melb.

I would go Acer if I was in the market for a new laptop (just got an acer emachine netbook).

[Psyber]

7-dog, I'm a bit puzzled by the way you use the term CPU.
A Central Processing Unit is a small chip inside the computer and it costs a fraction of that of the whole machine - desktop or laptop.
Is it a usage common in the sales industry?

As for the need for speed - it is driven by gaming, operating system demands, and hype.
An office could still be effectively run by a computer based on a 386 CPU from the early 1990s if the software and OS were still working.
I had the same billing software from 1987 until 1999 and it did everything as well current products, better than some.
And it worked as fast as any operator could enter the data, which is the bottle neck.
Unfortunately Y2K killed it.

That said, I have a couple of older AMD 64 3.0 and 3.2 Ghz machines and a Core2Duo laptop, and I'm thinking about an i5 to replace one of the AMDs.

[7-Dog]

7-dog, I'm a bit puzzled by the way you use the term CPU.
A Central Processing Unit is a small chip inside the computer and it costs a fraction of that of the whole machine - desktop or laptop.
Is it a usage common in the sales industry?

As for the need for speed - it is driven by gaming, operating system demands, and hype.
An office could still be effectively run by a computer based on a 386 CPU from the early 1990s if the software and OS were still working.
I had the same billing software from 1987 until 1999 and it did everything as well current products, better than some.
And it worked as fast as any operator could enter the data, which is the bottle neck.
Unfortunately Y2K killed it.

That said, I have a couple of older AMD 64 3.0 and 3.2 Ghz machines and a Core2Duo laptop, and I'm thinking about an i5 to replace one of the AMDs.

I use the term CPU only so I don't have to write Computer.
I have always been reluctant to physically upgrade my Computer in the way you explained. 1 mistake and it allgoes to sh*t, I hate Computers when they don't work 100%.

[Psyber]

I use the term CPU only so I don't have to write Computer.
I have always been reluctant to physically upgrade my Computer in the way you explained. 1 mistake and it allgoes to sh*t, I hate Computers when they don't work 100%.

That's easy fixed, learn to get it right - it really isn't hard.. [ I never had any formal training.]

I built my first computer from scratch, with a friends help in 1992, and have done my own upgrades most of the time since.
From about 1996 onwards I ran my own dealership as a sideline, mostly supplying servers and workstations for GP groups.
Then, I didn't build many from scratch, because the wholesalers only added $25 to build and test on a new machine to your own specifications, varied from their standard models.
But I did minor upgrades like RAM, video cards, and HDDs for myself, and I still do.