Laptop brands to go for or avoid

[RustyCage]

I'm in the market for a new laptop so was wondering what brands of laptop people would recommend and what ones people would say to avoid. Cheers

[Mr Irate]

Have an ACER and a HP, both fine, to be fair the HP did come with bloody good staff discount

You should be able to pick up a HP DV6 for a good price.

[Westsider]

go for ASUS

[Ian]

We use laptops to run our 2 Dyno's, they are now 4 years old and get bounced around in cars and trucks, other than the original batteries only lasting about 18 months the 2 Toshiba Satellites have been faultless.
Bought a Toshiba Satellite for home a while back (end of model run out) and have been very happy with that as well.

[Psyber]

My IT industry contacts in Melbourne all preached the motto "ASUS good, ACER bad."
I'm very happy with my ASUS bought in late 2006.

Past laptops:
1996 Daewoo - reliable if slow, small screen - sort of net book precursor.
1999 Toshiba Satellite - troublesome though minor stuff like dodgy sockets fixed under warranty
2001 Targa [German] - fairly good overall but CD tray collapsed rapidly.
2003 HiGrade [UK brand] fairly good. [This replaced the Toshie and the Targa after a burglary at office.]
2006 ASUS F3Sv AK136G

[7-Dog]

I have an Acer and am planning on upgrading it next week to another Acer.
HP, Asus are also good brands that I would recommend.

Compaq is another good brand, that is under the HP banner.
Toshiba are decent as well.

Are you renting it? If not, why?

[Westsider]

Renting is for chumps.

A $1000 laptop, you end up spending $2500 just so you can "upgrade every 12 months".

Easier, and better, to buy outright and get extended warranty if you can.

[Dutchy]

Ive had 2 cheap acers and both have been very good to me, got a newer compaq recently and its crap in comparison

[dedja]

It's a completely open ended question ... similar to saying what car should I buy? Someone might recommend Holden over Ford but may in fact be comparing a HSV with a Fiesta.

Impossible to tell until you give us a clue what you want to spend, intend to use it for, how long do you expect it to last, etc , etc.

If you want a basic laptop and are going to spend around $500-$800, then just buy to whatever spec you may want at the cheapest price you can find and then opinions on brands just become a religious argument.

Unless you have specific needs, like video rendering or extreme gaming, then any laptop with a single or duo core CPU (don't get carried away with CPU speed - anything around 2-2.4GHz is fine), 2-4Gb RAM, or at least 320Gb HDD, decide your screen size, make sure you have Windows 7 and you're done.

[dedja]

Are you renting it? If not, why?

Because renting consumer IT hardware is like putting your money through a shredder ...

[7-Dog]

I currently have a laptop that last year was $1399
The same spec computer, but with Windows 7 is now $799.
That $1399 PC costs me $55 a month, which over 12 months costs me $660. I can now upgrade this computer to either a better computer for the same $ value or a same spec windows 7 model.
That same computer has now just lost 2 buttons and recently had water spilt on it by the kids, on monday I wash my hands of this computer with the new $799 model and actually save myself $ each month.
I also am a gold member and know staff a radio rentals, 3/6 months free or half price rental and that's a cheap computer that never gets outdated.

[dedja]

You'll impress us more when you tell us how much (or little) you've spent in total at the end of your rental contract when you have no asset after spending all that money.

[7-Dog]

Why would I end it?

A computer is only as good as the programs and files that you have.
I have a $2,500 CPU from 6 years ago that right is worth $200 at the most and that's because I spent $120 to get it up to 2gb of ram. That CPU was running slow after 1 month when I realized I wasted $2500 on a CPU that couldn't play Civ 4.

[dedja]

I wish you well and if you're happy then that's all that matters, even if you argument doesn't make sense ...

[Sploosh]

Well, it would seem that I may be the only one, but I reckon ASUS is a big pile of steaming brown stuff. Granted, this is based on a very small sample size (being the one that I had) but it was a mistake to get it. Toshiba definitely the way to go.

[Wedgie]

Ive had a few Toshibas in the family and they have great screens but have the knack of always having little things go wrong with them.
I had a Compaq which was probably the best piece of machinery I've ever purchased ever, used it as my main pc which I did video, photoshopping and building websites (including this one originally) on and recently gave it away, despite being about 8 years + old and being used non stop for about 4 of those it is still going strong, a mate had the same model and took it up and down a mountain in Europe and it kept going.
My daughter currently has a Lenovo and its working beautifully touch wood.
Personally I'd go an ASUS or whatever Compaq are involved with these days but as per me getting the Lenovo it depends on what the best offer is at the time.
No matter what brand always get the extended warranties with them as laptops are a pain in the arse to fix/upgrade/etc.
Only other thing I can recommend is get one with a separate video card as my sons Toshiba which I bought 17 months ago is still playing new games well because of this.

[Westsider]

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

[7-Dog]

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.

[7-Dog]

Why would I end it?

A computer is only as good as the programs and files that you have.
I have a $2,500 CPU from 6 years ago that right is worth $200 at the most and that's because I spent $120 to get it up to 2gb of ram. That CPU was running slow after 1 month when I realized I wasted $2500 on a CPU that couldn't play Civ 4.

Actually that $2500 CPU was about 4 1/2 years ago, the 6 year old CPU that I still have was a $1599 CPU and runs at only 512mb of ram with 80gb hdd.
$4000 wasted

[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.