About Lauren Bennett Expertise I am a computer science major and my dad is an Electric Engineering, so my life has revolved around computers. For as long as I can remember, I have been buying and selling computers. I tend to travel a lot, so I have always had a laptop. I have bought 5 of them for myself, and bought around 30-40 for friends and family. I have dealt with the good and the bad of various version and brand names. If you are in need of buying a laptop, feel free to contact me and I'm sure I will be able to guide you into purchasing the laptop that will be the best fit for you. I will custom build you computers for you to choose from so you can get an exact idea of what to go and buy when you do it yourself and so that you have an exact price. However, I am in the USA and am only knowledgeable about computers here in the US. I do not know about foreign currency or the quality of computer brand names outside the US.
Experience B.S. in Computer Science. Buying and selling for years. Assisting friends/family.
Question QUESTION: I need to buy a laptop within a week, but I am not sure which laptop to buy. I do not know one thing about laptops or computers. I know that i want a laptop that is realiable and lightweight. One that will not break down easily or break easily. i am also looking for a laptop that has fast access to the internet and changes from websites quickly. I am also narrowing my choices to apple, sony, hp or hp. I am also considering a custom made laptop and NOT Dell. Do you suggest a custom made laptop for what I am looking for in a laptop or a company lpatop? I need this laptop for law school and mostly for internet reasearch and internet access.
ANSWER: I've never understood why everyone hates Dell. I did my dissertation for my Ph.D. on the quality of all the computer brand names out there and Dell won my a long shot. They have far less complaints per computer sold, and they outsell the rest of the brand names by an unbelievable amount.
HP is second best in quality, but their laptop isn't as good. With HP you have to ship off your computer, wait for it to be fixed, and then have it shipped back to you. It is time consuming and shipping is hard on the laptop.
Sony does offer the at home service like Dell, but their computers are not as high of quality and they are very over priced.
Apple laptops are about $1,000 more, don't offer much of a warranty, the software is more expensive, and they are only really "better" if you are into music, architecture, or graphic design. Otherwise, PC's rule the rest of the career paths and will much better suit your needs.
Let me know what your budget is and I'll configure you a laptop that will meet your needs and your budget. It will be a bit challenging with your brand name demands (college students get $500 off Dell laptops), but I will still be able to configure you a high quality, fast, powerful laptop.
Please let me know and I will get back to you right away with a good laptop configuration for you!
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QUESTION: I am looking to spend about $1500-$1800. Do you think i should get a custom made laptop? The main reason everyone hates DELL is because they are helpful with customers when they are purchasing a laptop, but not when they are asking questions or need to fix it.
ANSWER: That's really weird - I've had wonderful experience with Dell tech support when something goes wrong. They've fixed everything - even sent a tech to replace a keyboard for me. I actually even got them to send me a brand new computer with a free hard drive upgrade for no good reason and got them to replaced my brand new laptop because I scratched it. I find that because they are foreign (Indian) and not native English speakers and because they are a third party contract that they don't really all that much and will pretty much give you whatever you want. I did not have as good of experience with other brand names, mainly because they are all native English speakers employed directly through Sony, HP, etc. I would have to say that I have gotten everything I wanted from Dell and even things I wasn't expecting to get.
If you want to go HP i would go with the dv2000t series. If you decide to go with Dell, I'd check out the E1505 (it won a ton of awards).
You'll want:
--Intel Core 2 Duo Processor @ 1.60 GHz or faster
--1 GB of RAM @ 667 MHz (you don't need it but 2 GB if it fits your budget)
--Windows Vista Home Premium
--a non integrated video card (aka 128 MB of higher of non hyper memory). ATI or NVIDIA are most popular.
--at least an 80 GB hard driver, probably 120 GB if this is your main computer. while the 5400 rpm would be fine, you can tell a difference if you get the faster hard drive (i don't think HP offers the faster one though)
--DVD burner - even if you don't plan on burning any DVDs, you can put 6-7 times as much data on a DVD as you can a CD. It is crucial to back up your computer.
--the best wireless card you can get (HP only offers G which is what everyone has right now, Dell offers the new N which will provide you with a lot more range and less dead spots and N will be taking over G in the next year or two so if you can get the N wireless card it is so worth it).
--12 cell (HP) or 9 cell (Dell) battery. Both batteries will keep your computer running on battery power for the same amount of time, which is longer than the standard battery.
Warranty
--With HP I'd get the 4-Year HP Total Care Extended Service Plan with Express Repair. This will keep your totally covered if anything happens for the next 4 years. If you are only going to be in school for 3 years or won't have your laptop that long, 3 would be okay but the extra warranty gets your more money if you decide to sell it. If anything goes wrong you contact HP and then you box up the computer, schedule a pickup, wait for it to be fixed, and then wait for it to be shipped back to you. This process usually takes about a week.
--Dell I would get the PC Care Bundle for 3 or 4 years. This bundle provides you with 24/7 tech support, accidental damage protection on top of the typical hardware warranty (which covers drops, spills, etc), on-site repair (a tech will come to your dorm, apartment, house, etc within 48 hours of you speaking with Dell and fix it on site), 3-4 years of antivirus protection, and Dell on Call (software issues). This also gets you an extra discount at the end.
I personally have not been able to get any student discounts for HP. However, college students can get extra discounts on Dell computers - usually an extra 10-12% off as well as getting student only specials. If you want to go this route, I can provide you access. This generally gets you an extra $400 off the final price + the discount for doing the bundle.
I'll let you know if I come across any special deals with HP.
The configuration I gave you above will ensure that you have a fast and reliable computer. You'll have two processors instead of one with the Core 2 Duo, the RAM is faster than the standard RAM, and the video card ensures stunning performance from Windows Vista Home Premium. The extra large battery ensures you plenty of time to stay unplugged.
I hope either the HP or Dell laptops work for you. If you find that you don't like either one of them, let me know and I can look at other options.
I know a guy who custom builds both laptops and desktops and he does an absolutely wonderful job, provides lifetime support and a 1 year parts warranty. I've had nothing but wonderful experiences with him and he has fantastic ratings. Keep in mind that obviously the warranty is only one year as far as parts go and you cannot get any discounts. He will, however, try to find you the best deal on the invidivudal parts and generally it is not much more expensive. He'll help you build exactly what you want. However, the whole custom build this is not as popular as it used to as companies such as Dell and HP are making their laptops more and more fully customizable to the customer. If you want to check him out and get a price quote, his website is www.kc-computers.com. He always responds very quickly.
Let me know if you have any other questions or want to make any changes!
There's a link to the cheapest Mac laptop. It ends up being 2,348.00 + tax after you upgrade the warranty to a three year (the only choice).
I would personally recommend not going the Mac route. Even my diehard Mac lover friends have been selling theirs and buying PCs. Yes, you can run both Mac and Windows operating systems on a Mac. However, the two sides are not compatible with each other and the Windows side doesn't always work. My bes friend failed a school project because the school operated on PC's so she was working on the Windows side of her computer. Needless to say, it didn't work when she wanted it to and she had absolutely no way to get her project off the Windows side to turn it in and therefore failed. You can't work "together" with both sides.
My personal point of view - if Macs really were better, why would they have to run Windows? :p Yes, Macs are better if you a re a music, graphic design, architecture type major, but if you are law, business, science then a PC is far better suited for you. So that's why I am personally recommending a PC for you.
p.s. The only change I would make to the laptop configuration I gave you is to get the glossy LCD screen and to upgrade the warranty, unless you want the 2 GB of RAM.
Let me know if you have any other questions! :)
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QUESTION: I actually have reasearched and asked around and what you said about the mac being good for music and graphics is what I have been hearing. I also hearded that nearly 40% of programs do not work on the mac. Is that true? I actually searched for some laptops and the tops three choices that I came up with are:
Now which computer of the three would you suggest? They are actully all lower than my budget, but I found them to be good for me. Are any of them good and which one would be best for what I am looking for?
Answer That's why you generally have to buy separate software for the Mac side and the Windows side of a Mac laptop. I'm yet to figure out the infatuation with Macs :)
that's the one I would go with. Overall, Toshiba laptops are not that great and HP is the second best out there so I'd go with HP hands down if you want quality and value. However, I would still buy it through HP because with this you only get an integrated video card which is really crappy, Vista won't run as well, and you won't be able to play very many games. You need at least a 128 MB video card, preferably 256 MB. This also only gives you a 1 yr warranty and you'll want 3-4 years. The only other thing is the built-in wireless card is a G network connection and it would be really valuable to spend the extra $30 or so to upgrade to an N wireless network card. It is the new upcoming thing and will make your signal stronger, reach further, and it eliminates dead spots.
On a random note, I thought of you today when speaking with Dell. Since I upgraded to Vista, my sound card hasn't been working well because it is not compatible. So all I did was get online with tech support and ask them for a driver. They did give me the link to the driver, but are also insisting on sending a technician to my house to replace my sound card with a new Vista version (dang thing costs $300 new). Seems a bit of a waste of money, but no complaints to me if I get a brand new sound card :).
by the way, try coupon code NB6444 when you check out. it claims it gives you 15% off any customized $999+ hp pavilion notebook :) it expires tomorrow (Saturday) though. just thought i'd throw that out there.
