Time for a laptop

[ssh 924]

Anyone have any thoughts on any laptops, or companies making them. I've always had desktops in the past, and built them, so haven't dealt with any particular brand sucking.

Budget is 700, but I'd rather spend closer to 600, may buy used.

I don't need a big hard drive, 50gb will suffice.

2gb of ram should be good.

Wireless card 802.11 intel based or atheros based is a must.

cd and dvd reader, doesn't need to write.

screen size, 15" is fine, don't need anything big.

good battery life is a plus.

In the mean time I'll be reading page after page of laptops on newegg.

[shizzzon 461]

get a laptop with either Core i3 or i5, be good!

Most local stores sell i3s as low as $399

circuitcity has deals sometimes on i3s as low as $329

All of these laptops will come with at least 3gb of ram and Win 7.

All come with dvd burner nowadays. Price is kept low for 15.6" screen

Only advantage in spending more than $399 for i3 is if you are buying an i5.

[ricksi30 923]

If you're good with computers I have a 13" and 15" toshiba or a 17" dell without hard drives. The 17 and 15 are dual core's with 4gb of ram. I'd sell them to you on the cheap as I don't use them.

[ssh 924]

If you're good with computers I have a 13" and 15" toshiba or a 17" dell without hard drives. The 17 and 15 are dual core's with 4gb of ram. I'd sell them to you on the cheap as I don't use them.

Why don't they have harddrives, how easy is it to open the case for installing a hdd, and hows the battery life?

[shizzzon 461]

If you are going to purchase your own hard drives, MAKE SURE you have the proper interface adapter, IF necessary.

I know on the older laptops, the IDE based hard drives required you hang onto the factory adapter when swapping hard drives.

Otherwise, you will never get them to work, lol.

Newer laptops that use SATA, this shouldn't be a problem.

[Hzd Skizzy 27]

I bought a new Lenovo Ideapad. 6gb Memory 750gb Hard drive, 15.6" screen intel i5. Yeah no one really knows what Lenovo is, but it used to be IBM. So far I love it. 579$

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-+IdeaPad+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i5+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Silver+Gray/3504409.p?id=1218406955839&skuId=3504409

[ssh 924]

This sounds like it'll do everything I need, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158129

Just need to double check graphics and exact wireless drivers.

[ricksi30 923]

If you're good with computers I have a 13" and 15" toshiba or a 17" dell without hard drives. The 17 and 15 are dual core's with 4gb of ram. I'd sell them to you on the cheap as I don't use them.

Why don't they have harddrives, how easy is it to open the case for installing a hdd, and hows the battery life?

Very easy to change. My sister buys a new laptop every year or so it seems and gives me the old ones. I threw the good hard drive into my laptop and run linux on one and windows 7 on the other. The other drive had a virus and wasn't worth fixing. I forgot the battery on the dell is completely useless. Both batteries in the Toshiba's are decent/good but the 13" is ~4 years old. The newer Toshiba was about $1000 and was purchased in august of 2010.

[ssh 924]

If you're good with computers I have a 13" and 15" toshiba or a 17" dell without hard drives. The 17 and 15 are dual core's with 4gb of ram. I'd sell them to you on the cheap as I don't use them.

Why don't they have harddrives, how easy is it to open the case for installing a hdd, and hows the battery life?

Very easy to change. My sister buys a new laptop every year or so it seems and gives me the old ones. I threw the good hard drive into my laptop and run linux on one and windows 7 on the other. The other drive had a virus and wasn't worth fixing. I forgot the battery on the dell is completely useless. Both batteries in the Toshiba's are decent/good but the 13" is ~4 years old. The newer Toshiba was about $1000 and was purchased in august of 2010.

Mmkay, well I'm going to look around but I'll keep that in mind, I'll be running linux as well, several distros.

[ricksi30 923]

If you are going to purchase your own hard drives, MAKE SURE you have the proper interface adapter, IF necessary.

I know on the older laptops, the IDE based hard drives required you hang onto the factory adapter when swapping hard drives.

Otherwise, you will never get them to work, lol.

Newer laptops that use SATA, this shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah both the 15 and 17 that I have are sata.

[ricksi30 923]

If you're good with computers I have a 13" and 15" toshiba or a 17" dell without hard drives. The 17 and 15 are dual core's with 4gb of ram. I'd sell them to you on the cheap as I don't use them.

Why don't they have harddrives, how easy is it to open the case for installing a hdd, and hows the battery life?

Very easy to change. My sister buys a new laptop every year or so it seems and gives me the old ones. I threw the good hard drive into my laptop and run linux on one and windows 7 on the other. The other drive had a virus and wasn't worth fixing. I forgot the battery on the dell is completely useless. Both batteries in the Toshiba's are decent/good but the 13" is ~4 years old. The newer Toshiba was about $1000 and was purchased in august of 2010.

Mmkay, well I'm going to look around but I'll keep that in mind, I'll be running linux as well, several distros.

Cool just let me know.