any suggestions?

[McBride]

can someone on here maybe give me a link to a laptop thats good and under 1000 preferably like maybe 800 and lower but as long as it is under 1000?...it can be anything...Dell...HP...compaq...but No Mac...lol thxs =)

[Coffee Crisp]

I seriously hope you're not buying one for gaming.

[McBride]

nooooo buissness use...im gonna use it for School...but i would like it for performance and entertainment...so i dont get some shitty laptop =D

[McBride]

ive learned the hard way never use a laptop for gaming...ends up messing it up in the end ='(

[Akaru]

Nevermind.

[McBride]

lol akaru? nvm what?

[Shadowex3]

All my experience is anecdotal so don't take this tooseriously if you find an exact model you like but: HPs seem to be built quite nicely (mine trucks to school and back and isnt exactly coddled), toshibas have given us no end of trouble, and i don't know shit about anyone else except that macs are just PCs with low quality parts and OSX on it.

 

What you really want to do is handle it in the store as much as possible, I got mine for like $700ish which is why i put up with it but i tell you the screen is ABYSMAL, i get the TN-panel brightness changes and shitty viewing angles literally dead center.

 

Look for something with good viewing angles, non-glossy screens really are better especially if youll be using it at school and places with lots of lights to reflect of your screen, you should be able to pick a solid colored background and look at it from most common angles without the top/bottom getting brighter or darker on you. Consider how secure it is when closed and how well it protects it's screen and any protruding pieces (mine literally just flips closed and has no latch or anything). Flip it over and check it's underside, a good laptop will have lots of LABELLED places for you to service it by adding/removing ram, hard drives, and other parts. Check the power brick to make sure it says "replace with XXXX" or something to that effect, HP is really good for standardized parts than can be replaced easily.

 

Peripheralwise make sure you've got enough USB ports. I consider 4 the absolute minimum since that gives you a mouse, a spot to charge your phone/ipod/whatever, and two more to run a powered USB hub off of. Check to see if you can turn it's wireless on/off easy (you want wireless "N" btw), that it's headphone ports are in good spots, and for PCMCIA or express card slots. Look for any other connectors you'll be using like for a dock or whatnot. Pay attention to where the power cable plugs in, mine plugs in on the right side and winds up jutting out right there which is actually pretty annoying sometimes. Ask about shock protection and so on, a really nice laptop will actually try to park the hdd heads if you drop it. Also look for an antitheft spot like a lock or hardpoint for a cable (really not that good but better than nothing).

 

Other than that go for a good processor rather than a fancy graphics card or lots of ram, realise that you'll probably never get more than about 5 hours of real use out of this thing (i get about that with a double-size batter, using max screen brightness), and seriously I'm not joking about processor over ram or graphics cards. Oh and check it's screen resolution, don't believe anyone that ever tells you high resolutions are "tiny" or hard to read. That's bullshit, you can ALWYAS make everything from text to buttons and icons bigger, a higher resolution means a better quality screen and a higher quality picture being displayed. 1920x1200 is obviously the best but do not go below 1280x720 on a 15incher or smaller under any circumstances. 17inchers should be 1920x1200 or somewhere near that but better than 1280x720.

[McBride]

i know most of the stuff and yes i know i dont take antything seriously...i know about the glossy non glossy and those things...im looking into a Core 2 Quad or Core 2 Duo with about 4 GB of RAM and the GPU i could care less its not for gaming...i know about wireless and networking since that a field im studying and know alot about...Hint on my Wireless N Gaming Router =D...Mac is a cheap peice of shit in my opinion...ive used them and i cant stand them...no offence to anyone who likes Mac...i cant stand dell either but iono...Alienware is shit now since dell now owns them...but then again alienware is used for gaming not school...HP and compaq are built tough i know since ive dropped a HP before down some stairs and it somehow stayed in tac so...toshiba ive used and ive liked them but i prefer HP and compaq...yeah im gonna go look at walmart (hate walmart) Best buy...Staples....Radio shack...anywhere that sells laptops...then after that im buying a vista retail CD...i hate store bought laptops with all the shit on them...but alright thanks Shadow

[McBride]

and also i know alot about high Res i got a 22" wide screen monitor on my main desktop so...=D

[Shadowex3]

2 things:

 

1. Punctuation. Seriously, we aren't going to run you through word and grade your posts but if you can't be bothered to at least format them enough to be easily readable most people wont put the effort to decipher stuff.

 

2. There's a little button on your posts called "EDIT". Using that instead of doubleposting makes the people who are prolly going to yell at me for yelling at you about this yell at you less.