need to buy laptop for my daughter?

[Feejer/Weejer man]

My daughter need a notebook for school. Any input appreciated. Opinions and advice needed please. Brand? Specs. thanks Mike

 

[GunMD]

This is almost as subjective as an oil preference thread.

I like Dell desktops, but I'm on the fence when it comes to their notebooks.

If you're getting Windows Vista (very likely) be sure to toss as much video and system memory (RAM) at it as you can afford. It seems to be fairly hungry for resources.

Also, be aware that when you purchase from the big electronics places (Best Buy, Fry's, etc) you often get a TRIAL version (120 days) of MS Office. Don't be lured into a particular laptop based on a false sense that you're getting a complete MS Office suite.

By their nature, laptops don't typically perform as well as desktops (you lose some performance when you cram everything into that little space). One way to see a perceptible difference in performance is to have a hard drive that has a higher RPM. Typically a higher rpm rating will translate into faster read / write times. Just a little tidbit to keep in mind when comparing two systems.

 

[Low Level FJR Pilot]

I know some folks will disagree, but I have found Dell to produce a good laptop for the price. The customer service that I have experienced has been fast and good. I had my work laptop a whole day when I somehow cracked the screen (probably because I bungied it in the case to the back of my bike) and they came out, replaced the screen and added a tougher cover with no questions asked the very next day. My home laptop hard drive crashed, they provided a new one within two days, I installed it and was back up and running. I mentioned that one of my keyboard keys had come off and they went ahead and sent me a new keyboard as well. Mind you, I bought an extended warranty for the home computer that was mainly set up to mail me parts if needed. The work computer warranty is a 3 year catch all on site type. I have had very good luck with the systems. On another note, I used to buy Sony laptops and they worked great, were lightweight, a bit expensive, but the customer service if it went down sucked and it took forever for them to get the job completed. Just my .02...

 

[DailyCommuter]

I've had real good luck with two separate Toshiba Sattelite. Laptops. As far as specs.

Most every lap top has huge hard drives now, 100 gig. 200 gig. That's plenty. Built in wireless is very common in most now too. Make sure she has that, alot of campuses are wireless all over now.

If you want to be tricky, Call Dell. And spend some time on the phone with the rep and ask lots of questions. Write stuff down. If they suggest a feature or option, ask them why. You'd be surprised how fast you learn stuff. But when you are done, Ask him/her to email you the spec's you decided on. Then you can shop around brands with similar specs. Ask her if she has an Idea what she wants too.

Good luck.

whatever you do, dont buy one cuz it looks cool or is on sale. A little extra research goes along way in a purchase like this... Also you might try consumer reports. Or a tch web site called CNET.com would probably have recomendations or comparison's at least.

one thing I learned when I bought the first one is that the weight of it is important, and battery life. those are 2 things I screwed up on.

 

[Scab]

Where's jwilly? He knows his sh$t on this stuff.

 

[Geezer]

Some colleges have specific requirements for laptops. You might want to check with the school and make sure you get what they think she'll need.

One thing that is important to me is the pointing device that comes with a laptop. I prefer the track point that comes on Lenovo laptops but your daughter may prefer something else. Have her play with a few different ones on display before deciding on a brand. And, as DailyCommuter said, weight and battery life are important factors.

 

[mdisher]

Some colleges have specific requirements for laptops. You might want to check with the school and make sure you get what they think she'll need.

Better than that, some *most* schools have a method to buy a couple pre-tricked out models from Dell or who ever their chosen provider is for what usually amounts to an excellent price.

We get really, really good Dell pricing and I've never been able to beat an educational promo price.

 

[Bob Hughes]

1 Size and weight are really important if she is going to carry it to class, too big and it might as well be a desktop. No more than 6 pounds.

2 Windows Vista needs 1 gig of ram and a video card with 256 meg (it's worth it).

3 Kids no where to buy software so don't get a jump on it yourself, Academic Collegiate is a good software vendor for students and teachers at a fraction of retail.

4 I like Dell for the money and they give you individual recovery cds and have a recovery program secreted away on the hard drive too. But if money is no object Toshiba has the best for about $2,000. It uses flash ram instead of a hard drive and an LED backlit LCD screen with daylight reflectors behind it so it is really efficient with energy and provides 10 times the battery life of a standard laptop like the Dell for only tripple the price. Oh, and it weighs about 2.7 pounds.

5 I would get her Office 2007 if she is not really on top of word processors and spreadsheets because it is so much easyier to use all of the features (factor of 10) and has far more capability than Office XP.

A machine like these will last four years no problem, Vista and Office are here for some time. XP on the other hand will be on it's way out next year. This is a great time to buy.

 

[jwilly]

Where's jwilly? He knows his sh$t on this stuff.

Thanks! I'm really not a nerd, I just play one on TV!

Some good points made already. Renegade with the ringer!! Check with the school because you will likely be able to get the best deal through the educational promo's. Also, as far as software, same thing. Your daughter quailifies for educational software at discounted rates. Example: Microsoft Office Pro: $400-600, Educational Version: $175ish. Same software!

What brand is best? I'll let you know as soon as I get done figuring out which tire is best for the FJR.

Things to look for:

Screen Size, Pointer Type, Battery Size (life), Video Memory, System Memory.

Once you have found a few models you like, read some of the reviews online. Cnet.com or Zdnet.com. Keep in mind some of these reviews are biased but it might tip you off to things like short battery life or poor screen resolution.

Good Luck with your purchase.

JW

 

[wfooshee]

Do NOT skimp on drive size or memory. Get the most you can afford, and it won't be enough in a year or two, and by then the parts to upgrade won't be available any more.

If video work is a possibility, make sure it has Firewire to dump from the camera to the disk.

Strongest video card you can find. Output to TV via S-Video is cool, but most folks won't know how to hook it up.

If you can order it wihout "trial" software, do so. I unpacked a Dell desktop for a customer the other day and it was three hours of Add/remove programs - reboot - Add/Remove Programs - reboot before we got it to where we could start putting the stuff we NEEDED to have on it. He had to pay for those three hours, too.

And we're still in that weird window of preferring XP over Vista, so if you can order it with XP, I'd do so. There are still vendors trying to catch up with Vista, and it's surprising what doesn't work with it.

 

[bikerskier]

If college bound, then...Mac....Mac....Mac....Mac

 

[vdoguy]

My daughter need a notebook for school. Any input appreciated. Opinions and advice needed please. Brand? Specs. thanks Mike

Definitely get her a MAC. She'll be able to run both WINDOWS (All flavors) and MAC OS X natively. Customer support is great, you can read about that in Consumer's Guide. One of these will definitely do the trick: https://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO...macbook/macbook

I'm writing this on my daughter's MacBook Pro that is now 4 years old and I'm still able to do video editing on it. Great hardware and once you get used to OS X it's hard to go back to WinDoze...

Do her a favor :clapping:

 

[FJamR]

We have two Dell notebooks and purchased other Dells in the past, and very happy with em'. Let you in on the trick. I searched for Dell promo codes after building a Dell once upon a time. Now that's the only way I do it. I usually watch Dellas deals daily over the course of a couple of weeks. The coupon codes change very frequently. Don't get too greedy though, I've never seen a code for more than 40% off. This only works for online purchases from Dell. With some codes you can use more than one. Good luck!

 

[PapaUtah]

Bought a new Acer this weekend at MicroCenter. $750. 17" screen, big disk, loads of memory. Apple, the Anti-Christ of personal computing. Avoid Apple like the plague it is...

 

[Bob Hughes]

We have two Dell notebooks and purchased other Dells in the past, and very happy with em'. Let you in on the trick. I searched for Dell promo codes after building a Dell once upon a time. Now that's the only way I do it. I usually watch Dellas deals daily over the course of a couple of weeks. The coupon codes change very frequently. Don't get too greedy though, I've never seen a code for more than 40% off. This only works for online purchases from Dell. With some codes you can use more than one. Good luck!

You are so right. I bought my Dell 600m with a $750 off of purchases over $1,500 coupon so I spent $1,504 and got a lot more than I could have otherwise.

Vista is much better than XP, and make sure you get home premium (not basic) or you don't get aero included, there a few different sales options for Windows Vista right now and more for Office 2007 see this link, I buy here a lot because my wife Jeannette is a teacher:

https://www.academic-collegiate.com/category_s/6.htm

These programs are the future and work great with any current hardware that you will buy today and most legacy products. And of course you could go Mac, my wife has an iMac and an iBook and loves them but she uses my computers a lot too just because some stuff just won't work from her Apples that she has to have.

 

[SecuLaw]

My daughter need a notebook for school. Any input appreciated. Opinions and advice needed please. Brand? Specs. thanks Mike

1 Size and weight are really important if she is going to carry it to class, too big and it might as well be a desktop. No more than 6 pounds.

By school I assume you mean college. Don't get anything as heavy as a six pounder; especially for a girl. My daughter had one that weighed just 5.5 pounds and she hated it. She stopped carrying it to class so now I'm out the cost for two (both Dells). Don't get anything larger then a 14.1 inch screen or it will be too heavy. For her dorm room consider getting a docking station with a 19 inch or larger LCD screen. When she comes back from class she slides the lap top into the docking station and it's like she has a desk top computer. The other thing is to make sure that the lap top has built-in wireless with at least a "g" class preferably the newer "n" class. Most colleges have wireless in the buildings, including dorms, and many have it all over campus, like my daughter's school.

 

[Feejer/Weejer man]

Thanks for all the info and advice. Spent probably 15 hours of research and building different brands and ordered a Dell. Major processor and memory. CD/DVD writer, high resolution 14.1 inch screen with webcam. Some of this comes upgraded. For her warranty and accidental damage coverage as well as lo jack included. Had ti get Vista with the new Dell. Also got her Bluetooth on a keyboard, mouse and printer. All she has to do is pick it up and go w/o disconnecting. There goes my farkle and riding money for the rest of the year. But it should last her for the duration. Once again thanks to those who helped me make choices I wasn't prepared to make. mike