Thinking about getting a laptop. Opinions?

Talaaya

Talaaya

Viper's Sister
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Oct 26, 2006
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Bellevue, Washington, USA
So I'm considering getting a PC laptop. Not too expensive, it would primarily be used for WoW and equivalent things. I just want to be able to play games like that at a semi-decent framerate, nothing fancy (but keep in mind WoW isn't as easy on computers as it used to be). I'm setting a soft limit of $800 but not a huge deal if I go a little over. I'd like to shoot for closer to under $700 if possible. I've been digging around online for a while today and I've found two possible candidates:

ASUS G Series G60JX-RBBX05 and ASUS G60VXRF-RBBX05

I am by no means set on a brand, those just happened to look the best (although apple is out of the question, sorry fanboys!) And yes, I realize those are refurbished. I'd love to avoid getting one like that, but for the power vs. price they are kinda looking like they're worth it. Ugly as hell though. Oh well.
 
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I really can't recommend to buy any Laptop that's not a Lenovo ThinkPad (no IdeaPad, just ThinkPad!). They might not look too brilliant, but the built quality is rivalled by none. Lenovo is the only manufacturer out there who has not had a really bad Laptop in it's ThinkPad line since forever, while all other manufacturers are very hit-and-miss.
On top of that, Lenovo has all workshop manuals available online and sell spares directly to the customer. Unlike with Dell, Apple or Sony this means that you can fix your laptop yourself once it's out of warranty. Most other manufacturers sit on their spare parts and thus force you to not only pay their outrageous hourly rates, but also be without your computer for several weeks while it's shipped to the repair center, lost, found, repaired, lost again, written off, found once more, shipped to the wrong adress, sent back to the shipping center, then to you.
 
I have a new Stinkpad (T410), and I'd recommend you anything BUT one. There is very little left of the IBM quality of yester years, the machine is slow, layout is crap and the thing lacks features. Oh, and shit's expensive. This laptop was some 1100 eur without VAT, while I can shop a similar one at Dell for at least 3-400 eur less.
The T61 and T43 I had before this were a different story. They were old, but at least performed on par for their specs, and were actually built to a good standard and really felt like quality material.
 
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The thing I'm hating right now is a lot of laptops seem to be coming in all kinds of sizes yet are all stuck with the frankly naff resolutions of 1376x768 or whatever it is. My (now dead) MBP had 1440x900 and I thought that was pretty limiting.

I do like Asus though, they design some nice looking machines. They are often well built and Asus manage to be pretty good on battery life with their machines too.

How much are those HP envy machines? The feel pretty well made to me.
 
Armuri said:
(although apple is out of the question, sorry fanboys!)
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LOL... you made the right choice.

Definitely go with the more powerful i5/360m combo, will last longer in the long run. I hope you don't plan on gaming very long on just battery power with that 360m chip though. Get a laptop cooling pad too, haha.

-Robert
 
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otispunkmeyer said:
The thing I'm hating right now is a lot of laptops seem to be coming in all kinds of sizes yet are all stuck with the frankly naff resolutions of 1376x768 or whatever it is. My (now dead) MBP had 1440x900 and I thought that was pretty limiting.
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Some let you choose what resolution you want (for more money, obviously) - some even giving you 1920x1080 in a 15.4" model :shock:
 
I hope you don't plan on gaming very long on just battery power with that 360m chip though. Get a laptop cooling pad too, haha.
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Battery power shouldn't be a big problem since I'll mostly be somewhere where there's an outlet. And yeah, after reading some of the reviews, a cooling pad will probably be necessary, lol.
 
Dr_Grip said:
I really can't recommend to buy any Laptop that's not a Lenovo ThinkPad (no IdeaPad, just ThinkPad!). They might not look too brilliant, but the built quality is rivalled by none. Lenovo is the only manufacturer out there who has not had a really bad Laptop in it's ThinkPad line since forever, while all other manufacturers are very hit-and-miss.
On top of that, Lenovo has all workshop manuals available online and sell spares directly to the customer. Unlike with Dell, Apple or Sony this means that you can fix your laptop yourself once it's out of warranty. Most other manufacturers sit on their spare parts and thus force you to not only pay their outrageous hourly rates, but also be without your computer for several weeks while it's shipped to the repair center, lost, found, repaired, lost again, written off, found once more, shipped to the wrong adress, sent back to the shipping center, then to you.
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Adunaphel said:
I have a new Stinkpad (T410), and I'd recommend you anything BUT one. There is very little left of the IBM quality of yester years, the machine is slow, layout is crap and the thing lacks features. Oh, and shit's expensive. This laptop was some 1100 eur without VAT, while I can shop a similar one at Dell for at least 3-400 eur less.
The T61 and T43 I had before this were a different story. They were old, but at least performed on par for their specs, and were actually built to a good standard and really felt like quality material.
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:? So, Thinkpad or not? I was going to buy a T410 but now I don't know!
 
IMHO you can get a lot of better laptops for less money. It's like a 5 year-old laptop with modern innards. Four USB ports? 1280x800 resolution? Come on Lenovo, get with the times already.
 
It seems like ASUS usually has the best options for relatively cheap gaming notebooks. Sure you can find something better built for the price but it won't match the specs.
 
Adunaphel said:
IMHO you can get a lot of better laptops for less money. It's like a 5 year-old laptop with modern innards. Four USB ports? 1280x800 resolution? Come on Lenovo, get with the times already.
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You can get an 11.6" X100 with 1366x768, a 14.1" T410 with 1440x900, and a 15.6" T510 with 1920x1080. What more resolution do you want?
 
Let me put it this way, the old Dell D620 I had at my previous client was better in all respects than this T410 I have now, even though the T410 is 3 years newer than the Dell was (okay, the performance of the T410 is better, but not by as much as you'd expect). The fabled Thinkpad build quality? The Dell felt a million times sturdier, with a nicer finish. The screen bezel was significantly smaller, while the screen had a higher resolution.
 
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Adunaphel said:
Let me put it this way, the old Dell D620 I had at my previous client was better in all respects than this T410 I have now, even though the T410 is 3 years newer than the Dell was (okay, the performance of the T410 is better, but not by as much as you'd expect). The fabled Thinkpad build quality? The Dell felt a million times sturdier, with a nicer finish. The screen bezel was significantly smaller, while the screen had a higher resolution.
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Here at work everything we have is Dell, from the 6 year old laptops to the monitors, keyboards, and mice. Considering how ancient our equipment is I can't knock them for build quality :lol:

I did have one hard drive fail on me but when your laptop was built in 2004 and is still under warranty what do you want.
 
avanti said:
:? So, Thinkpad or not? I was going to buy a T410 but now I don't know!
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If you want to be sure, i ordered an ThinkPad T410 2522WV7 today. As the order has to be processed by several departments at my workplace before it is actually sent out, i won't be able to give you a hands-on report for another four weeks, but if you want to be sure...

Armuri said:
Hmm, those Lenovos don't look so bad. How about this one?
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While Adu and i strongly disagree about the ThinkPad line, which i love, i think the IdeaPad is crap.
 
It seems like most people are recommending Thinkpads over Ideapads. :dunno:

EDIT: Dr_Grip beat me to it.
 
The price penalty for getting a T-series ThinkPad over any IdeaPad appears to be significantly smaller in the states. Hence, go for the ThinkPad.
With IdeaPads you can roughly cross out $ and write ?... but with ThinkPads you need to add about 25% to that over here :cry:
 
I manage a few R61s and R400 at work. I can't comment on the new ones, but the ones I've used are quite solid.
 
I like my ASUS a lot. They make good cheap laptops.


Note to everyone else: this won't be her primary computer and I still don't get why she's getting it since I think she'll only use it a few times a year, but either way -- she's not after a fancy dancy laptop.
 
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