Kevin's Watch

I have to buy a new laptop this summer. We'll be in the States for a few months so I have to get while the getting's good.

I'm typing on a 6-year-old Toshiba Satellite which has had the crap used out of it and really been a workhorse, although it's not without its small problems. But we have a less than 3 year old Toshiba Satellite which was a real disappointment. Then my husband at his workplace has an even worse Dell, a Toshiba with XP that's a real overpriced paperweight, .... What's actually good anymore? (That costs less than say, $700.)

What would you buy next time? I don't mean what computer do you WISH you could buy, what's realistic?

My HP Pavillion has been OK, just so long as I keep it clean of spyware/adware. I added another 512MB RAM a few years back that greatly improved performance.

I actually like my dell, and my sister likes hers too. I've had very few problems with it.

It's definitely not within your price range, but the next computer I'm getting is a macbook.

I've got a guy willing to sell his HAL-9000 real cheap. He says it's only 8 years old......

9 months ago I bought a HP pavilion dv9700 Notebook with an INTEL Core Duo CPU T8100 2.1 GHz x2 and has a 3 GB RAM for 900 euros. Its got a nice 17" screen and wifi .....I love it! (I dont really know what any of those things mean but the puter works bloody good!!) I've never used a notebook before and now I think I will be sticking with notebooks. I love their portability.

I'm debating about my next computer purchase, too. I've got an Acer Aspire laptop with an Intel Celeron M processor, which I gather is considered crap nowadays. Planning to upgrade next year.

I will definitely get at least a dual processor (I bought this machine just as the dual processors were coming out, and figured I could save a few bucks and make do with this -- what a dope! ) and maybe a quad. Debating between a laptop and a desktop, actually. I like the laptop's portability and small size -- *particularly* the small size -- but some desktops now are quite small, too, and I don't haul this machine around all *that* much. Might be better to get a desktop (which would be cheaper, I think) and a netbook for traveling. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

I can't do graphic design on a laptop anyway (the batteries never seem to last long enough & if you're gonna end up being tied to an AC adaptor, you might as well buy a desktop unit!)

I've had a custom built one by a local mob called Austin computers - i've had it six years now and never a single drama! Mind you, when I upgrade this year, I'm going to insist on Windows XP pro cos there is NO WAY IN HELL i'm taking the first gen Vista product!!

For work tho, I have a HP xw6400 workstation with two 24 inch LCD screens...I've always found HP better than Dell. Can't get my head around Macs, even though they're industry standard in graphics. I learned on PCs & I'll stick to PCs...

I've got a Gateway Tablet that's about 2-1/2 years old. It won't die. I have to reformat it every few months, but it does what I need it to do.

When it goes, it'll be replaced by a MacBook. I'm done with Windows.

I dont know what I will buy next but what I wont buy is anything expensive. Only once (years ago) did I buy a computer that was top of the line. I paid about 2500 dollars for it. A year later you could buy that same system for about 1200. A year after that you couldnt give it away.

Im going to buy my daughter a laptop when she graduates highschool in a couple of months. Im thinking a dell.. just a cheapo with a wireless card.

That's exactly what I did for my kids, SB.

Well, for Batty there was an intermediate step -- I bought her a refurbished laptop for high school, which she proceeded to bang around and thoroughly abuse. (She fried the power brick one time by plugging it into a faulty electrical socket in one of her classrooms.) Glad I didn't pay real money for it!

By the time Magickmaker went to high school, the school was giving (loaning) all the kids laptops. She dropped hers at least once. Glad I didn't pay money for that machine, either.

It all depends on what you want to do with your computer. Today's computers are way too overpowered for what most people want to do. If all you want to do is some email, web browsing, and word processing, you can get by with a computer that's 6 years old. I've got a Pentium 4 single core (with a nice PCIe graphics card last year) that does everything I need. If you can add some RAM, do it. You can get a gig or two damn cheap. You don't need multi-core processors unless you're running extremely processor intensive programs.

Of course, I'm still running Windows XP. Vista requires more (my sub-1000 2006 system would still kick its ass). Linux would require even less. We do not need to keep updating our systems unless our needs are increasing, too.

I would buy a powerful laptop with a good soundcard (something like an E-Mu that I have in my pc now), this thing (I already own Amplitube 2) and a new guitar cabinet and I'd be all set.

Malik23 wrote:It all depends on what you want to do with your computer. Today's computers are way too overpowered for what most people want to do. If all you want to do is some email, web browsing, and word processing, you can get by with a computer that's 6 years old. I've got a Pentium 4 single core (with a nice PCIe graphics card last year) that does everything I need. If you can add some RAM, do it. You can get a gig or two damn cheap. You don't need multi-core processors unless you're running extremely processor intensive programs.

Of course, I'm still running Windows XP. Vista requires more (my sub-1000 2006 system would still kick its ass). Linux would require even less. We do not need to keep updating our systems unless our needs are increasing, too.

The thing is, I reaaaaaaaally want to do more recording but I am afraid that is what caused the minor processor probs on the Toshiba. So I definitely need an amazing soundcard, but since I don't play video games I don't need all the graphics. I'm thinking dual processor too... but I don't have major buchage, either.

I also have to get my son one for college. He's getting a cheapo too. He still abuses stuff too much.