Christmas Shopping - Laptop computer

CJones

CJones

Final Approach
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Ok folks... I'll go ahead and start the mass of "What should I buy" threads that will soon be popping up here as the gift-giving holidays approach.

Here's my situation:
#1. I'm looking to get my wife a laptop for Christmas. She is currently in school working on a degree to be a middle-school teacher, so she doesn't do much high-graphics type of stuff and she is definitely not a gamer. So I'm pretty much looking for word processing, web surfing, email, etc. type of laptop that is physically durable. What's the best bet for something like this? Should I go with a name-brand Dell type of deal, or will one of the "big box store" generic laptops work for this situation?

#2. I will be going back to school in January myself. Right now, it looks like I will be going into Mgmt Information Systems (MIS) with a minor in Operations and Supply Chain Mgmt (OSCM) or just OSCM Major. So I'm looking at needing the standard word processing, internet, email, powerpoint presentation type of stuff but with MIS I'm sure to be doing some heavy networking and web development projects. What's the best bet for this scneario? I had a Gateway desktop several years ago and was never really impressed with it. I currently have a Dell desktop and it seems to be treating me pretty well (other than a CR-RW drive taking a dump).

Any tips on what, where, and when to buy? I would like to be able to get a laptop for each of us since she will be in class at different times than me and it would be nice for each of us to have our own setup.

Thanks,
Chris
 
Personally Chris,
I look for whats inside and not at the brand. Anymore IMHO the brands are all about the same.
As far as where and when to look. Best Buy, Circuit City etc.. all put out a flyer that starts every Sunday with different deals. Dell does a weekly "sale" also. Just keep an eye on them till you see what you want, they change drastically some weeks in price.
 
Stay away from Dell. Look for one of the door buster deals at a big box store on an HP or Lenovo - and practice saying "No!" 3-5 times each time you get told that you must buy an extra $500 in crapware and extended warranty. One co-worker picked up pretty powerful HP and Toshiba laptops with XP Media Center at Best Buy for around $500 each.

It you're willing to invest $1200-$2000 for a reliable setup get an Intel MacBook or MacBook Pro and Parallels and a copy of Windows XP Home.
 
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Yesterday, Microcenter had an Acer 14.1" widescreen for $199 after rebates. You'd have to wait 4-6 weeks for $300 in rebates but that's not a bad deal in the slightest. There will be more options, I'm sure. Get on their email list to stay informed.

CompUSA had seemingly good deals but you had to get a two-year contract on a new cell phone service. To me, that's one step below "bait and switch" by a car dealer.
 
I got my laptop on Father's day, during a major sale. I love the hell outta it, and strongly suggest it if you can find it at a similar price. Its a Toshiba Satellite, and while its not the fanciest laptop in the world, it does everything I ever wanted for school, and can run some games too.

I got it for $449. It usually sells for $600. Just look for the deal somewhere some day.
 
KennyFlys said:
Yesterday, Microcenter had an Acer 14.1" widescreen for $199 after rebates. You'd have to wait 4-6 weeks for $300 in rebates but that's not a bad deal in the slightest. There will be more options, I'm sure. Get on their email list to stay informed.

CompUSA had seemingly good deals but you had to get a two-year contract on a new cell phone service. To me, that's one step below "bait and switch" by a car dealer.
Click to expand...

I got an inexpensive Acer laptop for my daughter last year. It works pretty well except the battery life is horrible (about 1 to 1.25 hours).
 
OK guys.. Thanks for the input so far. Back in 'the day' when I was still in the loop as far as computer technology goes, I could decipher all the different CPU options, but in the past few years I'm afraid that things have left me behind.

So... I picked up the paper today simply to look through the weekly sales ads and the big 'difference' between the models seems to be the processor. The major ones I'm seeing are: Intel - Celeron, Centrino, Centrino Dual; AMD - Turion, Sempron. I had a desktop at one time that ran the Intel Celeron and it was a DOG. So I'm going to stay away from it. What's the big difference between the Centrino and Centrino Dual. By reading between the lines, I will assume that the Dual will provide better performance, but is it worth the extra $$ since I won't be doing hard-core gaming? Also... I have exactly ZERO experience with the AMD line. Pros, cons for AMD's?

Thanks for all the help folks. Hopefully within the next few months I'll be able to get back into the 'loop' of computer technology.

-Chris
 
CJones said:
What's the big difference between the Centrino and Centrino Dual. By reading between the lines, I will assume that the Dual will provide better performance, but is it worth the extra $$ since I won't be doing hard-core gaming? Also... I have exactly ZERO experience with the AMD line. Pros, cons for AMD's?
Click to expand...

The dual is essentially two processors in one. It's actually a little better than two processors as there is a ton of bandwidth for the two to communicate with. The primary performance advantage is going to be apperant for CPU intensive/real time applications. Really it's not even going to get you much for gaming other than faster load times. It would be very noticeable doing video editing on the other hand.

I would probably stay away from the AMD line for notebooks. Although AMD does make some *VERY* nice desktop and server processors.
 
If she is a teacher or a student also check out the Apple discounts. The MACs are great and you can windows or MAC-OS on them. In fact you can run both at the same time.
 
The early Celeron processors were dogs. No bones about it (sorry). We fixed that by adding a reasonable amount of cache memory. Now they actually perform quite nicely. I've got a laptop with a 1.4 GHz Celeron-M processor that significantly outperforms my 1 GHz Pentium III desktop machine. Gateway that I bought in April. $529 after rebates at Best Buy.
 
Centrino just means it has (Intel) WiFi. About all current laptops will have WiFi.
 
Chris:
I think I could get you a great deal on this one!

Best,

Dave
 

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Dave Siciliano said:
Chris:
I think I could get you a great deal on this one!

Best,

Dave
Click to expand...

Yuck.. That looks WAAAY too familiar to the mess I had to clean up during my first week of my internship in I.T. Support a few years ago. Only our 'mess' was under a raised floor so we had to lay on our stomachs and grab a wire and wait. If the other guy said "OK.. It's clear!", we cut it and pulled it out.

It also resembles the quick setups I used to do for live sound mixing. When you have to set up a 42 channel Mackie board w/ 4-5 in-line EQ's, a few FX processors, and a couple of "Feedback Killers" (that never work, by the way) in a couple of hours, neatness becomes priority number 2,345.

-Chris
 
I'd DEFINITELY recommend Macs to both of your situations. A Macbook for her and you can take your pick between the MB and MBP.
 
mikea said:
It you're willing to invest $1200-$2000 for a reliable setup get an Intel MacBook or MacBook Pro and Parallels and a copy of Windows XP Home.
Click to expand...

What Mike said, only don't bother with Windows or Parallels - If you actually need to run Windows software (highly unlikely given what you've described) you can use a new thing called CrossOver which is an offshoot of WinE. It lets you run a Windows program just as if it was a Mac program, and doesn't require a copy of Windows to do so. Be warned, it's still in beta but I've been using it without too many problems for a few weeks. "Reboots" are insanely fast too (maybe 5 seconds or so), when you don't have an actual copy of Windows to start up!

Oh, and since she's a teacher - go here: http://store.apple.com/1-800-780-5009/WebObjects/EducationIndividual?type=k12
 
From the looks of things, I think the MacBooks will be out of our price range at least for the near future.

I'm seeing that the Sony VAIO is running a few deals in different places this year. Any pros/cons about this particular brand/setup?

It does appear that I should be able to get her a decent setup for what she needs for $500-700 and something for myself for a little less than $1000. I wish I could find a "Buy one get one..." sort of deal. Ha!

-Chris
 
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