[bayoubelle]

Hi... I currently have a Toshiba Satellite A65 (for 2 years next week) and well it's performance is crap to be very blunt about it. Overheats, which I have found to be a Toshiba problem, that they are aware of but not concerned with and randomly shuts off with no warning, for no apparent reason. That is, in my opinion, completely unacceptable. Also, I don't want to get ripped off but am willing to spend more to get a quality laptop that will not need to be replaced within 2 years. So I was wondering if y'all could help direct me to some good, reliable machines. I am a graduate students so my primary use is data-crunching in excel, word and extensive research on the web. I need a decent battery life, good wireless connectivity, and a fan that can keep up with the processor. I have been told so far to get a centrino processor and 1gb memory.As far as everything else... it's jjust icing. So if you have any suggestions PLEASE let me know. Computer shopping is making my head spin with all the options and bells and whistles.Thanks :)

[CyborgSlayer]

I would recommend a dell system for no other reason then their complete care warranty. Complete Care has saved my ass a few times as well as my some of my friends. If you arent interested in the warranty I would say just go down to your local Best Buy and pick up something with a centrino and a gig of ram for the lowest price you can find. You may wish to take into account size and battery life (my Dell 630m is the perfect size for me and the battery lasts over 6 hours).

[Methuss]

I would recommend the ThinkPad. Models vary but most people go for the T60. Which costs between $1000 and $2500 depending on features. A workhorse model with 128MB ATI video adapter will run you about $1700.Warranty support is far better than any other manufacturer (Sorry Dell, but you're not the best here). 3 years on the laptop; 1 year on the battery. And if anything goes wrong, IBM -- yes IBM still does the support -- sends you a shipping container via overnight 9 am delivery prepaid for overnight shipping back to them. Just drop the laptop in the box, call DHL to pick it up and in about 3 days you have a fixed machine back.Oh, and unlike Dell, IBM still has their call center in the United States, in Atlanta Georgia. No hard to understand, script reading, off-shore contractors to deal with.

[CyborgSlayer]

i don't know... they come to my house to fix it. also if i smash it with my fist and i tell them they still fix it and they do it with a smile. :D

[Methuss]

[quote name='CyborgSlayer']i don't know... they come to my house to fix it. also if i smash it with my fist and i tell them they still fix it and they do it with a smile. :DA service for which you have to pay extra if I recall. Dell does not include on-site with their machines. If you want on-site, that is offered as an upgrade option on the ThinkPads as well as upping the warranty to 5 years, which no other company matches as a warranty upgrade. With the included 1 year depot warranty Dell provides, they do not pay for overnight shipping. It's 3-day ground. So your minimum turn around is 9 days.I'm not sure when you last had to make a call into Dell for service, but I have had to make three calls over the past two months because my employer uses Dell equipment. In all three calls, I spent at least 35 minutes on hold before I even got to a human being. In two out of three of those calls I got Dell's off-shore call center.I cannot tell you how frustrating it was to spend an additional 30 minutes sparring with a script reading contractor in order to get a replacement hard disk. The Dell I called about blew it's hard drive. The call center employee kept insisting that they can do nothing without a Dell diagnostics code. I could not get it through her thick skull that that was simply not possible because the diagnostic software is on the hard drive service partition and the hard drive would not spin up. Even trying to give her the OnTrak diagnostic that I was able to run was like talking to a rock.The second one was for a bad power supply. Same thing. Over an hour on the phone arguing with a script wielding off-shore worker about running diagnostics on a machine that won't even power on.Now if you're the kind of masochistic person that enjoys that kind of thing, by all means buy a Dell with the standard warranty.

[CyborgSlayer]

Ok you got me there. Offshore technical support is not the smartest thing any company has done. One time I did get a girl in Edmonton and that was quick, I think I was on the phone for ten minutes and they where there the next day.The fact of the matter is you should get a laptop where you enjoy the weight and feel of it. Don't plan on the thing failing cause sometimes they don't. (Unless you are a very violent person and/or tavel alot)

[Methuss]

[quote name='CyborgSlayer']> > The fact of the matter is you should get a laptop where you enjoy the weight and feel of it. Don't plan on the thing failing cause sometimes they don't. (Unless you are a very violent person and/or tavel alot)Feel of it, yes. You should always like the way the keyboard feels and how the pointer device works. (the Thinkpad has both pad and stick pointers, which I like the flexibility of). Weight, I have to disagree on. It is a simple matter of physics. The lighter the laptop, the more likely it is to break from "normal" use. Feature sets also get more scarce as laptops get lighter. You simply can't expect to get desktop-like performance from a 3 pound micro-notebook. But can reasonably expect mid-range, desktop-like performance from something in the range of 4.5 to 6 pounds.And murphy's law always applies. Expect it to break. Because if you don't, it will. Hard drives fail, and backlight inverters go out, it is a simple fact of computing. And most people would want a $1500+ investment protected at least more than a year. So if it doesn't come with a 3 year warranty, you should step up. The extra $150 it generally costs will protect you from expensive failures...and no part on a laptop is cheap (except maybe memory SO-DIMMs).

[yiwen]

HP and IBM is the best. Sony VAIO and Dell is so fragile.

[ac160]

[quote name='bayoubelle']Hi... I currently have a Toshiba Satellite A65 (for 2 years next week) and well it's performance is crap to be very blunt about it. Overheats, which I have found to be a Toshiba problem, that they are aware of but not concerned with and randomly shuts off with no warning, for no apparent reason. That is, in my opinion, completely unacceptable. Also, I don't want to get ripped off but am willing to spend more to get a quality laptop that will not need to be replaced within 2 years. I have had the same problem with my A70. I temporarily fised that when blew out the dust with compressed air.

[learning2baGURU]

Are you kidding me? Offshore customer service rocks. Being part of a huge technical firm, you would be amazed how much millions of dollars we save having offshore customer service. They're almost like actors/actress. We give them different names that people can understand, make sure they're techy savvy, and the best of all their about 75% less salary then someone here in the US.But for the consumer I'm sure it SUCKS! Can't do anything about it, outsourcing RULES and that will never change. :lol: