Laptop died. Need a new one. Recommendations?

[dow]

I've been using a Gateway M675 laptop and the motherboard died this week. This is a 17" display laptop, and I'd like to find another of similar size, but without spending a hunk of money (this one was free ).

I'd like to have the following in it:

• PC based system - Mac is NOT in the budget
• 2 GB or more memory
• 160 GB or larger HDD
• DVD burner
• WiFi
• Bright screen
• Large screen
• relatively good battery life.
• Inexpensive )the budget is going to be stretched extremely thin at $600 US)

Is a 15.6" display suitable for editing in Bibble and Gimp?

I found these two that might work except for the screen size:
eMachine: http://************/mottlk
Acer: http://************/n98243

BTW, Acer owns eMachine, and the specs of these two systems look to be identical except for RAM and HD size

This will be my only computer.

Recommendations?

Thanks!

[Titus213]

Knock yourself out!

http://www.salescircular.com/tx/computer/laptpp.shtml

Just stay away from the Celerons

[crn3371]

I'd just wait for the weekend adds and hit your local big box retailer and find something that fits your budget. Most offerings at your price point are going to have similar specs, I'd just look for the retailer with the best offerings.

[CyberDyneSystems]

My Step mother walked into a Staples (on my recomendation) and walked out with a Dell with;
15 screen,
dual core intel core duo,
4GB of RAM! (that was the amazing part! )
DVD Burner
WiFi
200GB HD
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit


all for $550.00.
I was amazed!

(he says typing on his now ancient HP/Compaq DV1000 ... )

Over the years I've had this sort of thing happen 5 times, need a new PC fast, need a cheap but good one, and walk into staples and they always have last months flavor on sale.

[MaxxuM]

Check out CompUSA.com for deals. They usually have some pretty good deals. They're TigerDirect and Misco.co.uk which are owned by Systemax.

[Titus213]

dow -
I believe both of those you linked to are single core processors. I think you would be better served spending a bit more and getting a dual core at this point.

[dow]

crn3371: Good idea, I'll do that.

CyberDyneSystems: I checked at Staples, and they had that same model Acer on sale this week, but the two stores in the San Antonio area were already out. They're supposed to have a Compaq with very similar specs on starting Sunday for $349, so I'll go look at that.

MaxxuM: That's where I got the specs on the two laptops in my first post.

Titus213: Thanks for the link to the sales flier page. I didn't know that even existed. The gateway that died had a pentium 4 in it from 2004. Even if these are single core cpu's they're still faster than what I've been using, so I should be fine. Thanks for the head's up, though.

I'm going to swing through Best Buy on the way home to see if they have any open box deals. I've found good deals there in the past.

[MaxxuM]

Take a look at this one... LINK. It seems OK.

[Titus213]

www.newegg.com is also a good place to shop.

[dow]

Well, I picked up a Compaq Presario CQ60-210US from Staples yesterday. They've got a special on this week (July 12-18, look at the bottom of the first page), with a huge discount when you check out. I paid right at $400.00 for it, including sales tax, and it also has a $30 rebate, so it'll end up costing me $370 US.

So far, I'm pleased with it. It's much faster than the old laptop, and the screen is really bright and sharp. Time will tell how it holds up, but so far, I'm pretty happy.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

[ralff]

I just ordered a Toshiba - Satellite from Best Buy (online only) for 549.99. 2.2 GHz AMD Turion X2 processor, 18.4" widescreen (1680X945), 4GB DDR2 memory, 320GB HD, DVDRW, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and a IEEE 1394 FireWire port.

[Marlboro]

I myself found out that the HP Pavillion dv5z is a great laptop for editing and displaying images.

It uses AMD Athlon Puma architecture, ATI graphics, and it has one of the best LCD ever on a laptop, screen size 15.6" at the resolution of 1650 x 1050.

There's already a review here: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4486

And, it's quite cheap. You may want to look at it.

[Gnhntn]

Originally Posted by dow

Well, I picked up a Compaq Presario CQ60-210US from Staples yesterday. They've got a special on this week (July 12-18, look at the bottom of the first page), with a huge discount when you check out. I paid right at $400.00 for it, including sales tax, and it also has a $30 rebate, so it'll end up costing me $370 US.

So far, I'm pleased with it. It's much faster than the old laptop, and the screen is really bright and sharp. Time will tell how it holds up, but so far, I'm pretty happy.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Have an older Compact Presario that I have been using for travel at work for 3 years now, and actually quite a few other things as well. I have had no problems with it, and it has held up quite well, considering. Anymore Compact is a low budget HP, in fact the battery, and other parts, as well as some of the menus when working within them, say HP on them.

[SuzyView]

I just bought a Toshiba U505 from Costco two weeks ago. It's a 13.3 inch, 2.1 duo core, 4gb RAM, 300gb hard drive, DVD burner, 3 usb ports. It's perfect for traveling and I just attache a 22 inch Samsung to it when I am home for editing. The screen is very bright and wonderful. I have an ASUS net book and that's wonderful for when I really can't take much, but this one is just like my 17 inch Dell but smaller and a lot easier to fit in a think tank airport international. I've pretty much decided I love it for $750. Costco has a "forever support" guarantee.

[dow]

Originally Posted by dow

Well, I picked up a Compaq Presario CQ60-210US from Staples yesterday. They've got a special on this week (July 12-18, look at the bottom of the first page), with a huge discount when you check out. I paid right at $400.00 for it, including sales tax, and it also has a $30 rebate, so it'll end up costing me $370 US.

So far, I'm pleased with it. It's much faster than the old laptop, and the screen is really bright and sharp. Time will tell how it holds up, but so far, I'm pretty happy.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Well, after three weeks and three thousand miles for vacation, I'm well pleased with this laptop. I've got Ubuntu 9.04 running on it and am using Bibble Pro along with Gimp with no issues. Hopefully, I'll get the $30 rebate in the mail soon.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that it's got that shiny finish on the outside, and it shows fingerprints like crazy. On the other hand, if that's as bad as it gets, then that's still pretty darn good.