Larian Studios Forums General Chat Advice about buying a laptop

I need some advice about buying a laptop. Because I soon got money for one.

Hi Neo Claw!

The advise depends very much on how much money you will get... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Ask Obosch! He said he works in computer store. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have about: 961,5 dollars. (about 7500 danish krowns)
And i just want to use if for school, programming and games (DD, Starcraft and CS)

It's best to buy a Dell or Hewlett Packard, etc, those don't have to much useless crap.
But You won't be able to buy a real strong machine with that budget, you'll be able to play CS and DD but no DOOM III ...

I agree with Draghermosran the Dell ones are the less expensive. Plus their hot line is free.
You can have a look at their web site dell.com
I have one since 5 years and i never had big problems with it.
I think to buy a new one too for playing RRR and DD2.
But 961,5 dollars is not enough to have a good processor and a good graphic card to play games.
You need at least 1500 dollar.
Wait for your Christmas presents to get a little more money.
Barta

I will wait for christmas.
But I can find some realy good laptops for about 970$. Computers are pretty cheap in Denmark <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

I will come in Denmark to buy a new one.

What ever you do,do NOT buy Acer.

PS: my next laptop will be a dell when I have enough money

Why sahll i not buy Acer? I have heard they should be good.

Uh, be careful with repair costs ! In the german mag " C'T " there is a report on Notebook sellers wanting LOTS of money for repair !

One unfortuunate example is Dell making something that is called a "Pauschalpreis" in German (don't know what it's called in English, but a Preis = price and Pauschal is a sum for everything, no matter how big or small something is).

If even small parts are damaged, the service at some companies say that the custumer MUST NOT repair this, because otherwise the notebook's guarantee is invalid. Instead, they want several hundred Euros ( <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/exclamation.gif" alt="" /> ) for simple repairs - as Pauschalpreis.

In a kind of Poll the mag made, people were quite unsatisfied with Gericom and Sony.

Dell, Gericom, HP and Sony had thze most defects, Notebooks from Compaq, HP, Toshiba and Gericom were more than once damaged , and the poll also says that the mainboard and the disply were the most of all damaged parts.

The most expansive companies - regarding repair, service and accompanied stuff - are : Toshiba, HP, Dell, Compaq, Sony, Gericom.

The magazine lists very strange stories, like for example that of a Sony VAIO PCG-F305 where the hinfe (?) of the display was broken once before the end of the Guarantee time, anf seconds after the end. They wanted 2000 Euro for the repair, but that was too much money for the customer. Even worse, the customer got the info that the company wanted 400 Euro just for the "estimation of costs" for the repair. Since then, the repair still stands somewhere in a sevice dept , because the customer didn't want to pay that money and Sony releses Notebooks only after received payment. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Dell wanted 380 Euro as Pauschalpreis for the repair of a part which - as the article assumes - Dell gets for some cents.

From another customer Dell wanted 215 Euro for a small spring ? (German Feder) which helps holding the accumulator / battery in its place.


Some people even cannot use their notebooks anymore, because the company used proprietary parts for it which aren't available anymore !

So - I can only advice you to be very careful regarding costs for repauirs. It *could* become very expensive, but doesn't need to be.

But here in Denmark we have a special law. There is 2 years of full waranty on every electronic thing you buy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> That pretty nice.
Like my DVD-drive has just crashed, and i bought my computer for about 1½ years ago. And now i can just return it to the store and they have to fix it. That is pretty nice!

Me and my brother both bougth a acer laptop.

My problems: (travelmate 630)

the official driver of acer for the grafical card give sometimes (one every 3 days) a bluescreen of death. updated drivers give of nvidia bluescreen every 6 hours. friend with the same one has the same problem. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/down.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/down.gif" alt="" />

My networkcard doesn't get new IP adresses if you use a crossed cable between laptops (unless one of us is running a DHCP server). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> lucky that I've installed Windows 2003 on mt laptop

for the rest it's good just a bit unstable

brother problems: not a laptop more of a portable workstation (weight: 7.1 kg)


Pefect LCD screen with the exception of 2 constant red pixels(just below each other). Every time I wacht a DVD on it, the huge red dots is in the face of the main character. It like a laser gun is pointed at him all the time. Acer would not take it back. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/down.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/down.gif" alt="" />

Maybe you are just unlucky...

could be <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

I never had problems with my Laptop Dell during 5 years.
Maybe i am lucky !
I could buy a new one and i could have a lot of problems.
In france we also have 2 years of guarantee, i think it's a recent law for european people.

I've always heard good thing about dell laptop. thats why my next one will be a dell.

my sister just bout a pretty decent machine from www.half.com for only $400. maybe look here, www.pricewatch.com. you might want to consider saving a few bucks by getting one without an OS installed on it, and just get your OS online.

As I've heard, just two pixels / dots are within the tolerance of ... how is it's called ? Manufacturing.

Uhm Dell is very good for it's support and service, I bought my dell true school, and bought 3 years garantee + 24h service.

SO I didn't need it but a classmate did, his lcd broke so he called an the other say they came along and replaced his LCD, for free, as part of the service.

Another classmate couldn't boot anymore, so he called dell to, next morning, someone came and looked at it, then replaced the motherboard because the onboard video card was broken. Again for free ^^ . if you call this bad? It's much more expensive to have it repaired by some other shop.

Alrik;
"Pauschalpreis" = flat fee
"hinfe (?)" = hinge


All manufacturers have certain (individual) tolerances for defective pixels in LCD screens. It may be something like 10 pixels full screen or 5 if they are close to the center. Pixels close together are worse than separate, but I don't think any manufacturer would consider a laptop defective for 'just' two pixels (maybe 4 together, IIRC, depending on manufacturer).

There are screen protection warranties available (perhaps not in all areas) that will classify a screen defective for any broke pixels. Actually, laptops and scanners are the only electronics I would look at an extended warranty for. I've hear stories of people slipping on ice and dropping an hour old laptop, or spilling coffee on the keyboard thus shorting out the motherboard, etc.