[Guest]

Suggestions anyone? My current laptop is continually crashing and I have to system restore at least once a day. It's becoming tiresome. Soooo it seems I'm in the market for a new one. It will only mainly be used for net surfing and word processing. I have a Gopro but currently no software to edit the footage so it'd be good if I could hide them together in the same purchase. Cheaper is better than high performance though. Any traps for young players?

 

[Guest]

600-800 is probably realistic.

 

[Zonbie]

MSY are currently selling Brand new Acer's for $349.00, less $50.00 cashback from Acer before June 30 = $299.00. I checked one out today.

Looks the goods for a cheap arse (new) laptop............. Have a look at their website for the special.

Steve

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[lightly]

I've gone through a few computers last two desktops i built myself and last one quite costly 2-3k that was 3 years ago but now you can pick up a nice quick laptop for under a grand, I've changed and gotten a dell/alien-ware a year ago and It have been great, i thought my wifi card went in it and they came straight out and replace it and it ended up being optus nothing to do with laptop..
Dell got some good prices if you buy online.
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/ ... cs=audhs1&
This laptop is great value in my opinion.

 

[DennisT]

Maybe check out one of the new Google-branded 'Chromebooks' - unsure if there will be video editing software included though.

These look pretty cool - Samsung, Acer and HP version available.

The issue is the video editing - Stupeflix video maker is the downloadable app for vid edits - it does not have the greatest reviews. Youtube editing is the other option, but it is very limited.

http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/ ... cs=audhs1&
This laptop is great value in my opinion.

I would buy a Dell again - Affordable and good quality

 

[Guest]

Don't write it off quite yet. A complete reinstall can sometimes buff up the hardware nicely, and return it to something vaguely speedy. I won't go into the reasons why; but it's generally worth ditching your installation of windows completely every six months or so (if you're xp-era), or maybe every 2 years (win7/8).

I did a full re-install back in April. I've now no faith in the damned thing. I can't afford to have it crashing again all the time as I use it for uni and the downtime invariably happens as I have work due. I learnt last time to save everything to the cloud but the associated downtime could potentially hurt me.

Is there anything in particular I should be looking for as a CPU minimum?

 

[Guest]

Toshiba Satellite

 

[DennisT]

Toshiba Satellite

Throw it in the river- I also owned one of these and hated it. Dont own it anymore but still hate it!!!!

Good luck with the search I am sure you will find something decent with your budget

 

[Guest]

Having supported a fleet of laptops whose brand has a very good reputation, I can say with great confidence after sales service is the most important aspect of any laptop. A laptop may be people-proof but is every single component (sourced from other suppliers) up to the task? In the case of four models in a row from one particular brand, the answer is, "no" and the manufacturer was not quick to agree to warranty repair.

Find a decent Computer shop that assembles its own. Find the right one and you'll save a bundle and have no issues with warranty. For example, for about 15-20 years I bought my PCs from Computek in Hornsby and developed a high level of trust in the operator. I never had any warranty issue with Computek. "What's the problem? It will be ready tomorrow. No charge". Sometimes, well after the warranty period expired. Everyone I sent to Computek was happy with service and price.

If anyone thinks I am plugging Computek, you'd be right. However, there was a fire in the block shortly before I moved from the area and I don't know whether or where David started up again.

Computek is far from convenient for you. If you don't want to go to the effort to find a dealer with whom you can develop a relationship, this may help
http://laptops-and-notebooks.findthebest.com/
You can change the sort order from smart rating to user rating, price, etc.

 

[Guest]

I thought as much!

They're pretty good machines, but some of the C-series (particularly the C660) are slightly infamous
for this issue. The problem (99% sure) is the CPU overheating due to a build-up of fluff & dust around
the heatsink.

I've fixed a few of these and it only takes around 20 minutes. The cooling fan for the CPU sucks in
dust/fluff, which blocks the cooling vanes on the CPU heatsink, causing the CPU to overheat and
the machine to reset/shut-down.

If you were closer to me I'd fix it for ya, but any reputable laptop technician should be able to fix it.

You may also need to check your hard-disk, as two machines I've fixed (with this overheating issue) also
had severely corrupted drives, due the the constant resets.

Cheers,

Mike.

Toshiba Satellite

Looking on the bottom of it ... possibly model L500?

I've had it in for repair last time it died and the bloke gave it back to me telling me there was nothing wrong with it. :-? Although I must admit he didn't fill me with much confidence. I would have thought he'd clean the insides if he had it apart. My biggest issue is I don't want to sink more cash into it if it's going to die again in 3 months. I'd rather just invest in something that's going to get me another few years use.

Thanks to everyone so far for your suggestions. I have been looking at them, and evaluating but just haven't replied to everyone individually. I'm essentially computer hardware illiterate so this is a learning and information gathering exercise at present.

 

[Guest]

My wife just emailed me this http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/ ... cs=audhs1& Dell Inspiron 17R Special Edition. $899. Any thoughts? It seems our budget goes further than I thought. But i'd still like to come in under that so that I can put some editing software in the budget.

Edit. actually just re-read what she said. she was referring to the 15R. Which is the same as what Lightly has posted.

 

[Guest]

Ok folks, how does this sound for $659? Could I do worse or better for that cash?

Inspiron 15R Special Edition Laptop 3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3632QM processor (6M Cache, up to 3.2 GHz)
8GB 2 DIMM (4GB x 2) DDR3 1600Mhz
1.0TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Windows 8, English (64bit)
12.7" SATA Tray Load DVD+/-RW
Internal 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet
AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7730M DDR3 2GB
Skullcandy Speakers with Waves MaxxAudio(R) 4 processing
6-cell Lithium Ion (48WHr) Battery
Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230, 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth v4.0
15.6" HD WLED True-Life (1366x768)
1 Year Warranty

 

[Guest]

Windows 8 sucks arse... but it is possible to get around the touch screen interface thingy and just use it in desktop mode. All the new computers at uni have it. I can live with it.

 

[kevinnugent]

I'm selling a new Ultrabook if interested. Cost me just shy of $700 last week. Turned on once..

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/200935448124 ... 1586.l2649

 

[Guest]

My wife is baulking at the "refurbished"...

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWYG6B/gAACffgAAQUOWAGoghUgo/7/+wMADhkNU8jIFPU9TQyepoamyTNRtBhoZDTJoBiGmmjQ0YNVP9Co9T8ppPUAGjQAD1HF5jM7/Prt+mzHeePhA18e79DOBCJ4skG9Ezkr12RHOs0iud3SB8kwK3JaUkfmIww/Cy79n7niBVIiaQ6mPTGC9E/rRy9vsGnhDjGAyaRuK51Z6BtEG7Uas/5S2xRnyEwtOrqQetsgYDn8WwFmNDIo3QUazC0atM6VTmdbWmqDSQzKgKqThbAGUWJDvX4LZjJtpR7OtaKxDogKgZax94ic5AgndsKgh0gEasQEB5SaZ/b40KDkq3lDYdiTDnfRdyRThQkIG6B/g=

 

[Jeffen]

My wife is baulking at the "refurbished"...

She is a wise woman. Don't do it.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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