CPU Speed...

[VonErich Lives]

ok, looking for a new laptop.

Going to use it for work (VPN), mostly stuff from the net, excell and word.

Don't really see too much outside of that, no high end graphic design, probably no access. May do some powerpoint presentations and will probably get a combo DVD burner "just in case".

So, do I need to spend the big money on a 3-4ghz cpu? or am I fine going cheaper, with better memory (512K) and built in Wi-Fi and Blue-tooth?

[KleptoKlown]

make sure its a moblie processor. Centrino or Celeron M. Way better battery life. Of course that means you'll be around the 1.6ghz range, but thats fine for what you're needing to do. Most notebooks will have built in wifi. Don't buy anyone with less than 512mb ram. Centrinos are noticably faster than the celerons...larger cache.

Other stuff like TFT monitors or "brite" monitors are more personal preferrences.

We sell mostly acers, have been pretty bulletproof for us so far. Sold a few hundred this year so far, and i'd be able to count the ones with hardware problems with both my hands...

[Bad Company]

buy a new HP 8000 series laptop. You won't regret it.

[V]

my first (well second, minus the windows 3.1 crap) computer was a pre-built HP pavillion.... and my god what a piece of shit it was. It died in a year.

i duno how HP is now, but i would never buy anything from them again.

just my 2 cents.

[Bad Company]

I've probably used about 30 varieties of HP laptops, puls all other makes, the new HPs are light, look good, and are functional at a decent price. I've just spent 3 months evaluating laptops from IBM, Toshiba, Dell and HP, and I chose to go with the HPs.
Also, on the note of the old HP Pavilions, I went to visit my family down south they were still running a Pentium 133 HP Pavilion, 24mb of ram etc, and it did its job perfectly. So it's all in how you use it as well ;)

[VonErich Lives]

I have a Dell now, needs a new screen, may just get a screen for it and a wireless card. I think it has 2 slots, so can probably get a bluetooth and a wi-fi card.

I know people who have had great luck with Toshiba's so I guess it's all hit or miss.

Acer, wow... didn't know they were still around... I still remember 10yrs ago working for a computer retail chain and they came out with the funky colored desktops with the strange shapes.

I just wanted to make sure 1.6mhz would be fast enough for what I needed, I figured it would be, but thought I'd check before dropping 3K for a laptop when I can spend under 1,000.00

[KleptoKlown]

HP has shit end user support though, if it never breaks on you, it'll be fine. Trying to get warranty work..ugh.

Dell actually has great support. They'll cross ship parts and everything. So will Acer.

Price of a replacement screen might be more than its worth, really depends on how old the notebook is. Like you said, you can spend under 1000 bucks on a new one, and get what you need, with a new warranty.

[Bad Company]

I haven't had too many problems with HP Warranty, but for an end user I would rate Dells as the best. Business, HP is all good.

[VonErich Lives]

HP has shit end user support though, if it never breaks on you, it'll be fine. Trying to get warranty work..ugh.

Dell actually has great support. They'll cross ship parts and everything. So will Acer.

Price of a replacement screen might be more than its worth, really depends on how old the notebook is. Like you said, you can spend under 1000 bucks on a new one, and get what you need, with a new warranty.

Yeah, it's the warranty and bulit-in Wi-Fi that make me think about just getting a new one.

The new screen of ebay runs around $200.00, via a 3rd party company it's around $400.00.

It's ain Inspiron either 2600 or 2650, has a 1.6mhz celeron cpu and 256mb memory... I'd also want to upgrade the memory, so by the time I'm done screen and memory, I might just as well spend a few bucks more and get something new... I just hate spenidng the money if I don't have to.

That and I just got an Axim, so I probably should push the limits of this thing a little bit before buying a laptop, only issue I've run into so far, is when I VPN into work, the screen of our database program won't "re size" to fix the axim screen, so I either have to keep scrolling or just see 1/2 or 1/4 of a screen when I'm typing.

I hate the idea of having to carry both, but they really serve two different purposes, unless I can find a way to do the database program on the Axim, then I will have little need for a laptop (I think...)