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Laptop on a budget


jsharr

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I had an older version of that laptop. I'd say it's right on the edge of whether I'd recommend it or not. I wasn't happy with it for the most part. It was mediocre at the best of times and did start having issues after a year or two. Generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of Dell laptops.

 

I'd suggest http://www.notebookreview.com/ as a resource to check things out. They are pretty helpful in finding good products and even deals at times. Check Newegg too...they often run cool deals for either big discounts on certain models or bonus items that come with the laptop (we got a free xbox 360 with my wife's last laptop). Newegg also has a great 'refurb' section with great prices.

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My experience, stay the hell away from Dell.  I spent almost a year trying to get them to honor a warranty issue. Almost got the courts involved.

I've had no trouble with HP/ Compaq.

I've got a Dell at home, been a solid laptop for the last year.  No complaints at all with it, of course that was far from a budget machine, so better components may make a difference in quality terms.

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Though I did find a nice Toshiba on Newegg a week or so ago for a budget machine, unfortunately I don't have the link anymore as my sister-in-law couldn't make up her mind as usual so I deleted it.

 

(she wants her mother to buy her a Mac, freaking gold digger)

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Yeah, the Toshiba Satellites get decent reviews.  I was basing my choice off of reviews at Cnet.

My old laptop (before the Dell) was a Toshiba Satellite. I loved it.

 

That's what we ended up buying the wife for her last laptop...it start losing entire lines of pixels in the screen after a year or two.

 

I think it's all a crapshoot.

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Yeah, the Toshiba Satellites get decent reviews.  I was basing my choice off of reviews at Cnet.

 

My backup laptop at home is a 6 year old Toshiba Satellite now running Mint Linux.  It was a budget machine back then, battery is shot, but thing still works great.

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I've got a Dell at home, been a solid laptop for the last year.  No complaints at all with it, of course that was far from a budget machine, so better components may make a difference in quality terms.

Sorry, a $1500 laptop should not have a cracked mother board. 

Dell should replace said mother board on a high end machine and not bat an eye,

Dell should not force me to spend 6 months trying to get them to live up to their warranty before I get legal council involved.

Dell should not give any customer the run around they gave me, hoping the warranty period would expire before they fix/replae said motherboard.

Do I need to continue?

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Sorry, a $1500 laptop should not have a cracked mother board. 

Dell should replace said mother board on a high end machine and not bat an eye,

Dell should not force me to spend 6 months trying to get them to live up to their warranty before I get legal council involved.

Dell should not give any customer the run around they gave me, hoping the warranty period would expire before they fix/replae said motherboard.

Do I need to continue?

 

Nope, I agree, just saying I've had no issues with mine.  The cracked motherboard could've easily been the fault of poor handling from the person you bought it off of though as that's a really odd one.  But Dell should've honored the warranty.

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Sorry, a $1500 laptop should not have a cracked mother board. 

Dell should replace said mother board on a high end machine and not bat an eye,

Dell should not force me to spend 6 months trying to get them to live up to their warranty before I get legal council involved.

Dell should not give any customer the run around they gave me, hoping the warranty period would expire before they fix/replae said motherboard.

Do I need to continue?

My brother had  a similar (but possibly  worse) experience with an HP laptop he bought from Best Buy many years ago. Due to my knowledge of that experience, I'll never buy an HP computer.

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My brother had  a similar (but possibly  worse) experience with an HP laptop he bought from Best Buy many years ago. Due to my knowledge of that experience, I'll never buy an HP computer.

I wouldn't buy one based on the commercial series ones we have at work, good lord do these things suck.

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I wouldn't buy one based on the commercial series ones we have at work, good lord do these things suck.

The short story of my brother's experience was that the computer (desktop) went belly up shortly after first turning it on (either same day or within a few days of turning it on first time). However...he bought it as a Christmas present on a Black Friday sale. The store policy was returns had to be within 14 days on electronics. Since it wasn't turned on until Christmas, he was past the 14 days so he had to go through HP to resolve the issue.

 

HP would not fix, not allow a return. *I* talked to tech support after my brother spent hours in the first week getting nowhere (he doens't really know computers like I do). I thought they were going to allow him to return (send a box to ship back). They changed their mind after that, and he didn't tell me.

 

I asked him about it a few months later and it turned out that he still had the computer and was still actively working with tech support nearly every single day. They had him (who barely knew how to use Windows at the time) doing stuff like changing memory around on motherboard, swapping out cards to different slots, then reinstalling drivers, etc..... He spent hours nearly every day for MONTHS (probably 4-6  months in the end) doing this stuff at tech support's instruction. After exhausting just about everything they could ever think of, they finally allowed a return, about 6 MONTHS later.

 

Then on discussion with him a few years after that, it turned out that he didn't have a toll free tech support phone number...so he'd spend all that time on phone with tech support on his own long distance phone charge. He spent at least over $1000 in long distance phone charges with tech support that was never reimbursed or attempted to make up for in any way.

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The short story of my brother's experience was that the computer (desktop) went belly up shortly after first turning it on (either same day or within a few days of turning it on first time). However...he bought it as a Christmas present on a Black Friday sale. The store policy was returns had to be within 14 days on electronics. Since it wasn't turned on until Christmas, he was past the 14 days so he had to go through HP to resolve the issue.

 

HP would not fix, not allow a return. *I* talked to tech support after my brother spent hours in the first week getting nowhere (he doens't really know computers like I do). I thought they were going to allow him to return (send a box to ship back). They changed their mind after that, and he didn't tell me.

 

I asked him about it a few months later and it turned out that he still had the computer and was still actively working with tech support nearly every single day. They had him (who barely knew how to use Windows at the time) doing stuff like changing memory around on motherboard, swapping out cards to different slots, then reinstalling drivers, etc..... He spent hours nearly every day for MONTHS (probably 4-6  months in the end) doing this stuff at tech support's instruction. After exhausting just about everything they could ever think of, they finally allowed a return, about 6 MONTHS later.

 

Then on discussion with him a few years after that, it turned out that he didn't have a toll free tech support phone number...so he'd spend all that time on phone with tech support on his own long distance phone charge. He spent at least over $1000 in long distance phone charges with tech support that was never reimbursed or attempted to make up for in any way.

 

Nice, nothing like spending more money on the phone trying to fix the POS then you probably paid for it.

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What aboot those $299 Windows tablet/laptop thinghies they advertise on tv?  Any good?

Not sure.  This is a pretty nice computer for $100 more.  It has Windows 8.1  already but it did not come with Office 365.  Need to add that.  She works for the ISD, so hopefully can get a copy for cheap.

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Not sure.  This is a pretty nice computer for $100 more.  It has Windows 8.1  already but it did not come with Office 365.  Need to add that.  She works for the ISD, so hopefully can get a copy for cheap.

Those "Windows tablet" things look fairly fragile, and the keyboard seems like a joke, so yes, sounds like you did good. :)

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