A friend is buying a laptop

[The Mighty Favog]

He knows I run Vista in one of my boot partitions so he's asked me for
an opinion on a new laptop he's about to buy. Well, I've never bought
a laptop so I have very little experience here. Maybe somebody around
here can offer guidance?

It's an HP -- total cost after rebate: $689.51
15.4" featuring an AMD Processor
.. AMDTurion(TM6) 4 X2 Dual-CoreMobileTechnotogTy L-60( 2.0G Hz,5
12K8+S12KB
L2 Cache )
.. GenuineWindowsVistaHomePremium( 32-bit)
.. 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
..3GB DDR2S ystemM emory( 2 Dimm

15.4'W XGAHigh-Definition HP BrightView
WidescreenDisplay( 1280x 800)
NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0


NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
$ystvft| Tl*r*v*ry flv* wittl Q*nui** Wi*rirsw* VisIa
fram* fr*miur\ {*i:. ttil.}
None
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0

It also has a LightScribe optical drive DVD +RW Dual layer
Vista comes on a "system recovery" DVD

I'm running Vista Ultimate. I don't even know if Home Premium
supports Aero Glass.

So what do you think. Is this a good deal? Could he do a lot
better? Etc. Thanks.

 

[MICHAEL]

He knows I run Vista in one of my boot partitions so he's asked me for
an opinion on a new laptop he's about to buy. Well, I've never bought
a laptop so I have very little experience here. Maybe somebody around
here can offer guidance?

It's an HP -- total cost after rebate: $689.51
15.4" featuring an AMD Processor
. AMDTurion(TM6) 4 X2 Dual-CoreMobileTechnotogTy L-60( 2.0G Hz,5
12K8+S12KB
L2 Cache )
. GenuineWindowsVistaHomePremium( 32-bit)
. 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
.3GB DDR2S ystemM emory( 2 Dimm

15.4'W XGAHigh-Definition HP BrightView
WidescreenDisplay( 1280x 800)
NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0


NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
$ystvft| Tl*r*v*ry flv* wittl Q*nui** Wi*rirsw* VisIa
fram* fr*miur\ {*i:. ttil.}
None
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0

It also has a LightScribe optical drive DVD +RW Dual layer
Vista comes on a "system recovery" DVD

I'm running Vista Ultimate. I don't even know if Home Premium
supports Aero Glass.

So what do you think. Is this a good deal? Could he do a lot
better? Etc. Thanks.

Sounds like a good enough deal, and it should run Vista
just fine. The 3GB of RAM is really good.

Vista Home Premium has Aero Glass,
Vista Home Basic does not.


-Michael

 

[Richard in AZ]

He knows I run Vista in one of my boot partitions so he's asked me for
an opinion on a new laptop he's about to buy. Well, I've never bought
a laptop so I have very little experience here. Maybe somebody around
here can offer guidance?

It's an HP -- total cost after rebate: $689.51
15.4" featuring an AMD Processor
. AMDTurion(TM6) 4 X2 Dual-CoreMobileTechnotogTy L-60( 2.0G Hz,5
12K8+S12KB
L2 Cache )
. GenuineWindowsVistaHomePremium( 32-bit)
. 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
.3GB DDR2S ystemM emory( 2 Dimm

15.4'W XGAHigh-Definition HP BrightView
WidescreenDisplay( 1280x 800)
NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0


NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
$ystvft| Tl*r*v*ry flv* wittl Q*nui** Wi*rirsw* VisIa
fram* fr*miur\ {*i:. ttil.}
None
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0

It also has a LightScribe optical drive DVD +RW Dual layer
Vista comes on a "system recovery" DVD

I'm running Vista Ultimate. I don't even know if Home Premium
supports Aero Glass.

So what do you think. Is this a good deal? Could he do a lot
better? Etc. Thanks.

The computer sound fine. But a word of caution for your friend.
Laptops use proprietary, custom, hardware and drivers for just that one model.
As such they will be very expensive to repair, if needed.
I would recommend the 3 year extended warrantee and he/she will pay a lot more for a laptop that for
an equivalent desktop model. I recommend a laptop, only if you must have the portability. If most
of the use will be at a desk, don't buy a laptop. He/she will not like the keyboard or the mouse.

 

[LAB Enterprises]

Sounds very similar to my laptop and I love it.

The computer sound fine. But a word of caution for your friend.
Laptops use proprietary, custom, hardware and drivers for just that one
model.
As such they will be very expensive to repair, if needed.
I would recommend the 3 year extended warrantee and he/she will pay a lot
more for a laptop that for an equivalent desktop model. I recommend a
laptop, only if you must have the portability. If most of the use will be
at a desk, don't buy a laptop. He/she will not like the keyboard or the
mouse.

I don't agree with this one. I use my laptop 90% of the time at my desk and
love it. The other 9% of the time it is in the family room, back patio or my
bedroom while I'm working and probably 1% of the time I travel with it. But
keyboard and mouse are wonderful (I use the touchpad and have a usb cordless
mouse as well).

Lori

 

[ajv2003]

May I suggest your friend stick with Intel Core 2 Duo processor in the HP
product. I would also go with the Intel graphics processor since it lents
itself to all drivers kind of comming from the same source. It is much
easier loading XP or Linux should he wish to try it.

Also, I would buy the HP laptop from the Small Business section of HP
Online. The support is much better. I know cause I have been to 'hell and
back' with the regular consumer support a 6 month ordeal.

My experience and those of friends is that AMD hardware has more problems in
HP laptop units.

Albert

 

[C.B.]

He knows I run Vista in one of my boot partitions so he's asked me for
an opinion on a new laptop he's about to buy. Well, I've never bought
a laptop so I have very little experience here. Maybe somebody around
here can offer guidance?

It's an HP -- total cost after rebate: $689.51
15.4" featuring an AMD Processor
. AMDTurion(TM6) 4 X2 Dual-CoreMobileTechnotogTy L-60( 2.0G Hz,5
12K8+S12KB
L2 Cache )
. GenuineWindowsVistaHomePremium( 32-bit)
. 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
.3GB DDR2S ystemM emory( 2 Dimm

15.4'W XGAHigh-Definition HP BrightView
WidescreenDisplay( 1280x 800)
NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0


NVIDIAG eForceG o 7150M
802.11b/Wg LAN
6 CellL ithiumlo n Battery
HP lmprintF inish( Radiance+) Microphone
$ystvft| Tl*r*v*ry flv* wittl Q*nui** Wi*rirsw* VisIa
fram* fr*miur\ {*i:. ttil.}
None
Microsoft(RW) orks9 .0

It also has a LightScribe optical drive DVD +RW Dual layer
Vista comes on a "system recovery" DVD

I'm running Vista Ultimate. I don't even know if Home Premium
supports Aero Glass.

So what do you think. Is this a good deal? Could he do a lot
better? Etc. Thanks.

Bill,

I've never owned an HP laptop or desktop. It's my understanding, based
upon all the comments I've read concerning HP computers, that their customer
support is very poor, their standard answer being "it's a Microsoft
problem", or "it's a Vista problem", or "you must reinstall the operating
system using the recovery sector". I've also read many, many times that HP
uses a lot of their own generic drivers which create problems for the user.
I may be wrong, but with all the negative comments about HP I certainly
wouldn't entertain the thought of buying anything from them.
The only personal experience I have had with HP was when I purchased
one of their Fax/Scanner/Copier/Answering Machines years ago. I had numerous
problems with it and whenever I called HP support the only answer I received
was something like "I'm sorry, but I don't know why it is not working as it
should". I decided at that time to never buy another HP product.
Don't just go for the cheapest computer you can find because you get
what you pay for. Nothing more, nothing less.
I would also heed the comments of Richard in AZ.

C.B.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Bill,

I've never owned an HP laptop or desktop. It's my understanding,
based upon all the comments I've read concerning HP computers, that
their customer support is very poor, their standard answer being "it's a
Microsoft problem", or "it's a Vista problem", or "you must reinstall
the operating system using the recovery sector". I've also read many,
many times that HP uses a lot of their own generic drivers which create
problems for the user.
I may be wrong, but with all the negative comments about HP I
certainly wouldn't entertain the thought of buying anything from them.
The only personal experience I have had with HP was when I purchased
one of their Fax/Scanner/Copier/Answering Machines years ago. I had
numerous problems with it and whenever I called HP support the only
answer I received was something like "I'm sorry, but I don't know why it
is not working as it should". I decided at that time to never buy
another HP product.
Don't just go for the cheapest computer you can find because you get
what you pay for. Nothing more, nothing less.
I would also heed the comments of Richard in AZ.

C.B.

Thanks, C.B., and thanks to the rest of you who have responded. I have
sent my friend Peter a link to your posts on Google Groups. I know he
will appreciate your comments.

As for me ... I have a laptop issued to me by my employer, but I swear I
wouldn't want to be stuck with it as my only computer at home. I built
my desktop system and I admit I've overloaded it with capabilities, but
that's just me. I'm quintuple-booting: two XP partitions (one for
regular use and one for testing software), two Vista partitions (one
32-bit and one 64-bit), and one Linux Ubuntu partition. What fun.

For a long time I did all my important work in XP, but lately I've found
my 32-bit Vista Ultimate installation is my OS of choice. It's taken
months, but Vista is now doing everything I need it to do. I'm still
not sold on Office 2007, though. It seems to offer only different ways
of doing things, not better ways. Kinda like Vista, now that I think
about it.

My Ubuntu experience has been interesting -- rewarding, even. Clearly
Ubuntu is a huge improvement over the previous versions of Linux I've
played with -- Knoppix in particular. But for Linux novices like me I
think, Windows remains the OS of choice. Linux may be able to meet all
my computing needs -- I believe that configured properly it probably
can, in fact -- but the need to master an apparently unending
encyclopedia of arcana is a barrier to me. When I installed Ubuntu, my
video card, sound card, and LAN card worked. But that was about it, and
not all of them worked adequately. Making the video card work properly,
in fact, is still a problem. When I installed Vista, I could easily
find drivers for any of my hardware the OS didn't recognize right out of
the box. (And it recognized nearly everything right out of the box.)

As I've said here before, I like Vista -- primarily because it's pretty.
And now that it is as capable of running my software as XP, I have
pretty much quit XP.