Laptop question

[Jiggers]

I want to buy a new laptop 17 inch screen maybe a little bigger. I would like to know which laptop has the best power downloading capability fast and efficient. I would like to open an account maybe with itunes or something like them and download movies as well. What’s your recommendations? I don’t want to buy used DVD’s, but I’ll play my CD’s though. I’m listening.

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[Ken]

All new laptops are functionally the same for what your stated goals are. The bottlenecks for downloading are unlikely to be your computer.

They are in order:

The router you use.

The dsl/cable WAN speed

The bandwidth available or throttled at the download choice site or the aggregate throughput of the peers and seeds you connect to for each torrent.

My netbook downloads at the exact same speed as my desktops, the laptops and the servers. The number of crazy TSR (resident apps) included with your printer software and the paranoia of your AV proggies will slow the speed at which your computer can write to disk in some cases… But new computers usually have enough power to compensate until the cruft has had several years to build up.

To DL torrents fast I use a friends server in the Netherlands (Tier one colo) and then FTP from there when complete

Even comcast at it’s most expensive speed will not tax your laptop/desktop since ethernet 100mb and gigabit ports are far faster then the output from the router/dslmodem/cablemodem.

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[Ken]

I own several cheap laptops and get to work on hundreds each year.

The cost factor has now outpaced damn near every other criteria unless you are a hard core road warrior in which case your company usually makes the choice for you.

The lenovo value line has some priced at throw away prices.

Tech support is hard headed and if the app won’t burn your recovery disk you have to fight with them on the phone… but a 17″ dual core with a 160g drive for 349.00 was last years black friday price. It is currently 499. Similar laptops and netbooks will be on sale in that price range.

Use it for a year and give it away and get another one.

Laptop prices top out at 1200.00 this year. My old toshiba from 2003 was 1300.00 as a costco refurb and it was a vanilla business machine. For 1200 bucks you can get a machine that will play the latest games while ripping dvd’s in the background.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006740%204023&IsNodeId=1&name=%241000%20-%20%241250

Dell, HP/Compaq and Toshiba are the easiest to fix/reload and buy parts for but they cost a little more.

My toshiba netbook nb205-230 is a great little machine which runs all standard apps at adequate speed and is easy to carry around and has a long battery life (9 hours)

These will be on sale this week too. The current model numbers are in the 300’s

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[Smitty]

Macbook Pro.

$2,300 but worth every, single penny.

At least go “test drive” one at the local Apple store (Southcenter, U-Village or Bell Square).

Once you go Mac you’ll never go back!

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[JanS]

wow, Smitty…just throw out the most expensive thing you can. Not all of us have your money. I know jiggers is a thrifty guy…if I have 2300 bucks it surely isn’t gonna go into a computer, thank you very much….that amount would make me feel rich. But you spend your money anyway you want :)

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[Jiggers]

I’m not going to spend more than $700. I’m going to Walmart first on Saturday and hopefully they have something in stock. Pray.

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[christopherboffoli]

I’m with Smitty. There are lots of cheap PC laptops the market. But if you consider the total cost of ownership the Mac can often be the smarter choice due to its rock solid OS X operating system, intuitive included iLife software, lack of a need for software add ons like virus and spyware blockers, etc. Jiggers, if you’re not married to the idea of a 17″ display the Macbook is an excellent value for pretty close to your price range. I can’t really afford NOT to have a Mac as my machines are hugely value-added for me.

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[Carson]

Jiggers, try Costco. The best return policy of anyone and pretty good support. Not quite Apple support but much better than Wal Mart. You can easily find one for well under $700, if you need a card, I will take you shopping.

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[Jiggers]

Sorry..I’m not in Seattle, but Costco does sound like the first choice.

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[Carson]

Jiggers, costco.com

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[Smitty]

Well Jan, my view is you can either buy three HPs or Dells or whatever over the course of five to seven years or you can buy one Mac.

A 17″ MBP is insanely functional if you like big screen laptops (wish I had one).

You can also buy one used off of CL or Ebay for less and still be happy.

I bought my circa 2009 15″ MBP for about $1,100 and love it love it love it every single day. Photos, music, movies, web, battery life, brightness, “snappiness”, microsoft office, you name it. Apple REALLY knows what they are doing and it’s worth the price, imo.

All I ask is that people test drive one.

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[JanS]

gonna gift me the money? lolol…I don’t make that kind of income these days…just to spend over a thousand bucks on a laptop that does more than I’d never , ever need it to do for me. I’m sure you’re happy with yours. And that’s the way things should be. What works for you doesn’t always work for everyone :)

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[christopherboffoli]

With all due respect Jan, Jiggers was asking for recommendations for a laptop based on his needs without a mention of price. My assumption is that someone who says they are shopping for a laptop has money to spend on one, especially considering that laptops are generally more expensive that desktop computers with comparable specs. I think we’re all adults here and we’re all probably aware that there are people in our community that have different budgets than we do without the need for someone to chime in and remind us. Believe it or not, there are laptops with price tags in the $3,500-5,000 range and beyond. I don’t think Smitty’s recommendation was all that unreasonable.

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[austin]

Macbook pros are expensive. I love mine.

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[HunterG]

I agree with Smitty, if you are going to invest in a laptop, go for one that won’t be obsolete in a few years and spring for a Macbook Pro. I adore mine! Have had it for 5 years and still runs like a charm!

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[JanS]

excuse me, but…jiggers said about 700 bucks..or did I misread that? He said…” I’m not going to spend more than $700.” He didn’t say a couple of thousand…not everyone in the world has that kind of money…thanks for the advice, Christopher and Smitty. He also said he was looking for 17″ screen. The Macbook 17″ is 2200 bucks. You obviously both have more money than quite a few of us. I can’t afford it. And knowing the situation that jiggers is in right now, I doubt that he can , too. So…cheaper recommendations are in order. In the meantime, I’ll start work on the Macbook Pro Altar for you all to worship at :) And , yes, I do realize that there are even more expensive laptops…I don’t live in a cave, for goodness sake…and that top 2% needs to spend it’s tax break money on something, doesn’t it? ;-)

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[metrognome]

Jiggers — if WalMart doesn’t work out, check out HP’s dv7t series. It’s got a 17.3″ screen and they have one on sale for $749 w/free shipping thru 11/24 (shopping.hp.com):

-Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

-Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-380M Dual Core Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)

-Intel(R) HD Graphics [HDMI, VGA] – For Dual Core Processors

-FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

-500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

-SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

-Dolby(TM) audio + Altec Lansing speakers

– 2-year hardware limited warranty

I’d also invest in a pair of high quality headphones (real ones that cover your ears). I’d buy them in person and listen carefully to songs you like (take your own to the store) so you buy something that makes sound the way you like it.

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[Carson]

Well if I was going to spend $2300 I would buy a 17″ Toshiba Laptop at Costco for $800, an Ipad for $800 and with the leftover $700 I would buy a 42 1080p LCD TV. Actually, thats pretty much what I have, but a Sony Vaio 14″ laptop.

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[Smitty]

Jan, for the record he didn’t state a price range until after I was attacked for simply giving a recommendation. Don’t let your hatred of my politics and the stinging rebuke of your “hope and change” 2-year love-fest get in the way of everything else, please.

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[Jiggers]

Metrognome…I’m ignorant, what is HP? Anyways, I was looking at either a Acer,Dell,Toshiba or Sony. Nothing fancy. I guess I always can play old dvd’s and my cd’s but, it would be nice to were you can download a movie in the same day with one of those I mentioned. You get what you pay for.

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[redblack]

when buying a new laptop, is one “allowed” to install one’s own operating system these days? all this proprietary software/bloatware b.s. is what keeps me from buying new stuff.

can you imagine how nice it would be to install windows and not have to install explorer or outlook, or their silly firewall?

hey, jiggers: scratch the itunes. for one thing, their file formats are .m4p, which you can’t share easily among your non-itunes hardware and apps.

for another, amazon.com .mp3 downloads are great. they have damn near everything – even rare and out-of-print stuff – for $.99 per song and $6.99 – $9.99 per album. (whatever you do, though, don’t get that goofy amazon downloader; just save to disk.)

rant (speaking of itunes): .mp3 is the standard format, and it has been for 15 years or so. there are thousands of codecs for it and you can rip from cd audio to .mp3 easily. imho, apple is trying to beta-max/real networks-ize the .mp3 format – in reverse. why can’t they just accept the standard?

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[redblack]

HP is hewlett-packard. and i hear that asus (the motherboard people) also make affordable laptops now.

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[dhg]

When choosing a laptop, you want to go with a company that can engineer a good one. For the past 20 years resellers have consistently held Dell and Thinkpads as the most reliable. I have seen many an old beat up Dell or Thinkpad still working away. The other brands just don’t seem to last as long. (I am not getting into the Mac, here, because that one is out of the price range.) Toshiba makes a pretty good laptop but I highly recommend staying away from HP, Sony, Samsung and the lesser known brand names. Support and parts could become an issue.

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[Kevin]

dhg makes a good point about considering an IBM Thinkpad. They are well built machines.

Carry it a step further and consider a pre-owned machine that you might be able to find on craigslist or eBay for perhaps $200 or less.

Now carry it one step further and install the latest version of Ubuntu (Linux) and you will have a nice fast machine for minimal cost.

Most of the software apps for Linux are FREE!

For example, Open Office is the Linux equivalent of MS Word. It is FREE!

GIMP is the Linux equivalent of Photoshop, and also available FREE.

Linux has come a LONG ways. There is a rich feature set and installation is incredibly easy!

I have Windows XP Professional on my desktop machine, and the latest version of Ubuntu (10.x) on my older IBM Thinkpad. This is a great combination for a machine to take to your local coffee shop, or on your next vacation.

Lastly, you do not have to buy a Thinkpad. Linux is quite happy to run (usually much faster than Windows) on most any older desktop or laptop. It is equally at home on a new machine as well.

Ubuntu will also run on a Mac – but why?? None the less, many Mac users have noticed that Ubuntu has a distinct Mac flavor to it. See the discussion at:

http://linuxandall.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/ubuntu-10-04-mac/

.

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[Carson]

IBM has not made a personal computer in years, Thinkpad is Lenovo

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