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[tmx]

My sister is off to university and we need a laptop for her

ive been round looking and cant decide i dont want a vaio as they go wrong nor a Dell for the same reason

something thats going to last oh and she cant afford a mac book so thats out the question your advice please

been looking at a HP Compaq

[Plomien]

HP are just as bad, I had to fault find twice in 2 months my friends and both times it was hardware at fault.
Look at ACER they are supposed to be good.
or if you want to spend silly money alienware

[Ken T]

My sister is off to university and we need a laptop for her

ive been round looking and cant decide i dont want a vaio as they go wrong nor a Dell for the same reason

something thats going to last oh and she cant afford a mac book so thats out the question your advice please

been looking at a HP Compaq

Very pretty laptops, but...... There is a serious problem wih the Nvidia graphics chips, and they tend to fail in about a year or so. Make sure you have a 3 year waranty if you buy one of them. Re Sony, I like the metal case it doesn't break easily like Acer, but they are an absolute B*****D to repair, cause their circuitry is a bit wierd. Dell are cheap and cheerful, they break the same as everyone else. They use a stupid custom power connector on some machines, so replacements have to be bought from Dell, at a huge price.

Hve fun

Ken

[jimmas]

I think all laptops are much of a much  really good and bad in all , Ran an acer after 1 year over heating problem replaced with a sony vaio note-book, seems fine at the moment, there seems to be horror stories with them all really, just try and get some extended warranty in the price if you can.

[TheBoy]

They all seem as bad as each other reliability wise.

HP - got 2 for home use, both been good. Got one for work, been replaced about 6 times in 3 years.  HP Business laptops tend to be better spec, better value, and better built than the Presario type ranges.

Dell - been reasonably lucky, have several.  2 now have mobo faults, showing less memory.  Probably need reflowing.

Acer - crock of shit. Reasonable 'big number' spec, poor performance, poor reliability

Sony - forgetting my views of anything Sony, not a fan, seem to have a fair few failures, mainly around HDD, and keyboard.

[cem_devecioglu]

Acer - even if given free I'll not use it..

Tosh,Sony,Hp all is ok..  But except Hp all their services are useless here..

[TheBoy]

Got a soft spot for Tosh, but even they seemed to have turned a bit crap lately...

[TheBoy]

Acer - even if given free I'll not use it..

Tosh,Sony,Hp all is ok..  But except Hp all their services are useless here..

They probably do not realise there is life outside of the USA

[gwa]

My sister is off to university and we need a laptop for her

ive been round looking and cant decide i dont want a vaio as they go wrong nor a Dell for the same reason

something thats going to last oh and she cant afford a mac book so thats out the question your advice please

been looking at a HP Compaq

All this kit is 'much of a muchness', so my advice is to buy a laptop or PC based on how easy it is to fix i.e. how good are the service department at keeping to their SLA's (service level agreements). From my experience the answer to that question (keeping to their SLA's) is depndendent upon the area you live in if you want home repair or how cheap & easy to get through on the phone. You would be better off with a Dell or HP support contract than with say 'Comet' or 'Dixons', never tried PC World so can't comment. Good luck  

[cem_devecioglu]

Acer - even if given free I'll not use it..

Tosh,Sony,Hp all is ok..  But except Hp all their services are useless here..

They probably do not realise there is life outside of the USA

Agreed

[DaveyDavey]

I've got an NEC for work which was pretty reliable until the battery gave up the ghost after about 18 months. On full charge I can start it up and by the time everything has finished loading the battery has died and it's switched itself off.

Hardware wise it's been fine, just needs to be constantly plugged in.  

[jimbobmccoy]

lenovo are good. They are ibm thinkpads under the lenovo name, so you get good quality at a reasonable price, the n300 i think it is is ok, buy an extra memory module, very easy to fit yourself, and away you go. Only problems i've had with them are software related, and thats an easy enough fix, also has some user friendly backup software built in, so your sis wont have to worry bout loosing work.

Battery wise, if she's near a plug socket, disconnect the battery and run it of the mains, condition the battery (full charge, use till dead a few times every month or so) and it should last ok, nothing kills a battery like constantly charging it, and once its gone the laptop aint so portable;)
A new battery can be up to £200, so worth looking after it.

Oh, and stay well away from pc world, they're worse crooks than vx dealers, unless you know a bit that  is.

[yatesDELTA]

My son bought a Fujitsu Siemens Li2727 a few months ago. Its been quite good but its very basic. Specs are only slightly higher than the one i bought for a grand nearly 4 years ago. Also the build quality doesnt seem as good

However for the £250 it cost him not a bad deal. There are other for the same price and spec so really it was a matter of tossing a coin