I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a laptop for a while now (more than a while actually) and I was doing a little shopping around earlier, so far the notebook with the nicest specs in the price range I’m willing to spend is an HP Pavillion.
The specs are nice:
<table><tr><td>CPU: </td><td>Pentium 4, 2.66GHz</td></tr><tr><td>Ram: </td><td>512 DDR</td></tr><tr><td>Hard Drive: </td><td>40 GB</td></tr><tr><td>CD-ROM: </td><td>CD-RW/DVD-ROM</td></tr><tr><td>Video Card: </td><td>128 MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000</td></tr></table>
The price tag is $1999.99 CND and it comes with a free digital camera (which I don’t really need or want). The hard drive is a little smaller than what I would have liked, but since I want to get a laptop this year instead of doing my usual PC upgrade I want something which could also double as my primary gaming PC for 2 or 3 years (I wish) and it’s the only model I’ve come across with a 128 MB video card. I’ve also looked at Dell and IBM notebooks, but while they both have very nice systems I’m just not willing to spend $3000+ on a PC since I’m used to building my own desktops for half that much. The only real problem I see with it is that the battery life is only about 2 hours, that’s a little short for my taste and it’ll basically limit me to only using it in the library or for about 1 class each day.
So my question to you is have any of you worked with HP notebooks before and if you did what did you think? Did the system run smoothly? Was it stable? Did you have any problems with the hardware?
It’s a substantial amount of money and I want to take the time to make an informed choice. So if any of you can give some input or if you have advice for a long time desktop user looking for his first notebook let me know. Right now this laptop is at the top of my list, but the sale ends on the 12th so I’d like to have decided one way or another by then.
I ahve a Compaq (and I think HP and Compaq merged so it is pretty much the same thing) and I love mine. It has greta battery life, the keyboard is better than many laptops its got soem nice stuff on it. I had another Compaq before it and it is still running strong (I gave it to my mom) after 4 years. The stats seem pretty good and where you want them on a laptop. Laptops generally aren’t the best for games unless you plan on getting an external mouse and possibly keyboard, but it should run msot games without a hitch.
One things that bothers we is that I know HP’s customer service is terrible, I’ve had the pleasure of spending entire mornings on the phone with them trying to get a new projector to work.
A friend of mine suggested a Sager 5680, the specs are a little more impressive than the HP and the case is a hell of a lot nicer, but it’s also a little more expensive it’s about $2150 CND with the exchange. It’s more than I would have liked to spend (before the 15% sales tax), but it’s also closer to what I had in mind. Any opinions?
<ol><li>For some strange reason, it never–never–lets new codecs work. Maybe this will be fixed by a format, but I still haven’t formatted this thing, so I can’t tell for sure.</li>
<li>It’s about as unstable as Charl. In comparison, my XP Pro desktop has crashed about 3 times in the 6 months that I’ve had it. My laptop has crashed about 100 times in the 4 months that I’ve had it, including some “serious errors”.</li>
<li>The thing is really, really thick. I don’t really mind the weight, but it makes it actually painful to type.</li>
<li>It heats up pretty quickly</li>
<li>The battery is incredibly easy to confuse. Plug it in when it’s not at 0%, and it’ll think it’s drained at 50%.</li></ol>
So uh, yeah. I really suggest against buying a HP laptop, maybe you’ll end up with the same waste of money as I did.
Mainly for reasons 3,4, and 5 that TD listed. I’ve never had a problem with codecs, however.
One of the most fucking annoying things on it is the godamn battery. I charge the fucking thing for the 3+ hours it takes for a full charge, and then the computer dies in 30 minutes of usage. Also, theres no indicator lights on the physical battery, a pet peeve of mine.
Another thing that is annoying-the “Multibay” is FAR from multi.
Buying a new drive for it is fucking HELL because theres so many different versions, that you’d have to be a fucking psychic to pick the right one.
Getting drives in and out of the thing sucks. Your laptop will heat up so much that the drive will actually melt to the case of the laptop making it impossible to take a drive out without voiding the warranty and opening the case.
Getting drivers for what you have just put in there is annoying. Why you have to get drivers for something you bought directly from the company is beyond any reasoning i can parse.
So yea, i have one and i dont like it.
But may i ask why you want a laptop? Personally i find desktops better because they are more stable and easily expandible.
Ok so it looks like the HP one is a bust, what do you think about the Sager? From what I’ve read they get their parts from the same companies as Alien Ware does, but you don’t pay the extra $500 for that sweet green case. I’ve calculated that I have get the 60 gig HD and the 1gig of ram for it for $2400 CND, it’s more than what I wanted to spend but since laptops are hard, if not virtually impossible to upgreade it might be a good investment. Any opinions?
<img src=“http://www.rpgclassics.com/staff/tenchimaru/td.gif”> I don’t have any actual experience with Sager notebooks, but a few guys in my class seem to like them. And since they don’t explode even with the amount of crap they fill it up with, well, yeah.
And yes, get as much specs as you can afford. Laptops are virtually impossible to upgrade, you mostly rely on external stuff if you want to “upgrade”. And carrying 10 portable HDs around gets tiring.
I’ve had my Gateway laptop I’m using right now for almost three years now and I really like it. Everything runs good and Gateway has good support until your warranty runs out.
Unless that is a Pentium IV M, no. Don’t buy a laptop where key components aren’t mobile, it will seriously reduce the time you can operate it on batteries. It will produce more heat too, drastically reducing the time you can have it in your lap without burning parts you don’t want to burn.
I’ve had my HP laptop for almost two years, and I’ve had to take it in twice (once just to check up on it after I droped it, and currently a defect in a part that has to be replaced), for most of those two years, it’s been fairly reliable, so I recomend it.
