Toshiba Suggestions

[Marke522]

Hi, thanks for reading.

I have a friend/customer that I built a gaming pc for last year, and now he's getting a notebook. He asked me for suggestions, but quite frankly all I know to tell him is that Dell has good support and that lots of people here reccomend them. I don't have a notebook, never have, and most likely won't for a long long time, if I ever get one at all.

My questiion is if anyone here has any knowledge about Toshiba: Satalittes or Tecra's. He's thinking about an M5 http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...HO&coid=-30604
A7 http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...HO&coid=-30606
S3 http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...HO&coid=-30275
or an A105-S4132 http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...-30596&seg=HHO

They all range a bit less than $1,500. But he was telling me he wants to upgrade the cpu to the Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2700 (2.33GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB) [add $550.00].

Also wants a Gig of ram, and a larger than stock harddrive.

I've also told him to take a look at Newegg, I know they have some good products there, I've used Newegg for years, but once again, never looked at notebooks.

We're not set on Toshiba, it's just what he happend to be looking at while at work.

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to reply.

Thanks, Mark.

[glc]

That processor is not worth that kind of money for that upgrade in my opinion.

I'd look at Dells and Acers. Lenovo Thinkpads are excellent, but pricey.

[tempus]

My 2 cents on Toshiba...

My son purchased a fairly expensive Satellite M30 model and it virtually fell apart before his eyes.
Although the laptop functioned well enough, it was all the plastic pieces that seemed to break rather too easily.
For instance, the plastic around the screen cracked right through in 2 places. This was only 3 months after purchase and my son never abused the machine.
Toshiba clearly states it does not warrant plastic items. When we approached them and explained that the breakage occured after only 3 months they flatly refused to do anything. So Toshiba has a thumbs down from myself and my son.

[Marke522]

Great, thanks for the help.

I've read thefultonhow's Laptop Buying Guide, and I did notice that Lenovo had Top Tier markings for both Reliability and Support, but other than that, I've never even heard of the company.

He doesn't mind paying a little bit more if it's worth the price. He was ready to pay too much for that cpu upgrade, so that should tell you how much he's willing to fork over.

Nice to know Toshiba's can fall apart before we find out on our own.

I'll be sure to pass the information along, thanks again.

Mark.

[flanzig1]

Lenovo bought the IBM line of Thinkpad laptops from IBM a couple of years ago.

[thefultonhow]

Coming in on this a little late, but I'm not too impressed with Toshiba quality either. In my buying guide I based my reliability assessments on large-scale surveys rather than personal experience, but my personal experience (with my brother's M35X) has not been good.

My mom is very happy with her Dell (as was I when I had one) and I'm very happy with my Lenovo. Lenovo ThinkPads are close to bulletproof -- the best thing you can get this side of a mil-spec ruggedized laptop in terms of durability.

[Marke522]

Thanks, we allready decided on a Lenovo.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=164673

I made another thread asking about the upgrade on the T-60, if it was needed.