New Laptop

[bigandy]

My girlfriend is in the market for a new computer and she wants to get a laptop.

Since she is not all the knowledgeable on the subject, I have been employed to help her find the right computer.

Basically, her demands (software-wise) are not that great. She would like to be able to do the basics such as using Office and browsing the internet, and will be taking a Grad School Test prep course (possibly online) so she wants to make sure the streaming of videos will be taken care of. I know that any somewhat decent computer should take care of these.

We have been looking primarily at Dells, because I can get a discount on them through the University, but she is open to any brand.

The one thing that she has specifically stated she wants is the numeric keypad (such as a standard desktop keyboard would have).

As far as price goes, she is looking for something in the $700-$900 range.


My main questions/concerns are regarding which flavor of Vista to choose, as I have almost no experience with the OS, and how much RAM you would recommend (it seems 3-4GB is "standard"). And of course, what models you might suggest that have these features.

Some that we have been looking at:
Dell Studio 15(z)
Dell Studio 17(z) -- Although, I don't think she is really going to want a 17"
HP G60
HP DV6 -- not sure which one in the series, probably the 15" or 16" screen


If this were a few years back, I would be completely qualified to answer these questions myself, but, unfortunately, I have "slacked" considerably in my following of computing technology. So, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys (and gals).

[Force Flow]

Hey bigandy! Been a while


Go with dell, they're solid. Also, HP and compaq are one and the same now.

I recommended the Studio 15 to someone a while back, and they seem pleased with it. If you want other options, under the business section, a vostro 1520 might also be a good fit.

The 2-3 things I'd bump up are the CPU to one with a 1066FSB, the battery to the largest cell capacity, and *maybe* the hard drive size. If you can afford it, cheapest 3-year warranty might be a good idea too.

As for the keypad issue, you can either use a seperate keyboard or maybe one of these seperate keypads:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...numeric+keypad

[bigandy]

Indeed it has, Force.

I was (personally) leaning more toward the Dells. Some of them had the number pad (although for some reason I can't remember which one now) so I may have to go back to Best Buy or something and take another look at which models had them.

The S15 sounds good and I will take into consideration the CPU suggestion (as well as the others).

I know you're not really a "Windows guy" (or didn't used to be anyway), but any input as far as the OS goes? Is basic home version fine or should she go with the Premium version?

[shadowpr]

Vista basic is fine for basic things. You don;'t get any fancy effects with it.

I personally like premium, but you may not care about it.

You can also look in their business section and I think you can still get a xp downgrade on those laptops if you prefer.

[kilgoretrout]

Whatever version of windows you get, make sure you have free upgrade rights to windows 7 which should be out in a few months. I believe most vendors are offering free upgrades now, or will be doing so shortly, for any vista box you buy now but I believe the free upgrade rights are limited to vista home premium and above:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...rade+windows+7

If Dell isn't offering the free win7 upgrade, they probably will be doing so very shortly.

[bigandy]

With most of the ones that I was looking at, you can get XP instead of Vista. They do offer a free upgrade to Windows 7 as well. However, my "fear" is that by going with XP, having 4GB of RAM would be incredibly unnecessary, but upgrading to Windows 7 would probably necessitate having such high system specs.

So, I'll probably just have her go with Vista Home Basic and that way she will not have to worry about having enough processing power and memory to handle Windows 7 when she upgrades.

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll let you know what she ends up getting.

[Force Flow]

You can stick with whatever the default amount of RAM is. As you said, your gf won't be doing anything fancy.

You could get the XP downgrade for $99 with business laptops (and actually some of the consumer latptops do too now).

Also, many models (including the ones I listed) have a free windows 7 upgrade option

https://win7.dell.com/Default.aspx


As for the num keypad, only the 17" models have it. But, I noticed the downside to those is that for some reason, the trackpad is really tiny.