I'm looking at buying a new notebook (under $1500). I got to get a pc (I wanna mac, but oh well...) and I'm looking at a Dell 8100 ( www.dell4me.com/l8100 ) Have any of you had good experiances with Dell notebooks? bad ones? I love my Dell desktop, but haven't tried a notebook. Do you have anyother suggestions? Thanks!!

Go for a www.pro-star.com laptop

I've worked the crap outta my P3 1ghz laptop and it works great :)

I'm looking at buying a new notebook (under $1500). I got to get a pc (I wanna mac, but oh well...) and I'm looking at a Dell 8100 ( www.dell4me.com/l8100 ) Have any of you had good experiances with Dell notebooks? bad ones? I love my Dell desktop, but haven't tried a notebook. Do you have anyother suggestions? Thanks!!
I am also looking at purchasing a new laptop and was researching the Dell 8100. Let me know if you find any interesting articles in favor of or against, and I'll do the same. :)

I was also looking to purchase the Dell 8100. You might want to check out www.ePinion.com, they have online reviews of almost everything, and lots of 'em

Direct Link to Epinion.com's Dell 8100 Reviews (http://www.epinions.com/cmhd-Notebooks-All-Dell_Inspiron_8100)

Originally posted by Dogma
I got to get a pc (I wanna mac, but oh well...)

HAHHA... you wanna "mac".. like mac daddy-o?
:D :D

hehe.. sorry.

couldnt resist

I got a Dell laptop 8100... or 8000... can't remember now. hehe. It's worked great. No problems other than batterly life not being eternal. :) I'd get an optical usb mouse though unless you can force yourself to using the touchpad and knob.

Dell & Sony are my favorite.

Dell is a good choice.

STAY AWAY FROM SONY!! We used some of their laptops at the hospital where I used to work, and they didn't hold up well at all. Little parts broke constantly, fixing them cost a fortune, and getting them to honor their warranty was a real chore. "Yes, we have the date of purchase registered in our computer. No, you *still* have to locate the receipt for that particular computer and fax it to us before we will honor our warranty." F*ck em. Buy something else.

Originally posted by Deb Suran
STAY AWAY FROM SONY!! We used some of their laptops at the hospital where I used to work, and they didn't hold up well at all. Little parts broke constantly, fixing them cost a fortune, and getting them to honor their warranty was a real chore. "Yes, we have the date of purchase registered in our computer. No, you *still* have to locate the receipt for that particular computer and fax it to us before we will honor our warranty." F*ck em. Buy something else.
I think i will (buy something else) I love dell! When I bought my desktop I got a worker who was about to quit (found this out a week after I bought it when I was told my "account manager" had been changed) but anyway have gave me /free/ 3-year onsite warranty...so i'm hoping to get another employee who is about to quit!!

Mac..... yuck.... I don't like macs... lol

I am surprised nobody has suggested IBM laptops... I know people who have had good experiences with them.

Also, to answer your question, I know somebody that was very happy with their Dell laptop... However, the IBM laptops I have seen, seem to be better (i.e. more features etc) I don't have much experience with laptops though.

I just thought I would add something, as I just remembered that I myself have a the Dell 8100, along with the Dell 4000. I use the Dell 4000 (I think they call it the 2500 now), mostly because the 8100 is so damn heavy. I mean it is HUGE, and I got the biggest screen too, its just really big and heavy. On the other side, its the only dell that you can put both a CD rom drive and Floppy drive in at the same time. I have also owned a Toshiba laptop in the past, but it was a pentium 120, and its a bit outdated now :)

Tecra from Toshiba is the BEST !!
I'm using 8100 Tecra right now, and there are no problem since I bought it 2 years ago. *4 times format the hardisk to keep it fresh*

and you know what ! I hardly turn off my laptop.. so it's keep running 24hr/7days..
without problem... :)

Maybe I should buy the new one, because electronic life is only 2 years.

GO GET Tecra 9000 !! It's AWESOME !!
And you know what ?

Toshiba TECRA is the Mercedez Benz of the Laptop.

Yes, the weight is a bit of a concern with a lot of people. Depending on which sony you were looking at, a lot of it is external so it's lighter to tote around with you. My friend has an IBM Thinkpad and absolutely loves the thing to death (but hasn't managed to yet). Hers was a little older, but it runs smooth. My grandma has an older toshiba which she likes, but I can't stand. It does run well though, just a bit on the slow side because it's older (a laptop with win95).

Just to re-iterate what everyone else is saying go the Dell. Never liked IBM myself.. they never seem to have the feature set as others in the same price range, and they are just so gawd-damn ugly..

Greg Moore

Arg, *screams*, you people have been brand brain washed! heh

I suppose Dell is ok but you'll never catch me buying a brand name pc.. sorry, i prefer the smaller guys or custom ones (Pro-Star builds pretty much custom laptops as you want em :)

I suppose Dell is ok but you'll never catch me buying a brand name pc.. sorry, i prefer the smaller guys or custom ones (Pro-Star builds pretty much custom laptops as you want em
Any good reviews that you would suggest reading about Pro-Star that might lean people to buy from them? I can understand why you would promote Pro-Star if you've had a good experience with them, but I would not buy a laptop from them based on your review only. No offense, of course. :)

Anybody know how long a charged Toshiba Satellite 1735 battery is supposed to last, ie. 2 hours, 20 hours, you know???

A friend of mine has a brand new dell laptop latitude 1 ghz 712 mb ram, all the works and he would rate dell as an 8. He has an older toshiba laptop which he thinks is better made and would rate toshiba as a 9.

Here's my take on IBM ThinkPads, as a ThinkPad-only user since early 1995. If you don't need a new, fast machine, the 770 series was the best one they ever produced and you can find them used in many places at a good price. The 770z is favored among many users, but I find the higher-resolution screens (higher than 1024x768) hard to read. Until recently the very first 770 model, 233mhz, 14.1" screen at 1024x768, was my primary PC; and it worked just fine until I started doing CAD and digital photography. It choked when I worked on large image or CAD files, so I had to get something a bit more powerful.

I got one of the new A-series ThinkPads, and that was a mistake. The new series is a big step down in every way except speed and screen quality (and the screen quality sucks if you don't use it at native resolution). Fit-and-finish is poor, the lid/screen is much too flexible, the keyboard (one of the 770's BEST features) is crap, the video drivers are even worse crap, and their repair service has taken a STEEP downward trend. Yes you can buy a no-name brand, but for laptops which tend to take a certain amount of abuse I feel you're better off going with a brand that offers reliable service and support. I expect my next laptop will be a Dell.

would rate toshiba as a 9
My mom had a Toshiba and the keyboard and pointing stick buttons were absolute trash -- she sold it practially before it had a chance to warm up. Don't buy one before you try out the keyboard if you do a lot of typing. I couldn't get used to it.

so? nobody knows in general how long a charged battery is supposed to last?

Try www.asustek.com

Do you know any Dell laptop that is thin and light weighted, but has built in floppy and DVD rom?

And around 15" screen.

:cool:

I think it depends on the battery you get. :) There's more than one kind. Plus the dell's can store more than one (at least mine can! hahaha!). It also depends on how fast your processor is and the juice it's sucking. I haven't actually timed my laptop yet. You have to wear-in the battery though. Mine lasts about 2 hours I think (just think, don't know and I lose track of time when using any computer). I'll test it out tomorrow after getting it fully charged.

Mine lasts 2 hrs aswell, although it feels like its 30 minutes :(

:bawling:

Mine also lasts 2 hours. I thought the battery might be defective or something because I mean really, lets get real now, 2 hours sucks big time!

Mine goes 900mhz so I kinda expected it to suck up the battery pretty fast. And if you put in another battery and wear them in enough you could probably get about 5 hours (WOW! hehe) of laptop time away from an outlet. :)

NetDotHost> Come on, Macs aren't 'that' bad - have you even had a years worth of experience with them, atleast? I hate when people say Apple computers suck, when all they've used pretty much is Windows machines. Macs run fine, they last long time, and not so many problems! The only thing is, you don't like it cause the software it supports, and the nice looking colors (probably) :stickout

Dogma> Yeah, you've had good experience with Dell, and some others too, but with their laptops - I suggest going with that :D How come you don't wanna get a Mac? Hey, it's a nice change from Windows! :)

Peace-

- Shawn

As far as durability, Toshiba is the best! I have a 9-year-old 486 laptop with 4 megs of RAM that my dad used to have, it was $4000 new (fortunately it was paid for by his employer, and when it depreciated enough, he just kept it). Still works as good and stable as ever.

I've also got a newish Toshiba laptop with Windows 95.. It's fallen off a car bumper (in the bag) and not ever had any damage done. I did upgrade it from 32 to 48 megs of ram, though. I got it in 1996.

My most recent laptop, a Gateway, and have liked it okay. I point out 2 problems with them, though: They tend to boot up a little slow (or it's my imagination, one), and you must take great care to baby them, because they WILL break. Even with the gentle treatment I've given it, it's got an inch-long hairline crack in the case. Oh well. Got this one in 1999.

Don't know much about the newer ones, except a friend of mine has a new HP and has loved it to death.

Sorry, I don't have model numbers for these right off the top of my head.