wilkes

Hi Lurkin. I am now on my 6th laptop. I have previously owned 2 dell laptops, and 2 Toshiba, and now I have two HP's.
I just bought an HP at Office Depot in Winston. I like the HP system. Nothing wrong with Dell, nothing wrong with Toshiba either. Just when I was shopping, I found a better deal at the time on the HP.
Both HP's have a 17 inch screen. Depends on what you get used to, but I prefer the larger screen. Good luck whatever you decide.

I would advise buying a real laptop with a bigger screen (15" or so) over the tiny netbooks. The prices are not that much different, and the laptops are so much more powerful. You'll go blind trying to use a netbook as an every day computer. For less than $500 you can get a decent laptop with a DVD drive, 1.0 or 2.0gb RAM (3 or 4 is better memory for speed), 75-150GB Hard drive for storing programs/photos/music/etc. If you need a wireless laptop, expect to pay 100-200 dollars more or add a wireless USB ethernet adaptor to connect to your wireless router. I would expect alot of those "Black Friday"-type deals to still be going on in some places through the end of the year.

Dont get an Acer from Staples, and dont buy the extended warrenty!

Do not and I repeat do NOT buy an Acer...LOL. My DIL bought one last year and has had nothing but problems with it. Since she got hers, I've heard of more people that also bought one and have had problems. She had not had hers over two months when the keys started coming off the keyboard.

Another thing to be very careful of....the warranty. Even though the Acer warranty was still good on my DIL's puter, and she also had purchased an extended warranty....the warranty would not cover any of the problems she had. A friend of mine bought a Dell Laptop from Staples, he started having probs after about 5 months and he too bought the extended warranty. None of the problems he had, and I can't remember exactly what they were, was covered by the warranty. From what I've seen the past year from family and friends, it's not worth the $150+ that the extended warranty costs.


Good luck for I would do just exactly what you are doing....researching. I don't know what you will be doing on a puter, but I would get more information concerning the notebooks and what you would be using it for. If you store much, such as pictures, then I don't believe a notebook would be right for you.

One more thing, everything I've heard about Dell laptops has been nothing but good and they do seem to be very affordable.

netbooks bite

get a real laptop

I don't know. My first laptop was a dell and I had memory added to it. It worked great until I spilled a glass of sweet tea on it. I have a HP now and wish I had more memory but it's getting old so I will keep it until it dies. I have vista so my new one will have Windows 7.

5.00 gb memory

What is a good size memory?

Make sure it is wireless and as much memory as you can afford. Once you get on Facebook, and you will, pictures of friends and family will be coming to you right and left.

I would spend the little extra on the dell, I think you are limited to what you can do on a notebook, but I don't know that for sure. The little dell laptop that I have was 400 and it's great, I can take wherever.

I have a dell and love it, I can easily work it, it's great.

Ok then, No Apple for me! LOL!

I was thinking like uhhmmm.... shoot what is it called...
Ohh ACER netbook or Dell. They are like $300 but I am not sure. What the heck is a Netbook and what makes it different then a lap top?

Apple is the awesome but stay away from it cause if you are computer challeged like I am you will end up throwing it acroos the room and destroying it like I did.

You all have graciously assisted me in finding the "MOST AWESOME GIFT MOM!" (my sons X-Box).

Now I would like some assistance from all the Techies out there.

I would like to have a small laptop. Maybe a netbook to take with me when I travel and to use while I sit my fat arse in bed reading GoWilkes.

I again am very technically challanged. I have no clue what all the terms and specs mean.

I would love input / advice / recommendations.

Thanks!