Thread: new laptop recommendations

Do not buy a Lenovo...........our IT guy just purchased one for the company and it gets so hot it isn't funny.

I run an Acer Aspire which has been good to moi since November 2008. I have had to add a new mainboard and HD which cost less than 6k. Not bad value as it is on 24/7.

Originally Posted by 12Call

I run an Acer Aspire which has been good to moi since November 2008. I have had to add a new mainboard and HD which cost less than 6k.

If that's good, I'd hate to see what you consider bad.

I've got a 7 year old Compaq that's never had anything go wrong with it and it is used most evenings.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Not sure where my friend bought his, but it was probably Panthip. He said it was the highest spec for the money that he could see.

maybe he doesn't have any clue or just repeated what the sales guy told him. Maybe if he paid 100,000 THB for a super specs laptop instead of 150,000 for the close competition, I could see his point. But why spend 100,000 on a stupid laptop when you can do the same shit on a 15,000 THB COMPAQ

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

I've got a 7 year old Compaq that's never had anything go wrong with it and it is used most evenings.

yep, COMPAQ are built to last, very reliable

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Maybe if he paid 100,000 THB for a super specs laptop instead of 150,000 for the close competition, I could see his point. But why spend 100,000 on a stupid laptop when you can do the same shit on a 15,000 THB COMPAQ

I think he paid around 30k (or his company did).

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by 12Call

I run an Acer Aspire which has been good to moi since November 2008. I have had to add a new mainboard and HD which cost less than 6k.

If that's good, I'd hate to see what you consider bad.

I've got a 7 year old Compaq that's never had anything go wrong with it and it is used most evenings.

I consider it good for the returns it has yielded me over the said period.

I work this Acer to death and it runs 24/7 and I'm well happy with this Acers performance.

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

Originally Posted by Blake7

I plan to buy a new laptop and I was wondering if anyone had any good advice.
I am looking for something small and lightweight and with good battery life. An external DVD drive would be ok.
I have a Dell Latitude D430 which has been fine but I fancy trying something new.
Any ideas?

In ascending order:

- DELL : cheap, but usually solid. Abandon all hope if you need service.

- MacBook : solid construction, good performance, especially now that the low-end model is a unibody design as well, yet practically indestructible with the polycarbonate top case design. Several lucky Thai girls I know swear by it

- MacBook Pro 13" : ditto, except in all-aluminium unibody design, and better video GPU.

Depending where you can buy them, the best deal is from the Apple Online store's refurbished equipment section; Service, sadly, is hit or miss in Thailand, as the regional Thai Apple reps do not seem to care as much about policing their service providers (the service centres in Siam Discovery and other parts of Bangkok seem particularly bad, sadly).

Big pile of bullshit.

Unless you have money to blow, Macbook Pro could be an option, but frankly, you can do MUCH better for 40,000 baht.

I wouldn't recommend an apple laptop at this stage, with their poor specs and the history of apple in terms of hardware compatibility with their OS, not to mention the poor "durability" of apple products, it's really a big waste of money

see iPhone 4 or the mac mini threads as an example of that manufacturer poor QC,

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Blake7, you said you've had two Dells and have had no problems, so why change a winning formula???

my last 2 have been dells , 6 years and 5 years respectively.

I am due a new one shortly as this one is not dual core and the battery only lasts 30mins on wifi now.

I am considering Alienware ( dell ) next , but I want USB3 ports and maybe WiDi

things like 18 months free Macafee antivirus s/w don't hurt either

You're joking, they'd have to pay me to take that crap.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

things like 18 months free Macafee antivirus s/w don't hurt either

You're joking, they'd have to pay me to take that crap.

I've 2 dells, both been on the internet everyday for 2 years+; mine gets moved around a couple of government offices daily; they have infected files everywhere... I've had zero infections or problems; your experiences may be different, in fact everyone uses my laptop to clean their thumbdrives that've been infected, nobody elses antivirus can manage this task at my office...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

in fact everyone uses my laptop to clean their thumbdrives that've been infected

Brave Man.

^ brave or stupid???

(I'm hoping they'll leave their holiday snaps behind )

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

things like 18 months free Macafee antivirus s/w don't hurt either

You're joking, they'd have to pay me to take that crap.

I've 2 dells, both been on the internet everyday for 2 years+; mine gets moved around a couple of government offices daily; they have infected files everywhere... I've had zero infections or problems; your experiences may be different, in fact everyone uses my laptop to clean their thumbdrives that've been infected, nobody elses antivirus can manage this task at my office...

My experiences are different, as last year I ditched it off 2,500+ PCs because it had got so completely bloated that in order to be effective, the load it puts on the PC makes it's almost unusable.

As an example of just one review these people don't even put it in the top ten any more, and I don't blame them.

AntiVirus Software Review 2010 - TopTenREVIEWS

McAfee need to tear it down and build from scratch. All they've done is bolted on more and more add-ons and turned a decent product into a pile of poo.

Anti-Virus software?

Oh, right, PCs need that.

How drol.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Although the first thing I do nowadays is take out the HDD and put an SSD in (the HDD fits neatly into the DM800 satellite decoder, turning it into a PVR, so it's not wasted). This significantly improves the battery life.

In the US you have the option of having a SSD at purchase. It adds about 18000 baht to the price

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

Anti-Virus software? Oh, right, PCs need that. How drol.

Typical fanboy reply.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

My experiences are different, as last year I ditched it off 2,500+ PCs because it had got so completely bloated that in order to be effective, the load it puts on the PC makes it's almost unusable.

Yes, I can see that point; it takes its time... But, it does do its main job well; if slowly and intensively on system resources (which isn't a big deal for me as a personal user).

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Maybe if he paid 100,000 THB for a super specs laptop instead of 150,000 for the close competition, I could see his point. But why spend 100,000 on a stupid laptop when you can do the same shit on a 15,000 THB COMPAQ

I think he paid around 30k (or his company did).

well I guess he knows now why it was cheap, like I said the apple of the PC world

Sony Recalls 500,000 VAIO Notebooks | Notebooks.com

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Maybe if he paid 100,000 THB for a super specs laptop instead of 150,000 for the close competition, I could see his point. But why spend 100,000 on a stupid laptop when you can do the same shit on a 15,000 THB COMPAQ

I think he paid around 30k (or his company did).

well I guess he knows now why it was cheap, like I said the apple of the PC world

Sony Recalls 500,000 VAIO Notebooks | Notebooks.com

Classic:

Sony is recalling 535,000 notebooks that are part of the VAIO F and VAIO C lines sold during the first half of 2010. The recall is due to a temperature control issue which may cause the notebooks to overheat and in some cases distort the shape of the notebooks.

A few years ago I accidentally left a company Compaq in the back seat of the car. Now it gets hot here - it's 46C today - and when I realised it and rushed back, it already looked like the clock in a famous Salvador Dali painting.



Fortunately my boss at the time saw the funny side. Strange thing is, I turned it on and it worked fine, albeit you had to be on drugs to actually view the screen properly.

My point is if it's overheating enough to warp the case, that is very hot indeed!

(FYI yes you can fry an egg on a car bonnet in 46C).

By the way got an update on that ASUS I mentioned in post 25:

8+ hour battery life, and will be priced in UAE at Dh1899 (about Bt16,000).

Should be available by the end of August.

Nice price for a 12" netbook with those specs.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

By the way got an update on that ASUS I mentioned in post 25:

8+ hour battery life, and will be priced in UAE at Dh1899 (about Bt16,000).

Should be available by the end of August.

Nice price for a 12" netbook with those specs.

Which blog did you get that from, this time?

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

By the way got an update on that ASUS I mentioned in post 25:

8+ hour battery life, and will be priced in UAE at Dh1899 (about Bt16,000).

Should be available by the end of August.

Nice price for a 12" netbook with those specs.

Which blog did you get that from, this time?

Actually, a message from ASUS in response to my query.

Do you think they were lying or will ASUS email them and tell them the story is "simply false"? Oh, hang on.