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walleye

Junior Member
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Guys,
I have to very soon buy a laptop good for general use as well as small business. It has to be a non VISTA, perferably Windows 7 professional. I thought I could go online and search to fine a decent machine, but is has been so long for me I am still stuck in the Pentium days. I have no idea what to get. I do know I want a decent machine for around $1500.00 including Microsft Office with small business contact assist? At least I think that is what it is called. I have looked online at the HP EliteBook 8440w. Is this decent? Or do you have a recommendation? I need help. I use a iphone and need to sync contacts , calanders and emails through outlook. That is about all I know. I look forward to your informed comments. Thanks. Around4 GB RAM and 120 GB HD sound right???
 
get a bigger hd i bought a HP pavillon with a 320gb hd 4 gb ram windows 7 home premium17.3" screen . i still need microsoft office ,,and paid 740 for the laptop
 
So in your opinion a 320 HD should be decent or are you saying get a bigger still HD? I am so out of touch with computers it is emarassing. I remember my first computer had 4 MB ram and a 40 MB HD with a 286 processor! Thanks for you help Bud. :)
 
320 does work but if you can get bigger to .. all this stuff is so much bigger now .. digi pic files .. software in general takes a ton more space .. or buy a back up drive like i plan to you can get a terabyte drive for about 120
 
Wally, setting aside $1500 for a laptop would buy a mighty fine one...the deal is for business, a server PC and client PC workstations are more practical. Laptops are portable, which means catastrophic loss if it gets stolen or "dropped" by the portable nature it invites. You want a secure setup, with main PC as Hub and if you want remote workstation or laptops as clients is a better choice. Then comes the question of how big business, how sophisticated a setup you need.
 
As mentioned before, that kind of cash will buy a fine machine. I like Toshiba's for the windows side of things, but I don't know if I will ever buy another one since I got my Mac. Yes, I became 'One of them'. :newsmile100:

I did buy a Samsung net book and I am happy with it too. The net book came with a 320 gig HD if that tells you anything.

But seriously, you can get a machine to do what you need for $600-800. I would plan on using any extra for getting MS Office and an external HD if you will be using Lots of memory.

I have a 320 in the mac & I have a ton of music and pix on here & don't have any issues with space yet. I do back everything up on an external HD and eventually try to add anything new, (anything I don't want lost) to a DVD for backup because trust me, external drives will fail. :s
 
i think around the 300Gb mark for a hard drive is a good balance of plenty of space and speed, the bigger you go the slower your read/write seeks times will be thus slowing ya down a bit.
windows 7 will take about 30-35 Gb.. programs will take another chunk around the same size, so your looking at over 200 gigs of space left... again plenty. 4 gigs of ram will run great. any processor in a new laptop is going to preform well. If i was buying and had that budget i would be looking for a Pentium i5 or i7 chip. I would look here and read some reviews Newegg.com - Laptops, Notebooks, Cheap Laptops, HP Notebooks, Toshiba Laptops, Laptop, HP Laptop, Notebook Computers
i am a believer in 'you get what you pay for' in electronics. spending 800-1200 on a laptop is going to buy a very nice machine. and you have $ for many extras.
 
I dont know what your area is like but if you are unsure of what your needs are id go to a small independant computer shop and ask
if you go into a big one youll meet a salesman and he will sell you whatever is best for him to achieve his sales targets
Im the main engineer in a small computer shop and we dont have any salesman so if a customer is looking for a laptop or pc then i chat to them to find out there needs and then advise them once they buy from us we look after their needs to the best of our abilities and usually resolve all issues
so you really need to find a place like ours

Brian
 
I like my Toshiba 400.00 at walmart # satellite L455d-S5976 im not all that smart on com. but it sure works fast...
 
walleye; if you've got a local Best Buy - take a look at their on-line offerings. I manage IT for an entire AFB and you'll get a better deal from these electronic discounters vs. dealer-direct. Also, you cen review laptops on cnet.com...hee's the link to their laptops:

Laptops & notebooks: Laptop computers, notebook computers - CNET Reviews

You can use the guide to assist w/picking out one that's right for your needs. Thre's soooo many out there & it's hard to narrow, but Sony, Toshiba & HP are some of the recommended brands, but don't leave out the Apple/Mac's. For $1500 you're looking at a pretty "beefed" model. At a minimum you'll want:

-4Gb RAM (more the better)
-320Gb HDD (500Gb is my min)
-17" WideScreen Display (larger = bulkier/heavy)
-8-cell battery (battery life is critical when traveling)
-Win 7 OS (Vista replacement)

Make sure to check on the MS Office SW suite & you can get the business edition fairly reasonable. Good Luck & don't forget to bookmark HD Talking in your IE favorites when you get the laptop on-line.
 
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