Quick laptop question

[ellenmillion]

Got a quote on the machine I'd like, and wanted to poll my wise LJ friends resource before I plunked down the cash.

It's admitedly more machine that I strictly need, but I'm looking ahead and don't want to try to add more to something. Particularly a laptop.

17" (I don't think I'll budge on that, and that's going to set a lot of my pricing, I'm sure...) SVGA Active TFT Matrix Color Display

Pentium IV, 2.8 GHz

512MB DDR Memory

AGP Video Chipset Intel 82865G Extreme Graphics

80 Gig Hard drive (the next model down came with only 40, upgradable to 60 for $60, upgradeable to 80 for $300 or something ridiculous, which just about put the two laptops in the same pricerange... and I NEED harddrive space.)

DVD-rom, CD-RW

Wireless ethernet

Norton Anti-virus, Windows XP-pro

Other standard stuff that doesn't much matter (speakers, soundcard, MP3 player)

Weight ~11.5 lbs.

Is $1699 a reasonable price? Any warnings, etc?

Comments

[leopardwolf.livejournal.com]

Overall for the price you are paying for a laptop, for what you are getting it sounds pretty reasonable. There's a big difference between laptops and desktops. If it were a desktop, I'd tell you my mate and I could build you an awesome system with good quality hardware for less than you would get crappy integrated/onboard technology from say, Dell or Gateway or something.

Huge word of warning... DO NOT BUY FROM GATEWAY. They are horrible these days, and nothing but trouble.

If you are going to buy a laptop, one of the best places to buy from is Dell. What brand is the laptop?

For hard drive space and all the other stuff listed, sounds like an excellent deal. Norton and XP-Pro for an OS I give thumbs up. Always better to go for more space, especially with laptops because it isn't as easy to fool with them and add more to them as it is with a desktop. A desktop you can do yourself. Normally you have to send laptops in to get repairs.

Does it say what kind of hard drive? What brand? Western Digital? Anything but Maxtor. If it is Maxtor AVOID it like the plague.

Word of warning on that wireless card. Because I don't know what the setup in your home/office is. Just make sure you have a wireless internet router. :) Linksys is the way to go in that department.


That's all I can think of right now. Yaaay laptops! I soo need one for classes right now.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Gateway BITES. Won't ever, ever buy one. We have them at work for some ungodly reason. But thank you for the warning! Much appreciated. :)

The one I'm looking at is an Acer, and I priced the same system at Dell for $4900. *gaspflounder*

The harddrive space was a big encouragement... I want to be able to tote around EMG print files, ALL EMG print files, and that's a chunk of space right there. It's ah... 80GB 4200RPM 8MB Cache Ultra DMA Harddrive. There might be a brandname buried in there... I don't know my harddrive lingo. :P

Thanks for all the notes!

[renatus.livejournal.com]

$4900?! That's $2100 over the price of the 17" powerbook! TWENTY ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Krishna on a toasting fork, I don't know how they get away with that o_x