I have 1400 dollars...what laptop should I get?

We deployed a bunch of Asus laptops at work. They crap out all the time, mostly because of motherboard or HDD failures.

My guess is they get too hot.

We have had to send about half out for repair. Model is U6 series.

 

Some of my coworkers have Asus laptops and they seem to be pretty nice, but they were a bit more expensive than the one at Best Buy's website ($1,000+). That seems like a pretty good deal, but I'll say this: If you purchase it from Best Buy, it is worth it to get the extended warranty.

I've never bought their warranty myself, as I've never bought a computer from Best Buy. From people I've talked with, if something happens to your laptop that renders it irrepairable, they'll replace it with something newer.

Older Thinkpads are fucking tanks. The quality of Lenovo's newest laptops depend on how much you pay for it (like most companies). The higher-range Thinkpads seem to be as solid as they were before IBM was purchased by Lenovo. I wouldn't say I'd trade my Macbook in for one, but if you prefer PCs then they're solid business laptops.

 

I got one for my TV they sent a jerk who said my warranty was void because I knew the service codes and he didn't.

YEAH... I have some good tech people I know/trust to fix shit for me when it dies just in case.

I think I'll take my chances with the Asus. all my data is going on an external anyway

 

The U6 series has a 2 yr standard warranty and a free 1yr accidental damage warranty. I am not sure on the cheaper models, but a pretty nice feature - if you ignore how delicate they are.

 

I've used IBM Thinkpads before my Mac... they were bulletproof. Would defo recommend one but HDMI is unlikely at best.

Whilst shopping around recently, the Studio XPS from Dell seemed a good buy, it does have HDMI and afaik, eSata / USB combo port. RBGLED screen too - v.nice. The only issue I hear with them is they have DPC latency spikes (amongst all Studio lines), but unless you're doing audio recording / production, I doubt you'd notice them.

 

Unfortunately, im pretty sure NitrousOxide is gonna be using it for audio recording.

 

Ahh, definitely avoid any Dell like the plague then! A quick google of "Dell DPC Latency" will harbour much fun.

 

Honestly, i have a HP laptop ( Pavilion dv9720us, to be exact, with 2 extra gigs of ram, total of 4GB), and its a monster as far as recording goes. it does have some heat issues to, so a cooling pad is a must.other than that, i hear that Toshiba branded laptops are pretty reliable. A friend of mines mom has a Toshiba laptop that shes had for about 5 years at least!! Still runs like a charm, even with the cracked case ( my friend came in the house drunk and knocked his moms lappy off of the table, cracking the case in the process)

EDIT: I use my laptop exclusively for recording/producing, with light gaming on the side, so if considering one, make sure it has everything you need. Im not sure what other uses you would have for it Nitrous, but i cannot attest to the machines performance on anything but light gaming and recording.

 

The Bestbuy warranty is not worth the extra money IMO, as you can only claim on it once.

You are better off to buy a third party extended warranty plan that offers a period of coverage rather than an instance of one. Or most manufacturers offer extended warranties if you research before you buy (or before your first 30 days).

 

Dare i say it, what about an Acer? I'm on an Acer Aspire 6530 and it's pretty decent, the build quality is no worse than any of my other laptops (Asus, MSI, HP/Compaq, Acer) The price couldn't be beat either, AMD TL-65 Turion, 4gb ram, 320 gb hdd, the ati 3200 is okay, it runs most stuff pretty well. Photoshop CS4 runs well on it, albeit with some lag at times, but that seems to be CS4 in general, and not the computer (It lags on our new Macs too) price: 699Cdn

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10121115&catid=