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Please, when posting a link to a laptop listing, make sure to include the price at time of posting. It helps.
Requesting help with a purchase? Please post here: https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=135662.msg2794782#msg2794782

Dell:
Precision - Very powerful desktop replacements - great warranty, ridiculously expensive - Usually overpriced or overkill

Latitude - Good Laptops - Great warranty! Highly recommended for any Business environment - Sometimes expensive.

Vostro  - Lower end Business Machines - Better Priced - still durable - Usually 1 Year warranty.

XPS - The nicer looking dell machines, Some are better than others...

Inspiron - YMMV Every model is different

(Plain) Insprion Series - Dells lowest end laptop
(R) Insprion Series - Perfect Home use, dependable, decent build quality, recommended
(Z) Insprion Series - A little slimmer than the R series, Some are Ultrabooks (Very often don't include Optical Drives)

HP:

Spectre - Top of the line personal (dragonfly is the top of the line for business) - lightest laptops, and beautiful!

Pavilion - YMMV (Some better than others)

Probook - Stable durable business systems - Usually a little on the heavy side.

Elitebook - Business Higher end systems, usually pretty expensive

ENVY - Used to be the HP sleek and nicer systems, they pretty much replaced most of the standard pavilions now and call them either ENVY or sleekbooks

Sleekbook - like it sounds slimmer line of laptops

Lenovo:

Thinkpad Series - Very Dependable Business Machine, Expensive (Not Pretty but Durable)

IdeaPad Series -

S Series
U Series - Usually the slimmer line Ultrabooks, Doesn't always include DVD Drive
Y Series - Nice machines with good specs and features (Cool Backlit Keyboards)
Z Series - Step up from the G Series, all around decent build, priced nicely, great home use laptop
G Series - Lower end

Samsung:

Series 3
Series 5
Series 7
Series 9 - The nicest, sleekest looking laptops I've seen in a long time - Can pass for a Macbook!!


HT: Dh Data Recovery & Name Changed


A great post by caliheat:
I believe that there are many factors when deciding what laptop to purchase.
1) What is your intended use and necessary features. e.g. light use vs. heavy use & optical drive, computer speed etc.
2) As mentioned several times in this thread, RAM itself is very easy to upgrade after you purchase.
3) Brand - IMHO this is pretty important as well - which do your prefer vs. which brand do people recommend.
4) Price - you should decide a price range that best suits your needs.
5) Operating System - Many people like myself prefer Windows 7 vs. 8.1, so this would be another consideration.
6) Warranty - does it include 1 year or more, cost for extending warranty.
7) Detailed Specs:
  Processor  - model and speed i3, i5, & i7 2.0 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc.
  RAM - This IMHO should be minimum 8GB, especially if running 8.1, however can be added easily.
  Hard Drive - SATA vs. SSD, the latter being much faster. SATA itself offers 5400 RPM vs. 7200 RPM again, the latter being faster.
  Screen Size - this is a personal preference as you can always attach a larger screen in an office setting.
  Battery & Weight - overall laptop weight preference & battery life.
  Graphics - Integrated graphics vs. dedicated graphics, e.g. Intel 4400 vs. Nvidia GTX etc.

In summary, you have to decide what are you priorities, what can be upgraded and what you are flexible on.



Excellent article about the differences between the Intel processor suffixes.

Excellent "Laptop Buying Guide" by @dailykasha, written for Black Friday 2021, updated for holidays 2023

Author Topic: Laptop Deals Master Thread  (Read 3152053 times)

Offline DH Data Recovery

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« Last Edit: October 02, 2013, 11:34:47 AM by DH Data Recovery »

Offline Saver2000

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4321 on: October 03, 2013, 02:04:05 AM »
Is this a good deal? Or it's regularly priced?

Features

3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i3-3120M processor
2.5GHz processor speed.Intel® Core™ i3 processor
4GB DDR3 memory 
Note: Optical drive not includeincluded).15.6" LED-backlit TFT-LCD high-definition widescreen displayWith 1366 x 500GB hard drive (5400 rpm)

http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=1664618&pid=1219058905020
« Last Edit: October 03, 2013, 02:08:29 AM by Saver2000 »

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4322 on: October 03, 2013, 02:08:09 AM »
Is this a good deal? Or it's regularly priced?
http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail.jsp?skuId=1664618&pid=1219058905020
I can't tell you if it is regularly priced or not, but I think the specs are very inadequate for a laptop.  4 GB will not get you very far.  Neither will a 500 GB hard drive.  Unless you are in a rush, you can do better.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4326 on: October 03, 2013, 12:57:15 PM »
I can't tell you if it is regularly priced or not, but I think the specs are very inadequate for a laptop.  4 GB will not get you very far.  Neither will a 500 GB hard drive.  Unless you are in a rush, you can do better.

While I agree that 4gb isn't great, I think many people can do just fine with a 500GB hard drive. Unless you must store on you laptop every video you have, it should be enough.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4327 on: October 03, 2013, 01:54:05 PM »
While I agree that 4gb isn't great, I think many people can do just fine with a 500GB hard drive. Unless you must store on you laptop every video you have, it should be enough.
It depends for what. For regular use (internet, word, etc...), it's more than enough. For heavy processing, yes, go with 8gb. (I'm not getting into the price of that specific computer, just commenting on this 4gb statement.)

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4328 on: October 03, 2013, 02:08:24 PM »
It depends for what. For regular use (internet, word, etc...), it's more than enough. For heavy processing, yes, go with 8gb. (I'm not getting into the price of that specific computer, just commenting on this 4gb statement.)
I wouldn't completely agree.

I find 4GB now being a minimum requirement for basic optimal use, I wouldn't call it more than enough

Most people will be fine with it, but I would recommend 6gb

Its not a big deal to upgrade manually the ram

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4329 on: October 03, 2013, 02:57:38 PM »
I wouldn't completely agree.

I find 4GB now being a minimum requirement for basic optimal use, I wouldn't call it more than enough
What's your definition of optimal use? (i.e. optimal use for what?)

Its not a big deal to upgrade manually the ram
+1

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4330 on: October 03, 2013, 03:07:40 PM »
What's your definition of optimal use? (i.e. optimal use for what?)
+1
Using a browser with 5+ tabs open, with a excel/word file also open.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4331 on: October 03, 2013, 03:14:23 PM »
Using a browser with 5+ tabs open, with a excel/word file also open.
4gb will easily do IME.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4332 on: October 03, 2013, 03:19:14 PM »
4gb will easily do IME.
Not arguing that it will be fine, I'm saying that I wont call it more than enough

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4333 on: October 03, 2013, 03:36:24 PM »
I use 2Gb on my nearly 7 year old Mac running Lion.
Still chugging along fine :)
Visibly Jewish

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4334 on: October 03, 2013, 03:49:40 PM »
I use 2Gb on my nearly 7 year old Mac running Lion.
Still chugging along fine :)
No comparison to Mac OS

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4335 on: October 03, 2013, 04:01:17 PM »
Acer Aspire V5 Windows 8 Touchscreen Laptop with Intel Core i7 Processor, 8GB Memory and 1TB Hard Drive $699 at Microoft store

Display: 15.6 in widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit with 10-point touch (1366 x 768), 16:9 aspect ratio, 10-finger multi-touch support
Processor: Intel Core i7-3537U 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost technology up to 3.10 GHz
Memory: 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHZ
Hard drive size: 1 TB SATA 5400 RPM
Operating system: Windows 8
Optical drive: 8x DVD SuperMulti Double-Layer Drive
Media drive: 2-in-1 media card reader (SD/MMC)
Audio: 4 built-in stereo speakers with Dolby Advanced Audio v2
Video: Intel HD Graphics 4000 and NVIDIA GeForce 710M graphics with 1 GB graphics memory
Ports: 1 USB 3.0 • 2 USB 2.0 • HDMI • VGA via included adapter • LAN/VGA combo • Headphone output/Microphone input combo • RJ-45 (10/100/1000) • Kensington lock port
Battery: 4-cell lithium-ion (up to 5 hours)*Camera: Integrated webcam
Wireless: 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth: Yes
Dimensions: 15.00 x 9.96 x 0.87-0.96 in (382.00 x 253.00 x 22.25-24.45 mm)
Weight: 5.51 lbs (2.49 kg)
Color: Silver
« Last Edit: October 03, 2013, 04:13:39 PM by Dan »
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4336 on: October 03, 2013, 04:15:15 PM »
Not arguing that it will be fine, I'm saying that I wont call it more than enough
It is more than enough. There's this huge misconception out there that somehow more RAM equals more speed. That is totally not true. The processor, and only the processor, contributes to the speed of your computer. RAM only comes into play when you have too little of it - then yes, it will slow down your PC. Otherwise, extra, unneeded RAM, is just that - extra, unneeded RAM.

Offline Saver2000

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4337 on: October 03, 2013, 04:18:59 PM »
@dh @nc
Is the Microsoft deal considered  a good deal?

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4338 on: October 03, 2013, 04:22:29 PM »
Visibly Jewish

Offline yuneeq

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #4339 on: October 03, 2013, 04:23:25 PM »
@dh @nc
Is the Microsoft deal considered  a good deal?

Dan thinks so
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