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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 3183853 times)

Offline smart brit

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #860 on: July 25, 2012, 09:26:45 PM »
How about this deal? http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod6930126&dblclick=true&pid=_DoubleClick_Affiliates
p.s. curious what @name changed thinks about this one compared to the one i got

Offline DH Data Recovery

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #861 on: July 25, 2012, 09:30:31 PM »
The ultrabooks are designed with longer battery life - as a result the use lower powered processors to conserve power. As a rule - Usually ultrabooks processors are not as fast as regular processors.
Btw I believe dell has this model for the same price as Sams Club

Offline elikay

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #862 on: July 25, 2012, 09:59:48 PM »
I'm only useful in the computer and data recovery field though, don't know much about points, coupons etc, so name changed is def better
Ok, I am in the market for a HD. WD or Seagate?

Offline DH Data Recovery

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #863 on: July 25, 2012, 10:07:23 PM »
depends. Internal or external? Laptop or Desktop?

Offline elikay

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #864 on: July 25, 2012, 10:17:17 PM »
depends. Internal or external? Laptop or Desktop?
internal laptop, external backup.

Offline Name Changed

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #865 on: July 25, 2012, 10:30:06 PM »
How about this deal? http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod6930126&dblclick=true&pid=_DoubleClick_Affiliates
p.s. curious what @name changed thinks about this one compared to the one i got
Same thing, you ended up paying less, and you got it with the Dell on home warranty. Usually the Dell laptops sold at retails have the mail in warranty. The in home warranty also works internationally, when the mail in doesn't.

Btw - how do u like it?

Offline smart brit

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #866 on: July 26, 2012, 01:01:40 AM »
First and foremost thanks a million.
I didn't use it that much but have got to say its fast and what I like about it best is from switching on until ready to work is less then 60 seconds (as a previous Mac owner this means a lot to me)

Offline nickbuol

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #867 on: July 26, 2012, 11:49:36 AM »
Thanks for the tips.  Funny thing now is that my daughter is starting to hear from other friends that are already in college that they don't actually take the laptops to class very often, at least for her major. So maybe a 15.6 is in order after all.  A LOT more options with the extra 1.6" diag and extra pound or so of weight, but those 14" options mentioned are good. 

Agreed on the Sam's Club one.  I'm been trying to stay away from the i5-3317U because of its slower speed. 

The kid at Best Buy was trying to tell me that a Toshiba i5-3317U was going to be faster than the i5-2450M.  Sure, Intel 4000 graphics vs Intel 3000, but a mobile processor vs an ultrabook should take the win I told him.  He tried to keep pushing it, and I told him, "Look, we were in here the other day and another guy kept pushing that same model with the 3317U.  Are you guys getting some sort of bonus or incentive for pushing that model or the Toshiba Harmon Kardon systems?"  He stopped trying to push it... Hmmmm....

Offline Thingywingy

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #868 on: July 27, 2012, 03:47:23 PM »
HP 635 15.6" AMD Dual-Core Notebook PC US $349.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230828138466?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D230828138466%26_rdc%3D1
Is this a good price or pretty weak specs?
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

Offline Name Changed

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Offline DH Data Recovery

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #870 on: July 27, 2012, 04:30:09 PM »
try as much as possible to stay away from AMD processors! If you're ready to spend 349 def spend $50 more for i3 processors! You can pretty much find good deals on i3 processors for $399.

Offline Thingywingy

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #871 on: July 27, 2012, 04:46:28 PM »
Does everyone agree with that? Just asking?
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

Offline DH Data Recovery

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #872 on: July 27, 2012, 04:57:46 PM »
it wasn't always that way, before Intel started the I series processors AMD was actually catching up, many gamers started using them because of the overclocking abilities and customizations. Now they're not used in any business environment and even home users that have some knowledge try to stay away from them. That's AMD in general - they do have some newer and faster processor lately however this one definitely doesn't fall into that category its a very weak processor

Offline myb821

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Offline AsherO

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DDF FFB (Forum From Birth)

Offline myb821

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #875 on: July 31, 2012, 11:05:12 AM »
AMD  :-\
its not me my friend is planning on getting it is it that terrible

Offline DH Data Recovery

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #876 on: July 31, 2012, 11:30:11 AM »
If you are ready to spend $399 you can find many good deals now for an i3 processor for the same price and its way faster.

Offline myb821

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Re: Looking for cheap good Laptop deal
« Reply #877 on: July 31, 2012, 11:31:02 AM »
If you are ready to spend $399 you can find many good deals now for an i3 processor for the same price and its way faster.
any recommendations and its 350 in store with instant rebates not 390
« Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 12:49:50 PM by myb821 »

Offline creditor

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. Dell Inspiron 15 N5040 Intel Core i3 2.66GHz
« Reply #878 on: July 31, 2012, 01:38:59 PM »
$399 free shipping @ dell
I'm just say'in©®

Offline myb821

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Re: . Dell Inspiron 15 N5040 Intel Core i3 2.66GHz
« Reply #879 on: July 31, 2012, 01:41:56 PM »