Computers

the only real problem with dell 600, 700m and xps series notebooks is that the battery packs cannot be readily obtained. a lot of laptop batteries are commonly carried in most computer stores now, by different 3rd party manufacturers even, like American Power Conversion, but your not going to easily find a battery for that laptop.

Macintoshes have multiple ways of running windows, so its a no brainer.

you can reboot os x into windows,
you can use two competing virtual machine programs (parallels and vmware fusion)
or you can actually run some windows apps, without installing a copy of windows using crossover.

apple uses juniper bank for their credit card. juniper likes to play games, you make your payment on time, but they will not free up your credit limit for 5 or 7 days after your payment, this allows the "check to clear" even with electronic payments. a lot of credit card companies will do this the first time you make a payment, but juniper is unique that they do it every month

tiger direct mostly sells refurbished or generic pc or parts and accessories. last time i checked they charge shipping for everything, also of note is that they purchased the compusa name, so now if you go to buy something from compusa, your actually buying from tiger direct, as compusa is out of business

dell is good because not only do they offer an extended warranty, which is probably something your going to need on a high end notebook computer, but they also offer complete care, and it will cover the laptop from accidental damage. trust me a lot of people will say its probably not needed, but i have used dell complete care and apple care like 4 times each, ive gotten new keyboards, screens, motherboards from dell and 2 motherboards, bluetooth board, new hard disk, a new keyboard and mouse from apple.

as far as i know apple does not have accidental damage, but i might be wrong

dell offers onsite now. which is probably recommended because it can take 7-14 days to swap out a bad component when you send it back to depot.

for people who are into overkill, you can get 3-4 years of free lojack for laptops with some dells now included.. for $90 a year you can get safeware to cover the laptop against theft. you can also save money on insurance and extended warranties if you put your laptop on your home owners insurance, too

dell is nice that they will cross ship you a failed component.

apple is good because there mean time to repair is only 2-3 days, and all you have to do is go to your nearest apple store.

its really good to get some kind of accidental coverage, because those laptop screens break easily. and they can cost 700 or more to repair.

dell credit cards have been under scrunity for locking you into a high apr (mine is 27.99 - 29.99 %) and a low credit limit, but last time i inquired they seemed to be more open about lowering rates and increasing limits. i might do that as i pay off other cards. before that when i would ask their answer was i was stuck with it. i have also gotten letters from new york's consumer protection unit that was trying to sue dell over their dell financial account.

dell does not seem to close your account if you do not use it, like other companies

once you buy into an apple care warranty and it expires, your out of luck as far as it cannot be renewed.a 3 year apple care is defined as 3 years after the purchase date of the actual item.
items purchased on the same receipt such as mice screens and keyboards will be covered under apple care as well.

i saved $50 off of apple care by buying the discontinued Mac Mini G4 apple care plan, for my intel mac mini. and it worked. now all the discontinued G4 and G5 plans are probably all gone

when buying dell religiously check coupon forums like slick deals for dell codes. dell xps codes will be harder to find then regular inspiron codes.

one last thing is yes, you do have the manufacturers warranty to purchase extended warranties. but i believe complete care accidental is different, you have to get it at the time of purchase.

right now all my dell warranties are expired as my 700m is 4 years old, but if i drop it in the next 2 years, i'll get a new laptop or repair, heh

 

hp is okay, but they are notorious for filing your hard disk with crap. that you will probably want to uninstall. and i think they charge more if you buy a laptop with less preloaded crap installed.

most dell laptops are installed with hidden partitions containing thier diagnostics and a complete back up copy of windows, in case windows needs to be reinstalled.

apple comes with restore cds

 

its expiring soon, but radio shack is selling a netbook for $100 if you sign up for 2 years of at&t mobile broadband @ 60.00 a month

 

dogfriend, XP can be activated by calling Microsoft & talking to the computer. It takes a few minutes but you don't need an internet connection.

IBM used an "eraser head" tucked between the keys on their laptops since I can remember. They spun off the business to Lenovo.

My only recommendation is to max out the RAM. Memory is cheap and you don't want the slots filled with low capacity SODIMMs that will end up laying around when you upgrade. If you aren't playing games integrated graphics should be OK especially with 4GB of RAM. XP likes 2GB but I don't know the optimum amount for Vista. Good luck finding a new laptop with an XP install. I've seen a couple from Dell and XP is an addition $150. Unless Microsoft caves (again) XP sales will be discontinued in January. Hard drives are standard and the bay should be user accessible. As long as the BIOS supports the addressing you'll be able to upgrade.

Based on the experience with my Alienware I wouldn't recommend spending more than $500-$600 on a laptop.

 

Wow, lots of responses.

As a student, you get get a student version of XP or Vista dirt cheap.

Soooo, get a Mac laptop. Fastest and max the memory. You can run XP/Vista as a virtual machine, so you don't have to reboot.

You'll truly have the best of both worlds.