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"Mr" wrote:
Yup. I cleaned my up big time.Quote:
My roommate has an acer. They come loaded with acer software along with a lot of other crap. The hardware is great for the price though. So I suggest if you do purchase one, clean it up before you start using it.
No matter what computer you decide to buy, someone will have good things to say about it and someone will have bad to say about it.
I recommend that whatever you buy, you make sure you can get good support for it not only in the beginning but towards the end of its life expectancy as well.
Go out and find a few models that fit your price range (new and used) and then go online and check out what the consumer reports say about them.
Long story short, you will pay what you get for but you can find some damn nice deals out there if you look around.
I for one would look in your area for a guy who rebuilds/refurbishes them and see what he has to say/offer.
Ask if you can check out a few of his customers etc.
what is your price range looking like?
If you want something from $500-$800 range, Lenovo has a few inexpensive models, the SL model can be had for $500 and the R model for $750.
I have a Lenovo T model, bought in on a big sale, $1500, regular about $2200, couldn't be happier.
Customer support is based in Atlanta, so your not calling Inda or anything like that with Lenovo.
Just for kicks, i configured nearly identical laptops, one being a Dell Inspiron 1525, and the other is a Lenovo SL400, including extended 2 year warrenty, the Dell was $250 more.
Don't even consider an apple, because you'll be paying much more than you would for an equal-spec PC.
As for Vista, your out of luck trying to downgrade to XP, unless a) you find some place that still has some old XP machines kicking around, or b) you buy Vista Ultimate or Business, and get a free XP downgrade CD (Only Lenovo and dell offer this that I know of, even though they all are supposed to)
you can also call microsoft and order XP downgrade CD's, but you do need Vista Business or better.
I find, unless you can find a great sale at a store, often, configuring one online will save you money.
some store models may have things you don't need or want, upping the price.
From the sounds of things, your using yours for mostly school work (now granted, i don't know what your doing, ) so unless you are doing lots of media-related stuff, programming, design or 3d stuff, you can get away without having the latest and greatest parts in your laptop.
It doesn't take much for a laptop to open up word and surf the web.
If you have any questions about what you should get (processors, memory, etc) if you do decide to customize one, by all means feel free to ask, or shoot me a PM.
I (tell myself I) know a fair bit about this kinda stuff.