What's a Good Laptop to Buy?

Well Thinkpads are good. I have a x60s core due 2GB which I got used on Ebay for 100 pounds and it came with 6 months warranty. Batteries are cheap too and are known as durable. Also Panasonic Toughbooks are nice and are the ultimate in durable ,but too expensive unless you get a used one.

Ask for Debbie down at the Peppermint Room.....Oh, what? nevermind....I got an HP, but just mostly use the Iphone when I'm out and about......and desktop when home

I have a 13" Macbook Pro. I love it. I'm an Apple guy, and over the years I've never had a single problem or issue with an Apple product, (and I have all of them). Yes, they are a bit pricy, however, as usual, you get what you pay for.

I've found out the hard way that many HP/Compaq's are plagued with over-heating/under-designed cooling. I think most of the consumer-priced units from the big-box stores have similar problems, AMD processors may be worse than Intel in this regard. I think the earlier suggestion of the ThinkPad is valid. There are several sites dealing solely with laptops, try googling 'best laptop' or something similar. What is your current laptop?

I've had good luck with Toshiba Laptops, I'm currently using a Satellite Pro which I bought bit over a year ago. 1/2TB drive 4Gb Ram DuoCore (Intel inside, some idiot outside) processor 2.2+2.2ghz. Win 7 Professional 64bit.

I use it for general browsing, some cad/circuit board design. I cart it around with me to and from work no drama. I get a couple of hours run on Battery power but I usually run tethered to the power supply. As my mouse is a wireless trackball it's the only cable connected. I use wireless at home, though due to work logistics issues I connect to the office lan at work, They're not keen on wireless due to the proliferation of private smart phones at work and a limitation(cost) of the net connection.

Not much of an Applefanboi but if you have trouble spelling your name it could be an option. Though in Oz their after sales reputation leaves a lot to be desired your experience may be better...

As always with domestic electronics, go for the best spec, lowest price, recognised name, local support.

This is not easy.

Computer Stores in Minot, ND on Yahoo! Local

I'd go to a couple of stores and talk to the pimply faced kids that work there.

Once they know your not a gamer and don't have to have max speed you can talk batteries and service life with them.

Everybodies going to favor what they are using, else why would they have bought that model.

We have a Gateway and two Toshibas here. Mine is always plugged in.

Battery life will be the biggest challenge.

My brother is actually one of the top computer network service techs in Minot at one of the businesses that deal with commercial systems.

I plan on asking him but from previous experience I either end up with a heavily worked over piece of no name with limited upgrading ability that runs fair, which is what I have been using now, or something that's capable of way more than what I would ever need it to do.

I figured I would ask around and find out what other people are running around here. I am not a gamer and my laptop does not see nearly the heavy use that my wifes Visio does but when I do use it its out in the rough or working as a backup/second unit in the computer room.

Right now I am sort of leaning towards the tough books or something similar but am still open to suggestions.

I've had a Lenovo and an Asus laptop in the past and now I alternate between a Mac Pro and my custom laptop. Of them, I'd recommend the lenovo which survived a little over 4 years of abuse before things started to break (mobo, grfx card, battery, etc.).

The Mac Pro is useful to me for photoshop and basic web browsing, but broken out, the parts inside are definitely not worth it. Upgrading any part before purchasing costs waaaay more than a reasonable amount, and choices are extremely limited. Repairing is also a pain in the neck because all the parts are specific to Macs even the screws. I've tried running simulation software on the Mac, but it's just not nearly as quick as my custom laptop, or even my old Lenovo. If you can get past all that, the Mac has survived 5 years without too much maintenance required

$100 to upgrade from 750 GB to 1 TB, AND IT'S ONLY 5400 RPM. What.

A custom laptop is probably not entirely what you want on the surface, since a lot of the custom websites put an emphasis on the gaming applications, but just being able to adjust the amount of RAM, HDD, and processing power with reasonable price margins has me suggesting that you at least take a peak at a couple sites. (Here's mine sans some changes I made). In terms of durability, I've dropped this down the stairs and it's (mostly) fine save for some cosmetic bumps and bruises.

Just curious, is this for personal use or for business? Is there any particular software you want it to run?

I replaced my old Compaq 3000 with a Toshiba Satellite. It has an i7 K2700 processor. It was a good deal at $ 499.00. Only thing i didn't like was the hard drive at 5400 rpm. Replaced it with Seagate hybrid at 7200 rpm.

Pretty fast take less the 15 sec to boot. The processor is an improvement over what the dell e520 at work has in handling cad programs.

I recently bought a Fujitsu 13" Lifebook. Not a lot of junk installed with the OS. Decent battery life, and the battery is replaceable. Very lightweight. Does not have a PCMCIA or ExpressCard on this smaller size computer though, so I still use my older Sony for it's PCMCIA connectivity.

if battery life is the prime objective then Ultrabooks are suitable

The Dell E1505 is a great laptop. I have one myself...its been rated as an editor's choice by multiple companies including pcmag.com...It's also, dell's most successful laptop and it is the most chosen by students. Also, it is a great buy because you get a lot for the price. You can get dual processors and everything that you can think of put in it and it will only cost you around 1000 dollars to 1200 dollars if you absoluetly load it.