Shoutbox

I like to claim the opposite though. Acer is an extremely good brand, compatible with everything and very stable. Acre does not use cheap alternatives for its components (HP doesnet either though). HP on the other hand... they have a bad name of sometimes being not-so-compatible with other stuff, expensive (you do buy the name) and although not much severe problems with it, I have experienced many faults, breakdowns, etc with HP machines.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
I like to claim the opposite though. Acer is an extremely good brand, compatible with everything and very stable. Acre does not use cheap alternatives for its components (HP doesnet either though). HP on the other hand... they have a bad name of sometimes being not-so-compatible with other stuff, expensive (you do buy the name) and although not much severe problems with it, I have experienced many faults, breakdowns, etc with HP machines.

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What laptop did you buy?

in the end an "Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E8210E8120"...
1gb mem, 120gb hdd, T7200 dual core2...

Acer's 646x was my first choice, but that wasn't available yet (only next week) and I needed a laptop before I went to America.

In the End, this Lifebook has more stuff I needed (eg: parallel port), and was cheaper to get (at least I got it cheaper than the retail price)

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E8210

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awesome, 3g support, internet almoooooooost everywhere

Most awesome (for me that is) about it is that it is almost the only laptop brand which still provides rs232 and centronics ports on the laptop itself (together with all the modern ports of course - no comprimises). It is also one of the very few which has a pointingstick on the keyboard (I rather wanted a trackball, but that is even more rare, if not non-existing anymore). It is therefor also considered a "professional" notebook, not a consumers one...

(and the fingerprint reader/security is plain cool )

@Cookie: Well good that you haven't bought the acer tough!
You would be sorry at the end

I know the internals are not bad, and yes in most cases the notebooks are stable. Specs look very attractive (for the price), and everythings's fine... for the first few months...
But you pay for what you get, they have the lowest price on the market and it has a reason.
Build-quality sucks. You can actually twist the things in the diagonals, and if you have an issue... don't send it, it only gets worse . Don't call tech-support, you have to wait 2 hours on the phone before someone bothers to answer. They might be lazy, or everyone's computer is blowing up...
Many people can confirm the situation I had with their machine..., by the way it was acer who's battery's exploded some years ago. And they get freakin hot!
That's the big advantage with HP, HP is built many times as good, stay cool, you can actually put trust in it can you believe that Haven't experienced any hardware-compatibility issues, everything works fine, even with vista every piece works perfect.

Doesn't this all boil down to personal experience?
Dell own alien ware just to let you know.

I've used Dell for quite sometime in fact,  I went from building my own laptops/Desktops to buying Dell XPS M1210(Laptop)

and buying a Dell XPS 700 (Desktop)

Run vista on both and run it very well might i add.

With no faults what so ever. Also worked in company n purchased 30+ dell PCs and 10 + laptops. and 10-15servers now.

With very little faults and awesome support when needed.
But then i do like dell.

Work for company now that has alot of HP/Compaq(same company now of coursE) Machines. With out any faults.

IBM/Lenovo our also very good for business laptops. I rate them as the best quality i've ever seen. stable reliable and well built(very well built) That well built you could throw them on the floor and they'd still work(seem it done with my own eyes)

My 2 cents, Also just proving its the users end opinion so when people ask for tips they generally end up going with what they think is better rather than what some one else suggests. Infact they wait for some one to backup there opinion then go with there own idea.

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Originally posted by Exca
@Cookie: Well good that you haven't bought the acer tough!
You would be sorry at the end

I know the internals are not bad, and yes in most cases the notebooks are stable. Specs look very attractive (for the price), and everythings's fine... for the first few months...
But you pay for what you get, they have the lowest price on the market and it has a reason.
Build-quality sucks. You can actually twist the things in the diagonals, and if you have an issue... don't send it, it only gets worse . Don't call tech-support, you have to wait 2 hours on the phone before someone bothers to answer. They might be lazy, or everyone's computer is blowing up...

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I can almost 'bend' every laptop for that matter though.

As for tech support, that isn't an issue here, also because it happens via the store where you bought the laptop. Finding a good store and they move heaven and earth to get you fixed (talking out of experience). eg: In the mean time, you get a replacement, etc.

Aaaaanyways, maybe I'm glad I didn't bought it, dunno. The experience from people I talked to (and my own) says Acers are pretty good (even after a few months). But, I'm fairly happen with the Lifebook I got atm too and I'll remember your advise though. thanks

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Originally posted by Exca
by the way it was acer who's battery's exploded some years ago. And they get freakin hot!

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Acer, as with extremely many other brands (if not all), use batteries from other brands. eg: from sony. It are those which are at fault. If you look up battery issues, you'll find that every brand had once an issue with batteries. That isn't a typical Acer problem. As a matter of fact, the exact same thing happened with HP notebooks too in the past. And it can happen again, to any brand.

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Originally posted by joemailey
Doesn't this all boil down to personal experience?

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Absolutely, and that is also often (and maybe mostly!) dictated from where you bought the pc/laptop. It depends on store to store (the service they give, etc).

Indeed most of the parts of laptops are roughly the same anyways. There isn't that much of a difference in parts and/or electronics being used today. Sure, some brand makes comprimises on one thing, while the other does it on another thing. It depends on what you find important I guess. Thus, yes, personal need/opinion/experience....

hey im looking for a good laptop to use for an architecture degree.  i use a few different programs so far - autocad, rhino, photoshop, microsoft office, and hope to add a few more.  i was wondering if anyone can direct me to the right specification i should be on the watch for. 
a salesman today told me to look out for processor and dedicated video memory [graphics card?]

these were the specs he gave me...

Intel 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor
2GB RAM minimum
250 -320GB Hard drive [ and probably an external hard drive later on]
256 Dedicated Video Memory

Does anyone have an recommendations?
Thanks

Buying a brand is basically buying into their way of marketing.
HP computers are always more expensive, as Cookie said, but it's important to mention why they are so expensive.

1- Support.
HPs support has the #1 tech support for computer machines, it still sucks, it still takes a long time, it still is a pain in the ass, but it's much better than other brands. For example, here in Canada, to get an Acer laptop repaired, you actually have to fill up a ticket on www.fixmyacer.com so they call you back. Kind of sucks if your computer is broken. Yes, there is always a backup hotline that you can call, but you can't compare HP's tech support to it.

2- Publicity : last time I've seen an Acer commercial was.......................... never. HP's on the other hand, got JayZ, Fergie and so many stars doing their commercials on TV, someone's got to pay the bills, and the consumer's that person.

My point was simply to say that yes, some brands, as HP and Apple in many cases, are going to cost you more, and you ARE paying for the BRAND. But that brand includes different things, including support, commercials, warranty coverages, etc.

What you should do is really check these things out when buying a computer. For instance, if you take an extended warranty or a service plan from FutureShop or BestBuy for instance, it might not be that important to have that good of a tech support, as the shops have their own HP, Acer, Toshiba certified technicians that will fix the computers themselves.

Something to check out when buying a computer.