The Geek Forum

  • May 15, 2024, 05:03:02 PM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Due to the prolific nature of these forums, poster aggression is advised.

*

Recent Forum Posts

Shout Box

Forum Stats

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 129631
  • Total Topics: 7188
  • Online Today: 198
  • Online Ever: 1013
  • (January 12, 2023, 01:18:11 AM)

Author Topic: The wife was laid off  (Read 3883 times)

pbsaurus

  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +354/-31
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9981
  • Everyone Loves The King Of The Sea
    • View Profile
    • http://www.myspace.com/flipperpete
The wife was laid off
« on: March 19, 2004, 08:27:41 PM »
So they took our laptops.  So we need to buy a laptop.  Budget is about 1000-1200.  

Pros-cons of various manufacturers, buying new or used, minimum performance requirements and memory.

Use will most likely be home and work stuff.
Logged

Vespertine

  • The VSUBjugator
  • Forum Moderator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +371/-38
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1255
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2004, 11:36:30 PM »
I've got a Compaq.  Can't remember the model, but I'll look it up.  List price on it was around $1200.  It's a 2.4 P4, everything on it is upgraded.  I got it through Insight.  Their IBMs are expensive, but they've got some pretty good deals on other brands.  I have absolutely no complaints with mine so far.

EDIT:  Sorry to hear about the layoff.  That sucks bigtime!
Logged
I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass.  And, I'm all out of bubble gum.

BizB

  • Forum Moderator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +439/-15
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 4324
  • Keep making circles
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2004, 12:42:35 PM »
Mine is a Compaq Presario 2100.  I like it.  I got it at Sam's Club for $987.00.
Logged
Without me, it's just 'aweso'.

Anonymous

  • Guest
The wife was laid off
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2004, 12:55:23 PM »
Woah! Deja vu!

From what I understand, you only need a laptop to surf the net, look at flash and pr0n, maybe do some word processing and the likes. So really, any new machine that is on the market right now will suffice.

Here's a cool one for a resonable price.  Downside: It's a HP. But it's got all you need and much much more. Plenty of CPU power, plenty of RAM. If I am not mistaken, it has the full size processor, not the mobile version. And the screen ration is awsome for watching DVD's and stuff, but it cuts down on your max resolution. You also get a CD Burner. Free shipping +$100 mail-in rebate.

If you want to save cash, something like this will do as well. But it's refurbished and it has a celeron so it's not as good for multimedia.
Logged

xolik

  • King of the Geekery
  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +541/-25
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 5176
  • HAY GUYS
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2004, 01:09:13 PM »
I stand by my opinion that Compaqs are nothing more than the Devil's notebook.

 :evil: -"Yes, yessssss...I LOVE Compaqs!"

See? I told you so!
Logged
Barium: What you do if CPR fails.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
[The Fade^C Compound]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

TerrorDronze

  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +22/-10
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 1259
  • I'm not narcissistic, I'm just awesome.
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2004, 07:20:19 PM »
sams or costco are great places for computer shopping on the cheap.  and the systems are damned good for the prices.
Logged
Wait, so the might-be-a-bot isn't dead?!

Law

  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +6/-5
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1269
    • View Profile
    • http://www.mideastinfo.com
The wife was laid off
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2004, 07:27:50 PM »
I used to despise them, but I have recently been impressed by two of the Satellite series models that cow-orkers have bought.
Logged
"I shall send down on you a rain of frogs that are impervious to fire but of little use otherwise." -- catwritr

Demosthenes

  • Evil Ex-HN Moderator
  • Administrator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +567/-72
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9904
  • Just try me. See what happens.
    • View Profile
    • Zombo
The wife was laid off
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2004, 09:46:27 AM »
Dude!  That fricken sucks!  My condolences... the wife and I had like two years or so where it seemed like there was always at least one of us between jobs.  Not fun.   :cry:

As far as laptops go, I own a Toshiba Satellite 1905s.

40gig HDD
2.0 Gigahertz Pentium IV processor
512mb RAM (bumped up from the 256 that came by default in this one)
Combination CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD burner
Froppy drive
Touchpad (which I have disabled, because it bugs the hell out of me... I use a USB optical mouse with it)
Big, colorful LCD -- The display on it is really nice.


It came with XP Home on it, but I'm currently dual-booting Windows 2000 and Slackware Linux.  I use a D-Link DWL-G650 wireless network card to connect to my home LAN.

I've had this laptop since January 2nd, 2003, and in that time, I've had next to NO problems with it.  Solid, reliable hardware.

All told, with the extra RAM, it cost me about $1,600.  USB Optical mouse specifically for laptops (it's a little smaller, and has a shorter cord) cost about $18, wireless network card $80.  I dropped an extra $150 on a three year warranty at Best Buy (which is where I purchased it).  I bought it on one of Best Buy's "24 months no interest" deals.  So as long as I have it paid off before January of next year, I pay no interest.

And I have about $500 left on it right now (I just made an online payment this morning).  No problemo!

Anyway, just thought I'd throw in my $0.02... Toshiba laptops seem to work well for a lot of people... I read a lot of reviews and did some research before I bought mine, and about the only laptops that I found that seemed to do better were the IBM Thinkpads, and they're hella expensive by comparison.

Hope everything turns out all right, Pb!
Logged

Coolio Points: 89,000,998,776,554,211,222
Detta Puzzle Points: 45

Banning forum idiots since 2001

pbsaurus

  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +354/-31
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9981
  • Everyone Loves The King Of The Sea
    • View Profile
    • http://www.myspace.com/flipperpete
The wife was laid off
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2004, 03:03:46 PM »
Well the wife is laid off but will be training with her former boss to be an appraiser.  Cash flow will be sketchy at first but we'll be fine as long as I don't get my ass canned.  Consumer reports seems to like the Toshibas as well and it looks like a can get a good one in my price range.  Thanks for the advice, all!
Logged

Vespertine

  • The VSUBjugator
  • Forum Moderator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +371/-38
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1255
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2004, 01:49:24 AM »
BUMP!
The wife have any luck on the job front yet?
Logged
I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass.  And, I'm all out of bubble gum.

bobo

  • Jail Bait
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +0/-1
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 114
    • View Profile
    • http://www.bobomonkey.com
The wife was laid off
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2004, 07:38:02 AM »
With your budget, I would go HP. Most bang for your buck.  Biggest thing about the HP laptops I didn't like was the battery life, it sucks. two hours and your done. My dell I get four. But Dell is alittle pricer than HP.
Logged

Law

  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +6/-5
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1269
    • View Profile
    • http://www.mideastinfo.com
The wife was laid off
« Reply #11 on: April 22, 2004, 08:21:27 AM »
Quote from: bobo
Biggest thing about the HP laptops I didn't like was the battery life, it sucks. two hours and your done. My dell I get four. But Dell is alittle pricer than HP.

The biggest problem with HP laptops is that they're made by HP. If that company could make a single computer that didn't come with its own personal suck-field I would be amazed.

</had a bad HP experience>
Logged
"I shall send down on you a rain of frogs that are impervious to fire but of little use otherwise." -- catwritr

hackess

  • Forum Moderator
  • Hacker
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +10/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4733
  • DFG
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2004, 08:30:52 AM »
My brother just had a crappy experience with HP too.

</uselesspost>
Logged

pbsaurus

  • Hacker
  • ****
  • Coolio Points: +354/-31
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 9981
  • Everyone Loves The King Of The Sea
    • View Profile
    • http://www.myspace.com/flipperpete
The wife was laid off
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2004, 02:10:59 PM »
Quote from: Vespertine
BUMP!
The wife have any luck on the job front yet?


She is completing her appraisal classes and then has to take the certification exam then she can start training with her former boss.  Which means we're probably six months away from any income from her and a good 15 months before she can start making the big bucks.
Logged

Telsan

  • Jail Bait
  • *
  • Coolio Points: +0/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
The wife was laid off
« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2004, 10:23:43 AM »
I'm running a Toshiba Satellite 3000.

Not a bad Laptop, PIII 1 gig, 512MB RAM, 15 inch TFT, 32MB Geforce2 GO, DVD-Rom, 18 gig drive.

Its a pretty old one now, bought it in 2002, for about 2 1/2 grand and that was in australia, so its probably dirt cheap there.

I use this laptop for everything and its handled the abuse well, the geforce 2 holds its own on a lot of games (Mafia, AvP2, Max Payne, Black and white etc.) Though it overheats real damn fast.
Logged
"You're a very sick man, and I'm afraid I need to rip out my intestinal tract and strangle myself now."