Silkroad Online Forums

Well as a small amount of members here know. I am getting a new laptop so I haven't been able to play Silkroad. I'm not the best when it comes to computers but I know enough to survive.

I was wondering if you guys know of a certain type of laptop, brand, store to buy at and what not. I just want the right one.

Price Range: 700-900 USD.

IF you guys can find one please let me know. I'm searching through sears and what not.

where do you live?

http://newegg.com

cheap+awesome=newegg.

Dell.

FTW.

http://www.tigerdirect.com usually has some good deals

http://www.alienware.com

Well considering I am paying United States Dollars that should answer your question. If you meant it as in a state, Southern California.

@BakaFish

Aren't Alienware like SUPER expensive?

but they are good

i'd go for dell

good prices and good service

I have a price range since I pay for school, rent, girls and to go out. So somewhere along the lines of 700-900 dollars.

@realfoxboy

Can I buy a dell like at Sears or Frye's?

OTL Please.

Btw if you get a custom made Dell laptop it'll take forever to ship >_>

dont buy dell. they ship you bad quality parts.


http://www.newegg.com <-- here

Aww you moved it

It's ok I guess. I did wanted it custom made Nooooooooo

I don't want Vista I want XP! IS that ok?

dell make me sad, i have my desktop and laptop dell now, they are good if you don't like to actually do stuff with your computer, fricken have to format the whole drive , because their utility thing won't let you resize partitions, since i dual boot they eqaul bad for me, the laptop was a gift, and this desktop is a handme down, but for that price range toshiba is pretty decent my room mate has one, he can play empire at war on it so i'm sure for that price range you can handle silk, (off topic i miss my old computer, i built it, everything worked, my dell gives me a hassle when ever i try to do anything, the disk i got with it didn't even come with drivers for my computer, it came for drivers for other computers)

Dell is horrible. Period.


When buying a laptop you have to realize it will never be a gaming machine, so you need to understand what parts are important and which ones YOU need.

For starters, make sure you get an AMD or Intel processor. The speed will go up in price, you'll notice in your price range there will only be 1 or 2 options from each manufacturer. Do not get a celeron, they're the Dell of CPUs.

Secondly, you need ram. Since gaming should never be your priority, you will need 1-2gb of ram. 1gb is good for everyday use; if you plan on doing multimedia design or anything memory intensive, 2gb would be much better. What's important is to understand 1gb of ram will add, roughly, $100 into the value of your laptop. If you have the choice between two of them, one is $20 less but has 1gb less of ram, getting the more expensive one would be best.

Also, you will need a graphics card. Like every motherboard for desktop pcs, your laptop will have an integrated video card. Make sure that you buy a laptop that has an integrated Nvidia or ATI video card, not intel or any other 3rd party companies. Nvidia and ATI are time tested companies that have great driver support.

Hard drive space really needs to be tailored to you. I know that with all my music, videos, games, and software I use up just over 70gb. Buying a laptop with a smaller harddrive is best for me, it saves me cash and wasted space. You should check how much space you use on your harddrive and buy accordingly. If you only use 100, and you buy a 250gb harddrive you're paying extra for no reason at all.

Also important, the display. The price of LCDs are dropping, the price difference between a 12.1' and a 17' and very minimal. I have a huge widescreen multimedia laptop and a small 12.1' convertible laptop. I opted for the huge screen 5 months ago, I thought it was cool. However, it's very troublesome on a laptop and last week I bought a 12.1'. If you're using it for school I would suggest something around a 14-15' display. Above that will be a hassle to carry. However, if you're using it like a desktop PC but just want portability, a 17' or even 19' is fine. Do not pick one laptop over the other because of it's size.

With that covered you should be able to pick a laptop that works for you. **** dell, **** online ordering, **** shipping fees. I don't like delivery, online stores have bad exchange service, and it can become a hassle. I like to buy my laptops in store. Unlike a desktop PC, you cannot build a laptop and the companies you buy them from will not be able to either, that means the price difference won't be worth all the trouble; especially since all big retailers are now having back to school sales. The laptop I bought last week was $350 off, and 24 months no interest; a deal that even newegg can't compete with. I just checked and the laptop I bought is listed at a couple hundred bucks more than what I paid.

Finally, be very careful about which brand of laptop you buy. All the software shipped with them are now OEM, and it's very important you pick the right brand. Compaq, Emachine, Dell, Gateway, and Acer are brands you will ABSOLUTELY AVOID. Toshiba and Sony are GREAT brands; the two laptops i've had have been HP and they have performed exceptionally and i'm 120% satisfied.


REVIEW:
Make sure you get...
*AMD or Intel processor
*Nvidia or ATI integrated graphics card
*1-2gb ram
*A harddrive that has enough space for you, but not overkill
*Buy a laptop with a screen size that is functional for you
*Buying in store is fine, especially with all these back to school sales
*Best brands: Toshiba, Sony, HP
*ABSOLUTELY AVOID: Compaq, E-Machine, Dell, Gateway, Acer


Here's a quick example I found: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 0743549187



EDIT: I took a picture of the laptops so you get an idea of the size i'm talking about. Something as big as the one on the left is like carrying a desktop all day.

[quote]btw... if i was to buy a alienware laptop... is it still ok to use i for education purposes? or i cant? [code]

Support is horrible. If you have a critical problem with your computer, they won't do anything about it. The only time they will do something, and it's why computer illiterates claim they have good support, is when they can fix something over the phone, or 2 minutes in the shop.

All the hardware and software is customized by dell. Upgrading is almost impossible with a dell. When you want to upgrade you end up asking them why you can't, and they try to sell you a new PC. Dell hardware is very intolerant to foreign hardware, and a lot of software is compatible. Not to mention, they rip you off.

In a nut shell: they take old outdated PCs, add a stick of ram, and call it new & upgraded. Unless you're manually selecting a model, when you call them they will "tailor" a PC to your needs.

Their target consumer is the buyer who knows nothing about computers. They don't care about you or your satisfaction, they just want to put a PC in a box and mail it to you. After that, they have no interest in you. Atleast when you buy a PC from a retailer, if it doesn't work, it's a lemon, or you're not satisfied you can walk in there give them shit and refund your money. Dell will "look into it" until your warantees and support contracts are over, then get you to renew them.

whats so bad about compaq???.....

ya dell support does suck, if you read above i said they gave me a disk for drivers for other computers but my own, but its in the same seris but no the drivers arn't the same i had to go online to get the drivers for my networking, which i had to do from another computer. I asked them about repartitioning the hard drive they told me that it coudln't be done because the partions were built in or something stupid like that, well i got around it but the only way to do it made me loose everything on the drive but oh well, not like i lost anything important, just their lame halfsoftware that gets installed on all new computers that don't work or just tell you to buy them.

The problem with most of the bad companies I named is the quality of their products. They are badly made, or they use cheap components to save manufacturing costs.

btw.. what are some good sites for buying laptop in Canada??

*Agreed with dom

Accoring to my friend, this laptop is amazing, AND its very cheap (its on sale)

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetai ... &langid=EN

His mother bought 2 of them as soon as she saw them on sale

And..its Toshiba.

Personally, i like to go to a store thats specificly for computers (there should be 1 or 2 in your local area)

For me, i go to http://www.everbest.on.ca , imo i think the computers and prices are amazing there

but unfortunatly for the toshiba laptop i linked, it doesnt have ATI/nVidia int. gfx.

That's a typical "sale pc". If you look at the specs, it's a first generation dual core. It shipped with 1x 512ram, they simply added a stick, put it on sale, and it looks competitive. For the price it's a good laptop, but it's not worth more than the price listed.

What has to be noted though, intel's first "dualcores" weren't really dual cores. They were two processors glued together, they do not perform as well as real dualcores, even if the speed is nearly identical.

...not to mention the gaphics is Intel and wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy outdated.

dom
could you help me find a good gaming/educational usage laptop for around $1100?
i really stinks at finding good pcs
and
it seems your really a expert

I almost sprayed milk through my nose.

I bet you weren't even drinking milk. That's how horrible Dells are.

It was apple juice.

Maybe Toshiba Satellite? or ASUS gaming series?

FTFY

dell with ubuntu = 1337; not photoshopped. try it yourself