Topic: Need advice on laptops.

[Skywatch]

So I'm getting a generous paycheck hopefully tomorrow. Based on features and reviews my sights are set for an Asus Q502LA 2 N 1 laptop. Anyone else have opinions on Asus?

[Bunty]

Thanks guys. My older computer had Windows 7. My current laptop has Windows 8. I'm somewhat more fond of Windows 7. It's easier to use and navigate. Windows 8 is fun to use but I feel Microsoft is trying to hard to be like Android and Apple.

Well tomorrow I'm laptop shopping. Figure electronic stores are trying to get rid of their old inventory to make way for Black Friday and Christmas items. Things are on sale. After researching brand vs brand learned that laptop brands are like political candidates in that everyone has positive and negative and nobody agrees on anything.

In all the searches I'm getting mixed commentary saying brand X is the best and others say it's the worst as with brand Y and Z if you get my drift. Dell and Lenovo have good reviews. Friends of mine use Dell. I'm finding the Inspiron 11 convertible for around 399$. 460$ after tax and a accident protection plan.

Overstock.com has refurbished HP and Dell laptops.

In the past I've done refurbished electronics. From now on if I can help it I'll buy brand new. With refurbished electronics it's usually easily apparent why the previous owner returned it. At least in my experience refurbished items are troublesome.

I'd rather buy brand new something that has good reviews, and good support.

I recently ordered a refurbished HP i7 Pentium laptop from overstock.com to power my website.  The i3 Pentium Acer laptop I had been using wasn't always reliable.  Weatherlink would sometimes crash.   Unfortunately, the power supply Overstock sent with the HP  was insufficient to recharge the battery.  The laptop had all the features I wanted, so rather than send it back, I decided to order a stronger power supply in wattage. It worked, so I kept the HP laptop, and it works more reliably than any other laptop I've used before for my web site.  Things weather site related, like Weatherlink,  work without ever crashing.  It's a keeper. 

[DaleReid]

Is there a projected release date for Win10 yet?

And I don't subscribe to the old theory of waiting until the first SP comes out to buy.  Hasn't been too much of a problem with 7

[dj1111s]

Is there a projected release date for Win10 yet?

And I don't subscribe to the old theory of waiting until the first SP comes out to buy.  Hasn't been too much of a problem with 7

That hasn't been my experience. My laptop at work runs W7 and my desktop HP weather computer also does. The WX computer is on 24/7 with no issues other than Charter service once and a while . The work laptop was upgraded from XP to 7 because XP was not playing nice with the newer software everything else was using. It became much, much more reliable with 7.

[DaleReid]

Yes, that is what I'm saying.  I've run original install on Win7 with few problems, mostly from poorly written third party software.

[BigOkie]

I'm in the market for a new laptop now, but not for my weather setup.  I have a lower-powered setup right now running it for over a year with zero problems using Windows 7.  I'm going to have to find a laptop that doesn't require me to use Windows 8.  I cannot stand it.  MS is turning into the Star Trek movie franchise.  Every other release sucks.

[Skywatch]

I have an update on my laptop. I purchased the Asus Q502LA from Best Buy. Based on reviews and features I'm confident it will be a good fit. Have my Vantage Pro2 hooked up and computer running Weather Display V10.37. Everything works fine.

[BigOkie]

I have an update on my laptop. I purchased the Asus Q502LA from Best Buy. Based on reviews and features I'm confident it will be a good fit. Have my Vantage Pro2 hooked up and computer running Weather Display V10.37. Everything works fine.

Well, after helping my brother this afternoon with trying to figure out how to access the BIOS of an HP laptop, I won't buy one.  What a dumpster fire that thing is.

I have heard good things about Toshibas and the Asus line.  Guess I'll continue to look.

[DaleReid]

Big Okie:

I had the same problem due to the OS with Win 8 on a desktop my wife had.

The dumbing down of the user and the aggressiveness of the hackers has gotten us to this point.  After many google searches and trying to figure out what was wrong found that the simple things we used to do to our machines, OUR machines, was being prevented by Win8.

Agreed, what a pain.  I don't know how many common citizens like to fiddle, or need to fiddle as we do with our specific needs and software and hardware manipulations, but what was a breeze in Win7.1 was nigh unto impossible in 8.

So the question is, was it the operating system, or the laptop?  We use lots of laptops from HP here are work (literally thousands over the enterprise) and they are all at Win 7.1 and the Help Desk can lead the most timid user through some tweaks if needed, no PhD in operating systems or geek hats needed at all.

Dale

[dj1111s]

Big Okie:

I had the same problem due to the OS with Win 8 on a desktop my wife had.

The dumbing down of the user and the aggressiveness of the hackers has gotten us to this point.  After many google searches and trying to figure out what was wrong found that the simple things we used to do to our machines, OUR machines, was being prevented by Win8.

Agreed, what a pain.  I don't know how many common citizens like to fiddle, or need to fiddle as we do with our specific needs and software and hardware manipulations, but what was a breeze in Win7.1 was nigh unto impossible in 8.

So the question is, was it the operating system, or the laptop?  We use lots of laptops from HP here are work (literally thousands over the enterprise) and they are all at Win 7.1 and the Help Desk can lead the most timid user through some tweaks if needed, no PhD in operating systems or geek hats needed at all.

Dale

When I researched my latest WX computer my first search was for Windows 7.  The manufacturer came second.  Made the decision making much easier when you weeded out all the Windows 8 machines.

[cospringswx]

I have an update on my laptop. I purchased the Asus Q502LA from Best Buy. Based on reviews and features I'm confident it will be a good fit. Have my Vantage Pro2 hooked up and computer running Weather Display V10.37. Everything works fine.

Well, after helping my brother this afternoon with trying to figure out how to access the BIOS of an HP laptop, I won't buy one.  What a dumpster fire that thing is.

I have heard good things about Toshibas and the Asus line.  Guess I'll continue to look.

I don't care for anything HP (Just my 2 cents).   I got a Compaq Laptop (made by HP but a different line) and my other PC's are home built including the WX PC.

[BigOkie]

I have an update on my laptop. I purchased the Asus Q502LA from Best Buy. Based on reviews and features I'm confident it will be a good fit. Have my Vantage Pro2 hooked up and computer running Weather Display V10.37. Everything works fine.

Well, after helping my brother this afternoon with trying to figure out how to access the BIOS of an HP laptop, I won't buy one.  What a dumpster fire that thing is.

I have heard good things about Toshibas and the Asus line.  Guess I'll continue to look.

I don't care for anything HP (Just my 2 cents).   I got a Compaq Laptop (made by HP but a different line) and my other PC's are home built including the WX PC.

There's not a desktop PC I've owned that I haven't scratch-built since my first Pentium 75 back in about oh, 1996 or so.  I've built a new one about every two or three years since then.  If there was a cost-efficient way to make notebook pcs I'd build those too...

[C5250]

There's not a desktop PC I've owned that I haven't scratch-built since my first Pentium 75 back in about oh, 1996 or so.  I've built a new one about every two or three years since then.  If there was a cost-efficient way to make notebook pcs I'd build those too...

ITX! I've also DIY'd all my systems, since the first 286. I'm currently working on getting my second ITX build in service (according to the UPS, it looks like it draws about 5 watts!), but ran into a RAID issue.