rubinontheroad Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 The more I look the more I get confused. My HP DV7-1000 is over 6 yrs old and dieing. I want a quality built laptop and am willing to pay. In the past 6 yrs this HP has had its DVD/CD drive replaced and recently the fan died, other then that, it has been a good machine. I do not game but prefer a larger screen. It is plugged in 95% of time so long battery life is not necessary. This will be used to surf, email, create simple documents, watch movies, uTube, etc. I don't think I even need a DVD/CD internal player, I would be OK with an optical drive I plug in when I occasionally need one. I do not store a lot on the HD, the 350Gig in this one is fine, in fact a SSD probably would be fine but they are very expensive, I guess a combo, SSD for OS and 250/300 Gig HD for all the other stuff. CPU, as I will keep this for as long as possible, I want a late model that will handle changes in the future. Again for that reason RAM should be 8 gig for future needs. As I don't game I guess an internal good GPU would be sufficient. Networking I would want the best, as I sure that will be changing a lot in the yrs to come. I know I'm missing some other specs but I think you all get the point. Good quality, good service I would pay extra for, for at least 3yrs. I've looked at all the biggies, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer etc and even some gaming type MSI, Alienware, Eurocom (Canadian). I guess I looked too much as now I'm confused and unsure, I guess I would even have one built if it came to that. Quality, costs up to $1500+/- and service. I will respond if someone out there want to ask me more. I hope I have not bored you with my small problem and I hope this is the place to publish this call for help.....Thanks, Stan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted June 3, 2015 Global Moderator Share Posted June 3, 2015 SSDs are much cheaper these days. you can easily find a quality laptop w/ one included that's w/i your budget. I like Asus a lot. I have an MSI now and i'm very pleased with it. In the past i've looked into Gigabyte. I've read very good things about their build quality too. Since your budget is considerable, you might look into a boutique manuf that uses a chassis built by Clevo - Origin, Eurocom, Falcon Northwest. The prices for these, however, skyrocket quickly. link6155 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted June 3, 2015 MVC Share Posted June 3, 2015 For me personally, I still look up service manuals when I buy a laptop. I will not buy a laptop where lots of disassemble is required to get to the hard drive. I want to be able to flip the laptop over remove a hard drive cover and be done with it. It can also be cheaper sometimes to buy a laptop with a regular hard drive and buy an SSD separate and install it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhangm Supervisor Posted June 3, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted June 3, 2015 I do not game but prefer a larger screen. It is plugged in 95% of time so long battery life is not necessary. This will be used to surf, email, create simple documents, watch movies, uTube, etc. I will keep this for as long as possible, I want a late model that will handle changes in the future. Again for that reason RAM should be 8 gig for future needs. Have you considered a medium performance or budget desktop, shoving a considerable part of the budget into the display, and pairing that up with a cheaper tablet like the Surface 3 for your mobility requirements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted June 3, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted June 3, 2015 Since you're not to fussed about the price: Why not have a look at the Dell XPS 15? Jose_49 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted June 3, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted June 3, 2015 Hi, and welcome to Neowin. You mention that you're not particularly a gamer so personally you've given yourself quite a budget, even with regards to future proofing. From what you mentioned that you will be using the laptop for, you could probably pick up a nice laptop for about half the price. I bought a Lenovo Flex a couple of weeks ago for about 800CHF, and I would expect it to allow me to do all that you've mentioned for plenty of years to come. My only advice, and again this is only my opinion, would be to avoid Acer as a brand. Perhaps they have changed in recent years, but they used to have an issue when it came to putting their machines together. I had an Acer that is as good as dead now because they didn't provide proper ventilation and it was prone to overheating over the slightest thing. So I would suggest Lenovo given your needs. You may be able to find the same specs for less somewhere else, but I'm not sure I would have experience with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose_49 Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Since you're not to fussed about the price: Why not have a look at the Dell XPS 15? I'd say to hold off a bit until it's updated with 5th gen processors (at least) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iogbrideau Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 I would say the best brands to go for would be either Asus or Lenovo. They generally have a good build quality and will last long. With that budget you can get an SSD easily as well. Got a Lenovo Flex 2 for my parents last week for about $550 CAD for the same kind of needs as yours and replaced the HDD with an SSD, and it works quite well. +E.Worm Jimmy 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T3X4S Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 OK - the fact you had an HP last a long time more of a fluke than a testament to HP - they suck, period. (Always among the worst-rated in terms of warranty repair/reliability) If you want reliability - get a ThinkPad, Mac, or ASUS. Performance you can get in any brand. Get the "I want it to last xxx many years" out of your head. You cant control that - all you can do is go with something good, and hope it performs like its reputation. Every brand will have good and bad models - all you can do is make choices that give you the best chance of reliability. ThinkPads (specifically the T-series) are extremely reliable. Macs - same. ASUS has a great reputation, maybe even a Dell XPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the better twin Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Would never have another Acer or Dell personally after bad experiences with them. Just picked up an HP omen which has the best build quality ive come across. The screen is also fantastic and it has dedicated graphics if you want to do some light gaming. Might be worth a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted June 9, 2015 Moderator Share Posted June 9, 2015 Acer is good these days. I bought a refurbed one off eBay, bout 2 years ago. Works till this day. I never had a overheating issue. The older ones suck, yes. But the newer ones, they are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹ Posted June 9, 2015 Subscriber¹ Share Posted June 9, 2015 Acer is good these days. I bought a refurbed one off eBay, bout 2 years ago. Works till this day. I never had a overheating issue. The older ones suck, yes. But the newer ones, they are great. i would definately stick to asus and lenovo as the brands i trust, and dell seemed to turn around and improve a lot recently they look good sometimes, but acer developed such a negative reputation with their products (and the ceo comments were not helping my view of them) so i am not 100% sold that they turned around too. T3X4S 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T3X4S Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Acer is good these days. I bought a refurbed one off eBay, bout 2 years ago. Works till this day. I never had a overheating issue. The older ones suck, yes. But the newer ones, they are great. No they are not; and the fact you had 1 that worked OK - means nothing. According to nearly every major reviewer/tech mag/site - Apple dominates in reliability/manufacturing & customer service. The next 3 are a toss up between Lenovo, ASUS, and Dell. Surprisingly it seems the newer HP stuff has improved and is right below these brands, even besting them according to some respected sites. Nobody places Acer in any top review in terms of reliability, they are @ the bottom with Toshiba. In fact, their warranty repair % has dropped in 2015 Inexpensive for a reason, that is their market - cheap stuff. Normally, I take a review with a grain of salt - because they can be paid for, even the reputable sites/mags. However, it seems nearly every big review site/mag says pretty much the same things above. When I was a repair tech, I would base my opinion over what I saw day in and day out in the trenches. When you see so many machines in for repair with the same problems, the same crappy parts, dumb engineering - you know to avoid them. Goes with software too. So many sites and some people used to talk about how good MSE was for AV - But, ask anyone in the field and they will tell you it sucked and they wouldnt touch it. Any decent tech would testify to how many infected machines they would see with nothing but MSE on it (just like McAfee) Now, finally - most are aware that even Microsoft says their stuff sucked and should be considered "a baseline". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted June 9, 2015 Moderator Share Posted June 9, 2015 All you say Acer is bad? Sure, their lower end sucks. Any manufacturer's lower end sucks, Dell, ASUS, Lenovo. Lenovo - Thinkpads are awesome. Dell - Latitude/Vostro are top notch. These are business laptops. They run well for a reason. Edit: Texas, is this from personal experience or something you "heard"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iogbrideau Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I would not go for Dell. We have Latitude and Precision models where I work, as well as old vostro laptops that didn't last their intended lenght of time we wanted to keep them because they all had issues. You should see the amount of Dells we put on warranty, especially Latitude laptops. XPS might be their only good model line. I stand with what I said earlier in this thread - Asus or Lenovo and you won't regret it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binaryzero Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 ^ XPS is a consumer model, where the Lattitudes, Vostros, and Precisions are more business machines\workstation replacements. I know, because I work with Dell everyday... Lenovo would be my pick - the T440s (or today's equivalent) is a real nice machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odom Member Posted June 10, 2015 Member Share Posted June 10, 2015 T440s FTW Work with Lenovo every day, love this model. Sadly we now switched to the Carbon X1 2 years ago and they are absolute crap. We never had so many failures with this model. Go figure why someone would choose an Ultrabook for every day office use... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted June 10, 2015 MVC Share Posted June 10, 2015 T440s FTW Work with Lenovo every day, love this model. Sadly we now switched to the Carbon X1 2 years ago and they are absolute crap. We never had so many failures with this model. Go figure why someone would choose an Ultrabook for every day office use... Just a side note on that model, not sure if this is important to him or not, if not please ignore. But upon looking up the service manual about 8 screws need to be removed and the entire black taken off to get to the hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odom Member Posted June 10, 2015 Member Share Posted June 10, 2015 Yes, you are right. Our versions (Carbon X1 first and second gen with the touch F-keys) come with M2Sata drives. These laptops have no docking station, only a port replicator. We bought over a thousand of these laptops and have a failure rate higher than 30%. What fails the most is the drives, then there are problems with the port replicators. The graphics performance is horrendous with multimonitors, and most people have 2 monitors. First gen users DVI on the port replicators, 2nd gen uses Displayport. I managed to get mine replaced with an older T440 and SSD. It's a workhorse with proper port replicator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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