anyone recommend a laptop for under $500?

[firebird_1995]

heres how it is, ive had a $350 walmart special laptop for 3 years while my wife has went through 3 laptops in 3 years. so shes getting my old one and im getting the new one. i dont do any gaming, very few videos (not a beat-box), but i do listen to a lot of music, and i need something compatible with our tuning programs. i thought about getting an older panasonic toughbook but for the same or less money i can get a brand new one. anybody have a toughbook or bought a laptop lately they can vouch for?

[Chris]

Brand wise, get a Toshiba. I had the same one for 5 years throughout highschool and community college, just got slow obviously. Then I made the worst mistake I ever by buying a gateway when I transfered schools. Spent around 800 best of everything in my price range. Left it in the box till I went to school, then 3 weeks latter the harddrive was dead. Called gateway was told tuff shit. 3 month old laptop that sat at my desk costed me a 200 dollar repair.

As for Toshiba, we bought my dad one for xmas. Got a few viruses not big deal thats just a windows thing. But out of warranty he spilled a cup of coffee on it. For the cost of shipping he sent it to Toshiba and they put in a whole new keyboard and replaced the other damaged components. Excellent customer service if you ask me.

[firebird_1995]

wow thats rare. my wifes first dell fried the motherboard 2 days after the 1 year warrenty and they told me they would gladly replace it, for $1k.... it cost $1200 new... i will never buy a dell again. i guess it would be out of the question to find a laptop that is at least partially made or assembled in the usa?

[Chris]

I would think it would be kinda hard to find one made state side. Maybe you should bring one of the broken laptops to a local computer person and have it built?

[firebird_1995]

well i looked into that, problem is by the time you buy the parts and get it repaired youve got an outdated computer that you paid more than what you could buy a new for. with the rate technology is progressing they are outdated the day after theyre made. i wonder if one of those new tablets would be capable of running windows programs....

[Madman337]

heres how it is, ive had a $350 walmart special laptop for 3 years while my wife has went through 3 laptops in 3 years. so shes getting my old one and im getting the new one. i dont do any gaming, very few videos (not a beat-box), but i do listen to a lot of music, and i need something compatible with our tuning programs. i thought about getting an older panasonic toughbook but for the same or less money i can get a brand new one. anybody have a toughbook or bought a laptop lately they can vouch for?

I was able to hook my dad up with a killer deal thru Bestbuy, what you do is go to the refurbished area online and look for the laptop that has the features you want for the price you want.
You then go to the store with that info, SKU-model-make-ect and tell them this is the unit you want.
More than likely they wont have it anymore and will have to give you a unit that has the same features ect for the refurbished price.
My dad got a $1,000.00 laptop for $330.00.

[Chris]

Kinda like how i got a 600 dollar suit this weekend for 200 because it was the only one in my size?

[harner]

Laptops are designed to be disposables these days, especially under the $500 mark. If you go cheap, you may want to back up your data regularly. Usually the first thing to go is the hard drive.

This one looks pretty good on SlickDeals:
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/75722/lenovo-outlet-lenovo-refurbished-laptop-sale-25-off-coupon-lenovo-v570-core-i52450m-2.5ghz-15.6-1368x766-6gb-ddr3-500gb-hdd-intel-gma-webcam-win-7-prem

I never had or worked on a Lenovo. But, working in the industry where I am in charge of spec'ing, fixing, and deploying equipment on an enterprise scale I can honestly say that this brand is becoming a rising star. I'd buy one if I didn't have a laptop. This particular unit is a refurb with shitty graphics (laptop = big deal?) and the other specs look pretty decent.

[popo8]

I like using TIGERDIRECT for electronics....

[sick70malibu]

Laptops are designed to be disposables these days, especially under the $500 mark. If you go cheap, you may want to back up your data regularly. Usually the first thing to go is the hard drive.

This one looks pretty good on SlickDeals:
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/75722/lenovo-outlet-lenovo-refurbished-laptop-sale-25-off-coupon-lenovo-v570-core-i52450m-2.5ghz-15.6-1368x766-6gb-ddr3-500gb-hdd-intel-gma-webcam-win-7-prem

I never had or worked on a Lenovo. But, working in the industry where I am in charge of spec'ing, fixing, and deploying equipment on an enterprise scale I can honestly say that this brand is becoming a rising star. I'd buy one if I didn't have a laptop. This particular unit is a refurb with shitty graphics (laptop = big deal?) and the other specs look pretty decent.


I love IBM/Lenovo products. I had an older IBM T40 Thinkpad and it was by far the best laptop I've ever owned, up until it magically jumped off the table and committed suicide... I would definitely go with one of them again. Especially for that price.

Sent from my now unrooted but updated DROID 2(stupid updates)

[harner]

I like using TIGERDIRECT for electronics....

Tiger has some decent deals, and I have a hook up through them at work (as well as a few others), however I personally prefer NewEgg and Amazon for my personal electronics.

If you want to hold out for that perfect deal, just keep watching the SlickDeals RSS feed. I buy stuff I don't need all the time, thanks to them lol.

[CamaroZGuy]

as said i would suggest Toshiba or ASUS. ASUS are great for the price and there not an extreamly large name for laptops so you are paying for quality not name. if it helps my ASUS made it through 7 months in the Desert and is still running strong.

[firebird_1995]

what do you guys use to backup your hard drives? i wonder if there is a way to take the hard drive out of a fried computer to extract files. i wish i could get back all the stuff i lost....

[CamaroZGuy]

what do you guys use to backup your hard drives? i wonder if there is a way to take the hard drive out of a fried computer to extract files. i wish i could get back all the stuff i lost....

yes, as long as its not the HD that failed you can pick up an external bay for hard drives, some new ones are even hot swapable so u can use them like disks. i want to say from www.newegg.com there about 15-25$.

[harner]

what do you guys use to backup your hard drives? i wonder if there is a way to take the hard drive out of a fried computer to extract files. i wish i could get back all the stuff i lost....

For a simple backup, just get an external hard drive.

As for removing a drive to extract files, hell yeah it's possibly. Assuming the drive still spins up, that is. Just remove the drive (for easy tutorials, look up how-to's on youtube) and then stick it in something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153066

I recommend the BlacX line to anyone looking to restore data off of hard drives. If the drive doesn't spin up, you're generally screwed. But, if it does you are in luck. They also make IDE/SATA docks.