Hehe! And you thought you had a headache BEFORE you asked us for help?

 

I sincerely wish you the best of luck in whatever laptop you choose, werewolf. I have a feeling that someone who's done as much homework as you have, regardless of how confusing it may seem, will ultimately make the right decision for their child.

Thanks 47songs, that's a nice thing to say .

I've never purchased a pre-made computer before and it was a bit nerve wracking.  It's so limiting LOL.

I'm not going to be around if her machine messes up, but the school has a great IT dept and they said that they help the students with 'issues'

Thank all of you for your advice and opionions.  After I've played around with it for a bit, I'll post back and let you know how it was.

try dell's site.. they have some good laptops there. you should get the e1405... its best for what your daughter will need it for.

I don't know if you've decided already or not, but I thought from one owner to another I could give you a bit of advice.

Last year I bought my first laptop. It's a Gateway M520. Nice laptop, good price. It's not perfect, I've had some issues but they've all been resolved.

I bought my laptop at futureshop and got suckered into getting there extended warranty. DO NOT GET THERE EXTENDED WARRANTY. Oiy, I can't stress this enough. If you want an extended warranty get it through your manufacturer. Future shop covers next to nothing. They'll just blame the issue on you (I've had this happen both to me and my friend and I'm not a computer stupid guy, this is how they do it).

Gateways support and warranty service is simply amazing. I just had to e-mail them, tell them my issues and they sent me a box prelabeled and everything to send my laptop away. No hassle nothing, I got my laptop back within a week and everything that I asked to be fixxed was. It was great!

Ah well, just my 2 cents : ) I'm pretty sure any big name like dell, gateway or hp have adaquet service. I just know from my experiance that Gateway rocks.

(I'm actually buying myself a new laptop, this time from HP. The only one is being bought off me by my sister. Only reason why I'm not getting a Gateway is because the processor I want is offered by gateway or at least not that I have found yet)

I ended up getting the Dell E1505 WinXP sp2.  Don't really know when it will be here yet, but it looks like a great system, on paper anyway .  Has everything I think she will need.

Wow!! This is a really great machine. I'm a little envious

I have a serious question: The way it looks is that I can only do the Windows Update thing is by installing that stupid WGA app. I've heard horror stories that WGA has reported factory laptop installs of XP are invalid and shut the whole machine down. That's not good. I have turned off auto update on her machine.

On the other hand, some of those updates are probably needed (she is going to be in a fairly secure environment, nat enabled routers, software firewalls, AV software, etc) but there are some updates which improve the OS if I remember correctly.

Anyhooo, has anyone with a Dell laptop, or I guess any new name-brand laptop, had any problems with the WGA. If so, were they easily fixed?

What's the general consensus of WGA around here. There should be lots of folks who have been exposed to it I would think.

Thanks

I'm curious--
What I always heard was to avoid Dell because the important stuff to upgrade is proprietary so you pay through the nose to add memory or upgrade HW. Yet most peeps here are recommending Dell. Did the situation change or is Dell better with laptops than with desktops?

Around 5 years ago, I had a Sony VIAO that I liked alot. Any comments on the VIAO?

I'm not sold on a particular brand, but was surprised by the results of this thread...

What's the general consensus of WGA around here.

don't have a lap top, but I've installed whatever authentication they say is required for whatever I decide to download. I've had no issues with it that I know of.

I thought if the WGA thing said your install was invalid it gave options to validate or purchase.

What I always heard was to avoid Dell because the important stuff to upgrade is proprietary so you pay through the nose to add memory or upgrade HW.

I have the Inspiron 9300, which was built in March 2005.

I have replaced the stock Pentium M 1.6 Ghz processor with a Pentium M 2.0 Ghz processor with no issues.

I have also replaced the hard drive (originally a 40 GB Hitachi 5400 RPM) with a Seagate 80 GB 7200 RPM, and replaced (2) 256 MB sticks of RAM with (2) 1 GB sticks of RAM (Kingston). I also replaced the stock Toshiba DVD-ROM drive with a Sony DVD/RW drive.

All replacement parts were purchased through NewEgg.com except the RAM which I got through Amazon.com. The only issue was with the Sony optical drive which is not quite flush with the side of the case - otherwise all parts work flawlessly.

Therefore to answer your question; the Inspiron series - at least - has a proprietary motherboard, case, keyboard, touchpad, and monitor.

The hard drive, optical drive, memory, and processor can be upgraded within the motherboard restrictions/specifications. All of these can be purchased from an online vendor if you wish (the cost is much lower).

As for the graphics card, Dell offered upgrades (at that time) to either a Radeon X300 (128 MB) mobility PCI express card, or a nVidia GForce 6800 (256 MB) AGP card. I opted for the PCI express card due to my knowledge of the lower heat build up of this architecture. Due to the lack of availability of the newer mobile video cards through online vendors, it is better to purchase the unit with the video option you plan to use for a few years.

If you purchase a Dell, make sure to note the higher end options specific to the unit you are purchasing for future reference. This will allow you to upgrade with confidence, as Dell is not eager to offer the deeper technical knowledge of their equipment - at least in my experience.

It should also be noted that Dell offers a "Build Your Own" feature in their XPS 700 series where you can purchase the basic parts for a machine and actually build your own by purchasing a basic foundation (case, power supply, Dell BTX MoBo, Processor, and heat-sink/fan). The heat-sink fan that comes with the newer Core2 Duo processors in a heat-pipe style with multiple fins and two aluminum fans - really nice, IMO. The cost is about 30% more than you could purchase and build one with similar components for, but Dell will apparently assemble the basic foundation listed above, which ships with "Free-DOS" only.

The new owner can then install memory, video card(s), hard drive(s), optical drive(s), and purchase their own custom monitor and input devices. A nice option for someone who feels confident with the easier hardware assembly and wants to build a custom rig.

Note - you can also select all needed hardware parts so that you can build the complete PC tower with no operating system installed if you wish.

For all the bad press and fall in profit margins, they are providing some nice options on purchases.

Why are people here not interested in VIAO? I liked the one I had 5 years ago, but it went missing & I haven't kept up since then...

I thought if the WGA thing said your install was invalid it gave options to validate or purchase.

That's the problem I've been reading about. I paid a bit extra to get Windows XP on my daughters machine. If she installs the WGA and it says it's an invalid install and suggests that I buy WinXP again I would be upset.

From what I've read, validating only costs a few dollars less that the full install disk set, so that would again be bad.

However, all this is kind of moot at this point because that auto patcher thing works really well.

What I always heard was to avoid Dell because the important stuff to upgrade is proprietary so you pay through the nose to add memory or upgrade HW. Yet most peeps here are recommending Dell. Did the situation change or is Dell better with laptops than with desktops?

When I was investigating all this I decided from the get-go to get the most they had to offer in the deal (as long as it didn't go waaaaay outside my price range) so as to avoid having to upgrade anytime in the future.

After seeing what her machine can do, I'm not sorry I did.