Try newegg.com .You can price your laptop according to your needs and price.They are pretty competitive, as i bought most of my electronics from there.

 

newegg.com is great! I've ordered many times from them. The service and shipping is fast and the prices are great!

As far as what I use...I bought an HP dv9235nr. I love it and it has worked flawlessly for the last two years. It has 2GB of high speed memory, an Intel core 2 duo processor, 17" ultrabright widescreen, 2x160GB SATA 150 HDs, built-in analog/digital tv tuner so I didn't need to buy a crappy truckstop tv for my truck. You can record hdtv with the vista media center, too. I always used PCMILER with it when I was on the road. Zero of the pixels on my screen are burnt out. I still have two years left on my extended warranty, too. As long as I don't dump liquid on it, everything is covered. HP builds some of the best laptops. Their tech support is always helpful and they want your laptop to work. I can't say that for some of these other companies. HPs tend to withstand more than others. I would never buy a Sony. I have heard about way too many of those breaking. I wouldn't buy a Toshiba based on people I know trying to get tech support. Obviously, it's a laptop so you have to somewhat take care of it (if you want it to last). My brother (works in IT) has a Fujitsu Lifebook for home that he likes a lot. He has one of those small fan-less ones because that is what he wanted. He's never had any problems with it. Based on my experiences, I definitely recommend an HP!

 

my wife had a Toshiba Satellite, and i bought her a Sony Vaio laptop, and now i have the toshiba, it's working good, a few years old. bought it for like...450 at Office Depot, paid 500 for my wifes Vaio at best buy...but i really wanna know, why is this asshat next to me idling his truck when it is 60 degrees outside...here by st louis, *****s.. heh

 

Go to Costco and pick out the machine of your liking. Costco has a great selection, competitive pricing, an excellent return policy and an even better concierge service (better than HP) if you run in to any problems. Plus, Costco produces a lot of freight for Swift. They'll have a manager fetch your new machine from the cage and that's a good time to let them know why you're buying from them. They will take notice.

 

that is one of the HPs i'm looking at. Might not be that exact one, but the next one i get i want 2GB of RAM in it for sure. you will have to let me know how to record TV off it.

and o-guy...i know what you're saying about ******s.....er....mentally challenged drivers who idle when they dont need to. Specially when its 60 degrees. I was in Laredo when it was 80, and i cracked my windows, opened the vents and plugged in my tornado fan.....i was just fine. i actually got a remark from the president of swift saying i was one of the lowest idlers in the whole company. I really wanted to return message saying, "well...how about rewarding me saving the company money by getting me miles?"....but i didnt. =)

 

my idle time is like at 3%...i shut it off everytime i get...

also my wifes new Vaio has an integrated webcam in it as well, also plays Blu-ray discs...

 

I have the new 13" MacBook 2.4 ghz 250gb HD, 2gb Ram. Don't buy another MS POS. Spend the extra money and buy a Mac, it's well worth it.

 

Mine is the dv9235nr but that is the model from 2006. I paid $1400 online at the time. Prices have come down since then. I couldn't tell you what the new model numbers are. Basically, it had everything I wanted at the time. I wanted an Intel core 2 duo, Vista, lightscribe cd/dvd burner, tv/dvr, firewire, USBs, hdmi, s-video, 17" widescreen, fairly fast, high capacity built-in hard drives, etc. I just use windows media center for tv with the tuner card. Mine has the hybrid tuner card that goes in the PCMCIA express slot. It has a tabletop antenna which I don't use and adapters for coaxial cable, satellite, etc. They plug into the side of the express tuner card. Media Center connects to the internet to download the tv guide. Then, you use it like tivo/replay tv without paying the fees they charge (it's free). You can also play music, videos, internet radio stations, internet tv station things, etc. in media center, too. There are a ton of plug-ins that people have developed on The Green Button - Your Media Center Community. It's a free website for media center.

I am at home but use this same laptop anyway. My Compaq workstation is older but was very high-tech for the time (2001). I still use it to this day. I mainly use it for recording my music. I got that on uBid Online Auctions - Excess Inventory From The World's Most Trusted Brands!. It was $950 in an auction I won. It was factory-sealed box, full warranty, etc. The same exact computer was selling for about $3000 elsewhere at the time. I would check ubid to see what they have. It's still pretty fast even with a 733 PIII because of the scsi and memory. It came with scsi ultra3 hard drives, 800 MHz RDRAM, failure detection, network support, multi-processor capabilities, etc.

There are e-sata drives now that run at faster speeds than SATA, USB 2.0 and Firewire. I think they run at 3.2G/sec. I'm not sure if they have that built into the motherboard yet though (especially on laptops). They definitely have external e-sata drives though. My brother got an e-sata 500 GB, 2.5" laptop drive in external case for like $120 on newegg.com. He said people at his work were buying that one just for the 500GB laptop drives. They were pulling them out of the external enclosure and using them in their laptops because they don't make 500GB internal laptop drives. I think 240GB or 360GB was the biggest one at the time.

 

Macs are way overpriced...and nothing special! Graphic designers like to use Macs. Apple overcharges you for old technology (that PCs have used before)! How many companies/corporations do you see using Mac servers (which their whole company depends on)? Basically, no one. You can install whatever OS you want anyway. Apple's whole niche is marketing idiot-proof devices to people who will buy their products. I have an Ipuke 80GB video that I paid $400. It's the biggest, most unreliable POS. If I didn't pay $400 I would throw it at the wall. Their software writers should go back to school. They are idiots! The thing keeps telling you, you have to restore the device constantly. The thing freezes out of nowhere. Then, all you can do is let the thing's battery die completely. Then it will work again. Yeah, it sucks not having tunes in your truck for the rest of the day because you own an Ipuke. The only thing more useless than it is...the Best Buy warranty. So...there you have it...Apple in a nutshell!

 

I've never had any trouble out of my iPod in the two years I've had it. Works like a charm, and has taking a beating a Timex would cringe at.

I think the extra price for the Mac is worth it. Being able to talk to someone who speaks english if there's ever a problem is worth quite a bit there. My girlfriends HP crashed and after about 4 hours, she gave up calling India. But in the end, computers are like music and politics, no two persons preferences are the same.