A new laptop
 

My current computer, a Toshiba Sattelite 40 needs repair. Current estimate is $150.00 for cooling fans to $900.00 for a new board. I can't see myself spending over $1K to repair my current computer. I am thinking about buying a new laptop. I read all the ratings I can find. Can any of you nerds out there recommend a computer with essential add ons for $2K and under? I've used the "build your computer" feature on several sites and keep on building a laptop that is going to cost me $5K+. That is more than I want to spend on a laptop that will be obsolete last week. Any suggestions?

My laptop is just over a year old now, and I love it.

I have an HP Pavilion DV8000 - the computer has a AMD Turion 64 that runs at 2ghz. It came with 1gig of ram and has dual 80gig drives, as well as the dvd/cd burner. It also has a 17" screen. I paid just about $1,400 for it at Sam's Club.

Best bet - go to Circuit City, Best Buy, etc and look at them. You can buy a really good, fairly high end laptop for under $1,500. Also, right now most places have them on sale for Back-to-School.

Here's a couple that I found that I would buy if I was replacing mine:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1180743304855
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1180743304715

Like I said, they're easy to find. Just jump on their sites and see what they have in stock. I personally wouldn't recommend a custom built machine unless you're heavily into gaming, video production, etc.

My problem, with anything that I buy, is if there is an upgraded feature, I want it. If it cost more it should be better, right? In truth, I will be using it out on the road. I need to connect to the internet. I surf and write a few emails. I am considering a Masters Program so I may need additional features.

It's not always better if you pay more.

I saw one laptop on best buy's site - hp pavilion, intel centrino duo, 200gig hard drive, 17" monitor, nvidia 7600 video. For about $1,400. That's a great machine. It'll do what you need it do to. My home system is comparable to that.

ram, and hd are the only things you realy need to upgrade "more is better" a few years ago tech-tv did a thing on laptops and the only one still working when thy were done was a dell.

we have that this hp ze4900 in the truck for 2 years and it does anything we need and we got it at a pawn shop for $400.

I bought a new Dell Latitude D830. 1.80 GHzm 2MB RAM , internal Verizon card and a few other goodies. It came in during the week, so I didn't get it until Friday. I don't have all the software for it yet, so I couldn't do much. I was packing to go out this morning, when I arrived at my truck, I opened the door and my brand new computer fell out onto the pavement. I woke the neighborhood with my cursing. I have a few dings in the case. No other damage. It seems to work fine. I guess I don't have to worry about normal dings anymore.

Does anyone know what a powered USB port is supposed to look like? Mine has two USB ports one on top of the other. The top one has what looks like a corner chipped off. I can't tell for sure even with a magnifying glass.

Are you thinking of a powered USB hub instead? There are 2 types of USB hubs - powered and unpowered. How to tell the difference? A powered hub has a power adapter, the unpowered doesn't.

The port you may be looking at is probably a firewire port. It basically looks like a stretched out "D".

I looked up a powered USB hub and it is not a hub. It is a Powered USB Port according to Dell and what information I can find on the internet. I cannot find a picture of a Powered USB Port that looks exactly like mine, so I'm still unsure if mine is chipped or not.

To the best of my knowledge there are only 4 types of USB ports:

A
B
Mini-A
Mini-B

The "A" type are basically rectangles. About 1/8" high, 1" long.
The "B" type look like a house if you look at the end of it. If the 2 corners weren't "clipped" it would be square - about 1/4" on the sides.

There are literally dozens of to spec usb types, but as far as any computer goes, desktop, laptop, etc, ALL have A connectors on them, your device could use anything, and usually comes with the correct A to whatever USB cable.

Some laptops have firewire and even SATA connectors now, Firewire is great if your into high end video equipment, or fast external harddrives, SATA is a new spec for harddrives.

Laptop Toshiba M35x-s149
 

I have used these units for 2 years

and you can pick up a used one with windows xp for 325-400

from ebay

they have a problem with their charging plug that caused toshiba to extend waranties for 2 years

so make sure yours is upgraded

Just keep the vent clean on the right side

if it breaks you can pull the hard drive by removing one screw on the left side on the bottom left corner

the hard drive will slide right out

best buy sells an adapter to allow you to access that drive on another computer usb port

for 25-50 bucks

stay away from windows vista it stinks