Advice on buying a laptop.
 

Hey everyone, I treat my Sony Vaio with a great deal of care, but for the 4th time in three years it's broken; this time I don't think it's going to be repairable. I'm on a tight student budget so I've been thinking about buying something new in the $400-600 price range, all I use it for is email, forums and school work so I don't need anything fancy. Is there a specific brand or model that someone could suggest would be more reliable and fit in my budget? Would buying a used Apple computer off craigslist be an option I should consider? I'm computer literate, but only just barely, so go easy on me haha.
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I find there's always an Acer laptop price pointed around $550 that's a really good bang for your buck. They're not the prettiest brand but I've had 4 acer desktops/laptops and never ever had a problem with them.

I think a survey was done a year back about how often a computer breaks down - and the brands that came out on top were Asus, Toshiba and Sony.

That said, Acer has really turned themselves around - but only time will tell how good their build is. Funnily enough, Apple didn't do well in the survey - but they do have one of the better warranties and customer service - but you're also paying a big premium for that. If you're looking to spend $400-600, stay away from macs.

Thanks, I'll look into Acer. In the past I've purchased my computers from Best Buy but their service has never been very good, has anyone here had better experiences with NCIX?
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Don't buy an HP.

Acers are good budget laptops...

you want something light since your going to be taking to school.. having a big laptop can get heavy if you do lots of walking...


http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...30927(ME).aspx
This one seems like a good one for you, only $599.99

If you want you can go Dell you get to choose your options and add more warranty if you want. Plus you have the option for accidental warranty.

^The cost of extended warranties is generally equal to a complete replacement in my experience, since laptops are a lot less expensive now I don't see a point. I'm going to stop by NCIX this afternoon..
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Depends on the brand, dell is roughly $50-$100/year on extended warranty depending on model.. So for an additional $150 you get 3 year warranty next day replacement parts.. Cant go wrong with that.. or you could buy your FS BB, 1 year lasting notebooks and if any problems occure you would have to send it back to a repair depot (mostly in TO) then ship it 3-5 days, have them fix it 1-3 days and ship it back 3-5 days. Not only are you paying $25 to ship the unit to them but you have a whole week without your unit. So there are some pro's and con's.. And with the number of systems I see in a year I always recommend warranty..

I bought an Acer Aspire with i3-350m processor for around $500 last summer. It is a lot better than I thought it would be. Also, the battery life is pretty good.

It sounds like you really know what your talking about, one of the things I've noticed is that when something does break it never seems to be covered by the warranty. It's always physical damage, software etcetera and it always takes at least 3 weeks to repair. It took 8 weeks once..
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MSI isn't too bad either. I bought a MSI laptop around Jan. Really great laptop. It was form staples too. Fits your price range well.

We have the Acer AS5742-6798 at Staples on clearance for $547 ...

It's no longer on our website and I'm not sure what the stock situation is like in Vancouver, but the specs off the top of my head:

2.26 GHz Intel Core i5
4GB DDR3
640GB Hard Drive
Wireless N
Intel Mobile HD integrated graphics
DVD Burner
15.6" Screen
Windows 7 Home Premium

Pretty decent bang for the buck ...

Yeah i deal with alot of broken notebooks, so i know the ropes.. Since where i work we are dell authorized.
So say you have a dead hard drive. You then call us we contact dell and get a new hard drive sent to our location next day 9am. Then you come in we replace the hard drive load system back to factory default and you get your system back in 1-2days depending on how busy we are. As you can see the downtime is much less and we get paid by Dell so we are happy to do this.

Just do me a favor and dont buy a Toshiba satellite, or else I will be seeing you in a year. :)