Need suggestions for purchasing a laptop

[Linna]

1. What is your budget?
Preferably less than $1000 but no more than $1500.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
No real preference. I'm not big on absolutely needing HD and the best graphics. I would like to have something that can be portable but as long as it'll fit under an airplane seat should I need to travel with it is fine.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Preferably not a widescreen display.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I'm not sure. I doubt I'll be taking it around with me, but I do want something that can withstand a little bit of abuse. I mainly want a system that will last a good couple of years. I'm upgrading from a Dell Inspiron 600m so something that won't crap out on me is a must. I do not want a netbook though.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Not really an issue as it'll probably stay plugged in at all times.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Probably not and if I do it would be medium I guess? I'm not into MMOs or super high crisp image quality so as long as the grahpics don't look like complete crap then anything is fine.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Probably light photo/video editing. I'd mainly be using it to surf the net, word processing, watch movies and stream. I guess I fall into a casual user?

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
A lot. I'm a media hog so I want something with a lot of space so I don't have burn DVD/Blu-Ray or transfer files to an external.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
No real specific sites though I have purchased from newegg and don't have any problems ordering from them again.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 4-5 years? The one that I'm using right now is going on year 9 (2nd harddrive) and probably won't last for much longer so I want something that will give me a good bang for my buck.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
I'm fine with at least a DVD-R but I wouldn't mind having a Blu-rom/writer if I'm able to do both?

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I've had a Dell and I'm fine with purchasing another if that's what would best meet my needs but I am interested in trying out a different brand. I've asked around and so far the brands that I've heard somewhat positive things about are Toshiba and Lenovo. I'm a little wary about Acer and Asus because I don't know very much about them and kind of amblivent about HP. I'm definately not interested in getting a mac.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I've heard that business laptops hold up better than casual laptops so I think that I tend to gravitate toward that end.

I'm also pretty paranoid about having a reliable cooling system so my harddrive won't fry so something that won't overheat/run too hot would be nice.

At the end of the day, though, I'm really just looking for a laptop that I won't have to replace after 3 years.

 

[chudddds]

asus is the best, followed by toshiba, sony, and lenovo

im having a look over at newegg right now, i will post a link later

 

[chudddds]

1) http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246318

2) http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131259

#1 above is Lenovo (IBM's old laptop division) they are good quality laptops with good customer service and support. As you can see there is a large price difference, the reason is the Samsung has a dedicated graphics card with 1gb of videio memory, a 1TB hard drive (thats 1,000 gb) and a USB 3.0 port, which is much faster than the USB 2.0 ports on the Lenovo, which is a huge benefit if you are going to transfer any of your treasured media files to an external device, (which also must be USB 3.0).

My only question was, Samsung has not been in the laptop business very long, only two or three years, so how is their quality and support. I did some quick searches and it seems they are above average, which dell is average and HP is actually considered below average.

So for me, I say the Samsung.

1. 1 TB (1,000 gb) hard drive vs 750 gb

2. Dedicated graphics with 1 gb of its own memory, NOT shared with system memory, so much, much better graphics and power.

3. USB 3.0 vs USB 2.0

4. Bluetooth 3.0 vs 2,1

5. 2 x 2watt speakers vs 2 x 1.5 watt

The only advantage the Lenovo has is a BlueRay player and $400 less in price(however, still $350 under your max), and a longer proven track record in the mobile computing business.

 

[Linna]

Sorry for asking a stupid question but what exactly is the difference between a USB 2.0 and 3.0? Does it mean that my external that I have now (which I assume is 2.0 compatible since it works on my laptop that I have now) won't work if I attach it to the Samsung because the USB drive is a 3.0? Or does the 3.0 designation just mean that it transfers data at a faster speed? And if I buy an external that is touted as 3.0 it won't work on any other USB that isn't 3.0? I'm a little confused as I know really next to nothing about computers and drive speed.