Need Help Buying Laptop, Know Nothing

[ArmyPackers]

Hello I'm looking at buying a laptop but know pretty much nothing about what all the specifications mean. I decided you guys all know a ton about laptops so if I say my needs you could probably recommend a few laptops to look at and some to stay away from.

First off I am18 from Green bay, huge packer fan and joining the Army after school. I know how to use a computer obviously so I am not that dumb compared to my parents, but compared to you guys I am.

Pretty much I had a Acer Aspire 5733z-4851 which was a gift last Christmas. I loved the computer but I think I burned up the hardrive watching movies and downloading music to my I pod. Also played Rome total war and the Sims a few times because I had the CDs laying around.

Anyway my Acer still works but takes forever to do anything so I am thinking of buying a laptop before I go to basic in July.

The main things I use my laptop for are surfing internet( Facebook, Packers forums), watching movies from I tunes and downloading music from I tunes. I did play The Sims when I got bored on my Acer but that's not a concern. I also just do basic homework stuff like word and power point.

Anyway I am just looking for anybody suggestions on laptop and what I should look for so I can have a FAST computer that'll last a long time surfing internet and downloading stuff. I don't want the crappy 300 Acer that lasted a year.

Sorry for being so long but I just need ideas. Thanks a ton guys and girls for any help!

EDIT: Also I hate windows 8, just hate it so don't want that.

 

[Tigerken]

A very important question before people can give you advice on buying a laptop, what's your budget?

 

[ArmyPackers]

Opps sorry. I'd say probably anywhere up to 800 maybe even 900

 

[Tigerken]

For that kind of money, anything you'll buy will probably just do fine...
I think you may want to go to a store where you can actually see the models so you can choose which one you like, esthetics-wise.

And just be aware of some specifications that you want your new laptop to have:

- Brand: do you have any preferred brands? (Mine would be Sony, definetly not HP)
- Size: do you want a small laptop to carry around with you or a larger desktop-replacer that you'll only move from your desk once in a while?
- resolution: does the laptop has Full HD resolution? (1920x1080)
- battery life: will it last long enough for you?
- hard drives: what's the storage capacity and will this be enough for me and fast enough?
- Does it have a decent amount of RAM? (6GB should be enough for all of your uses)

And I'm sorry to say but I think most of the newer laptops that you can buy right now will have Windows 8 on them...

 

[DistraughtSysop]

It sounds like your current laptop can already do everything you need it to and it just has some performance issues. You might want to clean up the software a bit, maybe upgrade a part or two. You could even go with a factory reset.

If you really want to buy a new one, then you can easily get a good one for that kind of budget. In terms of money, a big question is whether or not you're going to do any gaming. If so, then your choices are a little more limited (and more expensive) because you'll need a decent, dedicated graphics card. If not, then anything you see at the local electronics store will be fine (assuming that all other specs are up to par). Just stay away from the super crap brands like gateway and compaq.

You're going to be stuck with Windows 8 unless you order a custom built laptop that has the option for Win7, or you re-install the OS yourself. I don't think Windows 8 would be so bad - you need to keep up with technology if you don't want to be left behind. You don't want to be one of those people who are still unwilling to move on from XP.

 

[ArmyPackers]

Thanks for the replys.

My Acer I sent in and they replaced the hard rive, worked good for 2 weeks then warranty ran out. It now takes about 10 mins to even open up internet without anything else running takes forever to connect to internet. Just impractical. Does this sound like a hard drive issue again? If so could I buy one and just replace it or is their more to it?

 

[DistraughtSysop]

It could be anything, honestly. Hardware failure, software clutter, misconfiguration, malware. It does not sound like a hard drive issue to me, at least not some kind of physical failure. Do you know if they just copied your old hard disk onto the new one when you got it replaced?

If you have all your important files backed up somewhere, I would either restore it to factory default settings or just wipe the hard disk and re-install the OS. Actually, I would first save a system image just in case something goes horribly wrong. It would be a bit of a pain to re-install all your programs, but it should clear up software/configuration issues.

 

[DMG1287]

It could be anything, honestly. Hardware failure, software clutter, misconfiguration, malware. It does not sound like a hard drive issue to me, at least not some kind of physical failure. Do you know if they just copied your old hard disk onto the new one when you got it replaced?

If you have all your important files backed up somewhere, I would either restore it to factory default settings or just wipe the hard disk and re-install the OS. Actually, I would first save a system image just in case something goes horribly wrong. It would be a bit of a pain to re-install all your programs, but it should clear up software/configuration issues.

+1

I would go with a fresh install, sounds like my mom's Hp and I did a fresh install of Vista for her and only installed drivers that had to do with the hardware and that thing runs like a champ now.

If you do buy a new computer I would recommend Sony, My Vaio is a EB series and this thing is still running as good as the day I bought it and my battery still gets me about a hour and a half which is not bad for a two year old battery.

 

[ArmyPackers]

Okay thanks. How would I do that. Is it easy or should I just take it to a local computer place?

 

[DistraughtSysop]

It's pretty easy. Anyone who takes money for doing a factory reset for you is ripping you off. Try these instructions:

I want to reset my acer aspire 5733z back to factory setting - FixYa

This is assuming that your machine still has an intact recovery partition (which it should if you've never messed with it). If it doesn't work, try googling for fixes or just ask here.