In any case, what you’re concerned about has nothing to do with the size and little to do with the speed of the hard drive. It has to do with the RAM and the processor, and with an i3 and 4GB of RAM, you have nothing to worry about.

It is true that 500GB hard drives may not be as reliable as 320GB hard drives, “reliable” in the sense that a 500GB hard drive is more likely to break/crash/generally ruin your weekend than a 320GB hard drive. I’m not sure why this is the case exactly. If anyone can explain it well feel free to chime in. My advice is to go with a smaller internal hard drive (small these days is 250-320 GB — that’s still a TON of storage) and buy an external for $60-70 if you manage to fill the first one up.

So long story short, the size and speed of a hard drive have nothing to do with how many programs you can run at once. The size of a hard drive only affects how much stuff you can save to it. The speed affects how quickly you can open multiple programs at once, but once those programs are open, the hard drive doesn’t have much to do with how those programs run.

Hope this helps!

Great website BTW :) since i was leaning to mac i looked into the financial software for it, found they have some pretty good if not better options than MS money. i also found quicken for mac is second rate to their PC version.

So now on to the tough decision “do i spend extra $$$ to get the 15in macbook”?

I am not into computers much but I want a laptop to manage my music for my ipod and just simple surfing the web, checking e mail, playing simple games. I always heard that dell was such a good brand so reading that you are not too into them I really don’t know where to look because you seem to know what your talking about. I know you probably answered my question before but there are a lot of questions and answered to go through.

I am thinking about getting a Dell inspiron 1545. I have no need for customer service unless it’s to get the laptop fixed. How reliable is Dell’s hardware? Again I’m pretty knowledgable in software so any problems I have with windows I will be able to solve my self, all I want to know is how reliable their hardware is.

Thank you so much for all the help you’re providing. I am looking for the best laptop for multimedia, and I saw that Sony VAIO NW Series (VGN-NW150J/T) is recommended, however, some of its cons are washed out webcam colors, and weak graphics. So now Im looking at the Toshiba Satellite L555D-S7005 17.3″ Notebook PC.

Can someone please help me out? Any advice would be much appreciated.

I am leaning towards a basic Macbook but the the gateway i3 @ bestbuy for $599 seems more logical.

things i do on my computer and need (in order of use importance);
*I am an accountant so rely heavily on excel and the office suite
*I have a one year old so Photos and creating videos have now become important to me.
*i would like great battery life because i dont have a desk anymore my office is now the baby’s play room, so my new office is a couch, kitchen table, bed, or picknick bench in the yard.
*Banking and investments are handled with MS Money (havent got the chance to move to quicken)
*Recently gotten into HULU and like watching youtube episodes of Top Gear, I would like to hok the laptop up to the TV (when little guy finally goes to bed)
*the rest is just basic computer use, email, web surfing, music.

Reason i may go mac is i got a one year old at home and my “free time” is very precious, and i know if i get a PC i will spend at least 2 hours uninstalling the trial apps and stuff i dont need before i get even put my files on it. to boot up XP and shut down XP is wasted time for me. I dont have time to download drivers and such.
Maybe windows 7 may be different,
reason i dont mind windows, XP doesnt crash well maybe once every three months, windows IE will sometimes freeze up sometimes and once a week it wont shut off but its not as bad as people make windows out to be.

any help or guidance to help me make the best decision is much appreciated.

PS I really dont like the smaller screen (13) on the mac but if its worth it i can deal with it.

Here is my first choice:
Toshiba Satellite A500-ST6644

* Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor 2.13 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache, 1066MHz DDR3
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Fusion Finish™ in Quantum Black
* Glossy Black Keyboard
* Microsoft® Office Ready with Microsoft Office Professional 2007 60-day Trial Edition
* 4GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM (2048MBx2)
* NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M with 512MB GDDR3 discrete graphics memory
* 320GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA)
* DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive
* Lithium Ion battery (6-Cell, 4000mAh)
* 1 Year Standard Limited Warranty
$794 plus Tax

Choice Number 2:
Toshiba Satellite L500-ST2544
* Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor 2.13 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache, 1066MHz DDR3
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* Fusion Finish™ with Breeze Pattern in Graphite Gray with Silver Keyboard
* Microsoft® Office Ready with Microsoft Office Professional 2007 60-day Trial Edition
* 4GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM (2048MBx2)
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5145 with 512MB DDR3 discrete graphics memory
* 250GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA)
* DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive
* Realtek® 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN
* Lithium Ion battery (6-Cell, 4000mAh)
* 1 Year Standard Limited Warranty

$694

Which one would be better for my style?

I need it to be pretty all purpose but following are the key points.

Some portability. When I travel on business I’ll probably take it for entertainment.
Music, I’ll have all my music stored on it so it’ll either need a big hdd or a external drive but I want to connect it to my hifi when at home so I want a good sound card.
Games. I use my xbox for most but I’ll be playing strategy games like civ and football manager and want them to run quickly.
Entertainment. I’m figuring that blue ray and a full HD screen would be useful.
Other than that I’ll probably do a bit of photo editing and the usual office activities and web surfing.
I’ve been looking at m15x xps16 envy15 tosh x500 vaio f series various asus and nothing seems to tick all the boxes. Dell/alienware aren’t shipping with blueray although I saw one through ebuyer that did. Kobalt (clevo) seem the closest so far as I can add a decent sound card but I’m worried by the battery and frankly for the money it does look cheap.
I’m in the uk and mac is not an option as I need IE for my work remote login and the work around is rubbish. any suggestions?

On basic multimedia, office applications, web browsing, email, youtube, facebook, and even some picture editing with free software: Don’t spend more than $500. You don’t really need to.

On Processors: It’s a mistake to see a CPU as purely the GHz label on the side. That’s like choosing an engine based on max RPMs and ignoring how those RPMs get translated into speed and performance. With Intel chips, a higher GHz Core 2 Duo will lose to a lower GHz i3 or i5 Core. Intel significantly improved the underlying architecture when they switched to this “i” series. I’m a computer professional and it’s hard at this point to keep up with it.

On Hard Drive space: 500GB hard drives (and larger) still have high failure rates. It’s worth the reliability to go with the smaller 320GB, or if you can swing it, (HP has a laptop like this), two 320GB drives.

Good luck to all you searchers. The best suggestions of all, in my opinion, are to take your time and try to do as much research as possible, and to only buy as much laptop as you really need. Go to the stores 2-3 weeks before you plan to buy and try them out. You’ll likely find that the slowest laptop you can buy is so much faster than your current model, that it’ll be sufficient. Heck, that low end model would probably have been top-of-the-line, 6 months ago. As far as games, you’ll have to check the recommended specs of the games you like to play, and go to the web forums for those games to see the experiences of other gamers.

When you save so much going with the lower end computer, you can buy another one next year when the technology has leaped again. :) Seriously though, if you customize a model that runs $1500, see if you couldn’t get buy for a year on something you can get for $750, and I’d be surprised if that $1500 model you built wasn’t available for less than $750 in 6 months to a year.

If you really want something that’ll last, get a Mac Book, then re-sell it and buy another when you’re ready. They are the only machines that truly hold onto any resell value, in my opinion. Check eBay and other sites for used Mac Books.

For what it’s worth, I still don’t know what I’m going to buy. Though I’m leaning towards the Acer Aspire at Costco at the moment. Maybe the newer Dell Studio 17. Maybe the Toshiba P series.

I’m currently using a 5 year old Gateway occasionally at home, mostly for my daughter’s web games, like Sesame Street, and a Dell Latitude D610 at work and home. I bought the 3 year protection with the Gateway from Best Buy. With a month left in that 3 years, I took it in and ended up with a new screen, hinges, hard drive, DVD burner, and a few other things. Still not sure that the protection plan was worth it. But, it’s now 2+ years older and running fairly well. I was working with Flash Professional on it early last year, and playing World of Warcraft.

Any “general purpose” users like Elizabeth right above: Get a middle-of-the-road laptop with a decent screen and Windows 7. If you buy a new laptop, it’ll be fast enough to handle your tasks; they really don’t require a whole lot of computing power. There are too many options for me to name, but try a Sony, Toshiba, maybe a Dell in this class.

Ultra-portables: Sometimes called “thin-and-lights” — if you want a PC like the MacBook air, try the Dell Vostro V13, which we wrote about a few months ago. It’s really thin, really light, and performs decently well. And FYI, any Mac running a relatively up-to-date version of OS X can run Windows. Just sayin’

Any musician/artist/photographer: Get a MacBook, MacBook Pro if you can afford it. If you’re switching from PC, you’ll get used to it in a few weeks, and you’ll love how your computer never crashes.

Sorry I can’t get back to all of you right now, busy times! Thanks for still coming through and visiting.

Thanks for all the great advice, live long and prosper

j

After trying to convert to a mac for 2 yrs, I am ready to go back to a PC with windows 7. (I just don’t have time for the mac classes etc.) I have a macbook that weighs about 4 lbs and would like a laptop pc that is much closer to 3 lbs or less. I travel weekly through airports and need something lightweight, but fast. My primary use is email, web-surfing, word/excel/powerpoint/outlook email & calendar, little photo storage/editing, and mostly working from hotels by connecting to my firm network. I also will use it occasionally for powerpoint presentation via projector at large meetings. I need:

* lightweight (love the Sony X @ 1.6 lbs but concerned keyboard might be too tiny)
* not so small that keyboard is difficult to type quickly
* good battery (use on planes)
* Windows 7
* Fast, fast, fast (I am used to the speed of a Mac…)
* bluetooth
* would like sufficient storage but can also buy an external hard drive

I would also like something that will partner well with a new desktop for home use. Any advice on a desktop too? I realize I am not going to find a $300 netbook to meet my needs, but would like to stay under $800 if possible. Thank you very much for your input. (best website I have found!!!)

My priorities are: sturdy and light weight (4lbs or under), good display video quality (at least HD), and the best battery life I can get and still satisfy conditions 1 and 2. I am tempted by some of the newer processors (i3 and i5 arrandale?) but wonder how a ULV system would do. I would like to have a sdd but don’t mind transplanting my own into the laptop after buying. I would tend towards an external optical drive but am not dead-set against an internal. I don’t mind spending money on this system and of course, would like it to look good!

The warranty is always a crapshoot. Whatever helps you sleep at night, though $150 a year is pretty stiff…

Dell Studio 17 with an i7 processor with a 17.3″ screen
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850, i7, 18.4″ screen
HP Pavilion dv8t, i7, 18.4″ screen
Sony VAIO, i7, 16.4″ screen
Any other brand?

I’m looking for fast, reliable, and loaded, so I do not have to upgrade for awhile.
Anything in particular I should be paying attention to on the specs?