Can anyone clear something up for me about laptops

My uncle works for a IT company in London who is contracted to Deutche Bank. I was asking him about laptops and he says:

- Acer/Dell laptops are ones to avoid as they use other company's cheap components to biuld their laptops
- Hard drives are the most common component to fail as they overheat in laptops
- Always buy from a big name i.e. Sony, HP, Compaq etc
- Spend around 800-1000 quid otherwise as they always have the best and most long lasting components which will last you a good 4-5 years?

edit: Here is some basic wants for my laptop, if anyone can recommend any then that would be great!

- Widescreen, 15.4"(?)
- Play games (nothing intensive, just like Pro Evolution and Far Cry)
- Slim/stylish

My budget is under 1000.

ALL manufacturers get other companies to build computers for them:

Apple computers (Foxconn), Dell PCs (Foxconn), HP / Compaq (Compal? etc), it can vary from model to model - ie a Dell inspiron may be made by quanta, a Dell latitude by compal or whoever.

Spending more money for a laptop doesn't get a "magically" better hard drive that will last 5 years! All hard laptop hard drives are made by Hitachi or Fujitsu (or sometimes seagate), and spending more money on these doesn't get you one that lasts longer.

http://tuxmobil.org/laptop_oem.html

Turns out Samsung and ASUS are the only companies to make their own laptops.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toge

- Acer/Dell laptops are ones to avoid as they use other company's cheap components to biuld their laptops

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i think what he means is that Dell (and virtually everyone else) contract out their laptop manufacturing to other people. This doesn't mean they are full of other companies cheap components, unless of course the laptop itself is cheap. Cheap doesn't always mean poor quality, could just mean poor performance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toge

- Hard drives are the most common component to fail as they overheat in laptops

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Overheating shouldn't be a major problem. Laptop drives draw very little power (500mA usually as you can power them off USB) but they are a moving mechanical item so can be subject to shock dammage while transporting the laptop. You are more likely to move a laptop than a desktop so the risks rise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toge

- Always buy from a big name i.e. Sony, HP, Compaq etc

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Tough one. Usually a larger name will give you a better warranty, but apparently Sony can be a pain to deal with. Compaq don't exist any more, thats all HP now. Ever heard of Lenovo? no? They are one of the largest laptop manufacturers in the world, they used to make all the IBM laptops, they then bought that whole business from IBM a year or so ago. i think they still contract manufacture for other brands too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toge

- Spend around 800-1000 quid otherwise as they always have the best and most long lasting components which will last you a good 4-5 years?

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Rubish. You could spend £2k on a state of the art system on paper that is manufactured poorly and fails within a few months. If you want hastle free ownership make sure you buy from someone that has a good warranty, and take the 3 year option. Anyway, i wouldn't want to be still using a laptop that was 4-5 years old, it would be horribly slow compaired to a modern system by that point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toge

My uncle works for a IT company in London who is contracted to Deutche Bank. I was asking from about laptops but he says:

- Acer/Dell laptops are ones to avoid as they use other company's cheap components to biuld their laptops
- Hard drives are the most common component to fail as they overheat in laptops
- Always buy from a big name i.e. Sony, HP, Compaq etc
- Spend around 800-1000 quid otherwise as they always have the best and most long lasting components which will last you a good 4-5 years?

---

Mostly rubbish chap :)

... whats the point of the post?

Thanks guys!

David: WAnna buy a laptop, needed advice and what to buy and what not to buy. Should I ask around here instead? lol

edit: posted what I want in the first post

Dell Inspiron 6400 - this was the spec of mine (bought nearly 2 months ago)

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/1206/dell1vt8.th.png

i'm going to be boring and ask what exactly is your budget??
Otherwise im going to tell you to blow your money on a macbook pro with windows because theyre just so powerfull and pretty:)

I'm also interested in knowing if now is the right time to buy a new laptop?
"Santa Rosa" is just around the corner, and DAAMIT and Nvidia are due to come out with their next-gen midrange mobile videocards.
What I'm really asking is, if I'd wait until santa rosa + dx10 compliant graphic cards hit the market, would it be spring already? :)

I'd really like those DX10 graphics for Supreme Commander and Crysis, but I'm not exactly prepared to wait 4-6 months for it..

Forget trying to play Crysis on a laptop - not unless you spend BIG amounts of money.

Hi Matt, thanks for the response

The specs of the laptop I'm thinking of buying now are:
Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz cpu
945PM chipset
2 x 1024 667MHz ram
120GB 5200rpm Seagate hardrive
X1600 Mobility Radeon 256MB GPU
etc
price: £1160

I know this will be enough to run most everything I'll throw at it, but what I'm mostly concerned about is about the value, considering "santa rosa".. Not that I think that the next centrino platform will be the second coming, but dx10 capabilities would be appreciated.. Do you have any idea when we'll be seeing these "all-mighty-life-improving" laptops? Because, if you'll say we're going to have to wait six months, I'd rather just buy now and upgrade in a years time.

kk,
Donson

Hey guys! I bought a Toshiba a100 for 500 squids - i can play FM07, so i'm happy :)

www.zepto.com ...they are big...in norway :mrgreen:

pcpro rate them though