Laptop opinions

[Wolfy 51]

I found one I like. What do you think?

 

Is this a good processor? It will be for home use so nothing to demanding for the prccessor.

[Krdshrk 3,878]

Uh what? I don't see any specs.

[Wolfy 51]

Learn more about the Sony VAIO VPCEF34FX/BI

ModelBrand SONY Series VAIO E Series Model VPCEF34FX/BI GeneralColor Matte Black Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit CPU Type AMD Turion II Dual-Core P540 2.4G Screen 17.3" Memory Size 4GB DDR3 Hard Disk 500GB Optical Drive DVD Super Multi Graphics Card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Communication Gigabit LAN and WLAN Dimensions 16.10" x 10.79" x 1.29" - 1.50" Weight 6.70 lbs. CPUCPU Type AMD Turion II Dual-Core CPU Speed P540(2.4GHz) CPU L2 Cache 2MB DisplayScreen Size 17.3" Wide Screen Support Yes Resolution 1600 x 900 LCD Features LED backlight Operating SystemsOperating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit GraphicsGPU/VPU ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Graphic Type Integrated Card Hard DriveHDD 500GB HDD RPM 5400rpm HDD Interface SATA MemoryMemory 4GB Memory Speed DDR3 1066 Memory Spec 2GB x 2 Memory Type 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM Max Memory Supported 8GB Optical DriveOptical Drive Type DVD Super Multi Optical Drive Interface Integrated Optical Drive Spec CD Support: Read / Write (CD/-R/-RW)

DVD Support: Read / Write (DVD±R/±RW/±R DL/-RAM) CommunicationsLAN 10/100/1000Mbps WLAN 802.11 b/g/n PortsUSB 4 Video Port 1 x VGA HDMI 1 x HDMI Audio Ports 1 x Microphone jack; 1 x Headphone jack AudioAudio Integrated Sound card Speaker Internal Speakers Input DeviceTouchpad Electro-Static touch pad Keyboard QWERTY, 103 keys with 2.0mm stroke and 19.05mm pitch Supplemental DriveCard Reader One Memory Stick PRO (STD / Duo) media slot with MagicGate functionality

One Secure Digital (SD memory card) media slot Webcam Yes PowerBattery Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery Physical SpecificationsDimensions 16.10" x 10.79" x 1.29" - 1.50" Weight 6.70 lbs. Manufacturer WarrantyParts 1 year limited Labor 1 year limited

[StephanieSeven 70]

i don't know about all that crap but i have a vaio laptop. i'll never go dell again. vaio or apple.

[Krdshrk 3,878]

That's a lower end processor.

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Turion+II+P540+Dual-Core

 

 

I'm also not a fan of Sony Vaio's. Very overpriced for what you get.

[mikeyboyeee 66]

I would never touch a Vaio after the nightmare I had with a few at work.

[imperialfish 11]

http://bensbargains.net/category/83/notebooks

 

site is updated daily

[siderman 1,140]

My favorite type of dance- much better than ballroom, waltzing or even that weird country line dancing.

[Shane45 807]

I have fielded A LOT of laptops. Lenovo has served me best by far!

[gunnyr 17]

Vaio's are ok but I remember it took like 5 years to boot. Ok, maybe not that long but it felt like 5 years.

 

If you are tech savvy the best deal to be had is buying an "older" laptop (@1 gig processors) and running something like puppy linux on it. It's blazing fast as long as you're not trying to do anything cpu intensive like video editing or gaming. If you are doing any of those things, you get more bang for the buck (and upgrade options) with a dedicated desktop system.

 

At any rate if you don't want to deal with the hassle of installing your own OS, I suppose any machine will do and if you think the price is good on the Vaio I say go for it.

[Shawnmoore81 623]

My problem is after a month or 2 my pc's get real slow. I've had 3 hp laptops, a viao desktop and a buit desk top and the same thing happened. I'm in now way a computer geek but I know to clean out my start ups and get rid of spyware and clean up the hard drive. I've considered buying an apple just because they don't get viruses so would that be a better option or am I doing something wrong. Now I don't even turn my pc on because it annoys me and I only use my iPhone 4.

[c6dino 2]

Just get a Dell. Good warranty service packages. I have 6 of them in the field and 4 in the office. Money well spent. Bar HP Sony and some off brand stuff. Just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap is expensive. Just my .02.

[gunnyr 17]

My problem is after a month or 2 my pc's get real slow. I've had 3 hp laptops, a viao desktop and a buit desk top and the same thing happened. I'm in now way a computer geek but I know to clean out my start ups and get rid of spyware and clean up the hard drive. I've considered buying an apple just because they don't get viruses so would that be a better option or am I doing something wrong. Now I don't even turn my pc on because it annoys me and I only use my iPhone 4.

 

It sounds like your machine is infected with a virus. I'd run anything and everything you have through some anti-virus software. That includes jump drives, external drives, cd's, etc. It will be a pain initially but if you clear it, you should be ok.

[robot_hell 72]

It's not always about the processor. For example, most sub-notebooks are designed for long battery life so they run a slower spinning hard drive. In that case, your speed bottleneck will be the drive for most applications, so having a super powerful processor would do nothing but waste battery.

 

Look for the slowest link in the chain first, then determine if the processor is adequate from there

[Wolfy 51]

Good advice robot_hell.

 

I heard about a chip Intel makes that allows you to transmit to a TV (I know I need a receiver). What is the name of the chip?

[Drew 4]

Overall that laptop looks ok and has gotten decent user reviews from what I can find. Really it depends on you intended use. If its just for surfing the net, then just about any laptop will suit your needs. On the other hand if you want to game on it or do video rendering then that's another story. I would first determine what you want to do with it, set a price range then find 3 laptops that suit your needs. At that point research each of them to get the best one. I always look for user reviews as that will give you the best indication if the laptop is good or a lemon.

[Shane45 807]

Whatever you do dont buy Dell. I scraped more dells than I can remember.

[Wolfy 51]

Shane I was literally one click from buying a Dell when I saw you posted. I was excited because the laptop had a SSD upgrade.

[njpilot 671]

Hey Joe,

 

We have 2 Toshibas in the house and are happy with them. Check out Amazon for good prices as well, free shipping and no tax!

[Nick S 2]

I too would NEVER EVER buy another Dell again if I could help it. I've owned 2 desktops from Dell and several laptops and each one was a bigger hunk of junk than the one before it.

 

Now that being said I do use my computers lots and I have had issues with batteries, processors and hard drives going out on me in every Dell I've ever bought. Dell is a pain because they won't let anyone work on their systems or you to use other parts that aren't Dell. So you are at the mercy of Dell. The first time I sent a Dell laptop in for repair it took 3 months for them to fix it and then they lost it before they attempted to ship it back to me. It took them another month to send me back my laptop and then it died a few months later and I refused to buy another laptop.

 

My experience with their desktops has been much the same. They use refurbished parts and won't use new parts or tell you that they are using refurbished parts, so you think you are getting brand new stuff but you aren't.

[Malsua 1,422]

I get asked "what laptop should I get?" continuously. I'm an IT guy so people think I know certain secrets and in a way, I do. I see new machines when they come out of the box and then usually within a year when they're slow or broken. I suppose it's given me a jaded perspective. I'll dispense my wisdom now.

 

I try to avoid this question whenever possible because it's like answering "What's your favorite color toilet paper". It smells nice and feels good when you first touch it, a little while later, it's covered with crap and you're ready to flush it down the toilet.

 

The next part of the answer is, do you REALLY need a laptop? I know people that buy a laptop, put it on the desk and it never moves. There is one major advantage to a laptop and one minor advantage. The first is obvious, it's portable, the second is the small form factor. If you want something that never leaves the house and you fiddle around with while you watch TV, buy a desktop unit and get an Ipad.

 

The downsides to laptop are: the hard drives are slow, the processors are slow, trackpads suck donkey balls, screen hinges get loose or break, the screens get bashed in, various parts of the machine over heat because you ran it on your lap or covered the heat exhaust port and the external power bricks often just up and quit. Furthermore, if you do need repair, it's often the mainboard and it's cheaper to buy a whole new laptop.

 

The number one item that fails on a laptop is: The hard drive. If you've ever fiddled around with a 2.5" laptop hard drive, you'll know why they fail. They're flimsy.

If I can suggest one upgrade to your laptop, an SSD would be it.

 

The second item that fails is the external power adapter, the "power brick". People will search for a replacement, find one for $20 on amazon or Ebay and wonder why either it died again in 3 months or their computer either stops working(blown out power circuit or Motherboard) or won't charge the battery(low wattage). Buy OEM people.

 

So, back to the original question...what should you buy? Well, all the horror stories about "I bought an XXXX brand and the hard drive died" is almost exclusively the fault of the user. There are 4 companies that make drives used in laptops, they all are good. If the drive failed it was typically heat or abuse, both the fault of the object between the chair and the keyboard.

 

There is a reason Panasonic can sell a toughbook for $2000.00 and it's all about the durability.

 

I've seen cheap ACERs outlast top dollar Toshibas.

 

I'm not a big fan of Dell just because I think their customer service stinks, not because their laptops are inferior.

 

The machine I use when I travel is an ASUS EEEPC with an SSD. It has logged at least 75000 air miles(I often stuff it in my luggage for the return trip, I dare you to do that with a Non SSD laptop). I use it when I don't have a desktop. I've set up some other ASUS laptops for co-workers and not one has ever come back to me. I can almost say the same with the ACERs I've set up except I've seen a few of them come back for Spyware infestations.

 

Oh, and the reason laptops get slow? They already have extra drivers running for power control, trackpoint, etc...add half a dozen "toolbars" and a handful of browser helper objects and you've just buried an already underpowered computer.

 

So here's my advice. Buy a name brand, something you've heard of before. Get an SSD if you can. Get the screen size you want and find a deal. Chances are you're going to replace it in 2 years so just go into the purchase expecting that. Can they last longer? Sure, it probably will if you don't treat it like you treat your wallet but most people just expect it to take whatever abuse they hurl at it and are shocked and pissed off when it breaks.

[Krdshrk 3,878]

So much hate on Dell. I use them almost exclusively. Consumer line is crap yes. Their warranty/support is crap, yes. But when you go to the business line, SO much better. I have no issues with their business support and continue to buy their business line PCs for home users (self, family, friends).

 

Plus my company's a Dell reseller so I get a nice discount.

[Shane45 807]

I got about 40 "business line" dell laptopss in an e-scrap box. Heres the problem with Dell. If they can save .03c on a transistor, they will. The net effect is their stuff is cheap crap even in thier most top of the line offerings. This is not just laptops, this is pervasive throughout all of dells offerings. This becomes a problem in support due to dells supply model of build on demand. So they dont really keep a sufficient inventory to support their products due to the way they skip around to save a nickel. For exaomple, I have storage solutions around the company to the tune of about $300,000. Its ALL going into the can due to the risk they pose because even if I wanted to, I cannot replace main components in ANY of them because there are NONE to be had because dell has NONE! They are less than 5 years old! Its the same story among many of my peers in the industry. When we compared notes, they all did the same thing as me. Dumped dell and most went to HP. So I use HP for servers, compellent and HP for storage and Lenovo's for laptops. I have fielded probably 60 lenovo's in the last 4 years. I have had about 4 go down. NONE were the fault of the laptop. all 4 were the fault of being severly dropped while open or some such dumb a** thing. I have fielded test laptops from HP and a few Panasonic tough books and a few Toshibas and Sony's. For one reason or another they didnt compare to the Lenovo. The biggest suprise was the Panasonics. These werent the true ruggedised 4k toughbooks but toughbooks just the same. Both died within 1 year and support to get em fixed sucked! The tosh and HP's were just not well liked. The feedback on Vio's I fielded was that they were very flimsy and not well put together so you had to be real carfull with them.

[Krdshrk 3,878]

Really? That's weird. What model laptops are they? I can still get parts for Latitude D & E series laptops easily.

[Shane45 807]

On the Lapies I was more speaking of they are just crappy/flimsy junk. Its the storage solutions that the parts are unavailable for... They were only 50k each