Laptop shopping

[volunteer]

I'd like to buy a Thinkpad but can't afford one just yet. In the 600 to 800 hundred dollar range, what brands are the most likely to be dependable? Battery life is not a concern because it won't be used on battery power vary often. Do the IBM refurbs hold up beyond their 3 month warranty? I have dismissed Dell, Compaq, and HP because of their proprietary nature on any upgrades.

[Steve R Jones]

Not much you can upgrade on a lappy anyway is there?

Dell lappy's/desktops will take any brand of ram or hard drives.

[bombledmonk]

What is proprietory in Dell? Nothing to my knowledge with the possible exception of a video card, but most laptops in your price range don't have any video card anyways.

[volunteer]

The local shop told me those brands should be avoided as parts are too expensive, must be bought from the company etc.

[bombledmonk]

Well they are incorrect for the most part. Parts that commonly fail or are used to upgrade like hard drives and RAM are easy to buy on www.newegg.com or any other retailer. Replacement parts for things like mobo's, screens and other things will almost always have to be purchased from the manufacturer no matter what brand you buy.

Laptops are inherently expensive to repair and replace and that will not change with different brands. While I wouldn't "highly" recommend dell, it often is the best solution for many people. If you watch this website for deals you can often snag a $1500 laptop for ~$750 which includes a good warranty.

[Cidjack]

If your looking for a run of the mill Laptop, look into HP or Compaq.

Even though I am not an owner or either one, they have some good prices.

I had a friend who wanted me to fix her laptop, it was a Compaq presario 2100. It was three years old and used by her whole family like crazy.

After cleaning up the hard drive, and installing new ram, it was working great, just minor flashes on the screen. I called HP support, they told me to flash the BIOS, with them on the phone, the laptop died. With no warranty, this bad boy was a new paperweight.

I explained the problem with HP, even though it was not their fault, and they had no reason to, they sent her a brand new laptop and printer..FOR FREE.

I know rank HP customer support over DELL anyday.
(I might get egg thrown at me for this one by everyone on here)