AtomicCEO Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Yahoo had a front page story today about laptop reliability. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/154921 I bought a new cheap Acer laptop this weekend... nothing fancy... 1.6 Ghz AMD 64-bit processor... 3 GB RAM. I just needed something for web surfing and this wasn't much more expensive than a netbook. There was a Toshiba for the same price, only it had a Celeron 900 32-bit processor and 2 GB of RAM. My thought was that Celerons are turds, so I passed it up. But based on the fact that Toshibas are one of the most reliable and Acers are one of the least... would I be better off exchanging for the Toshiba? Is the Celeron as bad as I think it is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I am going to Best Buy today or tomorrow and I'm looking at the Toshiba as well. They do offer one with the new INTEL chip however for about $100 more. I am not a fan of the Celeron processor either as I'm not a big gamer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Was looking forward to the techies chiming in on this. I'm holding off until I see some cometary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaP'N GRuNGe Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 My sister killed her expensive Mac laptop (spilled on it) and just bought a cheap Asus laptop in its place. I guess she said she researched it and it got good ratings. I don't know much about the brand and probably would have stayed away from it as such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeeR Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 wt* is a "netbook" - is that the small screen laptops that are really cheap, like $200ish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 wt* is a "netbook" - is that the small screen laptops that are really cheap, like $200ish? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I am not a fan of the Celeron processor either as I'm not a big gamer. Good thing you're not because the Celeron is the cut down Intel processor. It's meant for light duty, low power environments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Good thing you're not because the Celeron is the cut down Intel processor. It's meant for light duty, low power environments. did not know that. I was under the impression the Celeron was a big gamer processor favorite. Never-the-less..I like it less even more now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I am going to Best Buy today or tomorrow and I'm looking at the Toshiba as well. They do offer one with the new INTEL chip however for about $100 more. I am not a fan of the Celeron processor either as I'm not a big gamer. Checkout Amazon or Newegg. I think they already started the Black Friday deals. Plus no taxes. Good thing you're not because the Celeron is the cut down Intel processor. It's meant for light duty, low power environments. Troof! I wouldn't buy a celeron on a bet. Very low power. ACEO, I got a Tosh (mid road ~$700) about a year ago. Even w/ Vista 64 bit It has been trouble free. I did have a problem setting up a printer on my wireless network, called their tech support, and though he took a while (he said I never did this before) he got it working perfectly. 5 stars for their tech support! If you can get a Tosh for an extra $100 like Taz said, I'd go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_gop_liars Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 I believe ACER is now the #2 biggest PC manufacturer right after HP. So that article doesn't surprise me. For what it's worth I have a reconditioned ACER laptop going on 5 years only had to replace the hard drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffraff Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Good thing you're not because the Celeron is the cut down Intel processor. It's meant for light duty, low power environments. Celeron is the Intel processor that fails to pass some of the standardized tests. Usually used in 32 bit machines. It has no level 2 cache either. AMD is the alternative to Intel chips that are generally pretty good for gaming and can be overclocked easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_the_swammi Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 My sister killed her expensive Mac laptop (spilled on it) and just bought a cheap Asus laptop in its place. I guess she said she researched it and it got good ratings. I don't know much about the brand and probably would have stayed away from it as such. I checked with our IT department, and they sais the Asus was the way to go. The manufacture almost 80% of the parts used in Dells and HPs, but they can sell their own "no-name" box for couple hundred less than a comparable Dell/HP. We just got this one: rated 4.6 stars out of 5, and great reviews for normal everyday use. $630 + protection plan. 500GB hard drive (when most in this price range only give you 320GB), 15.6 inch, hi-def screen, Multiformat DVD/CD RW drive, built in wireless and webcam...pretty much everything we need for our normal everyday use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 I checked with our IT department, and they sais the Asus was the way to go. The manufacture almost 80% of the parts used in Dells and HPs, but they can sell their own "no-name" box for couple hundred less than a comparable Dell/HP. We just got this one: rated 4.6 stars out of 5, and great reviews for normal everyday use. $630 + protection plan. 500GB hard drive (when most in this price range only give you 320GB), 15.6 inch, hi-def screen, Multiformat DVD/CD RW drive, built in wireless and webcam...pretty much everything we need for our normal everyday use. Dude this is what I've been waiting for from the Huddle brethern. Great post. Thanks..its this or the Toshiba for me tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 UPDATE: The Acer laptop seems to have been affected by a virus from a frequented website that won't name. The system now will not boot after 1 week of ownership. I was running AVG through Chrome, and I can't imagine being more careful than that. So even though Windows 7 was fairly promising, I've decided to say goodbye to Microsoft for good. Right now I'm booted to the Ubuntu live CD. But, since the Ubuntu 64-bit version is allegedly not as stable as the 32-bit version, I'm going to return this 64-bit Acer in about a half hour and get the Toshiba with lower specs to run linux on. As I watch football today, I'm going to try to put in as many of the things I liked about Windows 7 into Ubuntu. Maybe I'll post some screenshots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 But, since the Ubuntu 64-bit version is allegedly not as stable as the 32-bit version, I'm going to return this 64-bit Acer in about a half hour and get the Toshiba with lower specs to run linux on. You don't need to run the 64 bit Ubuntu on there. Just load the 32 bit version and be done with it. BTW, I think AVG sucks. Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, Avira are all much better choices. Just in case you decide to give Windows 7 another look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted November 29, 2009 Author Share Posted November 29, 2009 You don't need to run the 64 bit Ubuntu on there. Just load the 32 bit version and be done with it. I did this. They ended up raising the price of the Toshiba, and it's not available anymore so it won't get restocked again. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted November 30, 2009 Author Share Posted November 30, 2009 The good news: I love my customized Ubuntu desktop now. Have to agree here... so nice. It looks really slick and shiny like Windows 7... and I replaced the typical XP style task bar with an OSX-clone launcher dock. It's sweet. Plus, I can run MFL Gameday flawlessly through WINE (basic windows emulator). http://i50.tinypic.com/5eg96r.png Those docks at the top and bottom usually auto-hide, but I pulled them up for the screenshot. Google Chrome is in beta on Linux, but it runs like a champ as far as I can tell. The bad news: As far as I can tell, Linux still requires you to be somewhat of a power user. I had to do a lot of Googling today to resolve two odd issues before the system was totally usable. But if you're a bit of a geek, you can have a kick ass OS that beats Apple and Windows with some work. No viruses. Lotsa free software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.