[Cedric Pearson]

My girlfriend is looking for a laptop, not a netbook, that is small. Both in weight and size so it can fit in her backpack. She would prefer that it's widescreen.She would be willing to spend $500. She uses it primarily for internet and not so much for games. Onboard would be fine graphics wise. Also a webcam is a must. What would you recommend?

[Cassie Boyle]

My girlfriend is looking for a laptop, not a netbook, that is small. Both in weight and size so it can fit in her backpack. She would prefer that it's widescreen.She would be willing to spend $500. She uses it primarily for internet and not so much for games. Onboard would be fine graphics wise. Also a webcam is a must. What would you recommend?

Define "small"

I was in this same boat a couple weeks back, wanting a 14.1'' or 13.3'' laptop for around $500, they are VERY hard to find, especially if you want a DVD drive. I only found two 13.3'' laptops in that price range, neither with a DVD drive. Is 15.6'' small enough or no? If not is an internal DVD drive a must?

Also what about battery life? You didn't list that. That, IMO, is a very important factor when considering a laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220793 was the only 14.1'' laptop recommended to me on here. It is actually heavier than the 15.6'' laptop that I ended up buying, as well as probably having a worse battery life (http://www.frys.com/product/6341731, discounted and with a mail-in rebate for a price of $479.99).

[Josh Dagreat]

Define "small"

I was in this same boat a couple weeks back, wanting a 14.1'' or 13.3'' laptop for around $500, they are VERY hard to find, especially if you want a DVD drive. I only found two 13.3'' laptops in that price range, neither with a DVD drive. Is 15.6'' small enough or no? If not is an internal DVD drive a must?

Also what about battery life? You didn't list that. That, IMO, is a very important factor when considering a laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220793 was the only 14.1'' laptop recommended to me on here. It is actually heavier than the 15.6'' laptop that I ended up buying, as well as probably having a worse battery life (http://www.frys.com/product/6341731, discounted and with a mail-in rebate for a price of $479.99).

I saw the 14.1" that was in the previous thread and that is the start of her looking actually. She has a 15.6" and it doesn't fit in her back properly. So its 14.1 maximum. She wants it light because her bag weighs 35 pounds and she's a small so it's hard for her.

[helliehexx]

I saw the 14.1" that was in the previous thread and that is the start of her looking actually. She has a 15.6" and it doesn't fit in her back properly. So its 14.1 maximum. She wants it light because her bag weighs 35 pounds and she's a small so it's hard for her.

Why does the bag weigh 35 lbs :blink:

As I asked, does it need a DVD drive? Virtually all 13.3'' laptops do not have an internal DVD drive. So if it needs internal you are limited pretty much only to 14.1'' and a handful of 13.3''

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L645D-S4036-TruBrite-14-Inch/dp/B003M5GVJY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1283899859&sr=1-1, but really the only other laptop I would recommend that I've found thus far. This is why I caved and got a 15.6'' laptop, good $500 14.1'' laptops are very scarce.

You can wait for good deals to come along, just watch slickdeals.net closely.

Things to avoid: Pentium laptops, HPs/Compaqs (I also suggest avoiding Acers/emachines/gateways too)

Great brands: MSI (if you register your laptop, you get a free 3 year limited warranty), Asus, Toshiba, and Sony. Dells are pretty well built too.

Published April of this year: http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109 - Doesn't list MSI, but they are really solid in my book, and the free bump to a 3 year warranty is awesome.

[Chloe Mayo]

Why does the bag weigh 35 lbs :blink:

As I asked, does it need a DVD drive? Virtually all 13.3'' laptops do not have an internal DVD drive. So if it needs internal you are limited pretty much only to 14.1'' and a handful of 13.3''

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L645D-S4036-TruBrite-14-Inch/dp/B003M5GVJY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1283899859&sr=1-1, but really the only other laptop I would recommend that I've found thus far. This is why I caved and got a 15.6'' laptop, good $500 14.1'' laptops are very scarce.

You can wait for good deals to come along, just watch slickdeals.net closely.

Things to avoid: Pentium laptops, HPs/Compaqs (I also suggest avoiding Acers/emachines/gateways too)

Great brands: MSI (if you register your laptop, you get a free 3 year limited warranty), Asus, Toshiba, and Sony. Dells are pretty well built too.

Published April of this year: http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109 - Doesn't list MSI, but they are really solid in my book, and the free bump to a 3 year warranty is awesome.

Sorry I didn't respond thoroughly earlier, I was in a bit of a rush.

Her bag has 3 classes worth of books per day that weigh as much as her dog. The laptop she has now barely fits in her bag and it adds about 9 more pounds. She looked up some laptops briefly and she came up with an hp and an asus. The asus was nice but it didn't have very good specs. I looked for about an hour after yesterday didn't find anything worth mentioning.

She wants an optical drive. Battery life wise she would like 2 hours.

At this point I think I'm just going to tell her to buy a bigger bag for her laptop and books. She still uses the traditional two strap elementary school bag. I may just surprise her with a messenger bag and tell her to buy a 15.6"...

Thank you for your help, DEFRON.

[Louise Andrew]

Sorry I didn't respond thoroughly earlier, I was in a bit of a rush.

Her bag has 3 classes worth of books per day that weigh as much as her dog. The laptop she has now barely fits in her bag and it adds about 9 more pounds. She looked up some laptops briefly and she came up with an hp and an asus. The asus was nice but it didn't have very good specs. I looked for about an hour after yesterday didn't find anything worth mentioning.

She wants an optical drive. Battery life wise she would like 2 hours.

At this point I think I'm just going to tell her to buy a bigger bag for her laptop and books. She still uses the traditional two strap elementary school bag. I may just surprise her with a messenger bag and tell her to buy a 15.6"...

Thank you for your help, DEFRON.

I too use a standard 2-strap backpack, but for my laptop I got the lightest, cheapest laptop bag I could find (it is actually pretty dang well made IMO). My laptop + charger weighs a total of 5.8 lbs (according to MSI's website, never actually weighed it myself) and has a battery life of 4.5 hours on eco mode just browsing the web (I usually end up watching anime during my downtime at school, though, so I bring the charger to make it through the day), I also put a book or two in the laptop bag. Sure, I may look dorky to some for carrying both a backpack and laptop bag, but for me it works the best - my two cents.

Still, if time isn't an issue, just wait and see, you might get lucky. I was looking around for about 5 weeks before I went with my laptop. That Toshiba might just drop in a bit, or maybe you can find it locally for cheaper or something similar locally especially if you have a Fry's or Micro Center.

[Emily Jones]

So I got my laptop today and it came with Windows 7 which it was supposed to have Vista. So, I'm going through the initial setup and I find that the version of 7 is not authentic... Which is kind of lame. I planned on upgrading it anyways to 7 but I didn't plan on doing it so soon.

[Joe Alvarado]

So I heard I was being considered for an extended job assignment which means I might be able to buy better components for my computer...
If I do end up buying an ssd would it be a good idea to partition my hard drive to the formatted size of the ssd i might be buying, which would be a ocz vertex 2 or intel m25 in the 100~160GB range.

[Stat Wrecker]

It's recommend you leave 20% free for optimal use. Whether that 20% is within a fully formatted (100%) partition or an 80% partition with 20% non used off to the side.

I just made one big partition and don't fully fill it. (74GBs)

[Aliish Sheldonn]

It's recommend you leave 20% free for optimal use. Whether that 20% is within a fully formatted (100%) partition or an 80% partition with 20% non used off to the side.

I just made one big partition and don't fully fill it. (74GBs)

Thanks hopefully I remember a month and a half from now... Now I just need to figure out why some of the ssds on newegg have 20GB free if it means 20GBs for badsectors/scratch or extra space? :shrug: http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233131

[Margarita Diaz]

I'm looking for a new headset after I stupidly tripped over the wire of my old one and severed it from the connector. :facepalm:

Can someone recommend a good headset or a headphones+microphone combo? I am looking for good audio quality circumaural headset with in-line controls for volume and mute, or a similar pair of headphones with a desktop microphone. Price preferably under $75.

So I got my laptop today and it came with Windows 7 which it was supposed to have Vista. So, I'm going through the initial setup and I find that the version of 7 is not authentic... Which is kind of lame. I planned on upgrading it anyways to 7 but I didn't plan on doing it so soon.

Where did you get that laptop from? Sounds kinda fishy....

[Trevor Bostwick]

I'm looking for a new headset after I stupidly tripped over the wire of my old one and severed it from the connector. :facepalm:

Can someone recommend a good headset or a headphones+microphone combo? I am looking for good audio quality circumaural headset with in-line controls for volume and mute, or a similar pair of headphones with a desktop microphone. Price preferably under $75.


Where did you get that laptop from? Sounds kinda fishy....

I can make a damn good suggestion if the budget was up to $100. Alas, these options are decent...

Headset: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=SIBERIA+V2

Audiophile headphones + Clip-on mic: http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD515-Dynamic-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B0001FTVDG/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top + http://www.xoxide.com/zmmic1.html


$100 budget headphone: http://www.amazon.com/Technica-ATH-AD700-Open-air-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B000CMS0XU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284067780&sr=8-1 with same clip-on mic.

[Bitter End]

Where did you get that laptop from? Sounds kinda fishy....

Newegg. I fixed it already.

[Michael Russ]

I can make a damn good suggestion if the budget was up to $100. Alas, these options are decent...

Headset: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=SIBERIA+V2

Audiophile headphones + Clip-on mic: http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD515-Dynamic-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B0001FTVDG/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top + http://www.xoxide.com/zmmic1.html


$100 budget headphone: http://www.amazon.com/Technica-ATH-AD700-Open-air-Audiophile-Headphones/dp/B000CMS0XU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284067780&sr=8-1 with same clip-on mic.

Do the Siberia come in 3.5mm black color? That red is too bright for my tastes, and the black one is USB which would be pointless to me since I have a sound card.

Also on the "open-air" headphones, does that mean that they can be heard by others? I mostly wear my headphones for privacy or while listening to music..... don't really want anyone else hearing my racket.

[ZANEY82]

"Open" means they don't isolate, meaning you can hear outside noises and other people could hear your music/games if it's loud enough.

[Austin England]

Do the Siberia come in 3.5mm black color? That red is too bright for my tastes, and the black one is USB which would be pointless to me since I have a sound card.

Also on the "open-air" headphones, does that mean that they can be heard by others? I mostly wear my headphones for privacy or while listening to music..... don't really want anyone else hearing my racket.

I can only find the white ones. The black ones seem to be the USB version only for whatever reason.

http://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-51100-Siberia-Headset-White/dp/B002SU4QQY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284075541&sr=8-3

[Emma]

Who!

Asus is making a new laptop, the G53. Same model as the G73, but with a 15'6'' screen and the new 460m card.
Seems my laptop purchase will be delayed even further until this badboy is in the stores.

[Johanna Van Drunick]

The GT240 is certainly a cheap, yet moderately powerful card that can hang in with most modern games. It's about on par with the 9600GT. The monitor is ok and there isn't many more elaborate options for that price range anyways. A stikingly similar, but cheaper alternative if you have a Staples nearby:
http://www.staples.com/Acer-P205H-20-Widescreen-LCD-Monitor/product_823879?storeId=10001&jspStoreDir=Staples&AID=10422268&CID=AFF%253A404255%253A404255%253A10422268&cm_mmc=CJ-_-404255-_-404255-_-10422268&SID=154204&PID=404255

Got my computer the other day and it worked fine. Got that monitor and it looks great. Got http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833340013&cm_re=azio_wireless_adapter-_-33-340-013-_-Product wireless card and it's okay so far. Thanks!

[Juanita Hernandez]

Hey, so last time I heard conversations about Solid State Drives, they weren't reliable, but now I'm seeing more and more of them. Last I heard, they didn't actually work all that well. They were fast, but basically the more you used it, the quicker it died. That might not be true, just rumors I heard, which is why I'm checking with you guys
Are SSD's worth it? I mean, obviously I would have a hard drive for my operating system, and programs like that, but for my games I would use my SSD.

[Dawn Farrell]

Hey, so last time I heard conversations about Solid State Drives, they weren't reliable, but now I'm seeing more and more of them. Last I heard, they didn't actually work all that well. They were fast, but basically the more you used it, the quicker it died. That might not be true, just rumors I heard, which is why I'm checking with you guys
Are SSD's worth it? I mean, obviously I would have a hard drive for my operating system, and programs like that, but for my games I would use my SSD.

IMO, it is still very much so a "no" The speed increase shaves maybe 5 seconds off of boot time and a couple fraction of seconds off of launching time. Until flash technology is no more than 50% more expensive per GB than magnetic memory, I won't be touching it for storage.

[ezra]

Well, my computer kinda got [censored] up. Borked installs, a virus or two, fun stuff like that.

So I just want to get a clean slate and do a reinstall of windows. However I don't have my Windows CD. How would I go about reinstalling?

[Sasha Brown]

Well, my computer kinda got [censored] up. Borked installs, a virus or two, fun stuff like that.

So I just want to get a clean slate and do a reinstall of windows. However I don't have my Windows CD. How would I go about reinstalling?

You'll need a Windows DVD or a recovery partition/disc...

[Rachel Cafferty]

Well, my computer kinda got [censored] up. Borked installs, a virus or two, fun stuff like that.

So I just want to get a clean slate and do a reinstall of windows. However I don't have my Windows CD. How would I go about reinstalling?

1. who is the OEM? HP, Dell, Sony, Acer, MSI, etc.

2. Did you create a hard drive image of your install ever?

[butterfly]

1. who is the OEM? HP, Dell, Sony, Acer, MSI, etc.

2. Did you create a hard drive image of your install ever?

1. It's an ASUS laptop

2. I have a recovery disc I made when I first got the laptop, but it's of Windows Vista. I upgraded earlier this year. I have the upgrade disc still, but it is for 3 uses and I am saving the last use for my Mom's new computer in a month.

[Suzy Santana]

I'm looking into hopping onto the 3G phone craze. Can anyone explain the differences between iPhone and Droid? I know Windows has some phones out but I don't know much about those. Basically I want something I can use to put my own Flash made stuff on (I know iPhone doesn't support Flash but I thought Flash stuff could be converted for the iPhone OS).

Also, is HTML5 going to end up replacing Flash?