Laptop vs Desktop, What Brand?

[swdude12]

Hi I just graduated college and i have had the same desktop for about 5 years and i am looking to get a new computer. I do a lot of video editing, and just listen to music and stuff like that. No gaming, I game on a 360. Ive been looking at dells, but when i went to Best Buy the guy told me dell laptops are always breaking down and he said that Toshiba was a more reliable brand. Im stuck on where to start looking, what brand etc. I would like 2 x 160gb harddrives and atleast 2gb ram, dvd burner etc. I have a 2.0ghz pentium 4 desktop dell dimension 4500. I put in a dvd burner and a 320gb hard drive, It also has 1gb ram. Is it really time to upgrade now? Please help me decide I am clueless on where to go. I guess im looking at laptops because i can take it anywhere and my desktop takes up a lot of space in my room. thanks for the info. it will help greatly.

[saltynay]

Firstly you won't get much advice for stock desktop pc's here as frankly dell use crud parts and overcharge simply because they are buisiness and need to make a profit you can build a much better and cheaper system if home built and its so easy there are even 13 year olds on here.....

Whats your budget?
whats your main use or purpose?
do you want vista or xp?

With a laptop you sacrifice performance for mobility.......

basic general rundown of laptop brands;

Dell = all round average contenders the best for multi purpose use
Toshiba = more media and entertainment based
Acer = business type functionality and all round multi purpose
Hp = buisiness
Ibm = business
Alienware = gaming
Sony vaio = aesthetically pleasingslim, light, entertainment centres but generally over priced
Macbook = creativity easy to use photo and video editing software included in ilife

[veedubfreak]

So far all of the hp laptops we have gotten here at work seem to be pretty decent machines. Its going to come down more to what your budge is and what you actually need to do with the computer.

[swdude12]

I do a lot of video editing and I would like to get some CAD software on there for work. I also just use it for Microsoft office stuff and the internet. I wouldnt use the CAD software a lot tho just here and there. i would like to have it under 1200, but who knows maybe pushin it to 1500. Where is a good place to go and look. Does Best Buy have good deals on Toshibas? or stick with Dell?

[veedubfreak]

Dell laptops are actually a pretty decent buy. But make sure you get the gold coverage. They will repair/replace it for any reason, including if you are a moron and spill Dr Pepper in the keyboard. Not that i have ever met anyone who did that to their dell laptop then claimed they dont know why it stopped working.

[saltynay]

are we talking £1200 or $ lol it makes quite a big difference

[Webhead]

I would recommend you have a look at HP laptops I have one which I brought back in January (Specs in sig) and it does the job brilliantly for me.

[vernong1992]

ok heres my recommendation:

Desktops... build yourself

Laptops: Buy from either Asus, HP or Dell (Asus are the best tho)

[saltynay]

asus are the best for gamers I would lean too..... hp for him though

[vernong1992]

Originally Posted by saltynay

asus are the best for gamers I would lean too....

ya best high performance laptops... plus they don't go bad on battery life with gaming... unlike other notebooks