Laptop Recommendations

[Tiger7Moth]

I will be buying a laptop in the next few weeks.

Unfortuantely, I am ignornant of manufacturers, features, capcities, prices....

I would like to buy the best value with all desirable features and extensive capacity. Because, I expect this to last a long time and don't want to be in the position of feeling like I need to upgrade in a year or 2.

I am moving to Cambodia (now living in Bangkok) and have been told that wireless internet access is available.

While I have the impression that Thailand is not the best place to make a purchase of this kind, I am unaware of practical alternatives.

So, I am looking for recommendations: manufacturer, capacity, features..... whatever an informed reader of this might recommend.

Also, what should I expect to pay or put differently, what would be a reasonable price.

Information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much

[simcity]

Tiger 4-5 months ago a friend of mine ask me to help him find a laptop

i went to pantip and look at many brands ! at the beginning i was thinking to go for a Acer as it was in his budget ! but for few thousand more i decide for a benQ ( same company as Acer ) but bit better !

it is a good machine , as many will said not the top , but i think quality / price it is the best !

I went oversea and because he work for powerduty free I was able to claim the 7 % VAT and go inside the airport with him, be careful you need to show the laptop before you clear the custom ! we did not know that , and he has to go out himself with his pass and come back into the dutyfree area !

He got back 3000 baht, the laptop was just over 40000 baht !

Specification was ok with 512 memories, I am not sure what new now , thing change fast in 4-5 months .

[Tiger7Moth]

Tiger 4-5 months ago a friend of mine ask me to help him find a laptop

i went to pantip and look at many brands ! at the beginning i was thinking to go for a Acer as it was in his budget ! but for few thousand more i decide for a benQ ( same company as Acer ) but bit better !

it is a good machine , as many will said not the top , but i think quality / price it is the best !

I went oversea and because he work for powerduty free I was able to claim the 7 % VAT and go inside the airport with him, be careful you need to show the laptop before you clear the custom ! we did not know that , and he has to go out himself with his pass and come back into the dutyfree area !

He got back 3000 baht, the laptop was just over 40000 baht !

Specification was ok with 512 memories, I am not sure what new now , thing change fast in 4-5 months .

Thanks

I hadn't thought about VAT, nice 7% savings. But, not sure how I could pull this off, even though I will be moving to Cambodia. I now have a 1 year married to Thai Visa.

[h90]

I bought 2 compaq for the company and both were broken after 2 years very light usage.

I bought 1 HP (=compaq) for my mother, first USB connectors failed, than problems with the power supply cord, than harddisk broken.

After new HD, it was complete impossible to get the drivers from their homepage, because the homepage is incomplete, you must know which other models driver you can use.

I bought one acer, now I am 9 month happy with it, beside that the original installation was 100 % bu*lsh*t.

[astral]

I would like to buy the best value with all desirable features and extensive capacity. Because, I expect this to last a long time and don't want to be in the position of feeling like I need to upgrade in a year or 2.

A great deal depends on what you think are "desirable features".

Disks go up to 100Mb

Memory 512M minimum.

CPU speed depends on what you need the machine for.

DVD writer. Do you really need it?

Graphics - do you plan on playing games?

I am currently looking at the HP NX6125 with 1Gb of memory and a 80Mb disk.

I want the fast AMD processor as I plan on processing video, but it is not a cheap machine.

Not the most expensive either.

Edited March 22, 2006 by astral

[simcity]

Tiger 4-5 months ago a friend of mine ask me to help him find a laptop

i went to pantip and look at many brands ! at the beginning i was thinking to go for a Acer as it was in his budget ! but for few thousand more i decide for a benQ ( same company as Acer ) but bit better !

it is a good machine , as many will said not the top , but i think quality / price it is the best !

I went oversea and because he work for powerduty free I was able to claim the 7 % VAT and go inside the airport with him, be careful you need to show the laptop before you clear the custom ! we did not know that , and he has to go out himself with his pass and come back into the dutyfree area !

He got back 3000 baht, the laptop was just over 40000 baht !

Specification was ok with 512 memories, I am not sure what new now , thing change fast in 4-5 months .

Thanks

I hadn't thought about VAT, nice 7% savings. But, not sure how I could pull this off, even though I will be moving to Cambodia. I now have a 1 year married to Thai Visa.

when you do the purchass , they feel the paper work for you ( bring passport ) when you go to the airport present the laptop before enter the custom , and after in the duty area present the papers work for refund !

[Firefoxx]

The move to Cambodia might be a problem, since the computer shops are few and far between (no Pantips there) and the service centers aren't plentiful (which is an understatement). However, Thailand is just a short hop away, so it shouldn't be a problem if you're willing to travel a bit. So, Thailand is probably a good place to make the purchase, no?

Opinions on what is the latest and greatest are divided (as always). You can go with dual-core or 64-bit, but not both (unless you get a desktop). I say go with dual-core, as it's better for multitasking, but others say otherwise (duh). If you want to use future programs or hi-def, a good graphics card is in order, such as the ATI x1400/nvidia 7600. RAM is cheap, so get as much as you can afford, since it's the one thing that's easily upgradable and affects your system performance a great deal.

As for brands, Acer gives the most bang for the buck, but their build quality isn't the best. The Japanese manufacturers (Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu) cost a lot more, but their machines are quite sexy. IBMs are supposedly tough, but their feature set leaves a lot to be desired.

Check this thread, as it's been discussed recently:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63179

[breconion]

The move to Cambodia might be a problem, since the computer shops are few and far between (no Pantips there) and the service centers aren't plentiful (which is an understatement). However, Thailand is just a short hop away, so it shouldn't be a problem if you're willing to travel a bit. So, Thailand is probably a good place to make the purchase, no?

Opinions on what is the latest and greatest are divided (as always). You can go with dual-core or 64-bit, but not both (unless you get a desktop). I say go with dual-core, as it's better for multitasking, but others say otherwise (duh). If you want to use future programs or hi-def, a good graphics card is in order, such as the ATI x1400/nvidia 7600. RAM is cheap, so get as much as you can afford, since it's the one thing that's easily upgradable and affects your system performance a great deal.

As for brands, Acer gives the most bang for the buck, but their build quality isn't the best. The Japanese manufacturers (Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu) cost a lot more, but their machines are quite sexy. IBMs are supposedly tough, but their feature set leaves a lot to be desired.

Check this thread, as it's been discussed recently:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63179

I've had an ACER now for just over 18 months and only problem I've had is the WIFI driver.

I now use a wifi pci card and have a PCI tv card as well so it doubles up for me.

My advice would be to get the max you can. max RAM and max hard drive easy on the processor unless you want to process video.

You may also want to think about a slim external USB hard drive. I have a 80 GB and use it for all storage of files so I can carry all my data anywhere and just plug into any computer with a USB connector.

CDwriter/DVD player would be my choice.

Dont forget a security cable. a good mobile headset/mic. some form of mobile mouse, radio or optical.

I also bought a USB cable adapter kit