Alright everyone, I have recently turned in my HP laptop computer to be sent in for fixing and using my old broken down Compaq. I need some advice on what to buy. I am completely unsatisfied with both HP and Compaq, both the same company, go figure. But anyway I am looking for something fast, light weight and good graphics with lots of memory. I am tossing up between sony, toshiba and dell but I'm not sure. I'm not really impressed with what they have to offer and I was wondering if anyone could give me some good feedback on this.

Should I buy a new laptop computer or build my own?

If you suggest build my own, do you have any good suggestions on who to go through to build it or good tutorials?

Building a laptop? or Building a desktop?

As far as tutorials, I think one of our forums has a tips for building computer thats a sticky. Its really not too hard to build one, its about as easy as looking at where things will fit and putting them there. The hardest part of building one I think is the period between hitting the power button and having your OS installed.

I need to either buy or build a laptop. Desktops aren't really an option right now because of school and I need the mobilty.

I've not heard of anyone who built their own laptop. You can't just go out and buy the parts for it AFAIK.

Have a look at these laptops from CHEM USA: http://www.chemusa.com/
They have a huge variety.

Also, have a look at the factory-outlet from Dell
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/segm...=us&l=en&s=dfo
You may not like Dell perhaps, but some of these babys are really souped up at a very good price.

We've talked about this once before, albeit a couple years ago:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic1532.html

Many people think of buying new things when all they need to do is renevate the old 1s for instance, you say that you need a new PC due to Lack of Performance!, i can guaruntee that all you need t do is insert a larger (memory terms) stick of ram in and possibly upgrade the cpu! Do you know what socket the CPU is???

The thing is that there is not problem with the memory or speed. I am not satisfied with one of two thing. I'm not sure if it's the computer or the company I bought it from.

First computer I bought was from Best buy, it was an HP desktop. Brand new, never opened and when we got it home there was no cd-writer in it. The drive is not physically there. When we took it back, even with the warranty they wanted us to pay $60 to diagnose it. I didn't buy the warranty to pay for a diagnose.

Second computer, same place, HP laptop. Brand new as well. Never dropped and after 3 months the power cord didn't work. Ever time I plugged it it, it would say it was charging but 10 seconds later it would change to battery. The only way to get it to go back to charging or adapter was to take it out of the back of the laptop and re-insert it. Eventually it just stopped charging. The only way to charge it was to watch it, and do the same thing while the computer was off. They first told me it was a cord and battery problem but I disagree, I know it is a hardware problem because they guy in the geek squad tried someone elses cord and it had the same results.

I also have 2 Compaq Presario 900 laptops and both of them were semi-broken after a year. One of them the disk drive doesn't work and the other one mysteriously turns off. One of them was bough at Fry's Electronics and the other at Circuit City.

It seems that I have all half-working computers and I want a reliable computer. I'm tired of having to move all of homework from computer to computer. I take 18 units a semester, all online and this isn't something I want to have to do anymore. It's not even worth buying the warrantee.

Both Compaq and HP are the same company. So thats why I was thinking something from another company. I don't think upgrading my current computers is going to make me any happier.

As much as I hate dells, Our school issues dell notebooks to all of the teachers. The thing i notice is the lack of repairs i have to do to them. Its mostly spilt pepsi, and viruses/spyware that i have to deal with. But thats the teachers not the PC.
This is going to hurt to say....Drum roll please
Well that was a lot of words to simply say, i would recomend dell

God that hurt to say

Sean

btw- I see you are in College Park, I am here in carroll county!

Although they have a bad reputation Dell PCs are Very Reliable, and here in the UK most of the teachers in my college are issued with dells and i have only ever in 2 years seen 1 go into the Workshop For Major Repairs!
I would say go with dell, on the dell website you can also customise the build of the PC, the other Company i would Recommend is MESH Computer Systems (www.meshcomputers.com )
Good Luck

I recently got a job at a highly known company that sells lots of parts, electronics and computers. Usually found in malls, some free standing store. I'm not supposed to say the store name, but according to the booklet of rules and regulations I am not allowed to offer a customers a computer that we do not sell. This company only sells HP and Compaq. The thing I find funny is that all of the companies computers are Dell's. They replace the screen and external components to Compaq....I'm thinking Dell is pretty good for computers.

LAPTOP area how much you like to spend ??

Dell very good laptops ,so is Sony

IF you have bigbucks Alienware have great laptops and you will be able to play games on your free time.

I am willing to spend up to $1300. I don't really want to spend a lot because they go out of date so quick.

Have you thought about Apple's laptops?