Advice on what laptop computer to buy.

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

Looking to get my parents a laptop computer for Christmas. They are looking for something that they can take down to the shore so they have a computer in the house during the summer months. All there really do is e-mail, web browsing and some word processing. So they don't really use any heavy applications.

Long story short I narrowed it down to 3 computers and wanted to get your thoughts on what I should get for them:

Choice 1 - Toshiba - Satellite Laptop with Intel® Celeron® Processor - Silver
Toshiba

Choice 2 - Acer - Aspire Laptop with AMD Athlon™ Single-Core Processor
Acer

Choice 3 - Toshiba Silver 15.6" Satellite L455D-S5976 Laptop PC with AMD Sempron Processor & Windows 7 Home Premium
Toshiba

**Hellfire** · Moderator Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3372

For what they are going to use it for, all three are good choices. You don't need a powerhouse system for what they want it for.

If they want to be able to watch movies, photo editing, video chat, etc the single core CPU's might be pushing it, but should still do ok for them.

**Jason** · Posted: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:26:51 Post Subject:

I'd probably pick the Acer... Not the biggest hard drive, but probably way bigger than they need... More memory than the others... Best graphics of the three for blazing solitaire, etc... Plus it isn't from Walmart. That said, it has the slowest CPU in total speed and bus speed...

The Walmart one would be second on my list.

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

Why not the Toshiba - Satellite Laptop with Intel® Celeron® Processor ? Just because it is a Celeron??? I only ask because it is by far the least expensive of the 3. However for the extra bucks if the other two are that much better then I don't want to be cheap.

Confusing to me because the celeron is listed with the fastest speeds...

**Jason** · Posted: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:52:07 Post Subject:

The Celeron wouldn't be my favorite... It does have the highest total clock speed, but that doesn't always translate to being "fastest". The graphics on that one at integrated and from Intel, so I would say they are probably the weakest. Might not really matter, but even basic games or movies might make that show. Memory is cheap, but having 3GB over 2GB with the second one pre-installed would eliminate the need to upgrade.

patience · Rated PG Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 3 Location: uk

Hello,
I'm currently using a Dell, it's nice, affordable, and it's got pretty good tech support.
I've heard pretty stellar comments about IBM Thinkpads, so I'd take a look at them too. Concerning memory, you'll probably want at least a gig of RAM is you intend to use Vista. If you're just using it for photos and the like, a 60-100 gig hard drive will probably be more than enough for a few years. It might be worthwhile to invest in making your house/apartment wireless if you're getting a notebook, unless you've already got wireless internet.