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[mightynine]

I have this itch to make a big purchase, and Best Buy's gots deals on notebooks, including 12 months no interest. And this Toshiba was looking really nice. DVD/CD burner, 512 MB RAM, 80G Hard Drive, widescreen, integrated wireless, and so on.

However, I've never heard one thing about a Toshiba. I'm going to sniff around the net, but since many here are the techno-savvy, I thought I'd ask.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tarazet]

My reference is the ASUS S5N... are you looking at the Satellite, or the Qosmio? The stats on both seem excellent, but the Satellite isn't as expensive.

 

[mightynine]

Had to look that one up; it's one of the Satellite models.

 

[Doth Togo]

They're good.

 

[Ollie Pooch]

i'm using a satellite a30 - got it about 7-8 months ago.. been really good, exccept for the sound. it was fine for ages but now randomly it just stops working after i bring the machine out of hibernation, and only a restart/shut down will fix it. seemingly a few other people have had this problem with other satellites (a40, a70, a75) too, so you might want to do some research on what sound chip it uses (mine uses AC'97) and avoid that one like the plague

 

[ChrisReid]

Toshibas are the best. I've had one for a year and a half.. got my sister one for Christmas. My friend who has one too was also talking about how they use the metal frame for their wifi antenna, so that's good or something. I've got a Toshiba TV, digital cam and all other kinds of crap around here and it's all quite decent.

 

[Seth C]

I'm currently being tempted by the same Best Buy deal. I've been eyeing a laptop purchase for some time now. I love the True Bright or UltraBright (or whatever they call them) displays.

 

[warhead]

I'm using a Sattelite Pro but I've head some heavy screen problems. While carrying the laptop in one hand I crushed the screen with my thumb. Yes, my thumb. Toshiba said the screen was destroyed by a force that was out of proportion... So we didn't get jack shit from guarantee and had to cough up 500 euro's for a new screen, and still I'm scared of touching it, it just looks fragile and I'm scared I'll break it again.

 

[Fusebox]

I use a lot of different Toshy laptops, I love 'em. Out of their current line the M2 is a great workhorse or the Portege R100 for style and portability (Australian models)

 

[Odnetnin]

i'm currently on a toshiba lappie because I'm overseas. They're quite well made and well.. I like mine.

I had it flyout of my bag once, slam right against the wall and fall clanging down to the floor (forgot to zipper the bag)... works great.

 

[tedtropy]

i'm currently on a toshiba lappie because I'm overseas. They're quite well made and well.. I like mine.

I had it flyout of my bag once, slam right against the wall and fall clanging down to the floor (forgot to zipper the bag)... works great.

Laptop am cry. Hah, I remember one day me and two of my friends were waiting outside one of our classes for the instructor to arrive, and I was sitting on the floor using the wireless network. I put my laptop in the bag, and as I got up, suddenly saw that I forgot to zip it close. So imagine a freeze-frame shot of me basically making a winced-in-pain look while my two friends look like they're trying to catch some phantom football. Turns out the little velcro straps held it in fine.

 

[Draff]

I've used my sister's and it's pretty good... a little heavy though (though I guess that's the case with non-centrinos).

 

[mightynine]

I've used my sister's and it's pretty good... a little heavy though (though I guess that's the case with non-centrinos).

That brings up another question: if the choice is there which one do you go with: Pentium or Centrino?

 

[isamu]

This is a very good thread because I too, will be hunting for a new notebook/laptop in about 30 days and want something very powerful.

I have looked at Alienwares website and they appear to have some killer notebooks and even use real desktop PC processors as opposed to mobile processor chips like the centrino, ect. That being said, they are ridiculously expensive. I pre-configured mine on their site and came up with a total of $3800!!!

So....

1)which kind of laptop would you guys recommend...Alienware or Toshiba?

2)Do the Toshibas use desktop processors like Alienware does? Is this, in your opinion, necessary for good gaming performance?

3)Can the most powerful Toshibas handle Doom 3, Half Life 2 and UT2K4?

4)What is the absolute best mobile graphics card I can get for a laptop? The GeForce 6800 Go?

 

[rareside]

I can honestly say that I LOVE my Toshiba Satellite A75 laptop.

I was in the market for a laptop a few months ago, and ended up going with Toshiba after trying out an HP/Dell.

Nothing to complain about. Hell, I've even been playing HL2 at great framterates! Didn't think I'd be doing that on a laptop.

 

[Dilbert]

My parents have a Satellite. It's a fairly solid laptop, but two small nits:

1) I don't like the keyboard feel.
2) The battery life is unimpressive.

Try it out in the store, and do some research on the battery life. If you're going to use it while plugged into a wall socket most of the time, then it's a moot point.

 

[isamu]

how would you guys compare them to alienware?

 

[Dead]

I have a satellite, and its great (well until I almost killed it, with what was the most shameful act of clumsiness ever witnessed). Definately reccomended. Its a bit heavy yes, but its hardly a problem at all.

 

[isamu]

How would you guys compare the Tosh notebooks to the HP Pavilion zd8000 series? Is HP considered a good brand for notebooks? I did a preconfigure and came out to about $2400 for what seems like a pretty beefy notebook. But it comes with an Ati card.

Which card is better between ATI and nVidia?

 

[Incognito]

how would you guys compare them to alienware?

alienware is most often comparable to dog shit.

 

[isamu]

alienware is most often comparable to dog shit.

I'm sorry Incognito but you are simply wrong

 

[Draff]

That brings up another question: if the choice is there which one do you go with: Pentium or Centrino?

I had to carry it for long periods of time and if that's the case then I would definitely get the centrino. In terms of long periods of time I mean 30 minutes or longer...

You also get greater battery life with centrino but if it's going to be plugged in then it's not worth the extra few hundred dollars.

 

[blackwind]

One of my friends bought a toshiba laptop....it's garbage.

Don't waste your money, get an HP, Compaq, Alienware (..) and of course you can't go wrong with an Apple Powerbook.

 

[The Main Event]

I bought mine at FutureShop when it was on sale. Got my A70 Satellite for around 6 months and I absolutely love it. The only thing I wouldn't recommend would be for gaming, the speakers are pretty weak and my graphic card is pretty crappy but since I never play PC games anyway, this thing works for me.

 

[bobafett]

Toshiba notebooks are fast and reliable. You can't go wrong with them.

 

[fart]

my brother wasn't very happy with his work toshi. ditched it for an HP (so you know it was bad). i'm not hearing a lot about unreliability, but the featuresets aren't great and battery life isn't so impressive. the toughbooks are first (and really, only) in class though. oh, and the porteges are hot, of course

 

[element]

this is a pretty sweet deal.

 

[Neo_ZX]

Although I haven't used any Toshiba for a long period of time, the general feel they gave me was that of a middle class notebook. They have a lot of nice bells and whistles but personally I hate the keyboard layout and the build material isn't the best. However, for the price range, toshiba is probably the best bang for the buck and will probably last if you treat them well.

Never buy a Dell. I've worked with them for 3 years and almost every model we carry has been found to have some sort of defect or issue that shows up near warranty expiration. The build material is generally very brittle.

IBMs are probably the best quality in my experience in both build material and reliability. There is a significant premium price to pay though.

 

[DarienA]

Missus just bought a Toshiba a month ago... excellent machine, good quality, a bit too many software extras installed by default but good solid machine.

 

[BuckRobotron]

I bought a Toshiba laptop for my parents a couple years ago and it has performed well, is physically sturdy, and remains very reliable despite their best efforts to screw it up.

 

[Dsal]

I had a Toshiba that gave me a lot of problems for a while, and it turns out that it was a defective run of them to blame. A bunch of us pissed off owners got together and got in a class-action lawsuit to get our money back. Long story short we get a 500 buck refund for them being defective if we don't send them the computer and 1000 back if we give them the computer back.

We had another newer Toshiba here at work go bad too.

The Qosmios are supposed to be really good however. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

 

[gohepcat]

my brother wasn't very happy with his work toshi. ditched it for an HP (so you know it was bad). i'm not hearing a lot about unreliability, but the featuresets aren't great and battery life isn't so impressive. the toughbooks are first (and really, only) in class though. oh, and the porteges are hot, of course

Battery life would have little to do with brand.

Pentium M (Celeron) laptops have great batery life (along with being super fast)

 

[Tarazet]

Battery life would have little to do with brand.

Pentium M (Celeron) laptops have great batery life (along with being super fast)

I second this opinion. This is the best available processor, overall, for a laptop which is actually going to be used as a portable machine. It will make even a poorly designed laptop efficient.

 

[mightynine]

Well, I'm posting this from the Toshiba, and no complaints so far. It's been a fine machine.

 

[isamu]

the toughbooks are first (and really, only) in class though. oh, and the porteges are hot, of course

Can I ask what is a "toughbook" and "porteges"? Are those different brands or just another class in the Toshiba line?

So I take it no one here owns either Alienware or HP?

 

[maharg]

Battery life would have little to do with brand.

Pentium M (Celeron) laptops have great batery life (along with being super fast)

Pentium M is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT the same thing as any other Pentium * M chip. It's not the same as the Pentium III M and it's not the same thing as the Pentium Celeron M. I wouldn't expect Celeron M to outclass any other mobile chip any more than a Celeron outclasses any desktop chip.

Er, minor correction. Apparently Celeron M is actually the same line as Pentium M but, like the desktop equivelent with less cache and without the speed stepping abilities of the PM. So half never mind this. But I still think a lot of people were confused here, like they always are when a Pentium * M is mentioned.

 

[fart]

Battery life would have little to do with brand.

Pentium M (Celeron) laptops have great batery life (along with being super fast)

it has to do with engineering decisions and parts sourcing which is dependent on who is making the decisions and doing the parts sourcing.

anyways, thinkpads are unqualifiably the best laptops on the market (x40 reprazent), i'm just a little wary about them right now because of the lenova thing. if that pans out like they're claiming it will, i'd totally say just buy a thinkpad.