Laptop Questions

Stick with HP or Dell. I have both and while I am a true HP guy, Dell does just as good.

 

I bought a Gateway laptop ONCE!
I kept it three weeks before I sent it back and ordered a DELL. I had nothing but problems with the Gateway and "THEIR" solution to fix the problem(s) was to SELL ME something else.

I am on my third DELL Laptop. I find their Tech Support second to none. The ONLY time I had to send one in for repairs, it went out on a FRIDAY..... (The DHL Guy brought the shipping box and waited for me to put the laptop in) and I got it back on MONDAY. AND it was fixed.

I still have BOTH of my previous used DELL laptops, I was able to buy replacement/repair parts on eBay when they were Out of Warrenty and repair them myself.

 

Symantec (Nortons) uses an awful lot of system resources. CA is good but NOD32 is much better.

What "kind" of photo programs, may I ask? I am a software pig <oink, oink>

 

i'm with you on this. i like apple alot but it is a little pricey.

 

I don't get viruses either and haven't had one in over 7 years. I don't even have anti-virus on my PC. I practice "Safe Surfing".

 

In some ways it depends on what you use it for. For basic computing either would work about as well, but as far as rellibility I would personally go with Dell between those 2.

Personally I am like all the other HP fans here. Best bang for the buck. They also carry low prices gaming systems if you do play any type of 2D or 3D games.

I bought a Gateway about a month ago. After 3 days the internal video cable burned out. Yes 3 days and it acted as if someone unplugged your moniter. While that is an issue that can be fixed, ho among us wants to send a 3 day old computer in for service? So I returned to the store and left with a HP. The HP had half the memory (1 gig) but otherwise was almost an identical system. This makes my 9th HP product in about 10 years. I usually upgrade whenever I get the urge, but my old ones still running strong. Then again with 4 kids I always had a built in excuse to upgrade....if I get me a new one the kids can have this one to run.

My wife and I do play a few on line games, including the most demanding one out there, world of warcraft. And her new HP laptop runs it like a champ even with other web pages, and instant messangers all running too. So if you are willing to add HP to your list of options, thats my sales pitch for them.

 

I'm a cheap pig, LOL! I only have the basic programs that either come with the computer (HP Photosmart for video editing, and Adobe Photoshop) and printers (Lexmark Imaging and Epson Photo Print) as well as freeware Irfanview.
Basically just editing tools for cropping, adjusting quality, and resizing - I'm not savy enough to teach myself the stuff of PhotoShop with image manipulation, plus, my collection is personal, not particularly artistic or creative in nature.

 

I use to use Norton but like you say, it boggs the puter down. I use Windows One Care now and it does a really nice job. The only thing it does not have is a e-mail filter like Norton did. It still can detect a virus in the e-mail but doesnt seperate things out like SPAM.

 

Get yourself a copy of Corel PaintShopPro. It is a easy program to learn and use. It does most of the same things that the incredibly expensive Adobe Photoshop CS2 does, but at a fraction of the price; about $79 online (instant download).

 

I USED to have WOC (Windows One Care), but three times when it "updated" it caused some of my other programs to loose their "registration" and I had to re-install several necessary programs with customer support....::::UGH!!::::
When I got rid of it, I haven't used any AV since.