Reliable laptops?

[Icy]

I decided to ditch desktops for laptops portability but I have no experience with laptops.I've been searching for quite sometimes and people seem to be recommending either Asus or Lenovo.I'm not sure which one to get..I have a budget of around ~600$.I'll also be using it for a quite sometimes (since i'm going to college in a few months)
I don't really play any games but I'd still like a laptop that is powerful for normal use (It has to be able to handle virtual machines)

Edit: Sorry, I think this should be moved to PC and gaming..haven't noticed that section.

 

[BoraMurdar]

reliable = Dell (IMO)

• Intel Core i5-4200U Processor 1.6 GHz Turbo Boost up to 2.6 GHz
• Intel HD Graphics 4400
• 6 GB DDR3
• 500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
• 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Display

At Amazon

 

[Aurora]

ASUS R500VJ-MH71 (Refurbished)

• CPU: Intel Core i7 3630QM 2.40GHz
• RAM: 8GB DDR3
• HDD: 1TB
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M
• 15.6-Inch Display

Acer Aspire V3-571-6844

• CPU: Intel Core i5 3230M 2.6 GHz (Turbo Boost 3.2GHz)
• RAM: 8GB DDR3
• HDD: 500GB
• GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000
• 15.6-Inch Display

ASUS X550LA-DH51

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6 GHz
• RAM: 8GB DDR3
• HDD: 1TB
• GPU: Intel Haswell UMA
• 15.6-Inch Display

 

[Sven]

I agree with both Bora and Aurora, ASUS uses its own hardwares to build laptops, and they are quite reliable. Dell has a great customer support, and they do reliable machines imo. One of my friend has a Dell laptop, like 3 days ago the mainboard had a problem with the charging (didnt get voltage well enough or something similar) and he called the support, two guys came with a car, fixed the mainboard by opening it all and of course before our eyes, and voila! In less than 1 hour, the problems were solved and of course at 0 cost. (he was in 1.5yrs of his 2yrs guarantee)

So both of them or any other products of ASUS and Dell would be a good choice!

Thanks.

 

[BoraMurdar]

ASUS above is good but refurbished...not quite new. And I think Dell offers fabric 3 year guarantee by default
I always recommend Acer, Dell, HP, ASUS or Lenovo

 

[Ink]

I found this useful when I was researching Intel CPUs for many months.
http://malwaretips.com/threads/about-intel-cpu-numbers.23566/

My thread I created a few months ago, may have some good suggestions & links there too.
http://malwaretips.com/threads/cheap-gaming-laptops-with-intel-i5-i7-8gb-ram-fhd-15-17-inch.23018/

 

[Nico@FMA]

Dell (American), Packard Bell (Dutch), Toshiba (Japan) Are the only brands i would even spend money on.
Specially Packard Bell i have worked with them for years and they never failed me.

 

[kjdemuth]

Dell, Acer, asus, some toshiba's. Stay away from gateways and HP. Check out cowboom.com for some refurb or used laptops for cheap money.

 

[Jaspion]

I recently bought a Dell, an Inspiron 14R, and so far I am very, very disappointed. I was getting BSODs 50% of the time when the laptop woke up, and also random shutdowns mostly during gaming. I called support today, tests were run, but so far nothing has been solved. So I tried (again) to use the recovery DVD I made (none came with the machine, which is ridiculous but seems to be common here in Brazil), and this time it got stuck at 35%, and I can't get past this point no matter what. So, if anyone has any idea on how to help me solve this, please let me know. For support, I'll have to wait until Monday now.

 

[Nico@FMA]

I recently bought a Dell, an Inspiron 14R, and so far I am very, very disappointed. I was getting BSODs 50% of the time when the laptop woke up, and also random shutdowns mostly during gaming. I called support today, tests were run, but so far nothing has been solved. So I tried (again) to use the recovery DVD I made (none came with the machine, which is ridiculous but seems to be common here in Brazil), and this time it got stuck at 35%, and I can't get past this point no matter what. So, if anyone has any idea on how to help me solve this, please let me know. For support, I'll have to wait until Monday now.

Its not just a Dell thing, because brands like Dell do take care of their product and you can be 98% sure that your Dell pc (Or similair brand) works beyond your wildest dreams.
However during shipping and Distribution Storage and Shop Storage and the whole transportation system computer parts suffer serious shock damage and some cases they are subject to magnetic scans (Harbor Ship Scan) and other effects.
Non of them are good for your PC and usually only a few will display damage either external or internal as in your case.
My advise would be go to the shop where you bought the PC and have it fixed as i know for a fact there is a damage chip on your MOBO.
This chip monitors damage on soft and hardware and stores that info in some memory which can be accessed by for example Dell technician, who can verify that the damage is not done by your hand, so they will probably replace the laptop completly.
My point here is that this is a problem that hounds most electrical hardware.
Buy a 1000 and have one or 2 bogus ones.

See my point?

 

[kjdemuth]

Yeah I've never had a problem with dell and I've had 3 of them. Granted I did wipe the hard drive out and did a clean install of the OS when I got it. I've also upgraded the memory, HD and wireless cards on all of them after a few months.

 

[Jaspion]

Its not just a Dell thing, because brands like Dell do take care of their product and you can be 98% sure that your Dell pc (Or similair brand) works beyond your wildest dreams.
However during shipping and Distribution Storage and Shop Storage and the whole transportation system computer parts suffer serious shock damage and some cases they are subject to magnetic scans (Harbor Ship Scan) and other effects.
Non of them are good for your PC and usually only a few will display damage either external or internal as in your case.
My advise would be go to the shop where you bought the PC and have it fixed as i know for a fact there is a damage chip on your MOBO.
This chip monitors damage on soft and hardware and stores that info in some memory which can be accessed by for example Dell technician, who can verify that the damage is not done by your hand, so they will probably replace the laptop completly.
My point here is that this is a problem that hounds most electrical hardware.
Buy a 1000 and have one or 2 bogus ones.

See my point?

Yes, I just hope they will in fact give me a brand new laptop, because I don't want to have problems again. Dell support in Brazil is supplied by a subcontractor, not by Dell itself (unless you pay an extra, I don't know how much exactly). So I hope they live up to their reputation and really solve my problem. So far it's only been a disappointment.

 

[kjdemuth]

That's the exact same way I felt about Toshiba. My wife had one and I had nothing but headaches with it and the support.

 

[Jaspion]

That's the exact same way I felt about Toshiba. My wife had one and I had nothing but headaches with it and the support.

I'm sorry to hear that. How did you finally solve the matter?

 

[kjdemuth]

Upgraded a few items on it. They had the replace the motherboard on it once and it was gone for about 2 weeks. The hard drive started to go after a year. It was past warranty at that time.

 

[Jaspion]

Upgraded a few items on it. They had the replace the motherboard on it once and it was gone for about 2 weeks. The hard drive started to go after a year. It was past warranty at that time.

I'm sorry to hear that too.

 

[Deleted member 178]

ACER = some heat issues but decent quality /prices
DELL = last time i used them they were not hardware upgradable; good for companies, average for home users
SONY = depending the regions , must updates via Sony own drivers
ASUS = my favorite brand

 

[Icy]

Those 3 laptops are sold for reasonable prices in my country but im not sure which one to get:

Lenovo S510: (730$)
Processor: Intel core i7 4500
HDD: 1TB + 8GB SSHD
RAM: 6GB
GPU: 2GB VGA

Lenovo G510: (650$)
Processor: Intel Core i7-4702MQ
RAM: 6GB
HDD: 1TB
GPU: AMD Radeon HD8750M (2GB)

Samsung Ativ book 4: (600$)
Processor: Intel core i7-3537U
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 750GB

All of them are 15.6", good asus laptops are 800$+ here so I don't think i'll be able to get one knowing my budget.
I won't be able to buy from online stores because shipping'll take a while and the product might get damaged, so I'd rather buy from stores here.

 

[Purshu_Pro]

The Lenovo G510 (G=Gaming)is a Power House Gaming laptop with best possible perforfance by intel i7 processor.
6GB Ram would be sufficient for all tasks. Make sure the ram is further upgradable if u wish so.
1TB is enormous HD space for all ur storage.
Talk about AMD Graphics card? Its awesome, almost all laptops come with AMD now rather than NVIDIA.
My laptop is completly AMD build. I love its graphics.

 

[BoraMurdar]

Lenovo G510 seems OK for 650$