HP Pavilion G6-2235us 15.6" Laptop $329.99 a/$50 rebate @ STAPLES

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Well I heard horrific stories regarding mixing HP and AMD several days back on some other threads so I probably should avoid this if I know what's good for my sister until she can afford her own laptop sometime in future in college...

But this may be a little bit difficult to find then if my standards to buy a laptop over next month to last 3-4 years is:

1. At least Intel i3
2. Has a CD/DVD drive
3. Stable build so it can actually last a good 3-4 years at least
4. Under 400 dollars...

Factoring all this, I might have to decline this deal on this thread unless others can convince me otherwise... but we'll see how the market goes in the next few weeks until I'm really in trouble because I didn't buy a present for her b-day in March..

this one is now 449 for an i5.
link [bestbuy.com]


original thread

check this out. i got this one for 419.
link [bestbuy.com]

These look like an alright deal except it's not on sale anymore and my budget to buy my sister's b-day present as a laptop is under 400 dollars... Sure it's over my budget by 50 dollars.... but will I have to think and consider eating ramen several weeks just so my sister can have a better lasting laptop to last for 4 years?

But seriously, is this the best deal a NEW i5 laptop can offer at this price? Hmm...

A big +1.
Lenovo = low quality PC builds that take otherwise quality components and put them together with such shoddy workmanship and design that the whole becomes crap. on PAPER they sound great but in reality they are crap. Even the much maligned Acer laptops are better. Lenovo support is also crap as well. You'd probably be better of spending it on a Dell refurb.

....

You can get a lemon from almost any manufacturer. I own 2 Acer laptops and have been very impressed with their build quality. I think that they are an excellent choice when it comes to bang for the buck.
I didn't know they were "much maligned" but I gues I am not disagreeing with you as you are saying you think they're better than Lenovo. One other note on Lenovo though: The Thinkpad line is excellent. Still the best laptop keyboard I've found.

A big +1.


As for AMD A6 - don't discount them. They are quite powerful and will do the job well into the next four to six years. Here is where I disagree with this poster - I would argue that the rate of obsoletion is actually slowing down quite a bit unless users are gamers (and even then, it is slowing). If your sister is like most college students (esp. girls), this laptop will do her fine well into her first job or through grad school.

AMDs are weaker than intel in raw processing power but have a very robust integrated video solution. The end result is that in real world use they are just as strong and may even be better in some areas (such as playing games).

As a point of reference, I own very high end hardware at home but I have not felt underpowered at all using my HP 6710B which runs an old core2duo with 4gb of ram and an SSD with win7.

BTW, slickdeals and google docs run just fine even on a Pentium 4....

yes! guess what guys? i am on my desktop, with a amd athlon 64 1ghz dual core!

Yep. It's all about the build... this is why the American craftsman still has a hope. As long as we keep innovating on design, form, and build quality we'll stay on top of the cheap-labor Chinese factories.

Good hardware design + good software design = great computer.