HP Pavilion DV7t 2nd Generation Intel Dual Core i3 - 2310M 2.1GHz Processor 4GB DDR3 RAM 500GB Hard

I bought two of these. They're quite capable machines, and (other than my son breaking a screen) have been bog steady reliable. Very nice LCD, and surprisingly good performance (I did up the memory and installed win7 64 pro). On the other hand, I got them at closer to 400. There's no way I'd pay 1,000 for it.

Read More >>

Fujitsu LIFEBOOK AH530 15.6" Notebook - Core i5 i5-460M 2.53 GHz

I have had the AH530 since December 2010. Not long after I started using this laptop, I began experiencing problem with the laptop shutting down by itself for no apparent reason. I then took note on what happened just before shutting down. I downloaded and ran "Speedfan", and found out that the CPU was getting quite hot (>90C) but the cooling fan was pushing very little cool air out the left side of the laptop. I contacted Fujitsu tech support on-line. I have give credit to tech support which was always available 24/7. It was decided that the laptop needed to go back to Fujitsu for repair and they even sent me a pre-paid Fedex shipping label. Got the laptop back in 10 days but the problem still persisted. So a second call to the always available on-line tech support generated a second RMA for repair. This time the turn around was 7 days including shipping time both ways (Yay!). I checked the laptop again and found the exact problem was still there: it would overheat and shut down in under 20 minutes of idle time. Called tech support again and had to escalate the situation. I was informed Fujitsu did replace the motherboard AND CPU both times. It didn't take long for me and the tech support escalate agent to both realize the problem may be associated with the cooling fan/heat sink. So I have to send the laptop back a third time for repair. It has been 6 days now since I shipped it back and I am waiting for Fujitsu to tell me if they really fix my laptop. Since this is now November 2011, I sure hope the problem gets taken care of before my warranty runs out. BTW, I placed comments on Fujitsu website about their Lifebook AH531 which is similar to my AH530 but Fujitsu would not publish it. Previous Fujitsu laptops that were built in Japan were much more reliable than the current laptops which are made in China.

11/30/2011

Additional comment: Well, I got my laptop back from Fujitsu after about 10 days. They replaced the MB & CPU (again), and the heatsink/cooling fan. This time the laptop works very well, no more overheating, no more shutting down. I finally can use the computer like I wanted to. The i5 processor is quite fast and the display is very sharp with very good contrast. The CPU is running very cool at 39-51C. battery life is very good (almost 4 hours). The only thing bad: the tiny, tinny speakers have very low volume depite being turned-up at max. My work-around is to use external speakers or headphones. Fujitsu always has very responsive tech support online which makes up for the short-coming of their product. I can now recommend buying Fujitsu. BTW, I changed the rating from a 3-star to a 4-star.

I am a college student and have been using this laptop for the last 7 months. The specifications are good and you can definitely run many games and programs on it.

But aside from that there are many technical problems I noticed with this laptop.

The one I've been using is actually the 2nd time I've gotten this laptop. The first, I've returned after 3 days because it would often freeze up to the point of no return (can't even ctrl + alt + del). The second one I got had the same problems, but I decided to keep it. After about a couple months the freezing stop, I'm not sure why. But after one problem dies down, comes another. At around the 5 month -7 month (and counting) mark, it starts to overheat a lot and shuts down your computer. After 1 hour of usage my computer would shut down with no warning at all. It can get annoying if you are working on something that you had not saved. If you use Microsoft word, then you're in luck. But if you're working on other programs then it will not save and you've lost your work.

I would definitely not buy this laptop again, and would take the risk with another one.

Buy Fujitsu LIFEBOOK AH530 15.6" Notebook - Core i5 i5-460M 2.53 GHz Now

Bought this as a secondary laptop and with very light usage (4-5 hours per week) I ran into problems. The mouse click button broke after about 5 months then the hard disk crashed a few months later. This is ridiculous given the time I actually used it.

Never a Fujitsu again. Live and learn!

Read Best Reviews of Fujitsu LIFEBOOK AH530 15.6" Notebook - Core i5 i5-460M 2.53 GHz Here

I received the computer in wonderful condition. I have been using it for a couple of months and it has performed according to my expectations-it hasn't given me any issues that couldn't easily be resolved. Good seller. Would buy from again.

Want Fujitsu LIFEBOOK AH530 15.6" Notebook - Core i5 i5-460M 2.53 GHz Discount?

I purchased the Fujitsu AH530 Notebook in November 2011. The one I purchased has the Intel I5 processor. For the first 8 or 9 months every thing was working like a charm. Occasionally, the screen would freeze up but after 5 or 10 seconds it would unfreeze and all would be well. About a year ago, I the notebook would start unexpectedly shutting off right in the middle of me doing work. Usually, if I had a lot of programs opened or was working with heavy graphics or video it would overheat then shut down. This was pretty frustrating as if I didn't frequently backup my work, would lose whatever I was working on. Last October, I purchased a pretty cheap Belkin laptop chill pad. That did the trick for about 4 or 5 months, then the problem started again. The chill pad/fan stopped rotating as fast as it did when I purchased it so I have to get a new one (this time, one with a little more gusto and not a Belkin).

I have an extended warranty from the place I purchased the notebook so within the next month or so, I'll probably take it in and have them replace the fan in the notebook. At the end of the day, I think Fujitsu just put in a crappy fan in the notebook. Otherwise, the notebook is fine.

Save 44% Off

Read More >>

Acer Aspire AS7250-3821 Fusion Dual-Core E-450 1.65GHz 4GB 500GB DVD±RW DL 17.3" LED Notebook Wind

Last of the laptops I could find with a reliable name and Windows 7 at a good price. Very pleased so far.

Fantastic bargain for a fantastic laptop. Would recommend to everyone that is looking for a laptop with speed an great functions.

Buy Acer Aspire AS7250-3821 Fusion Dual-Core E-450 1.65GHz 4GB 500GB DVD±RW DL 17.3" LED Notebook Wind Now

I like the product so far. I hope I do not find anything wrong with it and would have to send it back. This seller was so niceeee. I had requested if I could get the product a little early because I was going out of town and did not have more money to pay express shipment but they sent it express anyway and I got it on time.

Read Best Reviews of Acer Aspire AS7250-3821 Fusion Dual-Core E-450 1.65GHz 4GB 500GB DVD±RW DL 17.3" LED Notebook Wind Here

Read More >>

Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5164 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Grey)

It's a short story how I landed on buying this laptop at a local retail store. I was looking for something below $1000 and a 15" size and good performance and this was it. This was the first time I ever used a personal laptop or computer at home with AMD processor and I should say I loved it. First I was at the retail store and picked up another brand with I5 processor. It has more memory and more hard drive space than this laptop. Took it home and playing some high performance pc games and some streaming apps and noticed that the I5 really was bad. The graphics was slow, the performance was bad. So I went back to the store and tried other similar I5 laptops with other manufacturers and same bad result. Finally I thought I'll pick this one ( as it's quad core) and ran the same games in the store (thanks to my mobile hotspot ..;-) ) and the performance was simply superior for almost the same $$$. I was really impressed even with 1/2 the memory of other laptops how it handled the same games and programs. Well, I was sold!!! I've been using this for couple months now. Great performance, no heat issues, fantastic display, nice looks.

I feel really sad now, as amazon now sells it for less than $600! I paid over $750 + tax for this! Although definitely worth that money. Less than $600 is fantastic price!

Only complain I have is that sometimes when I type my palm accidently hits the touchpad and puts the cursor elsewhere or puts in scrolling mode. I think , then I learnt to position my hands differently. The issue is because the touchpad is fairly large and its possible you'll touch it accidently when your typing.

Overall great product. Kudos for AMD too!

Bought the new Toshiba 655D-S5164 to replace an older Dell that had "issues" not worth spending the $ to repair. The new Toshiba works quite well, is incredibly faster with many more features than my old laptop. I'm still getting used to this new laptop and don't use it as much as my PC but have been getting acclimated to the newness and available features/functions of my Toshiba. Toshiba came recommended from a computer "person" who tells me that of all the computers that he works on, he has virtually seen no problems with the Toshiba brand. I'm glad I purchased this laptop.

Buy Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5164 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Grey) Now

I just recieved this laptop and have been so impressed with it over the last few days just had to write a review about it. To put it simply here are the benifits: Very very well priced when i bought it at $549.00. Super fast. It runs at about what you would expect from a $1,200 laptop. LED screen looks vibrant and amazing so far. If this had blu ray it would be the perfect laptop but i guess it can be added down the road and for $550.00 i wont complain.

All in all great purchase and i am very impressed with the whole Toshiba line. Quality, long-lasting excellence. Sick computer!!!

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5164 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Grey) Here

Just unwrapped my new Toshiba L655D-S5164 RT from the box, and am using it now. Have yet to determine the best way to remove the "bloatware" (any suggestions?), but no real complaints so far. This is my third Toshiba laptop, and the keyboard layout (including 10-key) is more than acceptable. Mouse pad was simple to disable (on/off switch). Obviously, I prefer a wheel mouse (ordered a nice wireless type, Logitech, at the same time). Machine runs cool as a cuke, despite the faster microprocessor, and have yet to hear the fan come on. For the price (or even for NOT the price), I find this little gem to be an amazing value!

The wide 16:9 aspect ratio screen took me a little getting used to in the beginning. If you are more concerned about a "full-height" display, you might consider the 14" screen as opposed to this 15.6" version. My wife's old Toshiba (low-end model) is a 14", yet is about an inch and a half deeper than my new one. However, with any 14-incher, you might sacrifice that handy10-key numeric pad on the side. I work with figures a lot, so the added keypad is a nice feature to me.

While the screen is not visibly brighter than my former Toshiba, it is still the famous TruBrite screen, which beats most anything else out there in the world of notebooks. It's as vivid as you can wish for. Matter of fact, I was considering an HP (have a couple of friends who love theirs), but the HP laptop screen is no match for a Toshiba. Plus, the Toshiba reliability record handily beats out HP (along with most any brand on the market).

The speakers are no better than what came with the Toshiba I purchased in 2004, but this is a laptop, not Carnegie Hall. If you want to use your laptop as a substitute for a real sound system, then invest in a set of external speakers, which are cheap enough.

My only real "complaint" is that, along with Windows 7 (which was highly intuitive), it came packaged with a "starter" version of MS Office 2010--which did not even include Outlook! But such is the case with software packaging these days...no fault on the part of Toshiba. You get what you pay for. After creating a system restore disk, I will get rid of this starter package and load my older version of MS Office 2003. Besides, other than a few annoyances, and unwanted bells and whistles, I have not noticed any real "improvements" in MS Word, Excel and Outlook over the years.

Want Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5164 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Grey) Discount?

Nice features on this thing. It's not a monster by any means, but the quad core processor doesn't fail to impress. It's got four gigs of ram, and that should be more than enough for day-to-day use with a reasonable amount of applications running at the same time. Can handle some light gaming, but anything more and you'd need one with a decent (non-integrated) video card. Has a cool camera, mic and all that jazz. The speakers aren't bad, and hey at least there's two of them (yes I've seen laptops with just one speaker).

The battery is complete garbage, and barely lasts two hours even while doing menial things like typing up a review on the lowest power mode (eco mode, toshiba calls it). I estimate that it will last at most two years before completely dying. I recommend getting a 9-cell battery, but if you're going to just be using it running on ac power most of the time anyway, then why bother. I completely expected this about the battery though. The longest lasting types of standard lithium ion batteries seem to be those sheet batteries that are in mac books and such, but it will be a million years before I ever purchase an apple product.

All in all I'd say this thing is great for the cost. Some two or one and a half years ago my mom purchased a toshiba satellite similar to this one for around the same price. It is only half as good as this one in all aspects (cpu speed, ram, even disk space). The integrated video card has seen little improvement over the years, (just like the integrated media accelerator from intel), but it's still amazing to see how fast technology progresses.

Oh yeah, and both this laptop and the older one that my mom and I got from amazon some time ago have been running great so far with no problems. I have to say out of all the different brand of laptops that I have owned and worked with, Toshiba is the least problematic of all.

Read More >>

Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5336 15.6-Inch Laptop - Black

I don't think you can get this much bang anywhere else for $350. The only downside is both usb ports are on the same side. It can be annoying when you have usb devices with short cords to have to rearrange the work area to accommodate the laptop

Well this is a very cheap laptop ( price related ), ive been faithful to toshiba this is my 3rd laptop, I always sell them and buy new ones... Gotta love the whole keyboard, the design is simple but kind of roughed which is nice( not scratching )... LCD LED is nice widescreen, very fast i already loaded all my files and still running fast, turn on in less than 2 minutes, other pc's take a while to load up all the starters programs... The only thing im not so happy is that it only has 2 usb ports and no HDMI port... before i forget battery life is good, last around 5 hours may be more if you set it up right, it doesnt get hot ( thanks god ) ...

Bottom line if your on a budget toshiba c655 is the way to go, your not going to regret it, if you have a lil more money try the L55 and let me know :) ... toshiba all the way, cant go wrong with them !!!

Buy Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5336 15.6-Inch Laptop - Black Now

This is my second Toshiba Satellite laptop. I bought my first in early 2007, have used it for several hours most days, and it is still going strong. I needed a separate laptop for a new job and this is just perfect. Nice keyboard layout, and I like the starter office program that you really do not have to upgrade if you just want to do simple documents. Nice and lightweight around 5 pounds to take places, good screen resolution. So far, so good. Price is right!

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5336 15.6-Inch Laptop - Black Here

i purchased it from Amazon.com and the service was excellent,the computer is more than i expected meaning its a great computer

Want Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5336 15.6-Inch Laptop - Black Discount?

for all you "kids" that dont know the half of it, great computer, great price. The first laptop i bought cost me 3K....i know, long time ago. For the bargain basement price of $349 i got myself a lean-mean-fightin machine. Love it..if i had kids i could afford to send them all to college with this bad-boy. Suggest step away from google chrome, ram hog. Best thing about this one, upgrade-able to 8g ram, long time before you need to upgrade on the computer itself. throw another g of ram in....lightening speed. go toshiba and amazon

Read More >>

Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB33KX/S 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Ive been looking all over for a small portable laptop to replace my old vaio. My older one was a 15.6in, so anything smaller would have been great. This one I feel is just as good as my older vaio. With the exception of the smaller processor than my older one. Still, the computer runs smoothly and qucikly. The grapics are great (LED), The keyboard will take some getting used to, since its smaller its more squashed. If you have already used a netbook before you should be fine with the keyboard size. For me, being the size of a netbook and getting all the amenities of a laptop sold me. Ive found most laptops this size are more expensive, so finding one at this price with what I needed was great. If your an AutoCad user, AutoCad will run on this, plus, with it being portable, you can take it with you to work or a job site easier. All in all, the other con I have to say is I wish the processor size would have been bigger, but for what I need it for (AutoCad, word processing, internet, music, etc) it works for me.

The portability of the laptop is very good. As expected, the performanace is very average. Also, it is very inconvenient that there is no optical drive. The sony external optical drive is not compatible with the device as the device does not have an ilink port, which is a very stupid design. I tried many cables and could not make it work. The Sony tech support is terrible!

Buy Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB33KX/S 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver) Now

I bought this laptop two weeks ago, it is really light and looks nice, which can satisfy what I need, but there are some problems I am not satisfied with. First of all, the battery's life is not what offcial website states. In fact, the battery life is only about 4 hours if the brightness is moderate and connecting wireless. Furthemore, the price is relatively expensive. The price I wish to pay for is about 420~450 dollars. The advantage is the screen is perfect and keyborad is also nice to press and the charger is very light.

Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB33KX/S 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver) Here

gave this computer to my mom for her birthday 8 months ago and it still holds up well. i use it occasionally when i stop by her house with no real problems, and she loves it. she uses it for basic word processing, email, and internet browsing.

Want Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB33KX/S 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver) Discount?

I was happy when it arrived. But I got a little sad and surprised when I opened it, it was small as what I did not expect it to be. However, it looks nice. I can carry everywhere. Also, I can plug it into the TV, so I can watch music video or movie in a big screen. The only thing I am not happy with it is that it does not have a CD-Rom.

Read More >>

ASUS G75VX G75VX-BHI7N09 17.3-Inch Laptop

I've always thought to myself that the ROG Notebook line was always built a lot larger than it should be. Although this notebook comes across as over-sized and bulky, it truly does make up for it in performance, thermals, and build quality.

I won't lie, this thing is a monster. There is simply no way around it. If you plan on lugging this thing around frequently, I'd seriously recommend either physical training, or a good Laptop Backpack. I do both, and the Slappa Matrix allows this behemoth to fit, although quite snugly. I will say, I was surprised at how small the power brick was, I expected a significantly larger brick. Those of you worried about the power supply being proportionately large shouldn't worry too much. I would imagine the reduction in size is due to the Kepler based GPU, which requires less power than its Fermi GPU cousins (more on that later).

The build quality and design are quite optimal and are what I expect from a premium ROG branded laptop. Everything seems to be well mounted, or fastened down and that glue or adhesive use is at a relative minimum compared to other laptops. This machine look like it will stand up well in the long-haul as well as moderate abuse, but in the end, only time will tell. I will say, I am not as worried about wear and tear with the G75 as I was with my previous M17X R3. My previous R3 had a considerable amount of glue and adhesive and over time, due to the heat from the CPU/GPU (and despite significantly lower temps after re-pasting) several parts of the trim began to peel and pull away, not what I had expected from a "premium," brand laptop. Like I said, time will tell and I plan on updating this review with any problems I come across.

One of two Major Complaints I have against the Laptop is the lack of End-User customization or maintenance. Without completely tearing the G75 apart, you are limited to swapping out hard drives (there are two easily accesible bays), and RAM. You could tear it down to install an mSata SSD, change the wireless card, or access the other two RAM slots, but you would only do so knowing that your warranty is void and that you know exactly what you are doing. On the other side of the coin, I understand why the motherboard and the layout is the way it is. With that said, in my opinion, the percentage of performance gained from upgrading most likely does not merit the cost of a CPU or GPU upgrade.

My Other major complaint rests with windows 8 and the lack of recovery options. I knew going into this the 1TB HDD was a measly 5400 RPM. Completely unsatisfactory for any gaming laptop. I had pulled my 512GB SSD from my previous R3 and planned to use that and install/restore Windows 8. This was a unique learning experience to say the least. After exhausting many options, from cloning partitions to tweaking partition tables using GParted from a Linux Live USB, I even considered ordering the OS disc from ASUS, but I ended up installing Windows 7 on the SSD and using the drivers from the G75VW. Thus far, I have had no problems.

I am pleased with the keyboard and the spacious trackpad. I think the white lighting is a good, neutral touch. I like the idea of different color lighting schemes, but don't believe it to be at all necessary. The keyboard itself is nice to type on (for a laptop), and shows very little flex towards the center. The trackpad is quite large and accommodates multi-touch as well, making for quick zoom-in and out functions. With Windows 8 this feature seemed almost a requirement without a touchscreen. The wrist-rest is stout and feels as if it were made of a high grade ABS type plastic. There is also a soft-touch type texture applied and seems as if it would hold up well in the long-haul to wear and tear.

Performance and thermal testing. I am impressed with the performance of thislaptop (for the time being). Not only can the 3630QM hit 3.4GHz on one core during turbo, but it can maintain load at more than optimal temperatures. Same goes for the GTX 670MX. Even while gaming for extended periods, the fans are nearly inaudible. Borderlands 2 with Ultra Settings, I get an average of 49 FPS. Skyrim on Ultra I see an average of 40 FPS. Hitman Absolution I can only take it to high settings and my frames are generally 34 FPS. In Far Cry 3, I usually see 46 FPS with high settings. All are played in 1080p using the Nvidia 314.07 Drivers. During stress testing, The GPU's temperature maxed out at 68C in furmark for thirty minutes, while the CPU maxed out with 82C in Prime95 for thirty minutes. While gaming, I have not seen higher than 62C on the GPU, and 73C on the CPU. Personally, i'd like to see temperatures after re-pasting the thermal compound, but I don't plan on doing that for several months as I'd like to keep my warranty.

Despite the bulkiness of the G75VX, I appreciate the trade-off received in performance and cooler temperatures. It is also nice to see the new Kepler based 670MX. It may not be a 675MX or 680M, but I understand the compromise of speed, energy efficiency and temperature. Not to mention I need some reason to go back to my desktop every so often. As of now, I highly recommend the G75VX over an Alienware or Clevo-based mobile gaming platform.

Pros:

fast Fast FAST! For the price, its really hard to beat the specs of this machine. The i7's and the factory 8 gigs of ram make this machine a screamer.

Build quality is excellent. I cant find any build defects whatsoever.

Keyboard is quite nice to use and is good quality. Keys aren't exaclty what i would consider high quality, but for a laptop I have no complaints

Large multi-touch trackpad. Having multi-touch in Windows 8 makes for a MUCH better experience than a standard trackpad.

GTX670MX is an excellent GFX card. It should run most modern games for you, although some will be need to be tuned down a bit. I played the demo of Mass Effect 3 and it looked brilliant. Also, being Kepler based it stay much cooler and saves on energy than some of its counterparts.

Excellent ventilation. I play SWTOR for hours on end (not the most demanding game) and it barely warms up. Laptop stays cool to the touch and very little heat coming from the exhaust.

Dual Hard Drive SATAIII bays. It comes standard with a 1TB 5400rpm Hard drive, but its nice to have the spare slot for additional storage/SSD boot drive.

Cons:

Size. This isn't really a con to me but I thought I would list it for potential buyers. This is no small laptop. I use this as more of a desktop replacement so it works well for me. If you plan on traveling a lot I would probably something smaller and lighter.

Standard 1TB 5400rpm Hard Drive. To me this is an odd choice by ASUS. A very high performing machine hindered by a slow drive. Do yourself a favor and replace it with an SSD and move this drive to the 2nd bay for storage.

No blu-ray drive. This isn't really a con for me but I thought I would list it. You really wouldn't want to be toting this thing around watching movies anyway

No OS discs included. Why is this becoming so rare? If you want to re-install Windows 8 to a different drive you'll have to order an OS disc from ASUS or find someone with a Windows 8 disc (Key is stored on the motherboard so it will auto detect for you)

Wrap Up:

All in all this is an excellent laptop. It performs very well out of the box. If you want to make this thing even better for a little extra cash, replace the standard 1TB 5400rpm with a SSD and move the 1tb to the other bay. Re-install windows to the SSD and this machine boots in less than 8 seconds. Also to future proof a bit (or for bragging rights), install 2 x 4gb ram sticks in the 2 open slots on the bottom of the computer to 16 gigs total. As of today, you can get a 64Gb SSD for about 80 bucks and 2x4GB Ram for about 60.

Feel free to comment with questions!

Buy ASUS G75VX G75VX-BHI7N09 17.3-Inch Laptop Now

Hey everyone!

I have this gamer for about 90 days now. I did not buy it here since this version seems to have the worst hard drive one can put in a laptop that otherwise got the power to match a 1GB desktop GTX 650Ti or so !!! Pixel & texture fill rates are even higher than 650Ti, when OC'd.

Now, let me tell you about how much OC one can do on it :D

As most know by now Kepler GPUs have a core limit that won't let you clock more than +135MHz on laptops, without doing modifications that will void the warranty or may harm your hardware if you don't know what you're doing. Anyway, the core on 670MX is good enough to play all the latest stuff in 1080p on Ultra and even go ahead and turn on MSAA or FXAA it's not a surprise when you see that the chip is a GK104, which is also the chip that powers 675MX/680M/MX as well as desktop 660/Ti, 670 & 680 :)

The only "downfall", if you will, would be the memory bus (192 bit) and the clock frequency the memory runs on 1400MHz is low, even 670M ran @ 1500MHz.

Considering this I have to mention that if your GPUs ASIC quality is 80% and up, like mine is, you'll be able to max the memory clocks in MSi Afterburner @ +1000MHz !!!

The sweetest thing about this is that 670MX seems to embrace that crazy 60% memory OC and DOMINATE any game I tried @ only 2-3*C over the stock clock temps. The highest temperature I got while playing 2 hours is 65*C !!!

OK, enough about the graphics for now :D

Let's take a look @ the sound.

Sound is supplied by a Realtek HD Audio.

No more playing BF3 with headphones and having sound coming both from speakers and headphones simultaneously like my older G75VW with VIA HD sound card did.......I loved it by it was kind of an annoying issue, especially when you have a hot chick sleeping in the room and she does not like gaming sounds and she decides to leave after that, not cool :D

The sound is a lot more crisp and focused and it has a lot of options that will give you a surround sound-like quality on the stock speakers and theater-like sound with a HDTV. I use a 24" 1080p Toshiba TV and together they just KILL IT!

One small sound issue is the instance when you plug or unplug audio-in or -out, like headphones or a mic from the laptop and you have your Windows taskbar set to "auto hide". Sometimes it will lock it in "visible" position preventing it from "hiding". Anyway, it can be resolved by simply plugging/unplugging again this will make it hide properly. In the end I remember having the same on a Win7 Asus K53SV-A1, which also used the same sound card it's more of an Windows issue than Realtek HD problem.

The hard drive it came with is a 7200rpm 750GB Seagate Momentus XT. It goes for about $125-150 or so right here on Amazon and is pretty fast for a mechanical drive.

My older VW came with the non-XT version of this HDD and I'm happy to say this one is visibly faster....1080p BF3 gameplay playback recorded with Fraps would cause lag on the Momentus, the XT is yet to choke :D

I do use an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD with it for gaming only, Win8 is on the Seagate XT, it makes games near seamless fps drops are caused by the GPU.

My model is a G75VX-RH71 and comes with 12GB of Hyundai Hynix memory, which is pretty cheap but I do have 16GB Kingston Hyper X RAM and plan to put it in anyday now (voiding the warranty if I do it too rough, damn those G75s are tight inside :D). Honestly, this gamer doesn't need that much RAM though I have it from my VW as it does everything @ thunder speed already.

The processor used in this Asus is a Intel Core i7 3630QM an entry level Ivy Bridge Quad Core which is more than you'll ever need. I edit around 50-100GB of raw/uncompressed 1080p video a week and this processor, does it ~10-15% quicker than 3610QM did.

In my opinion it's the best CPU choice, since all the 37xx/38xxQM and 3940XM are way overpriced and will make this Asus cost as much as an damn Alienware, while delivering just few more "horses". Not to mention most today's laptop components will be outdated next year and you gonna be stuck with an older GPU, while your CPU has enough power till 2014.... makes no sense.

This laptop is a great buy today and will sell with ease when you're ready for the next one believe me, I've sold 2 of them by now and it never took more than a week to get them sold.

The fps is just wonderful on this bad boy in any game I threw at it.

Like I said before you can turn all the bells & whistles in them and get high fps.

Battlefield 3 all ultra, 1080p, 2xMSAA 50-80fps, with Fraps 35-70fps, though I turn MSAA off when recording;

NFS:Most Wanted You'll never go below 60fps maxed-out, period;

GTA4 + over 60 high-poly car mods + ICEnhancer v2.1 with High-End PC config.ini file all very high, shadows medium, draw distance 50 the fps is 30-45;

When recording this game all GPUs I had: GTS 360M, GT 540M, GTX 660M & now GTX 670MX never worked @ 100% core engagement, so when recording the fps might go as low as 15fps and as high as 35fps;

I never tried this game without mods but I'm sure you can put all settings on max and still get like 50fps with ease......the car/graphic mods are what's causing the drops.

Some of the things I feel are worth mentioning too is the fact that even with Win8 on an HDD, this Asus takes about 10seconds to go from being off to asking for your password.

The next thing is the presence of Thunderbolt outlet. I never used it myself, but I remember my G75VW having the same outlet in the exact same place and those who said the VW comes without Thuderbolt and complained about it. Well, here all of you "complainers" will finally be satisfied as well it's OFFICIAL this time, the VX has it and it works perfect, I checked it this time :)

Well, that's it for now.....I think the laptop is a great buy, the $1500 amount here seems a bit pricey for what you get (8GB RAM/5400rpm HDD), but that's not my business everyone should do their own research before buying and considering that retailers like BestBuy are just getting them in stock for the first time might explain the price as well.

I'll do an update in 90 days to let everyone interested know if there are any issues that need addressing, but from my experience with AsusTek I can almost be sure there won't be.

Thanks for reading and I hope this review helps y'all to make a decision.

Peace.

Read Best Reviews of ASUS G75VX G75VX-BHI7N09 17.3-Inch Laptop Here

PROS: Really nice HEAVY Laptop. Let's be clear. This is not to be hauled around on a daily basis. This is a desktop replacement for sure. Even with the slow 5400RPM drive, the system flies. I will most likely upgrade it to MAX the ram and put the most capacity SSD drive I can afford, in addition to a faster, additional hard drive.

I do not care for games. I want computing power for graphics and business and this does the trick so far.

Man this thing is big..Did I mention how big it is? Think...COFFEE Table Book!

So here is my goal. Use my iPad4 during the day, and this thing at night for the heavy work.

Cons: Slow 5400RPM Drive. But that is minor at best. I am sure they leave this drive in here to hit the $1500.00 Price point. Understandable as ASUS probably figured us nerds would toss it and put something else in...

Want ASUS G75VX G75VX-BHI7N09 17.3-Inch Laptop Discount?

After a lot of consideration I finally decided to go with this laptop because of the price for the cpu and gpu combo.I'm pretty happy with my decision despite the poor performance from the 5200rpm hard drive,i knew I should have sprung for an ssd and plan to soon,though it is upsetting it didn't come with any recovery software so installing a new hard drive will require an installation disk.I've already jumped the hurdles of installing windows 7 with a 7200 rpm drive I had which can be a headache if you don't research before you dive right into it lol. anywho before I start bashing windows 8 i'll do a like/dislike list

Likes:

bright vibrant display HD

cool simple design almost like a Lamborghini hood very solid

great performance plays my games smoothly at high settings

speakers sound pretty good but I prefer headphones so not a good judge of that

fairly easy access to 2 hard drive bays and 2 extra memory slots

Dislikes:

Matte screen I've owned a matte screen before and I don't recall it having this much texture almost looks dirty annoys me

Wifi seems to have problems connecting at the right speeds research suggests they haven't sorted out the drivers for the qualcom cards yet

keyboard chicklet I think they call it idk but too flat hard to feel for the key I want to press without looking but maybe that's just me

and last but not least the harddrive is painfully slow (by todays standards yees I remember windows 95) installing and loading games or anything else for that matter lol

not much else I can add all I do is play games and watch youtube on it so if that's what you do I highly recommend this laptop just not the windows 8 which isn't really all that bad just annoying and unnecessary

Read More >>

ASUS K53E-DS52 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brown)

Easy to set up right out of the box. Wasn't loaded down with junk ware like a lot of them are. I was a little concerned about the lack of a manual and recovery DVD, but the laptop was ready for me with all the instructions prompting me step by step. I'm not use to Windows 7. but it wasn't long before I was ready to start loading my junk. I'm now 2 days into it and still loading. Maybe because I'm not a computer wiz.

This is a good unit size and power wise, it fits my needs nicely with the built in features I wanted without breaking the bank.

Update:

After 2 weeks I started getting the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death". Not good, so I am returning it. Uninstalling everything I installed didn't help. Even reinstalling the system from the back up didn't help. It kept getting worse, a hardware issue. Too bad, it was a nice unit and I was just starting to like it. I may try another one, just was unlucky with this one.

After having an old HP lay down and die on us we decided to give Asus a try. We have had it now for about 6 months now and have experienced no problems. Some post have indicated the keyboard was weak or springy, it does seem a little springy but poses no problem. I would recommend this computer to everyone. The wife is happy with its operation and ease of use.

Buy ASUS K53E-DS52 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brown) Now

Read More >>

Acer AS5253-BZ684 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black)

Awesome laptop got it for $379... Lots of bloatware get rid of it!

Update to the newest drivers for AMD 11.2 and Flash 10.2 1080i plays perfect.

Comes with 4gigs of DDR3

Screen is 1376x768 the above wording is wrong

Windows Scores mine at CPU 3.8 Memory 5.7 Graphics for windows 4.0 Graphics for Gaming 5.6 and Hard Drive is 5400rpms scores 5.8

Keyboard has some flex

Screen is very bright and clear

Webcam is nice and clear make sure you update it helps

Runs very cool and quiet

Going to try this with gaming will update soon

Gotta say it's a great investment. Amd has always been good in making power efficient processors, e series is one of those. That plus the newest 6000 series graphics, this laptop is ready to rock.The processor on this one is dual core 1.6 ghz, which is the only downgrade for me. Multitasking is very limited on this laptop, had a slight stutter while having an antivirus scan on it while watching a youtube video. The vebcam is pretty descent, hihg contrast but norhing to worry about. Some of preinstalled softwarw is actually useful, no recovery discs arw provided, you have to make your own. Touchpad is good, configurable gestures etc. This laptop is made for low powwe consumption and longer battery life.

Buy Acer AS5253-BZ684 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black) Now

GREAT LAPTOP!!! Purchased for $399, you can not beat the price for what you are getting.

PROS: -Very quick, Initial setup was fast and easy.

-Screen is very bright!

-Surprised to have these graphics seeing how its so inexpensive.

-Very light and has a very sturdy feel to it.

CONS: -Speaker is not the greatest, but thats honestly the only real complaint I have.

Read Best Reviews of Acer AS5253-BZ684 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black) Here

I bought this laptop for 400 bucks from Amazon. My mom was learning how to use the computer, so I needed a budget laptop for her. She loves it. We haven't had any problems and the basic functional things like email, video chat, word processing, and applications are all there. What else does a 58 year old woman need during her retirement? Awesome buy and I am very happy with this purchase. Unless you're a gamer, you do not need to spend more than 500 bucks on laptops nowadays!

Want Acer AS5253-BZ684 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black) Discount?

I bought this Laptop for college and basic web surfing around the house. I also use it to connect to my Xbox 360 for steaming music and such. And to get drivers for my main computer (Gaming desktop). Anyways back to the review.

Pros:

AMD's Fusion APU is actually a decent processor.

AMD HD 6310 is a decent video card. Able to play some of today's games at low to medium settings.

Acer build quality around this laptop is pretty good, for $400.

Not a finger print magnet, which i love.

Really quiet and easy to type on.

Cons:

Processor can get maxed out at 100% alot, so i would only recommend light multitasking (haha, i guess im used to my AMD 6 core CPU to much)

Fan runs at full blast (loud), while it boots up. Only for a few seconds though.

Acer bloatware is annoying, and why is there two antivirus's pre-installed on the OS? But once you uninstall all the useless bloatware, it actually gets a nice performance boost.

I dislike the glossy screen. A matte finish would have made sense, given the overall design.

Came with out-dated Bios, which gave me some problems. Though, its easy to update to the latest Bios from the Acer website.

Even though, none of the cons are a deal beaker. Just needs some room for improvement, i would recommend this laptop. Its perfect for the college student. I can not recommend this as a desktop replacement, the processor is to slow for anything other than some light multitasking, web surfing, video chat, etc.

So if your looking for a decent laptop for college are basic computing, then this is your answer. And a good value at $400. Alot better than anything Intel has to offer at this price tag.

Thank you for your time.

Read More >>

Toshiba Satellite Laptop L505-S5988 Intel Core2 Duo 2.1GHz /16" TFT-LCD widescreen with TruBrite te

I got my new L505-S5988 a little over a week ago. I am very impresseed on how it handles many tasks in Windows 7 with no lag at all. This machine is quiet, and very cool even after hours of use. The full keboard is a nice touch and the screen is very bright and clear. The only negatives I have on this laptop is the speakers while an impressive size for a laptop they sound quite tinny. Besides that it is a fingerprint magnet. Overall with an external pair of speakers and a microfiber cloth and this is a dream machine!!!

This laptop is very powerful and peaceful. So far I am happy with everything. Haven't touch my old desktop after I received this new laptop. Toshiba laptop rocks!

Buy Toshiba Satellite Laptop L505-S5988 Intel Core2 Duo 2.1GHz /16" TFT-LCD widescreen with TruBrite te Now

This is my 2nd laptop. My first was a 2006 HP DV5063CL, back when the quality control dropped, but they still had a good reputation. I love this laptop. Fast, well equipped and has a great keyboard. I have always used a USB plug-in keyboard on my HP so that I had numeric keys available without the Num Lock gyrations. Well, the Satellite has a built in numeric keyboard. The touch of the keys is pleasing as well. I not only don't need my keyboard, I don't want it either.

My only complaint is the lack of quality in the speakers. They sound tinny. Even with all drivers updated. Their volume is not that great either. My HP laptop had Altec Lansing speakers, and sounded much better than the S5988.

Still, speakers are a minor point. I will use external spe.ers at home, or a USB sound D/A converter with the external speakers, or headphones at home and when I am out.

Feb, 2011 = An additional important point. Until I sat side by side with a friend at her laptop, I did not realize that this PC was designed as a CINEMA PC. It is made to play wide screen movies. Compared to a standard HP 15.4 PC, my screen is wider but not as high. Shorter by about 1 1/2 inches. The screen hight is about 7 3/4 inches. This does make it easier carry, but there is less height to all of the screens and browsers. More scrolling is needed on each page, and a full page view is a little smaller. For someone with poor eyesight or for photo editing on the go, this may not be the best choice in screen format.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite Laptop L505-S5988 Intel Core2 Duo 2.1GHz /16" TFT-LCD widescreen with TruBrite te Here

I ordered a used Toshiba Satellite Laptop L505-S5988. Received in 2 days and in very good condition. Windows 7 runs pretty fast on this machine. For this price range it is well worth the money.

The only negative is that speakers suck for this laptop line. This is the problem of this model. I improved sound quality and volume to a certain extent by installing latest HDA drivers from Realtec website.

Want Toshiba Satellite Laptop L505-S5988 Intel Core2 Duo 2.1GHz /16" TFT-LCD widescreen with TruBrite te Discount?

This is the worst laptop I have ever used in my entire life, bar none. The speakers are absolutely terrible and can barely be heard, even in a quiet room; the keyboard is so touchy that while you are typing on Word you are constantly hitting the mouse pad and highlighting stuff you just typed, hence erasing it; and now finally after only 1 year, my hard drive is bad and so now everything is extremely slow. I will never buy from Toshiba again because of this piece of junk. It's going up on craigslist as broken. Good riddance.

Read More >>

Dell Latitude D620-1.66 Laptop Wireless Computer

The laptop was in good condition when received. It was packaged appropiately to prevent damage during shipment. The length of shipping time was short between purchase and receipt. The surface was clean. They provided a recovery CD and adequate word processing / desktop publishing software. I would buy again from this supplier. The only complaint I have is that the internal wi-fi device was inoperative. That is why I give only a three star rating.

i was very happy at first with how easy it was to pick a product and pay for it, it arrived promptly and undamaged via us postal service. however, something was not right with the screen, i tried to contact the seller via email thru amazon just a couple days after receiving my laptop and he never replied. im stuck with a product that apparently has no warranty and i havent received any support from amazon.com or the seller. im not happy with my purchase.

Buy Dell Latitude D620-1.66 Laptop Wireless Computer Now

Amazon fulfilled my expectations with regards to shipping and packaging, and I believe dell fulfilled the great quality in my latitude. I would definately recomend this for anyone looking for a cheaper alternative to the best quaility in the market.

Read Best Reviews of Dell Latitude D620-1.66 Laptop Wireless Computer Here

I did allot of research on resfurbished laptops because i never bought one before but with limited amount of funds it was a promising buy for me. I never wright reviews but i figured if you are like me this would be some help for you. It is just like buying a brand new computer and i will never go back to buying brand new again. This is above and beyond what i expected. works perfect. I use it for the internet,music,ipod,writing resumes and more. it is perfect you will not be disappointed you went this route. i bought cricket wireless prepaid which is cheap but works great. Trust me i do not work for these people i am just an average 24 year old and this is the best thing i ever did!!!! so happy and you will be too!!

Want Dell Latitude D620-1.66 Laptop Wireless Computer Discount?

I buy Dell computers to take to Tanzania to colleagues who can only spend $200 and a little more. Tampa is amazing. They are responsive and help with any questions. These Dell 610-620 stand the test of time. This one had Windows XP professional which I highly recommend even in the days of Windows 8. It is reasonably fast. The hard drive may be small, but you can buy back ups and especially for students where no Apple Store is available, they are definitely worth it. I am an Apple fan, so I gave my Dell up a few years ago, but this one stands the test of time. (Know your seller)

Read More >>

MSI C Series CX61 0NF-258US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brown)

I chose this laptop over a few others for it's value and for the potential of what it can do with a few extra additions to the computer.

DESIGN

The design of the computer is excellent. It has a smooth metal brownish-grey finish, full size keyboard with numpad, and a nice responsive trackpad that is easy to use. The keyboard is chiclet style, and is easy to type on and responsive. One downside is that the keyboard is not backlit, but at the price this should be expected.

SPECS

It's important to note that the processor specs listed on Amazon at the time of this review are incorrect. As listed on MSI's website (and what came with my laptop), the processor is a Intel i7-3630QM, not an Apple A4 (do PC's even come with Apple processors?). The 3630QM is a quad-core processor at 2.4ghz, with a max turbo of 3.4ghz. The laptop also has a max RAM capacity of 16GB (only comes with 6GB, however), and has SATA3. These were both important factors for me for future upgrades to the laptop.

The resolution is 1366x768, so you do give up some screen space, but again at this price that is to be expected as well.

FUNCTION

The laptop comes with surprisingly little bloat, with a few MSI utilities and Winzip, of all things. I found the computer to be quite responsive, even with the 5400rpm drive. Gaming is nice with the 645M Nvidia card. I play a lot of SWTOR and Guild Wars 2, both of which worked well.

One thing to note on this laptop is that MSI puts a tamper sticker right over one of the screw holes on the backplate of the laptop, so that putting in upgrades will essentially void your warranty (the sticker states that warranty is void if sticker is tampered with). It's a risk you will take if you plan on upgrading right away.

The machine doesn't come with recovery disks, but it does have an MSI utility to burn recovery disks on the desktop.

The screen quality is good, not great. I wouldn't put it up there as the best, but it is quite clear with good color representation. Viewing angles are not great, as the color washes out quickly as you get at more of an angle. This has been my experience with most laptops.

All in all I feel this is a great value for the money. It features several mid to higher end pieces that will allow you to have an above average laptop to do some gaming on, especially with more RAM and an SSD upgrade. As is, it still can handle current games (but surely not as well as a high end laptop or desktop).

Read More >>

Acer AS5534-1121 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 3.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

Bought this laptop to replace an old HP DV6226 because of the great price/performance ratio. As a previos owner of an Acer laptop i wasn't too sure about buying another one but after using it for a while and removing all the unwanted pre-installed software i realize what a great machine it was.

Pros:

Great performance

Travel friendly

Stylish Design

Good battery live (up to 4 hours)

Never gets hot

Really nice keyboard with numeric keypad

Very clear display

Cons:

Touchpad buttons are a little noisy

Too much bloatware installed

I'm very pleased with this laptop, i highly recommend it and for this price you can't go wrong!!

THE ACER ASPIRE IS A FANTASTIC LAPTOP. For the price of $500 Acer has 4GB memory which is fast to run any online game, use it for college, or also to do work. It has 320GB which is alot of space for the laptop. To begin with it has a built in webcam which wasn't describe in the product detail at all. In my opinion I myself would rate this laptop a 10 out of 10 because since this laptop will keep me going for a while. The laptop has not caused any problems for the past 2 months. I would recommend it to anyone that would want to buy a new laptop for a cheap and nice price.

Buy Acer AS5534-1121 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 3.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) Now

I recently replaced an aging Dell Inspiron with this Acer laptop. It is impressively thin and very fast. Where to begin? With 4 GB memory and a fast, dual processor, this 64 bit computer amazed me. Fast enough for gaming? It would be for me! As another reviewer noted, you do need to remove the "bloatware" and free trial crapola, but there was actually less on this laptop than I had experienced on my last three computers. As a side note, the Windows 7 functions flawlessly and may well be the best Windows iteration ever. Add to all the other features easy DVD burning, and it is easy to see why this Acer has impressed me so much. Having had no experience with Acer, I was a bit leery to purchase. After doing some online research, I decided to give it a try. I am very pleased that I did! Your mileage may vary, but I can comfortably give this unit a 5 star rating.

Read Best Reviews of Acer AS5534-1121 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 3.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) Here

Great laptop. It performs everything I want it to do, very quickly. It is a Windows 7, 64 bit system, so I had to down load a lot of 64 bit drivers to use some of my old software. The networking function works great. I can connect and print from anywhere in my home. Price was great too.

Want Acer AS5534-1121 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 3.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) Discount?

I purchased this laptop for school 2 years ago and it is still in great condition. The laptop performs and operates as it did on day one. However there are a few issues I would like to bring up. The unit heats up too fast. After about a month, I had to purchase a stand to elevate the rear of the laptop so more air can flow.

Secondly, the battery went bad within six months and I had to send it in for replacement under warranty. Since then the battery works correctly. There was also a problem with warranty issues as Acer kept telling me that the laptop is out of warranty when it was not. I had to fax them my receipt four times for warranty.

With every computer over the shelf, there is unwanted embedded software. I spent the first two hours removing software that had no purpose like Wild Tangent. This Aspire seemed to have every loaded app under the son. After removal of the programs the Aspire performed great.

I would recommend buying this laptop used or new from a reputable source.

Read More >>

Acer Aspire V3-731-4473 17.3" Notebook PC

There is only one problem with this laptop...Windows 8, it lasted less than 45 minutes before I returned to Windows 7 Ultimate.

Now the computer is a joy to use. I have 29 years as an IT tech and I think Windows 8 won't be ready for prime time for at least another year if at all.

I am amazed by this computer. Big 17.3" screen, resolution is great. Sound is awesome. It was recommended to me by my computer tech. He said it is an excellent computer, especially the price. He set it all up for me.

Buy Acer Aspire V3-731-4473 17.3" Notebook PC Now

Windows 8 is the AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would not have purchase this if I knew how bad windows 8 is. DO NOT buy anything with windows 8!

Read Best Reviews of Acer Aspire V3-731-4473 17.3" Notebook PC Here

Read More >>

SL510 T5870 2GB/160 Dvr W7-32

Love the computer; for the price it's a step ahead of everything else. Only thing I run into is there seems to be something glitchy between the Lenovo software they've installed and the Windows 7 home system; I regularly find that I have to restart the windows explorer shortly after logging in, and occasionally have the computer slow way down when plugged in yet can't find any background program that is running. Otherwise it's brilliant; I love the layout, the screen is beautiful and works great under many lighting conditions, and the textured track pad and the joystick button are better than most options.

I have had no problems since I purchased this product. The DVD CD-RW, speakers (sound,) battery, Windows 7 OS all work excellent. The computer does not get too hot like I've experienced with other laptops. I like the size. I can take it easily anywhere I go and still enjoy the large screen and keyboard. The finger pad takes some getting used to. It can be very touchy. I would also like to see Lenovo put the power cord in the back instead of the side of the laptop for more convenience. The software came preloaded with no disks. I would have preferred to have them. Also Office Suite Professional was only a trial, not a part of the software.

Buy SL510 T5870 2GB/160 Dvr W7-32 Now

Read More >>