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I need to purchase a laptop computer. I don't want to spend a fortune, but worse yet would be to purchase one that doesn't meet my needs. First off, I want one with a large screen and a full-size keyboard. It is critical to me that the keyboard has the look and feel of a desktop keyboard. I need it to play DVDs and CDs and have a decent set of speakers. I will consider new or used, but if it is used I better be getting a good deal. I have read a few reviews and what I read was Toshiba was good and HP was not so good. Any input or suggestions would be appreciated.
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You really do get what you pay for, and I would definitely stay away from used ones. You don't know if the previous owner left their machine on all the time, etc. Where I work (State) we have tons of the HP laptops. I'm on my third one and have never had a problem. A couple of these get treated rough (moved from place to place, out on boats, etc.). and they have worked well. Just make sure to buy a bigger hard drive than you ever think you would need and get lots of RAM memory to make the thing run faster. I have seen the Sony, HP, Gateway, etc. and they are all pretty good.
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[url "http://shop.lenovo.com/us/landing_pages/sales/YPWWP?cid=us|semd|ggl|us_brand_general_ec_en|t12E1|s&&s_kwcid=lenovo|2580754411"]http://shop.lenovo.com/us/landing_pages/sales/YPWWP?cid=us|semd|ggl|us_brand_general_ec_en|t12E1|s&&s_kwcid=lenovo|2580754411[/url]
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I am a huge Dell fan, simply because we use them at work and they have been extremely reliable. But if something does go wrong their customer service is first class.
Here is a link to the Dell laptop that I use. I just wish I would have got it for the price that it is now offered at.
[url "http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_17?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs"]http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_17?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs[/url]
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Dell, best made and last. We take ours on the boat and it runs great and no problems.
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I don't think there exists a laptop with a full desktop-sized keyboard. That would be a huge mother of a laptop. You can get a USB keyboard, plug it into your laptop, and type on the full sized keyboard though. You can do the same if you want to use a mouse instead of the little finger pad. There are also wireless keyboards and mice you can buy to connect to laptops.
With any brand of laptop, you can get a cheapy piece of junk or a solid reliable machine. You definitely get what you pay for.
I would make sure whatever you get has at least 2 GB of RAM, but you'll be much happier with its speed if you get 3 GB or greater of RAM.
Hard drive space, unless you download lots of movies and/or music online, you'll never fill up a hard drive that is 180 GB in size, and that is usually the minimum size they come with these days, so 250 GB is good too.
For a processor, I'd go with a Core 2 Duo - and get T3220 or greater.
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I also really like Dell, they are reliable computers and their customer service is great...You said you want a lab top that has a keyboard just like a desktop, laptop keyboards are different and most people new to laptops have the most difficulty getting use to the touchpad. I am not sure if you know this or not, but you can connect a regular (desktop) mouse and keyboard to a laptop through the USB port. Some laptops even have the PS2 port. These days even the cheapest laptops can do just about anything you could want to do on one. I do recomend getting an extended warranty with it, if anything happens to it otherwise it's alot more expensive to fix than a desktop. I would only buy new!
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I bought two of the lower end Toshiba Satellite laptops last year, for my wife and myself. We haven't had any issues with them, and they've fit our needs just fine. I've contemplated upgrading the ram, but I haven't really needed to. My mother liked my laptop so much that she bought herself the exact same model, and my mother in law bought a similar one this year, although it has more ram. We paid about 550 for them.
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Thanks for the advice from everyone. I have a 17 inch ASUS notebook (4 megs of ram, 320 GB hard drive) being custom built for me by Prime Systems in Kaysville. It comes with a 3-year parts and labor warranty. It should definitely meet my needs and I can't wait to pick it up on Wednesday.
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