What is the best deal on Desktops /Laptops this winter?

I think it might help if we knew a little more about what you want as well.

On the desktop side, you could easily afford a decent Core i7 (quad-core) system with at least 6GB of RAM. Hell, even my $550 i3 (dual-core) Gateway with 6GB could take an i7 CPU (which I could buy fairly cheaply if I were inclined to upgrade).

On the laptop side…. it gets complicated and pricey if you want something that can do video editing even half as fast as a cheap desktop.

I won’t get more specific than that because I can’t. See, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, so a lot of places haven’t announced their Christmas specials yet. You might be better off waiting until we’re actually a little closer to wintertime.

@jerv Well, when Thanksgiving comes (like next week), I will be sure to message you if you forget about me…how does that sound?
My son is a teenager and is always uploading videos he takes to Youtube.
I bought him a refurbished laptop but it is slow.
He likes quick and likes to upload and browse the web etc.

Look for refurbished and off-lease systems. I would also check out your local school district. I recently acquired a 4-year-old laptop computer in very good condition for $125 because my school district was rotating out faculty computers. It is perfectly adequate for anything to do with the Web. People who complain that their computers are too slow are more often experiencing bandwidth issues that don’t have anything to do with their hardware, or their systems are so loaded down with crapware that they’re practically crippled.

I think you have to weigh in factors like quality first, not just price. For example, Dell and Sony offer great prices but their laptops are quite cheaply put together. In my experience, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, and Apple make the best quality laptops. I wouldn’t touch HP with a 10 foot pole.

With quality considered, I would say you could get a really nice computer capable of editing video for about $1000 to $1200 from Lenovo. Paying more than that seems a little too expensive for today. Just make sure you get at least 4 GB of RAM. Storage is really inexpensive these days, so a computer with a 500GB or 1 TB hard drive is well within the $1000 budget.

@camertron Agreed; avoid HP laptops like the plague. Toshiba and Sony both beat Apple in reliability (as does Asus, but I am not find of them) and Sony tends to be overpriced (as does Apple) so that is why I personally like Toshiba.

As for RAM, I do fine on just 3GB, but I would not go below that.

Why do you guys say to stay away from HP? My mom bought herself an HP laptop earlier this year and she loves it. I have to say, I kinda love it, too. It’s pretty and fast, and has some design improvements I’d like to see on my Dell. Anyway, she’s thinking of replacing her ailing Dell desktop and she wants to get another HP because she loves her laptop so much. Why not buy HP?

@MissAnthrope My reasons have mostly to do with reliability, both in surveys and amongst those I know that had them (note the past tense). It is possible that they have made dramatic improvements recently, but it will take more than a few months for them to regain my trust.

Most of the broken laptops I’ve seen were Dell, HP, or broken in ways that no laptop would’ve survived unscathed. Very few of my friend’s Toshibas suffered bad fates. Let me know how that HP is doing in a couple of years of constant use with some traveling and I might change my mind.

@MissAnthrope I’ve simply found that HP laptops aren’t well made. The case is usually made of cheap plastic and breaks easily. They also seem to come with substandard parts and lots of extra software that weighs down the computing experience. Every HP computer I’ve ever seen has had really poor battery life. They’re also not very pretty in my opinion, but that’s a personal preference!