Best Buy laptop

I

Isca

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Feb 10, 2005
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I need a laptop now, except that I'm not in a position I can afford to pay cash now.

But, I do have the rolling I-have-12-months-or-more to pay without interest at Best Buy. I've been comparing two laptops:

Gateway 3700+ 1gig Ram, x600(128mb)

and

Pentium-M 1.73 512 Ram x700(64M)

My quandry is this - They are both about the same weight, but one is bigger. I'm not sure the bigger laptop is as good, however, with only 64 megs of ram on the video card. I also know the pentium-M is more effecient unplugged, but I'm really not sure how often that will be. It also has 512 megs less of ram already.

Right now the 17inch Penium M is on sale for 1299, but the 3700 is reall just being put on display in stores this week, and there's a pretty fair chance it may be on sale this sunday for cheaper (this week was the first week that the 17inch was up on display)

I'm really dissapointed that the compaq/hp turions went with such a crappy graphics card. I'm not sure how much f any I'll game with this machine, but the ability to run something is nice. When I go to lan parties, I'll still be taking my machine, but this may end up being a server. :)

-Chris
 
That is a pretty good matchup. If it were me I would go with whatever I could get a better price on.
 
for the most bang for the buck I would get a Dell I9300 with one of the $750 off coupons.
 
One thing to question is if the notebook breaks under warrany can best buy repair it? I know there has been some issue with gateway units in retails stores and warranty repair. I know comp had big isses with it but is now able to order most of the parts for the gateway notebooks but still has issues even shipping them to gateway for you if it needs like a lcd of logic board. It is something to ask if you buy it from best buy as a just in case factor.
 
All gateway/emachines notebooks are shipped directly to Arima(manufacturer) in Texas for repairs. Any long delays in repairs would basically be Arimas problem, not BBY or Comp's.
 
Well, like I said, I didn't have the ability to pay cash right now, but wanted to get it before the end of the year.

12 months no interest rocks, especially when I already have a BB card.

I configured a 9300 with roughly the same setup, and came out about it did come out about 150 less w/warranty and close to the same config. I know if something breaks, they have to send it out if it's at Best Buy, but let's just say I'm adept at making my opinion known with the service dept if I ever had to. The one bonus is that Best Buy's warranty covers replacement batteries as well.

The Video card would have been better in the upgraded 9300, but again, without applying for yet another financing plan, I would have had to pay now! (tapped out for cash at the moment, doing some remodeling of the house).

So, I picked up the 7510 this weekend. :) Haven't had time to benchmark it or anything atm however.
 
After working 6 months at the "tech bench" You can take your Laptop to Best Buy, but who the fuck knows when you'll get it back. If you got the Dell Warranty you probably get Next Business day on-site service which will be ALOT better than Best Buy's "Whenever the fuck we feel like fixing it" service plan. Hell, even Dell's mail-in warranty will have better turn-around than Best Buy or Arima.
 
Quit giving the guy a hard time about buying at Best Buy
tongue.gif
! I actually buy most of my electronics(that I can't build/modify/buy online myself) from them. You just really can't beat that 12-18 months of interest free time to pay it back. Now, if we had a Fry's Electronics in town, I'd be singing a diffferent tune
wink.gif
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Now back to the subject. If it were me, I'd get the AMD rig. MY main reason is that a 17" screen is just a tad too big and not quite as portable to me personally. Those both look like good systems but the AMD appears to give you a lot more for a lot less $$$.
 
The weird thing is compusa can now order most parts to fix gateway notebooks but has a hard time getting the ok to ship them in for anything elce. It is kinda funny. They can order hard drives, optical, memory, fans, ac adapters, and keyboards but not batteries, inverters, screens, logic or the case. Can best buy do this? It is a good thing to know because if it breaks under warranty it is nice to have the place order the part and get it in a few days then ship the unit off for 2 weeks. In the same sence you could always take it to compusa or ship it to gateway yourself if it does fail.
 
BBY can order batteries and ac adaptors to your door over the phone. All other gateway/emachines are dirrect to Arima.

My benchs turn time is 6.5 days right now on anything shipped out, which includes stuff we send to DEX (YUCK!). If it can be fixed in the store, its about 12hours....

No all retail stores are the same- Just cause the store sucks in your area, doesn't mean they all suck.
 
Im having to live with a rather fucked up Toshiba lappy from BB that demonstrates BAD problems for the tech bench, they send it off to both DEX and their own repair facility and I get my lappy back *no problems found*. Store manager says: If repair center cant find anything wrong, there must be nothing wrong.

Just hope that you never have to send it in for service.
 
Something else of note. on best Buy's PSPs they specifically say they don't cover cosmetic damage. So if your Notebook's plastic case was to develop a crack (except for that Arima hinge problem) Best Buy won't repair it. Dell covers broken plastics even if you don't have complete care. I've had a couple notebooks that I'd show up on site to repair and there'd be cracks in the casing, no problem getting the plastics shipped out next day.

Dyre - Best Buy has some work to do if they want to compete with Dell, 6.5 days is rediculous. A friend of mine has mail-in on his Dell and he's gotten it repaired in 4 days the two times he's sent it in. I can do any repair operation on a Desktop or Notebook within 24 hours. It surprises me that Dex sucks so bad considering Laptops aren't that hard to work on.
 
Mr_Evil said:
Dyre - Best Buy has some work to do if they want to compete with Dell, 6.5 days is rediculous. A friend of mine has mail-in on his Dell and he's gotten it repaired in 4 days the two times he's sent it in.
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I would agree with that also. I have sent my laptop in before to Dell. Had it back the same work week. And that includes shipping time.
 
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