Gotta buy a new lap top....thoughts?

[JThiessen]

Jerry - what the heck makes you think I have not taken into consideration the advice given? I also got advice on another forum (one specific to HTPC users). Just because I'm not following your "model of need" to the tee, doesn't mean I did not think about it.

The only two machines that I have been able to find locally that have the three features I want (BD player, 1900x1020 screen, and numeric keypad) are the HP ENVY 17" (@$1400) and the ASUS 17" A1 (@$1700).

[whitrzac]

A BD player is easy to add later. You can find the drives for under $100 on ebay. Do you know that you need to pay for a decent program to play them? I have yet to find any free ones that will play all BD movies out there...


If you don't need something right now, check with dell/HP/asus return policies to see if you can try them out for a few days. IMO I would NEVER buy something from a B&M store unless it was a super deal.



Don't pay for an memory or HDD upgrades from the man. memory is dirt cheap, and a good aftermarket HDD will have a 5 year warranty.(unlike the laptop)



EDIT: another thing you can do is order over the phone/kiosk in the mall. You can usually haggle your way to a 5-10% discount

[JERRY2KONE]

Calm down Thiessen dont get mad because we are trying to share our advice with you. You started this thread asking us for advice and info, but your continuing communication seems to be that you have already made up your mind. Please share with us why the resolution on a laptop is so important, when you stated that you would be connecting this to your home theater system, which would pretty much make the resolution on the laptop itself a none issue. Plus as stated one can add HDD's and memory much cheaper after market through suppliers, rather than paying top dollar from major PC dealers. If you are hell bent on spending $1800-$2000 on a laptop regardless of the great info being supplied on here, than why did you ask? Please don't take it so personal as we are only trying to help to advance your research and maybe save you a few bucks in the process as you requested. There are ways to avoid paying through the nose for PC gear that you can get much cheaper through other venues. I did not come in here to battle with you, but to try and help just like a few others are.