the laptop. uncle sam is going to be done with playing with my tax return soon. and once i get it back and pay off the credit cards and put some into savings, i'm going to purchase a laptop. i'll need it/use it for school work mostly. i'm working on getting my associates in network engineering.  i've been looking at some different kinds and stumbled accross the acer line-up. comments? suggestions?

Unless you are spending money on very high end computer equipment the internal components of most PC's are fairly similar quality wise. Acer makes a decent laptop. Very few PC makers make a "bad" one anymore.

My In-Laws bought a Packard Bell Computer in the early 90's...that was a crappy computer...

If the price is right then buy it.

As someone who works with computers for a living I have to saw, Acer laptops are great for the price, just try to stay away from the celeron processors (get one with a Pentium or amd equivalent)

the one warning I have is the battery life usually sucks

I'm replying from an Acer mini laptop.  It's been very reliable thus far...

ive got an asus EEE which is great as well. BUT jserio. why a lappy are you getting your degree online? or having to be mobile? or?, i say this. cause ACER, HP, and compaq make great lappies. avoid the celerons as well. BUT the three companies have great customer service as well

no, not getting my degree online. well, one of my classes i'm taking online but that's only because of schedualing conflicts with my other classes and i needed to take another class to get the proper amount of credits for this quarter for federal financial aid. also, the mobility factor would be nice. the wife rather likes the desktop we've got and i don't want the computer to be a fighting point between us, i.e-butting heads over pc usage. anyhow. the acer i saw at wal-mart was $600. 3gb ram, 320g hard drive. can't remember the exact processor in it. but, it has more memory than my current desktop (hp) which i paid $750 for almost 2 years ago now. 

There is an Acer laptop on the Wal-mart website for $698 that looks similar to the one you described except it has 4gb ram. If you can buy yours for nearly $98 cheaper and then buy 1gb memory and install it yourself then you might save some money. 3gb is probably fine for most laptops if you want to save some money.

my current desktop only has 1gb ram and 200gb hard drive. so it will be an upgrade in that respect. i just tried to search hp website for my current pc, can't find it. guess they don't make it anymore. my dad told me once that the computers you buy new at the store are outdated by the time you walk out the door with it. 

Your dad is right.

For almost every electronics item (computers, cell phones, tv's, etc) the company that makes it has a newer/faster version already in development. Trying to stay on the bleeding edge of computing is expensive and largely unnecessary unless you do a lot of gaming or computer graphics work. Until late last year I was still using a 5 year old computer that worked just fine for documents and web surfing. I would still be using it except the power supply failed and it was a proprietary Shuttle case power supply.

If I were purchasing a laptop today I would not spend much more than 5 or 6 hundred dollars...especially if I had a decent desktop already. Laptops are more likely to fail, be stolen, get dropped, etc.

oh, i'm not worried about "keeping up with the jone's." i just want the best bang for my buck so to speak.  money doesn't come easy but it can dissappear in a hurry. i just want to make sure mine is well spent in all respcts.

You may want to check this place out they are always running some smokin deals....

http://www.tigerdirect.com/

thanks. 

this site has good deals as well -- http://www.newegg.com

For what it's worth, I've heard pretty good things about Toshiba too--in terms of quality, value, and features.   

My desktop is an HP and it has been extremely reliable for serveral years now!  For that reason I bought an HP laptop too, but I have my suspicions about it's quality--but that is in all likelihood because it was a Black Friday special put together with cheap (-er than usual, which is already pretty cheap) components.   Happy hunting!

+1 for newegg.com 

I would get a Dell though... usually you cant beat their prices.. look at their website and be prepared to buy that day. the prices change by the minuet.... Also search their site for Refurb dells.. I bought a sweet one 2 years ago w/ 4 gig of ram and 200gig HD CDRW DVDRW for $400

I've never heard much bad about the newer Acer notebooks. Myself, I'd opt for Dell or Toshiba. HP $crewed me once and they'll never get the chance again. Sony's are reliable, but more expensive than others that are just as good.

i looked at several tonight at walmart....and the acer was $200 dollars cheaper than the dells, toshiba or hp models that were there. for comparrison, they all had 4gb ram and 320gb hard drives.  that's insane. i think i've picked my laptop really. i was just wondering if anyone had any experience with them. remember, i'm looking for the best bargin. 

In the repair PC world That I have been in over 10 years.. I wouldnt buy an Acer. I know lots on here seem to be having good experience w/ them but I have not... esp when it comes time to have one repaired.

Look on dells website before you buy... look at refurbs! mostly they are just returns from people who realized they didnt need one or couldnt afford it..or have a scuff on the case

Dell is the way to go

I'm a big Dell fan "DUDE I"M GETTIN A DELL" what a crack head anyhow! My desk top is four years old getting a bit slow in it ancient age. My laptop is a dell inspiron 1505E just realized I've had it for three years paid $700 for it from Dell. It is what I use all the time with the exception of my battery it runs like new. The only thing is I wish I had more memory at the point. I don't get though having a 70g hd but 30 of it is for back up that you can't use WTF. Can someone help me free up my memory?

Oh well definately dell is good. My friend got a nice HP one day after the year warranty pc crashed and was completely useless. He can normally get anything back up and going but this nothing! so, I stay away from things my best friend can't fix LOL!

Mary

Buy more memory and a larger drive.. both are VERY easy to install yourself  It will be like a new laptop...

Burn all your Data on DVD and do a restore as well once you install the new HD.. then it will be a new PC prety much 

You should have atleast 1-2GB even 4GB if your type is cheap... and a 120 or so HD is plenty for most.

www.newegg.com has AWESOME pricing on memory and HD's... also www.geeks.com