Question for the techies. I'm looking for a new laptop, mostly for browsing and documents. I have found these two but having trouble deciding which is better. Any opinions on whether to go with the dell or toshiba? Here is the TOSHIBA Here is the DELL Thanks!!
The dell has a slightly better processor, so that helps. Other than that, they're identical computer, so it really comes down to brand...do you want a Satellite, or do you want a Dell? I've had many friends buy Toshiba Satellite computers, and they LOVE them. In my experience though, they are typically heavier and bulkier. But, after looking at the specs, they are about the same. All in all, I think they're going to be about the same, but with a different look.
I'm not entirely sure how competitive those two are in this price range. However, no matter what brand you purchase, do yourself a favor and purchase a SSD HD to go into it. You'll thank me later.
Alex, What exactly is the benefit of a SSD HD? Edit - I did a quick google search on my phone. I have an external HD also for my desktop that I usually back stuff up on. Would I still benefit from the SSD?
After looking at the two notebooks you have listed, I dont think a SSD drive will make that much of a difference. Plus the fact a SSD drive will cost about 1/2 of what thos laptops cost. If you do decide to go with a SSD drive, becareful on which one you go with. DO some research because we have been burned with bad drives in the past where regular HD were actually faster than the SSD drive.
my parents both had Dell laptops a few years ago and both eventually locked up after MONTHS of crapping out. then they both switched to Toshiba Satellites. both in my opinon are gigantic and bulky/heavy. my dad's got a virus or something of some sort almost immediately after buying it. his fan runs 24/7 when the computer is on. my moms, case is cracked in like 4 places and her speakers haven't worked since like a month after she bought it.
all my laptops are dell. but all have been workstation class (medium sized not the really big ones) and have been pleased. i always buy dells because if you are careful about the choice you get vanilla hardware which is important to me because i always end up installing server OS's on them. my current precision m4300 is running win2k8 r2 64 bit with hyper-v running 3 virtual machines, two win2k8 r2 64 bit enterprise instances, and 1 wink2k8 r2 64 bit standard running storage server to simulate a 2 node 2k8 enterprise SQL server cluster. as to SSD. i have yet to buy into that because of the cost. i have three 320 gig 7200 rpm drives for my laptop that i swap around just to run different configs, one being xp for tuning with ATR and open source. Not all SSDs are equal, and the good ones are expensive. the average cost for those drives was around 70 bucks and its fast enough to get the job done and if one craps out i just throw in another one till i can rebuild with a backup and a new disk.
Well Corsair makes a highly regarded 80GB SSD that I've been eyeing for my business laptop. The benefit of SSD is speed primarily. I don't require large storage on this machine, simply fast access for reading/writing. And FWIW, this is a dell XPS m1210. I've never had a problem with it or any other dell for that matter. Dell support is generally quite easy to work with if you need replacement parts -- face it, parts do fail. I don't need to speak to one of their techs in India; just need someone competent to OKAY the parts replacement under warranty.