Some of the major brands to select from are:\nToshiba, Sony, HP, Dell, or Gateway
124572
The answer will change depending on who you ask. Sony laptops do look the nicest but they are also the most expensive (which doesn't always mean its the best). The Best laptop for price is probably Toshiba but a good BenQ laptop is also very good value. Try and stay away from dell and gateway
237473
Find one on eBay! You'll probably want a branded one if you are not much of a computer person. They also come with technical support and really they are quite cheaper than if you had someone build you one from scratch. This is because a giant like Dell gets their parts in huge quantities and therfore pays MUCH less than a small computer shop would. The savings is passed on to you. And, if you ever decide to sell your PC and get a newer one, you'll find it easier to sell a branded and modeled unit versus a no-namer.
442542
Your best deals will be through major manufactures for pricing, they have the infrastructure and service techs to handle nationwide issues ... i would suggest contacting Gateway, Dell, Toshiba and Compact/HP .. you will want to have a consistent and reliable line ... smaller companies tend to have offbrands of questionable reliability and limited servicability .. the major companies will do onsite service and can ship major parts overnight if necessary.   Smaller comapnies tend to require shipping the unit to their plant for service which most customers find annoying.
420894
Either of these should work okay.  But I would like to recommend Dell instead of Gateway.  They are more reliable and cheaper to have repaired.  Hope this helps
360507
Do not get a DELL, get a Gateway computer, they last way longer...a good price is 500.00-800.00 for a good one that will last.
448411
The best advice is to go to your local PC world or Curry's\nTell then axactly what you want and be guided by them.\nOr, buy a Which computer & laptop mag:
68166
Forget the IBM!  You don't need the headaches\n\nGo for the HP, or go for Dell
525575
any one you want... but i would consider the dell one
221410
go with dell or HP prices are a little cheaper at HP get more stuff on the PC. But by all means you are definitely a Media person so Aim for larger Hard drives and Pentium M. it is made for media experience\nand when buy comp. make sure you customize it take out everything you don't need (prices will change dramatically) and only put in what your going to use. (ie. DVD burner x read and write speed you need to get the job done) if you can try to get your hands on a program called Alcohol 120% you will be amaze at it functions.
376046
buy any hp dual processor laptop you can get good one for 1000 dollars. i would recommend buying it from circuit city/compusa. they will have good sale on thanksgiving. hp laptops have this cool feature called quick play, you can watch movies, enjoy music on your laptop without loading windows and they have a remote control so they are just like DVD players
263449
Sony VAIO's are cool and really sexy. lol. but they're pricey. I personally have a Dell and it's great. Absolutely no complaints with Dell. I have a 'Latitude: D610'. There could be a newer model, i don't know. I got mine in Feb this year and i love it. Just make sure you have good anti virus and firewalls and you'll be set!
430302
honestly, none. i would go with a MAC. those are the best if all you want to do is browse internet, playgames, or do anything graphic. if not then i would go with the HP, i find that HP is more reliable then compaq or toshiba. toshiba would be my second choice, and i would rather not have a computer then have a compaq.
658330
Goto a local shop that deals in PC's or try Dell.
554966
well lets see.\ni personaly would go with H.P.\n\nbut my second thing would be Dell.\n\nIf price is your concern go with the cheapest 1
556406
for the best value/performance ratio, i suggest you try checking out aldi or lidl... i know it sounds crazy, but they actually use good quality components from well-known manufacturers such as pioneer and samsung... you don't end up spending money on a brand name.\n\ni got my laptop from lidl about 18 months ago and it was as good a spec as anything out there - and it's still up there, no problems whatsoever.\n\nit also has a three year guarantee, which dell will charge several hundred quid for...\n\notherwise, toshiba machines are generally regarded as being very reliable. \n\nof course, if you're not doing a lot of gaming, pretty much any laptop will do the trick nowadays. i would advise against a laptop with shared graphics memory however...\n\ntry and get one that has its own dedicated graphics card and video memory...
330825
Acer isn't bad...they can be a little pricey in some configurations.  The thing to remember is that inside every computer is just a bunch of parts from manufacturers that have no affiliation with the name on the outside case.  Make sure you get a good configurations (i.e...the parts inside are good) and no matter what brand you buy you'll be ok....to answer your question though acer seems to be solid to me.  I have an HP which I love (HP & Compaq are the same now).  Good luck.
627204
Currently Dell is having a sale and you can get a decent  computer for under 500 dollars.  As long as you're not looking for some super-duper gaming/high performance PC, that might be a good choice.  Another cheap, but well regarded brand is HP.  You can customize the computer on both websites (dell.com , hp.com).  If you're able to do it, you could build your own PC, which sometimes is cheaper than buying a prebuilt one.  I would recommend Newegg.com for parts if you want to build your own.\n\nA few things to keep in mind...\n1) Desktops are cheaper than laptops\n2) Generally speaking, PC's are cheaper than Mac's\n3) The processor and the RAM are what make the computer faster.  If you aren't too worried about the speed of the computer, there's no point paying $100 extra for a Pentium D or something similar.  Celeron will do the job.  For the RAM, 256 mb is sufficient for most people.\n4)  If you're planning to store large amounts of music and/or video on the computer, you will need a larger hard drive.  Nowadays most computers don't come with less than 40 gb, but it's not too expensive to get 80 gigs or even more.\n\nHere's a link to a Dell PC that you can customize, but it's already pretty good for the price... just under $500\nhttp://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DB110C&s=dhs\n\nAnd an HP you can customize (this is a little faster than the Dell if you're looking for more speed, but you should not just limit yourself to these two PC's, check out others on their website and customize them.  This one's base price is a little cheaper than the Dell because there's no monitor included here...)\nhttp://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?series_name=a1520y_series&catLevel=3&category=desktops/hp_pavilion/a1500_series&storeName=computer_store