It is too bad, but the salesmen that you have talked to seem more 
interested in pushing their own product than telling the truth and 
helping you with your own needs.

But, if you are looking for a suggestion here on a model to buy, you 
probably won't get it because we are not Consumer Reports, and that kind 
of reply is off-topic for our lists.

In buying any computer you pretty much get what you pay for.  And there 
are trade-offs, particularly in laptops.

For example, a large screen is nice but makes the laptop heavy and 
bulky, as well as consumes power for shorter run time.  A fast cpu is 
nice, but it will consume more power, too, as well as run hotter.

What you really need to do when buying any computer is ask yourself 
/what you are going to be using it for/ and /what hardware you will 
need/ to fulfill your needs.

For email and word processing, you need very little.  But for business 
applications, like a spreadsheet, and, especially, for games, you need 
much more power and a bigger screen.

Any high-powered laptop is going to get hot.  Even low-powered ones 
might get uncomfortably warm.

A newer computer will run faster, but it will not necessarily surf the 
web faster, as that speed is limited by your internet bandwidth.  (Type 
of connection.)

You can check Consumer Reports, but since they rate Apple very highly, 
you can't trust their judgment.  (Not that Apples are bad - they are 
very pricey for what you get, and they cannot compare in value per 
dollar to a PC.)

You can also check magazines like PC World, but they can't test 
everything and they are at least a month out of date.

If you find a model that you like, you can Google it and go to places 
like cnet that have some user reviews as well as average prices that you 
can use to help you decide whether or not to buy it.

Finally, for under $400, you are not going to get a powerhouse.  You 
should carefully select a computer with those features that are most 
important to/ your needs/.

HTH,

Dean Kukral

On 9/7/2010 1:30 AM, Monica wrote:
> I don't know if this is an appropriate question for this forum but here is
> my question:
> I am wanting to buy a new laptop. Our old one is 10 years old and is quite
> slow.  In speaking with various IT techs at the store I get conflicting
> information on which is a better laptop.  Each laptop seems to have pros  and
> cons and I'm just trying to avoid the ones with the most cons.  Is  Intel or
> AMD better? (I was told AMD but then someone else said the  laptops get too
> hot - they're only better for desktops) Toshiba, Asus, HP,  Dell???  I'd
> like to keep the cost between 3&  $400.00.  Any help  would be appreciated.
> Monica
>
>
>    

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