well iam looking to buy a laptop iam going to be goin into the navy and want to be able to keep in touch with people i was just wondering what kind of laptops people have or if anyone knows of any good ones thanks

 

I think you shoud wait until you get to your 1st permanent duty station before you concern yourself with laptops and keeping in touch. you're gonna be fairly busy for the 1st 6-8 months...

 

well i want a new computer for befor i leave to. The only reason i would get a laptop is because of the navy and easyer to travel with

 

I bought a Toshiba to haul around after my boot camp. 17" screen for movies, could fold it up and put it away during the day. Was a pain to take on planes since it is huge, but perfect for billeting and barracks. Once you get to your A school, just go check out the Exchange, they have pretty reasonably priced HP's, IBM's and so on. Nothing spectacular for gaming but perfectly sounds laptops in every other way.

 

Just recently got a SONY VAIO FJ, no complaints so far.

 

HP's are good and solid, but not very good for gaming. If you are going to go all out on a gaming computer, check out Dell's XPS systems, or an Alienware.

 

Alienware's are overpriced, you pay for the name. The Dell XPS is overpriced (3 grand). Basically if you want a nice laptop don't buy a name brand like that. I am getting one for college and it is going to be this . It is an amazing computer spec-wise, it's full of name brand parts and is pretty much built for gaming. The only thing it doesn't come with is a "Dell" or "Sony" logo. But for half the price of the XPS and bascially the same spec-wise, why would you buy anything else? If you don't want that exact computer look around at www.ibuypower.com and www.newegg.com

 

Be wary of bargain laptops, just like you are wary of bargain anything else - http://www.notebookforums.com/thread153496.html

Brand name can cost you a lot sometimes, but sometimes you are buying more than just a name. In blue jeans - brand means nothing, unless you just have to show your friends that you got "the cool ones". In laptops, there is a little more to it.

 

stay away from "financing for military only" computer deals...serioulsy, wait unitl you get to your first duty point and then look around the NX or even go online...I got an Acer Aspire 1800 loaded for just $1600 from TigerDirect

I spent a long time in the Army to see guys get sucked into payments on stuff they barely used later, I even had to counsel soldiers when they got behind and had to go to financial aid classes, dont do the impulse buying thing

 

I'm not worried about it, a lot of people I know have bought computers from ibuypower.com and a few of my friends even got that same laptop and they have no problems.