I like MicroCenter. They are online and in Cambridge MA. The employees there, really do know products, unlike car salesmen and other computer zeros.

The real question is what are you going to use it for? Unless you are a serious gamer, doing hardcore Photoshop or engineering analysis, the best processor is a waste. More memory is far more important to usability and longevity. I have a multi screen setup, and 12 GB RAM, but an old dual core processor, and it serves me just fine. I bought an i7, Yoga pro, with 16GB RAM for my trip to Africa. It is great, but processor overkill for me. If you do buy new, USB 3.0 ports are awesome, and lightning fast. I use a port replicator as a dock for my Yoga and work laptops. This connects with a single USB3.0, and drives two separate monitors, the keyboard/mouse and Ethernet on RJ45. All I have to connect is the USB and power cord!

My wife uses Macs. I got her into them for simplicity, and it really works. She has a 27" iMac, with a separate 27" monitor, just glorious screen space. With 16 GB RAM, she can open 10-20 files at once ad go nuts.

What's the latest os that your Compaq will run? My 15 year old runs Snow Leopard, albeit more slowly than the newer machines, but runs it nonetheless.

Once upon a time, 20 year old stuff was old tech. Now it's 20 weeks. I never buy a new machine until the old one is unfixable. Old fashioned attitude. However, with that being said, within the last year I've had to buy a new screen, and a new printer. I must say that I like that skinny wide screen.

Yes, memory not as big an issue but many laptops make CPU upgrade difficult although I noticed the other day some gamer laptops I was looking at had incorporated some CPU upgrade hardware.

If you want the latest technology you will pay disproportionately more for it. If that is what you want then don't bother with the big name brands like Dell cutting costs to sell cheap and later jacking the prices for repairs with an impossible to deal with support bureaucracy.

Try the small company PCMaker in Waltham, MA. Their very simple web site is usually behind what they are selling so contact them directly for availability and prices. They use the standard Asian-made and assembled Compal components but match them optimally in their own system design, including the optional configurations available, all based on Intel for reliability (up to the latest I7 quad core 64b with 16Gb memory and dual SSDs). Though that means a near-custom design, the parts are reliable, standard, replacements remain available for years, and they have their own shop for reasonable repairs when needed over time.

They are probably still making available windows and drivers as far back as win7 (64b), or up to date. (Windows 8 is terrible and whether or not 10 turns out to be acceptable don't use a new Windows OS for at least a year after it's released).

But you pay more for that kind of quality and reliability with top grade hardware, not 'consumer' grade. They are small and so don't get the wholesale bulk discounts, including Windows, that the big companies do.

I've been thinking about buying a laptop. Never heard of Tigerdirect which is getting an impressive number of "thumbs ups" here.
You can pick up a lot of good info in the Gulch.

Who woulda thunk it??

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicatio...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicatio...

Also I have found a couple with low performing CPU for a low price that I could cheaply upgrade the CPU and add memory for a low price and end up with a nice system.

Tiger Direct has good refurb laptop and desktop prices... can get a decent desktop (hook up to large screen TV for a media system) including Windows 7 for about the price of Windows 7 and then get a free Windows 10 upgrade at tend of the month.

KAYPRO!!! Got my Kaypro 2000 in 1984. Closed up, it looked like Darth Vader's lunch box, weighed 26 pounds. I paid extra for the two 5.5" floppies, each holding a whopping 350 kb!!! That nine inch screen with the green dots was beautiful. Cost me $2000 and got me through grad school at the U of Wyoming. Did my doctoral dissertation on it.

I have to do the 100+ round trip anyway, so I will be visiting Best Buy on Tuesday. I have looked at Amazon, so I'll look on Tiger Direct and Newegg.

Amazon, Tiger Direct, Newegg for online sites.

Best Buy is the best around my area for Brick & Mortar. Your mileage may vary on the B&M front

My Compaq transportable from 1985 still works, too. There is no comparison between that 30 yr old computer and your 15 yr old macbook. The same thing can be said comparing the 15 yr old macbook to modern laptops. It still works but its functionally obsolete for many things we expect a computer to do well today. That is true of all brands. The rate of change in performance has slowed in the past 5 years, so today's computers have a better chance to be useful 10 years hence in that respect, but there will probably be additional functionality coming along to herd today's generation into oblivion long before then. imo ;^)

I have purchased from Tiger Direct as well. Have not had any problems with them.

Excellent points, Tech!

Pirate, if you don't play high end computer games, and you don't do video editing for a living, and you aren't trying to produce bitcoins on your computer you won't notice any difference in the capability of the hardware from 3 years ago compared to the latest from intel. If you use a laptop on battery all the time there have been some real improvements in reducing how much power a computer uses that you would notice. Bottom line is you can get a much better deal buyng what the sellers are trying to get rid of, that is, last year's or two years ago's model. You can get an even better deal on a refurbished computer that has been on a company lease, but has been returned and is now for sale. There are lots of those available online. If that is of interest, then watch for Dell laptops that have a 2nd or 3rd gen intel i5 cpu (the cpu model number is 4-digits starting with a 2 or 3.) . I bought one with a year left of Dell warranty about 8 months ago for $225, and you should be able to do that, too. When you see one for sale do a bit of research online to see what users have said about them. Even with Dell some models are better built than others. Some were expensive when new because they were designed to take more rough treatment (built with heavier gauge materials.)
I agree with Michael about windows. Win7 is working well now, and I would not go for Win8 or Win10 for a few more years.
You will be pleased with the performance of Win7 with a modern laptop (less than 3 years old) cpu compared with your old one.
If you do a lot of typing, you probably should get an external keyboard for use at home, too. Much easier to replace a worn out keyboard when its a $20 external instead of having to send the whole laptop in for service.

I have gotten good value from my Lenovo. I just need the best place to purchase what I decide on.

My Lenovo is like a Timex, it just keeps on ticking, but it just isn't powerful enough any longer to run all the new stuff at the same time. It's 32 bit with 4 gb memory. It just is now 4 track tech in a mb3 world.

Newegg or Tigerdirect are good sites.

I asked a college student last fall where the best deals on new computers was. He said Tiger Direct. I bought one and had no problems. I didn't shop it, though, to confirm it was a good price.

Fair enough RMP, we all determine values for ourselves differently.

On the PC front I've had the best luck, reliability wise from Asus & Sony.

Asus is my recommendation for performance, they make some wonderful gaming machines. I also like the keyboard feel on their gaming machines, very much like a standalone keyboard. And a gaming PC will run anything else without issue.

Sony has been good for year over year use. I have one in our office that I bought back in 2005 when they shut down CompUSA here. Still working fine, battery finally died a couple of months ago, but since it is not used as a portable, not a problem.

Both brands are not at the bottom price wise, but I consider them good values. My Asus Republic of Gamers laptop is 5 years old now and can still run any software on the market without problems. I still use 2 Sony laptops, 1 is 7 years old, the other is 10, so good long term service. Amortize cost over lifespan and they are good value.