I just recommended one of these to my mother in-law: $329 or $379 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i3-4gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-sparkling-black/5154016.p?id=1219112462745&skuId=5154016&st=categoryid$pcmcat247400050000&cp=4&lp=3 or http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-satellite-15-6-laptop-4gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-satin-black/5546003.p?id=1219137665391&skuId=5546003&st=categoryid$pcmcat247400050000&cp=2&lp=7 I have always had good luck with Dell as well for my other family members, but she needed one quick and couldn't wait for the 2 week build time that their website was stating. ThinkPads are work horses and that is what I would recommend if you didn't mind spending more money. I'm on my 8th one in 20 years and the only thing that has ever needed to be replaced is the battery and a single cooling fan which died in the fist 90 days. Good luck! On 05/12/2014 07:48 AM, Max Shinn wrote: >> In my experience… a computer that is used daily costs about $300-$400 >> per year of service. > > $300-$400/year of service?! I'm currently running a 4+ year old > Dell that cost $500 new, and haven't put in a dime to repair it. It > gets at least 4-5 hours of use per day. I usually keep computers > around 5-6 years, and the only repairs I've ever had to do were > replacing a keyboard (on a ThinkPad) and a backlight (on an older > Dell). > >> For the PC-compatible laptops, who makes the most reliable >> consumer-class systems? Which of their product lines are more >> reliable? > > I think I'm going to have to suggest ThinkPads just because the repairs > are so easy to do. It's also one of the few laptops on the market > available without a glossy screen (if that is important to her). It > also seems much better put together than the Dells I've had. > >> Mostly she uses her computer for web browsing, email, word processing >> and spreadsheets. She would like something faster than she has right >> now, or at least better response times. Her current computer has an >> AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2.0 GHz cpu, 3GB RAM. > > Thanks for reminding me how much I love Bodhi/E17. ;) > > -Max > > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >