Looking for new laptop, Toshiba?

[Jim C]

I am looking for a new laptop that will be mainly used for numerical computation, Alibre and data acquisition. Don’t plan on playing any games and all that is needed for graphics is reasonable display of graphs and CAD objects. Also this will be set up as a multiple operating system.

The Toshiba S855-s5378 looks like a pretty good fit to what I need and at a reasonable price. Does anyone have experience with or comments about the Toshiba laptops?

Thanks, Jim C

 

[chip]

My son buys and sells laptops and he tells me Toshibas have been reliable and represent good value for the money. At 1/3 the price of a Macbook Pro but with just as much, if not more power, you really can't go wrong with that Toshiba.

 

[Jim C]

This is an update on my experience with the Toshiba laptop. All in all I am very pleased and both 2012 Expert and 2013 Beta run with no problems under Windows 8 (ugh). Adding Classic Shell (free) has made 8 much more palatable.

I do have various programs that run under XP but not 8 including the old CARDFILE from 3.1 (way dark ages stuff but handy). So, I tried installing VMware Player (free for noncommercial use) and installed XP. So far all programs that I have tried run without any problems in the virtual environment including Alibre 2012 Expert. There are some operations such file transfers between host and guest that take longer than within each environment but all in all it is a very workable arrangement. Also the clipboard is useable across systems, a very handy feature.

I wish I had installed the VM player earlier during beta testing of 2013. It would have been nice to try similar operations between the two versions on the same machine.

Finally I have had no luck in replacing the hard drive with a SSD primarily due to problems with UEFI memory conflicts and Windows 8. Microsoft refers me to Toshiba since Windows was installed by them (OEM) and Toshiba has no clue as to any problem. For the time being I will stick with the existing hard drive and use the SSD else ware.

Jim C

 

[Joe Gwinn]

My son buys and sells laptops and he tells me Toshibas have been reliable and represent good value for the money. At 1/3 the price of a Macbook Pro but with just as much, if not more power, you really can't go wrong with that Toshiba.

Toshiba makes perfectly good laptops, but I have to ask: which specific Toshiba is being compared with which specific Macbook Pro.

 

[Jim C]

Joe, I don't think there was any specific comparison, my initial request was to see if anyone had any experience with the Toshiba that I referenced. I have the Toshiba Satellite that was originally stated, the S855 S-8378. As far as I am concerned this is a great laptop for the money, only problem that I specifically have is with Windows 8 and UEFI versus standard BIOS. Since Windows was pre-installed by Toshiba Microsoft will not give any assistance and Toshiba support has no clue what to do as far as exchanging the hard drive with a SSD. If I installed Windows 8 myself using standard BIOS there may have not been any problem (hah!).

As far as I'm concerned this laptop fits my requirements. I am not comparing this with any Apple product, have too much invested in other software and don't have enough experience with Apple products to even consider Apple at all.

Jim C

 

[Joe Gwinn]

Joe, I don't think there was any specific comparison, my initial request was to see if anyone had any experience with the Toshiba that I referenced.

I know you were not interested in Apple per se.

I was questioning davido's implied claim that Macs cost three times what PCs cost. If one looks at the Consumer Reports articles comparing computers, one sees that while Macs are a bit more expensive than PCs, the ratio simply isn't anything like 3:1, if one compares like with like.

 

[joshua.white]

Joe, I don't think there was any specific comparison, my initial request was to see if anyone had any experience with the Toshiba that I referenced.

I know you were not interested in Apple per se.

I was questioning davido's implied claim that Macs cost three times what PCs cost. If one looks at the Consumer Reports articles comparing computers, one sees that while Macs are a bit more expensive than PCs, the ratio simply isn't anything like 3:1, if one compares like with like.

I agree that the 3:1 ratio is off. Two days ago, I just happened to be looking at the HP Envy DV6T-7300. I was able to spec one that was quite similar to a 15" retina MBP in terms of CPU, RAM, hard drive (though I chose a Hybrid 750 GB HDD, vs the pure 256 GB SSD, which is also available on the HP), Graphics card (with double the memory), similar sized monitors (though the HP was 1920 x 1080 vs whatever you call the retina display, which I believe is effectively a really nice looking 1920x1200 once you consider the anti-aliasing). The price of the HP was $1300, when the price of the Apple was $2300. I'm not saying you don't get anything for that $1000, but what you do get isn't computing power. So 77% more money for a better case and monitor is certainly reasonable for some people, but probably not for someone whose primary interest is running Alibre. If you're going to spend big bucks on hardware, you'd probably be spending big bucks on the software too.