Which Laptops Use the BEST Components?

For the last ten years I have been a computer products reviewer on a number of popular enthusiast sites. During this time my reviews were pretty much limited to desktop components (i.e.; motherboards, graphics cards, memory, hard drives, and etc.). I'm looking to buy a high quality laptop in the 13" to 15" range.

My question is have laptops evolved to the point where you can get some insight into the components a manufacturer uses (i.e.; solid capacitors on the mother board, advanced heat exchanger technology, and etc.)? If so, which manufacturers use the best components and where can this information be found?

 

I think apple

 

My money is on ASUS....they use their own usually...and as you may know ASUS chipsets are....nice....

 

Idk what brands use the "best" components, but usually business class notebooks tend to be better.

 

They use low end memory and have often lagged in certain areas (they don't update often so they are always either lagging behind or ahead of the curve). Look into failure rates, Apple hasn't really been great, but some models were some of the worst you can buy. Some reports show Dell computers having a better failure rate than an Ipod, and the Ipod being twice as good as Apple computers.

Best components, is difficult because of what some people look for. Do you want reliability, battery life, pure power, or maybe compatibility with different operating systems. These things don't always go together. Just take video cards for example, some people prefer Nvidia to Ati because Nvidia has better drivers. On the same note, Nvidia has recently had a lot of press regarding hardware failures. Meanwhile intel Video cards get dumped on for being poor at games (not as bad as they used to be), but use far less energy.


Personally, for notebooks, I have a love hate relationship with Sony. I love the product, I hate their support, repair costs and company policies. On the Other hand, I also like Apple (despite what I said above). They have nice notebooks and great support (you are more likely to need it). The stupid one button touchpad really puts me off though (yes, I know, muli-touch blah blah blah, give me a normal touchpad.). I also like Lenovo, but they have not kept pace with hardware vs cost lately, and they do hardware locks with parts like network cards (bite me!). Asus is another good choice.

If I was to buy a notebook today and money was no object, it would be a Sony ( maybe an Apple). If money was an issue, it would be an Asus.

 

That kind of information is not published anywhere to my knowledge. All notebook motherboards are proprietary so discerning which one is 'superior' is not really possible. With notebooks, if you want reliability look at:
A) the strength of the internal chassis frame
B) the effectiveness of the cooling system

Typically business notebooks have stronger chassis than consumer notebooks - this prevents twisting/flexing and theoretically should allow the notebook to take more abuse. As you can imagine, flexing/bending is not good for a circuit board.
You can test the strength for yourself - grab a notebook by the corners of its chassis and try twisting it. If it bends little then chances are it has a good internal frame. Do the same thing with the lid. Many business notebooks such as Lenovo ThinkPads/Dell Latitudes/HP EliteBooks actually have metal internal frames.

Additionally, the effectiveness of the cooling system plays a significant role in how long the notebook will last. Graphics cards are usually the culprit in notebooks that get hot/overheat so sticking to integrated graphics cards will help reduce any heat risk. As always, look for reviews of notebooks and user comments in owners' lounge threads.

 

Asus has the best reliability in the industry, the last time I heard, over Apple, Lenovo, and the others.

 

I've had some bad experiences with AMD, so to me AMD notebooks are off the list. Maybe I've had some lemons, but no AMD for me anymore. But for components, ASUS does make their own stuff... but especially with their gaming notebooks, their heat dissipation systems don't work very well at all. Now the ASUS UL-series, they tend to stay cool, but there were questions about their build quality (cheap casing). Apple has top of the line enclosures, but I agree with Leslieann. Their components are lacking for as expensive of a machine as they are. Sony, now a while back they had that whole fiasco with the batteries and the NVIDIA problem, but other than that I can say they really do make a good computer. They seem to have quality components and their displays are REALLY good, perhaps because they manufacture the panels in-house. Dell is a mixed bag. I think they try really hard with their business notebooks, but their consumer line leaves something to be desired. With all the BIOS issues and proprietary connectors and such internally, I just don't like anything but their Latitude line personally. Maybe a Vostro or 2. HP... I've had 3 of them die on me from overheating issues, 'nuff said (although they do look really good). Acer, if you get the right components like an Intel/Intel combination or an Intel/New NVIDIA combination they will last forever!! Toshiba is another mixed bag for me.. I really think they use quality components but sometimes their build quality is lacking... they flex, or have loose batteries or stuff like that. To me that doesn't signify that they cared enough to select the right parts in the build process, and they neglected the customer's experience.

I might sound like an Intel "fanboi", and really, technically... I am. It's just that I've been burned by AMD (pun intended) too many times, but I'm really wanting to see what this new Llanos platform can do.

 

It's impossible to generalize across brands. Lenovo's business-grade Thinkpads will likely have better failure rates than its budget-basic line. Likewise, Dell's Latitudes will likely be more reliable than its basic Inspirons. Add to that the fact that every OEM uses a combination of different suppliers for each part (ie: Lenovo will use both LG and Samsung screens on its Thinkpads), and it's impossible to generalize.

Charles gave the best advice as to finding a reliable machine.

 

For gaming laptops , alienware anytime... they use the best parts and their laptops have excellent cooling... clevo is also good...

for buisness laptops , i would say dell... i have a dell latitude D600 and 5 years on its still running....

 

I'll take Clevo, having a long track record of intelligent internal layouts paired with cutting-edge components.

Then there's Dell's business side, which contains some the most reliable machines I've purchased.

 

MSI gets the nod ! Cheap as chips , cooling is great even on single fan and built quality is solid !

 

See here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/162091/asus_takes_top_spot_in_reliability_report.html

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-reliability-survey-asus-and-toshiba-win-hp-fails/

 

Alienware is pretty good quality, but the price on them is insane compared to a similarly spec'd Clevo, which would be about the same quality generally. But Alienware has the aluminum chassis's which bump up the cost I guess.

But I do agree with you on the Dell business class machines, they are pretty high quality. Same goes for the higher end Elitebooks from HP.

 

I'd say Clevo.

 

The problem with that Squaretrade report is that it's useless. That's based on what Squaretrade has seen from its customer activity. There are so many things wrong with their sampling that it's impossible to extract anything useful from that survey (from a statistical standpoint).

 

You can't blame Sony for Nvidia's royal screw ups (the 1600 series chipset is pretty bad too, and I hated the original Nforce). I hesitate to buy any Nvidia based board or notebook video card.

You can blame Sony for the batteries, which effected A LOT of others as well, so while it was Sony's fault, buying an HP, Dell or Apple didn't make you immune.

This I agree with, IF you get the higher end Intel. No bargain basement stuff. I have seen lots of Celeron systems fail due to bad boards, but very few P4 and Core series.

If you game on your laptop, your choices are kind of limited, but if you use it just for work, the Intel/Intel is the way to go.

Agreed.
Who pays to insure a $300 laptop for 1-3 years after the factory warranty? At the end of 6 months you want to throw it away, and after a year, it needs to be.

 

The high end notebooks have the best components.

You get what you pay for... well most of the time.

 

In general they all use the same components. The chassis and cooling is key. with that TPs are best.

 

Exactly. My acer, which scores very bad in the statistics, still runs strong and the only problem is a cripple nvidia gpu, which isn't acers fault. My machine costed me 1299€, and contains decent hardware (WD hard drive, Hyundai Ram, etc).
In the beginning I also believed a bit to strong into statistics, now I realise it has al to do with your budget (which is also clearly stated in that squaretrade report: 1000+dollar laptops tend to last longer). But don't forget, the way you treat your laptop is of most importance.

Edit: I agree with baldwin about the chassis & the cooling, those are the things you should pay attention to. Although a good screen is also very importent in my opinion.

 

THANKS...you guys are teriffic! I guess if building your own laptop catches on a bit more then my questions about components willl become more relavant. This is a great site, cudos to all!

 

There are a few options for "Do it yourself" notebooks, but the motherboard, screen, and usually video card are still part of the bargain - you just get to choose RAM, WiFi, CPU, HDD, and all that. One example is the OCZ Whitebook. There's a few more out there, too, unfortunately they tend to be a bit behind the curve, especially with regards to the GPU (and now with i5/i7, often with the CPU as well).

Another option that gives you more control than you usually get as to the internal components is AVADirect - they are an Ohio-based company that sells MSI, Compal, and a few other brands' notebooks, but let you select the exact brand of many of the internal components (with almost every other company, you're at their mercy for hard drive, memory, etc. brand). Again, you're stuck with MSI/Compal/etc. for build quality, motherboard, and screen options, but if you want a particular processor or hard drive, they probably offer it.

For the regular brands, Charles is right, it's hard to generalize, but the business lines usually are better quality. Contrary to XGX2007, from what I know, Acer generally has the shoddiest quality across their entire lineup of anyone, but that just underscores that it's difficult to discern. Do your research - remembering that it's the particular models you are considering that matter, not the entire lineup or even historical reliability - and you'll probably get a reliable notebook. You might wind up with a prone-to-failure chip like the nVIDIA 8000 series or a recalled battery, but you can't always anticipate that.

If you are really interested in building your own laptop from the ground up, forum member K-TRON has done that. But it was a 24-inch laptop. Still, he's the one with practical experience.

 

guys.....

There are a small handful of variables in laptop components

motherboard
battery
case

Even the motherboards and batteries are made by 2 or 3 OEM suppliers.

I would think that the case in terms of esd and mechanical protection, cooling (as in getting rid of the heat) as well as ease of build (at the factory) is a major contributor to the reliability of a laptop.

Pretty much everything else in a laptop consists of commodity parts easily obtained if not at a local store, than by easy internet shopping & ordering.

 

Components are pretty much the same across the industry - the only point where they can really differ is cooling systems.

 

Oh, I know, I guess I should have worded that differently..lol The NVIDIA problem was not vendor specific. I've had a dell, apple, and HP product suffer from this.

 

There are two leading manufacturers that we sell to date...

Clevo

MSI

Both have their strong points.

Clevo rains supreme when it comes to performance, graphics and processing power aspects, but they are not so compatible with many operating systems (linux, XP, etc...) mainly vista and Windows 7.

MSI holds the title for functionality, and compatiblity for open-source operating systems. A majority of the features (integrated camera, fingerprint readers) run perfectly in Windows and Linux applications, making them very reliable.

It all depends on the focus of each notebook, and what you intend to use them for.

It's safe

 

Personally, IMO it's not so much the materials sometimes as it's how they're used. A notebook's chassis engineering is a key point to its sturdiness and its success as a chassis. I've seen cheap metal notebooks as I have seen strong plastic ones(arguably there are lots of kinds of plastic though).

 

Yes the companies are not manufacturers as much as they are assemblers. They all use the same components as there are only a handful of companies that make them. When last I checked Asus was the largest assembler/manufacture worldwide.

As for homemade notebooks? I don't think it's feasible at the moment.

In my opinion, notebook chassis are still in flux right now, even from the major manufacturers. There's still too many companies that are just getting past things as simple as hinges. In addition, there's just not enough standardization (will there ever be?) to go it alone at this point.

 

Asus hands down.

Apple? they use the same cheap crap as everyone else. There is nothing special about apples stuff. The OS is the only difference now.

 

Things to look for in a laptop is:

Build quality, how the chassis is put together and how it resists.
Build, materials used, if it has internal support.
Cooling system, what components it has, how many fans it has, the temps it gets, the noisy produced by the cooling system.
Battery life, the major weak point in laptops. Check what the battery is, the capacity and how it holds.
Bang-for-the-buck, get better hardware for the price you are paying. This means, that higher price tag does not necessarily mean higher-end components.
Market aimed, this means, a business laptop WILL be better withstanding that a consumer laptop. Almost always this will apply. So if you want to compare, lets say a Dell Inspiron with a Dell Latitude, obviously the Latitude will be better. Take this into consideration when choosing.

How to know all of this if you don't have the laptop?
That is why NBR is around. We have the What Notebook should I buy? Forum, the Manufacturers Forum with all the Owners' Lounges. You can ask around a particular model, and people will give you insight or some help in that matter.

Hope this helps!

 

Hmm, that statement is a little ambiguous. To clarify: a typical business has a more rugged chassis (i.e. magnesium instead of plastic), that's really about the only significant difference between the two.

On the lessor side, they also have better warranties, and much better technical support. In addition, they can also come with better security software/hardware and sometimes an upgraded (longer) battery life. Any yes, you do pay more for all of that.

Not quite. They still maintain the standard when it comes to consumer service and technical support. And that's a big thing on their behalf.

 

This is question is very subjective.

If I want great battery life, I'm going to look for a completely different set of hardware than if I were looking for a gaming laptop.

 

I would suggest checking www.rjtech.com if you want to build your own notebook. They offer a wide arrange of notebook barebones (and are the only ones offering Clevo barebones) and have good reputation. At the end, the question you asked is a subjective matter... lol almost everyone mentioned the brand of their own laptop as the one that uses the best components. I think everyone would agree, though, that you should stay away from mainstream and budget notebooks from Acer, Gateway, HP, and others...

Also don't ever think that popularity = reliability. Actually, the brands and manufactures people know the less about tend to offer very reliable notebooks, such as Clevo and MSI.

 

Most people recommend what they know and have used. While well and good, most simply do not have the experience with multiple systems from manufacturers to really make a good judgment.

While this is typical everywhere it's a real problem on the internet where everyone can be an expert or a fool, and you can't tell the difference.

While I recommended what I use, I also recommended a few that I don't. I'm lucky that I do get to try others out and see how good or bad other companies are. It would be foolish to not recommend a brand I trust simply because I happen to use it. I use what I use because I trust it, not because I found a great deal on it (Okay, so I did find a great deal too ).

 

Get the one with the best warranty. It's not if you'll need support, but when.

 

Not necessarily, it depends on your level of expertise.

 

Not really - things like the NVidia failure - no matter what knowledge you had - you couldn't really fix it yourself - you could buy a new mainboard with another faulty card...

Warranties are useful is something breaks.

 

Such as the NVIDIA faulty GPUs...right? ^_^

But still, in general, in the market, components are basically the same. Is the build, the costumer support, the warranty and those little extras that make a product better than another one (when comparing same-level laptops)

 

You said it's a matter of when, not if. Not every system needs major repairs.
Also, you can get the fixed Nvidia boards on Ebay.

 

The probability of something breaking is pretty large.

Its one reason why even over my dead body I will not ever buy an Asus laptop - their service in Germany at least is an insult to customers.
And it was something little as a power switch that was too weak.

Sure, you could possibly scour Ebay for parts and try to repair it yourself - but why bother? If you paid a lot for a product you want the company to sort out problems that stem from bad design.

I suppose in Europe is a bit "easier" as in Germany everybody has to give you 2 years of warranty - and only 1 years in this strange ancient island known as the UK.

But from what I've heard warranties are much scarcer in the US.

And lastly - the support you get when you call them - and Asus is at the bottom of my list for that. (And I don't care about any stupid statistics - maybe their support in the US is better but Germany is horrible - and simply for the warranty I won't ever buy a computer in the UK - ah and I want a decent keyboard (speak German keyboard I can't find my keys on the British ones))

And speaking about support:
the NVidia case which I specifically addressed above is a specialized case - you could even run back if your laptop runs too hot - plenty of little things.
And before your say "change the thermal paste yourself" - that is NOT your job, it THE COMPANY'S JOB - they produce a high priced product and you buy it expecting it to be well designed and engineered.

 

Warranties and support can vary greatly by country.

A good example is VW.
VW in America operates almost as a separate company from it's German owners. In this country VW has some of the worst support imaginable.

For computers, some companies here only offer 90 day warranties on computer parts. Some are quite horrible on top of that, one company I worked for, if you received a D.O.A. part and sent it to us, we woudl have to then ship it to Japan for warranty. Some people would have to wait 6 months for their part to be returned. They also had a policy on items we actually warrantied that there was no guarantee that you would receive back a new item.

I have repeatedly seen relatively minor repairs take a month to accomplish here, only to have to go back to have something fixed that they broke. Of course, it always comes back with a freshly wiped hard drive too.

 

While I very much appreciate all of the comments that everyone here shared on this thread, I think somewhere along the way the original point of my post was lost in translation. I'm not sure how many of you here build your own desktop computers, but judging from the gamers that I see represented, I would expect there are a fair number. In the desktop enthusiast world when you build your own computer you are equipped with quite a bit of information about each of the components that makes up your build.

An example of this would be a motherboard that has all solid capacitors, 16-phase power, 6 ply PCB, a technologically improved sound chip, 2 Lan connectors on board, and etc. Take a board of this caliber and compare it to one with similar specs yet using cheaper on-board components like the ones mentioned; you should be able to expect extended longevity and performance out the board with the enhanced components.

In the laptop world where you must trust the physical build to a manufacturer other than CPU, GPU, and chassis quality you have very little else to judge the quality of the product and make an informed purchasing decision as the rest are pretty much unknowns. In this day where in most cases the bottom and quality do not coincide it is incumbent upon the purchaser to equip themselves with as much information as possible to attempt to avoid many of the service and support nightmares that I read about on this forum. Granted even with the absolute best components you will still have failures as we're dealing with electronics, but the failure rate even under extreme conditions should be much lower and make for much happier customers.

 

While there is a little bit of a trend, this does not hold true. Very often the cheapo boards can take a processor and ram just as far as the $300 board can. If you are running at the same frequencies, it doesn't matter if there is three phase power or five, they are going to perform the same. For extreme overclocking it does make a difference, but at that point you will probably want to mod the caps yourself and add your own cooling. As far as longevity, that has no merit as you really can't test that. The only time has been in the past when a motherboard manufacturer used bad caps that went bad over a year or more down the line, but other than these rare instances, the life of a board is practically indefinite.

*Best* is not a given. How do you define best? Chances are the motherboard is not going to fail under normal use for years beyond its useful life. Who cares if it uses nichicon polymer capacitors or not? These things make no difference to the end user. Best for me means works the same for a cheaper price. The electrical components in computers rarely fail on their own these days. Other parts of build quality are not what components are selected. The work going into designing and building the laptop is just as important, or more so, than what actual parts are used.