So I'm looking at three major purchases in the near future, figured I'd see what you guys thought or if maybe you knew of some sweet deals or something....
Laptop - This is the main one I am looking for advice on, and would like to purchase relatively soon. Since CS I pretty much have no clue who are the top comp. companies now and what to get, etc. Basically I'm not looking for anything special....I don't see myself doing a whole lot of gaming so I don't need intense specs in that category, and I really don't use the comp for much other than looking at sports scores at night anymore so I think I could get away with a relatively low price comp. At the same time, I would like the think to be relatively quality as far as just general loading speed, and I do watch movies from time to time so I wouldn't want something that had zero graphics capability. Also, do you guys think its better to order a comp, or actually like go to best buy and get one. Top brands? Specs to look for? Fill me in
Car - Definetly would like to get a car this year for a number of reasons, 1) being i dont technically have one as the rodeo im currently driving is really my parents., 2) this seems like the time to buy and I think you get the sales tax back on any car purchased before november (ill need to research that to be sure). I'm 99% sure that I do not want to eventually get a place in williamsburg, so the biggest feature ill be looking for is gas mileage and a car that can handle a lot of miles. I was pretty much set on getting a civic hybrid, but after doing some research it seems like the prius may be better at the same price (except for the repuation of the prius as a homo car but whatev). Don't know if you guys know anything about those two, or any other options i should check out
Condo- After seeing how ridiculous high rent is when you rby yourself, and how cheap condos are going for right now, I think I'm leaning towards getting a condo/townhouse over an apt. For instance, condos in cypress are going for like 175k.... which by my calculation would be around a 1000-1200 monthly payment, which isnt that much higher than getting a nicer apt. This purchase isn't quite as definite as the others, but I have been looking around as I don't think I can last at home much longer without losing my mind. Don't really think theres advice to give on this one unless you know a sweet real estate person to hook me up with, but figured I'd throw that in there anyway
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I think Boon could probably help you out on the laptop purchase. I know he just got one recently and really researched it. Is screen size a factor?
For the cars a few things to consider. Based on what I just checked it looks like the prius is slightly cheaper in cost and gets slightly better gas mileage. I think the civic is styled much better. Also civic comes with disk breaks (which are better) in the rear as opposed to the prius durms. Civic also has cruise control and it does not look like to get that on the basic model prius, but you get it when you upgrade. Prius looks OK in certain colors, i don't think you'll get joked, just stick to the basics. From what I read the prius has a bit better pick up but I can't find any numbers to back that up.
For the condos I do have someone in the real estate biz. Its Mel Stein, Steve Stein's daughter. Not exactly sure if she would be the ideal agent though...for anybody. But thats my only contact in the private sector, now if you want to lease or buy a building I got some good connections there.
I'll throw my 2 cents in on the only topic that I have any type of knowledge on. For laptops you'd probably get the best bang for your buck by ordering online, which is the case for most things anyway. You can't really go wrong with Dell. They have options for every price range. You could also look into HP as they have recently come out with nice laptops. Give me a price range and I can link you to the best option for the money.
As far as cars go I have no idea about hyrbids, seems like Bosk has some knowledge on that subject.
Also for condos, I'm guessing town center is really expensive? Not even sure if you'd wanna live down there or not. Have you looked into ocean view at all in Norfolk. It used to be ghetto there, but now the beach is lined with million dollar homes. Place is up and coming and the beach is actually really nice. I'm guessing you could find a nice condo there, would just have to tough it out until the whole area is baller though, cus I think there are still pockets of nubness around.
my aunt had a cheap apartment right across the street from the beach in oceanview, would be nice to go for a morning swim before work when its warm. or just chill on the beach and read a book or something when youre bored. just have to find a place on the right side of town, near the million dollar houses as opposed to the motels
so the car part of my search has been put into the priority slot, as i just got ripped by some bitch leaving work. dont think my car is totalled but its pretty jacked up. luckily i swerved just enough to where she didnt plow through my driver door, so i made it out injury free i think (prob be stiff as a bia in the am). my left side is real jacked up but no windshields broke or anything so i think its salvagable, and the lady got a ticket so she'll be payin up i would think
i actually have glanced at OV, and will prob look out there more seriously if i really get intense on my search cause youre right there are some cheap spots in nice areas. could be a good spot to buy too with the area starting to get nice and turn that piece around for a profit in a few years
yea certain parts of OV are real nice, Cara had her high school reunion down at the newer end it was really cool, you could probably get some crazy deals because I read in the paper that they were building it up and sinking alot of money into it and with the slump they have a rediculous amount of empty spots. I do keep up on the realestate front a bit and the one place I can say stay away from (which I think you probably already know) is downtown Norfolk. I keep reading that altough the cost of the Condos are coming down there(only marginally compared to every other cities) they are jacking up the condo fees, parking fees, etc. I think towncenter might be out of Prime's reach. The Studio 56 lofts start at $280k with most in the mid to upper $300s. The Westin condos are really out of the question. Cheapest one starts at $370k, with most in the $600 range and then goes all the way up to $1+ million. The cosmopolitan is apts. only.
I'll give you a more in depth post on laptops when i have more time, but i did want to say one thing about the car purchase. I heard something where to make up the price you save on cost of gas w/ a hybrid vs the price of buying a hybrid, it takes like 5 to 10 years to come out even. Have any of you guys heard something similar? I don't think it's worth getting a hybrid unless you want to help the environment.
I heard that too nate, but that was when gas was like $1.75 a gallon. Which is not to far from what it is now. I would like to have heard what the formula was when gas was like $4 a gallon. I would guess it would cut that in half (so 2-4 years). And with this current climate the price of gas is still unkown, maybe term can provide some insight on that one. One of the other advantages, which I actually talked to prime about is at one point in time in Virginia if you had a hybrid you could drive in the HOV lane with 1 person. I'm not sure if this still stands or not but that may factor in. I think you also get some kind of tax deduction (or you used to be able to) for driving a hybrid.
youre def right nate, for your typical driver it def isnt worth the extra money for the hybird....but i'm a completely different story because I drive 100 miles a day to and from work. I think probably in about 2 years for me I would make up the money, maybe even less if the gas shoots up like I expect it too this summer (term would know more about that possibility). i'm not completely set on the hybrid, I know in particular hyundai has some cars that have good mileage for fairly cheap....prob not the greatest cars but while im working in williamsburg i dont really care because i dont really want to buy something nice only to put 100,000 miles on it in 3 years.
downtown norfolk is def out for me, def overpriced like you say plus i dont think id really wanna live down there. the actual legit town center condos are out of my range, but there actually some really close like around the regal that are in my range, havent been over there to peep them tho. the ones right now that i really want to peep are some that are for sale on kempsville greens going for pretty cheap; could be ghetto though i havent been in that area in awhile but i dont remember the golf course side being too bad....across the street at k.lakes and all is a diff story tho
oh, and also ill think about my price range for laptops and let you know pex....i really dont even have a clue what they go for anymore
could go anywhere from 300 for a mini laptop, which has enough power to browse the internet comfortably, use microsoft office, watch movies, etc but it has a small screen. normal sized lower end laptop would be like 5-600
hmm...cheaper than i thought. id def be willing to throw down 800 or possibly even more to know i was getting a quality one. like i was saying elite specs arent that important but i would like it to be able to last for awhile...let me know what you guys think, ill prob do some research today myself
Glad to hear you are OK Prime.
Everyone has pretty much said any of the advice I would have given on any of the purchases. I would definitely take Adam's advice and look online for laptops versus store. Also, if you aren't in a rush, some REALLY good deals roll around every once and a while.
And on gas prices....they follow oil prices, which follows market prices, which follows the state of our economy, which is down. Every single article I've read on gas demand is going down down down, so I wouldn't expect a $4/gal kind of jump for the summer, just the usual. And most of the petrochemical/refining companies that don't have the cash assets are pretty much on the verge of bankruptcy as well.
sorry it's taken me so long to reply. pretty much what i did was monitor www.slickdeals.net for good deals. all it is, is people finding good online deals and posting them on this website. then others will comment on the post saying it's either a good or bad deal. it's a good way learn about different processors and stuff as people will say exactly why the computer is good or bad.
anyways, you can baseline your search off what i got. i paid $520 and the specs are: Studio 15 --
-- Intel® Coreč’‚ 2 Duo T5800 (2.00GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
-- [224-2803]
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-- Memory --
-- 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
-- [311-9397]
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The 2 biggest things to look for are processor and memory. you want at least 2 GH processor and 2 or 3 GB of ram. the one thing i learned when searching is pay attention to the specific processor you are looking to get. even if it is dual and 2 GHZ+, it could still be a shitty processor. when you see a computer you like, do research on the specific processor it has and see if it's worth buying.
oh yeah, another thing is you can't effectively use Vista 64 bit without at least 4 MB of RAM. so if you see a computer trying to advertise that, it's worthless unless your computer is powerful enough to handle it.
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