M45-S355 at CircuitCity for $1350

I am biased, but I would take Toshiba any day! I posted elswhere about how my girlfriend's old Satelite 2400 took an incredible pounding and still was running, I witnessed it fall and power up fine. She is the kind of computer user that wears down her keys and mouse-pad!
I checked out the link you provided. Nice lappy. Is this USD?

those rating are prettymuch how people feel about the m40 (canada's version of the m45 with a better graphics card). about the only thing anyone ever seesa as a fault with the m45 is the integrated graphics but that will only bother you if you want to be relaly gaming on it. most mmorpg's will be perfectly fine on a m45 and you will really only be suffering in fps type games that are highly 3d.

overall i thik oyu will be happy with the durability of your toshiba. i have sen tosihba machines taken to hell and back and still performing. i dont think you will see much trouble especially if you take some decent care of it. a good case and you will be set. the windows key is in kinda a different spot on the toshiba's but that is easy to get used to and after a few hours use you wont even notice. i woudl say that toshibas build quality is better than hp's and compaqs. my cousin has a r4000 from hp/compaq and my toshiba has much better build quality. his is brand new and my p20 is older but the quality of my computer still shines through.

enjoy the new tosihba it is a great machine for sure.

you can get extended warranty through toshiba itself, as long as you buy it within the first 30 das after you get your machine. if you decided the toshiba was better you could always cancel your order with hp. if anything i would not purchase extended warranty through a place like circuit city, or bestbuy, or any of them. sorry to say it but they are sticky and seem to have the most trouble with their warranties. get your extended warranty with ADP from toshiba and you will be set, you can go all the way up to 3 years.

i think it is very much worth it. a laptop is meant to be mobile and mobility means that accidents do happen. even if you are as careful as possible they still can. if you end up having to have any service done on your system you should absolutely make sure it is under warranty. if you have to replace your lcd even once you will see the value of it...

The horrible service tends to be when dealing with CompUSA and other chains like that, although cases exist where people have had problems when dealing directly with Toshiba (as with all Manufactures). THe big problems you mentioned pertain to a few models that had design flaws. One is the static discharge problem in the satelite a60 (I think it was) that had users furious for quie some tiem, numerous motherboards got replaced and the problem persisted until Toshiba figured it out and started replacing the casing of the laptops for free. I hae seen pretty much all smiles with the M40 and think it should be a veru nice machine.

that thread you are speaking of is a refernece to an issue with an isolated and long discontinued model the tecra 6100 series had a few design flaws that were only discovered once it hit the general market. toshiba in general has very few issues such as this. the only other design issue was as g00nter said with the a60 model. that was a static dischagre issue that was discovered and those with affected machines were given the option of a replacement case free of charge that rectified the issues.

ever since either of those there have not been any issues at all that are major. toshiba tech support is good and very responsive. one of the members here had an issue with the usb ports on his system and called toshiba. he was through to a qualified real tech in 2 minutes. a feat that is almost unheard of in the computer wold especially with brands like dell , who seem to often give you the run around before they answer your questions.

no matter waht brand you choose there is the risk that your specific machine will be a defective one or that you will just happen to get the one that slipped through the cracks. every company has a certain amount that fail just because. that sid i have never had bad experience with toshiba nor their tech support. a good thing to note is that i can say i have not had a bad experience in part because i have never really had to interact with tech support on anything major since my machine is so solid and well built.

Sometimes a company puts out a model that is fraught wiyh problems, Chrysler had a few, the Neons with the head gasket problems. That said, it does not mean that all Chryslers are bad. Er, wel most are not. Ok, I don't mean to start car debates...

yeah best to leave cars out of this one.... besides neons have more than just that one problem only the other cant really be fixed its a permanent design flaw with the car that makes it very very easy to break into and to steal. thats why the neon is one of the most stolen cars around.

stilll it is true that there can be a very good company that once in a while will get it wrong. that is why its best not to buy a new model the second it hits the market. wait a bit see what comes of it, read reviews. after that you can know that the model you are looking at is a good one, or at worst if the flaws it has are liveable or not. the m40/45 should be a perfectly fine machine and based on the many reviews i have seen of it as well as my own experiences with the m40 i can say that you wont be disappointed and that it is not a majorly flawed machine, a good solid quality offering is what it is.

im also thinking about getting this 1350 laptop at circuit city, think itll be any lower next week?

hmmm best buy looks like its 50 dollars cheaper

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1115366129987

isnt circuit city supposed to price match , or does that not apply to laptops

they do price match and as far as i know they include laptops.....

looks like circuity city just lost a customer lol,

you can do a clean install of xp pro for most models but on the qosmio line you will lose some functionality. just download the drivesr from the toshiba site and you will be perfectly fine, there should not be a problem doing an instal of xp pro. anyone telling you that you cannot put xp pro on a computer after reformating simply because it is a toshiba model is lying to you.