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rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:44 am

Hey guys, first post here

Seems like a great site, i read the Turion Vs. P-M article and it really helped.

Basically im looking to buy a laptop for uni, i have about £900 to spend, although if pushed i would be able to go upto £1000, preferably not over that though.

Basically i need your advice, if i list my definite wants and needs, suggestions and advice would be appreciated.

Definite wants and needs:
2GHZ+ Processor (Really not interested in anything under 2)
512Mb RAM (1GB would be nice if possible)
40GB + HDD (Highest speed possible for my budget)
Decent Graphics

15" + Screen, preferably widescreen, although not essential.

The laptop will be used for:
Playing Music
Editing Photos
Watching DVD's
Word Processing
Internet access

If i have to compromise on some things i dont mind, as long as overall the laptop is fast (The amount stored on the laptop will be minimal) and good for all the functions above.

Thanks in advance
Rowan

flip-mode · Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:48 am

Are you going to have a desktop too, and just carry the lappy around with you? If so, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend going 'thin and light'. That means staying with a smaller LDC, such as not even thinking about anything larger than 14", but God's honest truth, you will come to love that little screen.

rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:59 am

Sorry, perhaps i should have mentioned, this laptop will be my only pc, i dont want to take my desktop to uni because of the risk of theft, so im effectively looking for a reasonably priced desktop replacement. I have been looking at this computer http://shopping.zdnet.co.uk/shopping/systems/notebooks/0,20000080,21523156p,00.htm

It seems reasonably priced, the Turion came out quite well against the P-M, 64bit, will be able to run Vista on it when it comes out, what do you guys think? or if there are similar alternatives, let me have it

Thanks
Rowan

RABIT · Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:05 am

for playing games, the graphics processor is kinda low-end. Stay away from anything that "shares" system memory. I have been buying nVidia "go" equipped laptops, and have not been dissapointed in the 3d capabilities yet.

Other than that, it looks good.
Try building a Dell before your final decision. Sometimes you can get more bang-for-the-buck at Dell

rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:33 am

I had a look at Dell like you suggested, i tried building one of their basic systems and it still came out very expensive, they want an extra £300+ to upgrade to a 2ghz processor, that takes the price well over £1000 before even starting to customise!!
I also spotted the HP Pavilion dv5000z, it looks good but i couldnt find a UK price for it, seems to be around $1500, that would make it roughly £800 if you just convert the currency, but i know its unlikely to work like that

The thing i like about the dv5000Z is that i wouldnt have to buy a tv for college as well

Im getting some advice from my dads work and from my moms work so we'll see where we go with that

Thanks
Rowan

Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:37 am

That is because >2GHz notebook processors are still at the high end (the top Dothan is still 2.26GHz). Don't be obssessed with clock speed. They have been telling us that it doesn't matter that much. Normal office work anything above 1GHz will breeze through it. If you want some gaming done you need better graphics.

The sweetspot right now is about 1.7GHz (P-M 740). You want more RAM and good graphics to have a balanced system. CPU is actually less of a factor. For example, the fastest CPU won't help if the system is swapping to disk due to lack of RAM.

LicketySplit · Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:18 am

The HP and Compac models are a good compromise for what youre looking for. Pretty sturdy machines. If you want more ram, get it from somewhere else and install it yourself..its much cheaper that way. Most people wont and they get dinged for it.

rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:30 am

OK, so if i look at say 1.7GHZ, 1 GB+ of RAM, Decent Graphics (Will ask here when i look because im not really upto speed on gfx), i should have the makings of a decent notebook? sorry for the possibly going-round-in-circles questions but notebooks are soooooo confusing!! Gimme a spec-built desktop anyday!!

LicketySplit · Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:34 am

You always have tradeoffs in a notebook. Even in the more expensive models. The lower end models have been offering decent books with decent hardware. Just limit what you can do without. I dont know what its like over there but here you can go to an Office Depot or the like and configure one thats on sale. Adding the component upgrades you need.

rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:51 am

OK, i think HP is what im looking for, i like their range, so ive started looking at their DV4200 range, they seem to be a reasonable price with some good specs.
So, within the DV4200 range there are 2 models that are basically the same price:
The HP Pavilion dv4277EA
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12256050-64829181.html @£899

and the HP Pavilion dv4225EA

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12256050-63625627.html @£900

and i cant for the life of me figure out how the £900 is better than the £899, in fact, a lot of the specs on the £900 are not as good as on the £899!!! Whats wrong with these people!! Any ideas why this might be? is it just a pricing error, is it really too good to be true? or did i miss something that would make the £900 model more expensive?

Thanks again for your time
Rowan

LicketySplit · Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:58 am

Looks like the 899 setup gives you a lot more. Double the ram and more than double the drive space. Looks like a pretty good deal.

rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:07 am

Ok, so thats what i thought, it didnt make sense, so i rang HP up to ask them how much it was, and it was originally priced at £999 not £899. The guy said that it is possible that HP have lowered the price, and the price on the website is what you pay, so im going to talk to my parents about it later tonight and maybe look into buying it seeing as its basically £100 off.

Cheers
Rowan

Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:20 pm

That £900 model seems like an old Banias model, may be they just haven't lowered the price for that, since there is probably no stock anyway.

rowan57 · Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:02 pm

oes the cheaper (£899) model look old? I hate asking all these questions but i have no clue about laptops! I dont want to buy an old system thats already pretty out of date.

Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:57 pm

rowan57 wrote:
oes the cheaper (£899) model look old? I hate asking all these questions but i have no clue about laptops! I dont want to buy an old system thats already pretty out of date.

The £899 model is 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache, which is a Dothan.

The £900 model is 400MHz FSB Dothan.

And then the more RAM and other stuff. It's just better overall specs.

The cheaper model (by £1) wins.

cheesyking · Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:35 pm

rowan57 wrote:
i dont want to take my desktop to uni because of the risk of theft, so im effectively looking for a reasonably priced desktop replacement.

Er a laptop is less likely to be stolen because? When I was at uni I put my desktop in the biggest heaviest case I could find. No one was going to carry that out through the door let alone the window. Add to that second hand PCs are just about worthless and you're PC isn't that likely to get nicked. A laptop on the other hand... well you could hide that under a hoodie.

I know someone who got burgled 3 times in a year and not once did they even try to take the PC!

Anyhow hope you're going somewhere nice for uni. Just to rub you're nose in this... I started uni the last year with grants

rowan57 · Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:13 am

Thanks for the feedback, i've pretty much decided to get the £899 one, just got to sort out the finances etc.

On the pc vs. laptop front, you hold some valid points, but i will be travelling 250 miles to and from university every semester and only staying on-site during the semesters, it will be cool to have a laptop i can just pick up and go with, rather than the 2 options with a desktop, leave it on-site or get picked up rather than going by bus/train. I will be studying just 45 minutes from London at Writtle College, Chelmsford, i live near Leeds, so the train or coach it is, the laptop will serve a very good 3 years i think.

Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:45 am

If you can, try to make sure in your room you have some fix mounted stuff that you can tie those laptop locks thing. Although it won't stop people from bringing a saw and cut the crap out while you are partying for 5+ hours, but it's at least better than nothing.

Laptop theft > desktop theft. So the truth comes out, you kinda basically are looking for the "cool" factor.

I used a Shuttle as my "portable" when I was working 370km away from home, but I have a car so it is different.

rowan57 · Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:06 pm

But laptop on train is better than desktop in room as well

flip-mode · Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:32 pm

If you absolutely need the mobility, and it sounds like you would benefit from it for sure, the go for a laptop. Here are the main reasons to avoid laptops:

1. Theft
2. They get dropped
3. Suckage grafix is the norm
4. HDD performance will [b]never[/b] match the desktop, and that's already the weakest link of computing
5. Harder and more expensive to upgrade, and fewer options to boot

But if you're just doing MS Office, browsing, chatting, and i-Tunes, then none of those performance issues really matter.

Says I.

rowan57 · Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:47 am

I dont expect masses from my pc's, as long as they can perform basic functions in a timely manner its cool, i currently work on a 10y.o. P2 300Mhz which runs Windows XP quite comfortably on a 15 inch screen, its the old family pc and i kind oif inherited it, it does all the things i want it to like photo editing and stuff but its pretty damn slow, so any upgrade from that is a good thing

Just a quick question, will the fact that the laptop has only 128mb of Graphics Memory affect DVD playback in a negative manner? It is dedicated memory but its only 128mb, i have spoken to my uncle about it and he said it should be fine on the 15 inch screen, if i was to playback from the laptop onto a big plasma or sumthing then i may have probs, but thats unlikely anyway, but whats you's guys opinion?

Cheers
Rowan

LicketySplit · Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:40 am

Playback..as in movie? Should be fine the way it is for watching movies.

rowan57 · Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:56 am

Brilliant! Thanks again for being patient and giving loads of advice

Rowan

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