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Frozen Penguin · Sun Mar 14, 2004 1:57 pm

ive been looking into buying a new laptop and im not sure what i want to go with.

My options are either a athlon64 3200+ with a 60gb 4200rpm hard drive; or a pentium4 3.06ghz HT with a 60gb 5400rpm hard drive

if i go with the athlon ill be getting a 64mb geforce4 440go and with the pentium a 64mb radeon 9200

the rest of the specs will be exactly the same:
512mb ddr sdram
dvd/cdrw combo drive
15.4 WVA WSXGA+

what are your suggestions?

mattsteg · Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:01 pm

Personally I wouldn't touch either one. They aren't portable enough to be rightfully called laptops IMO.

Frozen Penguin · Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:03 pm

its basically a desktop replacement, all that i need to take to college in a couple months...so if you had to chose one...

Hance · Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:07 pm

I personally wouldnt touch either one either but for a different reason . the portability wouldnt really bother me they dont weigh all that much . i wouldnt buy a laptop with anything less than a radeon 9600 graphics card in it though . i have the gateway m505xl with a pentium m 1.5 and a 9600 pro . the processor might not be quite as fast as the ones you mentioned but with the 9600 in it it will kill those two in gaming performance .

and more than likely have a hell of alot better batter life .

sativa · Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:16 pm

i'd get the one with the faster hard drive. you'd be suprised how much it can affect your general usage of the computer.

Yahoolian · Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:59 pm

I'd say get a cube...

brainchild786 · Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:08 pm

I am also looking for a laptop at the moment, with similar specs to you. I have been considering this

http://www.technoworld.com/productdispl ... 246%2D1502

UberGerbil · Sun Mar 14, 2004 3:35 pm

sativa wrote:
i'd get the one with the faster hard drive. you'd be suprised how much it can affect your general usage of the computer.

I'd agree. My bias would be towards the A64, but the reality is that the HD is going to have a far bigger impact on your day-to-day usage than the processor. At that level of CPU, you're only going to see tenths of a seconds difference in most tasks, but loading files and programs is going to take seconds longer with the slower disk. It affects general usage, too, if you have enough loaded that things start swapping -- the fastest CPU can seem badly bogged if it is waiting on the swap file. I can barely stand a 5400 disk in a laptop (the next one I actually purchase with my own money is going to have a 7200). A 4200 would be intolerable.

Sun Mar 14, 2004 4:57 pm

7200 rpm 60GB hard-drives are available.

Illissius · Sun Mar 14, 2004 5:30 pm

Might want to have a look around here. Specifically, the M:370, M:855, or M:780, roughly in that order.

Frozen Penguin · Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:09 pm

i have to buy from costco becuz i have a $800 gift card for that place, so my options are limited a 5400 is the biggest they offer

Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:33 pm

How about the PowerPro C 3:17 Supra?

the_silver_bullet24 · Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:37 pm

Where are you getting this laptop from?

Frozen Penguin · Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:40 pm

look to posts up, i just said: Costco

http://www.costco.com/frameset.asp?trg= ... ey=DU928AV

if i want to build it custom i have to go with hp or compaq, otherwise i have to take a **** prebuilt one

ShadowEyez · Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:55 pm

I'm also considering a laptop with similiar specs for college. Specifically:

3.06 ghz with HT
512 RAM
30-60 gig with 5400 rpm
wireless b/g card built in
64mg moble RADEON
DVD/CD-RW (maybe DVD burner?)

I have been looking at dell, because you can custom spec your system. Is dell a good laptop brand? I do have a budget of around 1600-1700 buy am not afraid to spend to get something worth it

Frozen Penguin · Mon Mar 15, 2004 12:02 am

personally i dont like the built in wireless card becuz it elimantes your 10/100 ethernet port that you may want at some point in time

Hance · Mon Mar 15, 2004 12:31 am

built in wireless might eliminate your 10/100 nic on some laptops but not on all of them . my gateway has wireless and 10/100 both .

Frozen Penguin · Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:00 pm

since my options are limited to only a 4200rpm hard drive, i was thinking of buying a 7200rpm one, and the only one i found for a laptop was at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-146-020&depa=1

it says its a 2.5" mobile, but my question is, do all laptops have 2.5" hard drives or do they very? just wondering if i could swap it into an HP after i buy it?

the_silver_bullet24 · Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:32 pm

Yeahl all laptop dirves are 2.5". I'm pretty sure you could swap it out.

UberGerbil · Mon Mar 15, 2004 7:34 pm

Be careful. Yes, all laptop drives are 2.5" (at least until we make the transition to iPod 1 inch drives). But 2.5 HDs come in various thicknesses (usually expressed in mm). Not all drives can fit into all laptops: the thickest drives won't fit in the slimmest laptops. You probably won't have a problem -- "Desktop replacement" class machines tend to have the biggest drive bays -- but it's worth checking the specs for your machine (and the drive) before you buy another drive.

Also, not all mfrs use the standard interface for their drives. I had an old gateway that had its own connector to force you to buy an upgraded drive from Gateway. This seems to be less common today, but it's another thing to watch out for.

But aside from those caveats, it is possible to buy a 2.5" drive and upgrade your laptop. I have a friend who carries around two drives, one with XP and one with Linux, and just pops in whichever one he needs.

Mon Mar 15, 2004 8:14 pm

The chances are very good that the standard 2.5" drive that I linked from Newegg would plug right in. Be prepared to re-install the OS. If you want to ghost the new drive, you may want to get one of these adaptors that let you plug the notebook drive into your desktop PC. I've used this particular adaptor, and it works fine.

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