TR Forums

Time for a new laptop?

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• #1

Thu May 27, 2004 12:28 pm

I have to do some school related traveling next fall and am using the oportunity to justify picking up a new laptop.

What's a good price/performance rig currently? And, should I wait a couple of months, or get it to play with now. (I'm starting to salivate just thinking about it)

It needs to be able to play games. (UT2004, etc....)
I have a wireless PCMCIA card, but internal wireless g. would be nice.
CD RW/DVD burner....etc....
Batery life is important...! (At least long enough to watch a DVD on the air plane.)

Howard, do you still like the one you brought over to my place?

What do you guys, gals, girly men, think? (jk about the girly men comment )

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• #2

Thu May 27, 2004 3:42 pm

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Thu May 27, 2004 4:05 pm

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Thu May 27, 2004 4:08 pm

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• #5

Thu May 27, 2004 4:20 pm

Yeah... I've heard nothing but good things about that eMachines laptop that Yahoolian suggested. It's an extra plus that it's running an A64 as well.

That'd be at the top of my list.

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• #6

Thu May 27, 2004 4:36 pm

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Thu May 27, 2004 5:12 pm

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Thu May 27, 2004 5:14 pm

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Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:24 pm

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Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:33 pm

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• #11

Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:31 pm

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• #12

Sat Jun 05, 2004 7:04 pm

Anyone know how the Pentium mobile 1.7 Dothan stacks up against the AMD 64 3400+...???

I have one laptop I'm looking at with each. The only other difference is ATI video vs. Nvidia, and I know what my prefrence is in that area already.

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• #13

Sat Jun 05, 2004 7:11 pm

Ahem...according to this article at our own TR...the Dothan runs well with the 3200....but ifn it was me...hehe...it would be the 3400....cmon man...step up

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content ... e%5Ftest=1

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• #14

Sat Jun 05, 2004 7:19 pm

LicketySplit wrote:

Ahem...according to this article at our own TR...the Dothan runs well with the 3200....but ifn it was me...hehe...it would be the 3400....cmon man...step up

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content ... e%5Ftest=1

Heh. I'm stepping up..... It's burning a hole in my pocket while I'm researching best prices / features..... blah

What about the XP-M 3000+, I figure it uses less juice, produces less heat.....and I only give up a little on the L1, L2 side of things....

What do you think?

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• #15

Sat Jun 05, 2004 8:51 pm

I think its a great choice...and would be mine as well...some may not agree...but i like the lil guy...specially since he has pulled off a couple big coups lately ...and for what youre using it for....its a no brainer

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• #16

Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:24 pm

Okay, I know some of you will want to throw something HEAVY at me for making this choice, but after careful consideration I bought the following Sager NP8790. 3.4ghz, 256mb mobile ATI 9700 pro, 1gb pc3200 ram, 60gb 5400 HDD, and all the extras I could throw on.
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp.net/store/configurator.aspx?mid=110
I can't quite believe I went the complete oposite of the mobile procs I was looking at.

I know, the big issues will be the 10 lbs :o , the heat and the short battery life. But really, I have a smallish laptop sitting here and it's mostly used as a desktop with the very rare trip to some hotel.....so it has maybe spent 30 minutes on battery power in the past 5 years.

Anyhow......It's going to look sweeet sitting on my desk! And it's hopefully going to last me another 5 years before it's obsolete.

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• #17

Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:40 pm

Great choice...if if doesnt run at a lower mhz rating and slowwwwww like the 3.0 chip does...you will enjoy it....just like a damn kid turned loose in a candy store eh Sager is a well know brand for quality. Think of elevating it on a couple supports on each side to help alleviate the heat

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• #18

Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:53 pm

Thanks Lickety. That's a good idea. I was actually thinking of picking up some kind of elevated stand or something. I saw one at a guys house, it looked like it was easier to use because the LCD was raised higher.

I talked my wife into spliting the cost,........so it made things easier.

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• #19

Mon Jun 07, 2004 5:17 pm

Sounds like my kinda woman...hmmm....naw...dont spose you wanna go there

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Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:04 pm

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• #21

Mon Jun 14, 2004 7:49 pm

Hehe...he just likes to piss money away...its a thing with school teachers

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• #22

Tue Jun 15, 2004 12:16 pm

Draal wrote:

Then what was the point of buying a laptop if your not able to/going to be out and about with it?

For the price point, I would of thought a regular computer system would of been both cheaper/better in general. Can't really see anyone who would want to carry around a ten pound laptop.. But isn't it possible to use VNC to turn a regular laptop into a terminal of sorts for a regular desktop machine?

I'm just confused why you would buy a laptop for regular gaming, and one in general if your not going to actually use the "portable" feature of the thing..

Hmm..

Well, the way I look at it is like this, for the three times a year when I actually do cart my lap top around it's more than mobile enough and I have a powerful "desktop replacement" that beat the heck out of dragging my shuttle and an LCD monitor around. 10 pounds is nothing to me anyway. It's not like I'm using it to go back and forth to work, around campus, to the corner cafe' for a cup of coffee, etc. In the last 365 days I have moved my current laptop three times, all of which ended in a location with an outlet.....none of which I would have drug my tower case to.

Then there's Lickety's point. I'm not very responsible with my money.

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• #23

Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:59 am

You could buy an LG laptop. They're awsome and are really well priced.

Our one has a mobile 9200, but you can get the more expensive version with the mobile 9600. I dont see a good reason to buy a heavy laptop, while you can get one with a quad band antena ( both A and G wireless) a 15 inch bright lcd and AWSOME battery life...

I'd recomend the lm50 - 3.... it has the 9600 mobile and 512 mb ram... though if u want a cheaper option u could do like me and get the lm50 2 which has 256 mb ram and upgrade to 512...

They both have a cetrino processor. Its VERY fast. And is sure to run any game u throw at it.

Remember if u buy a laptop with a desktop processor battery life would be very bad. I guess around 30 minutes if you have a wireless card installed. The LG lasts for around 3 hours 30 with the wireless centrino working it's butt off

I was restarting the computer a lot at that time as well, and was using it ALL through the 3 and a half hours. I think it could last 5 hours if u use it more sensibly.. dont restart the computer much. I had to restart a lot since it was the first time I used the PC and had to configure it.

oh yeh, did i mention it's only 2.4 kg or 5.3 pounds... half the wieght of the laptop u want.. and the centrino is really fast, dont let the mhz rating fool u. Its got a MB L2 cache, so it's very fast...

The laptop with the r9600 has a 1.6 processor, while the lappy with the r9200 has a centrino 1.5.

I payed around 2100 AUD for it with the RAM.

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• #24

Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:20 pm

Well, I bought the Sager....Got it here, started it folding, etc. The 17+ inch screen was beautiful! 3.4 @ 800fsb was nice too. (though no overclocking options in the bios made me a bit grumpy)....The weight, as I mentioned earlier, wasn't a concern for me.

What I didn't like, however, and I ended up sending it back because of it, was the heat. I've come to the conclusion that 3.4c's just aren't ment for laptops with limited cooling options. It didn't complete and WU's in the 4 days I had it....kept restarting while gaming, etc....

Lucky for me I had a 30 day money back guarentee.

My next trial......is a Dell 8600. Yes, I know, it will be my first Dell.....but the price was right (with the 30% off coupon a frind provided me with)

Dothan 2.0, 1gb ram, 15.4" WSXGA+, 7200rpm hdd and a 128mb ATI mobile 9600 card. Should do my fine, and sounds a lot like the LG. Almost half the weight, advertised as 4+ hours on the battery, a/b/g/ wireless, etc.....

We'll see.....it has a money back gaurentee too.

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• #25

Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:24 am

Damn...some people just never learn I empathise with you bud..but DAMN Dell?

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• #26

Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:31 am

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• #27

Fri Jun 25, 2004 1:59 am

http://www.notebook-laptop-review.com/d ... eview.html

Well, the dell u mentioned seems to be a desktop replacment. And they say it gets hot......

I assume if it gets hot then the battery life wouldn't be really 4 hours. And the advertised battery life is often BS. lol.... lg say the lappy runs for 10 hours, the catch, u need to buy a 12 cell battery lol.... with the battery they give the battery works for around 4 hours with wireless lan enabled and functioning... oh and it's got a quad antena as opposed to dell's dual. (don't know the diffrence though)


The LG is considerably thinner and lighter (LG is VERY thin and extra sexy ) but if ur not going to be travelling much with it, then it would be a pretty nice machine. You're right though, it is pretty similar to the LG appart from the weight, it's a pretty good deal IMHO.

Tell us how the dell goes oh yeh, and its got a pretty cool screen..

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• #28

Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:27 am

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• #29

Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:18 pm

Yea, that review was a little dated. Dell now offers the line of Dothan procs in addition to the ones noted, and have also moved onto the Mobile ATI 128mb 9600 Pro. As opposed to the Nvidia listed in the review.

As far as heat and weight are concerned....there's no way it will weigh as much as the one I just sent back (10.5 lbs0 and I was fine with that one. there's also no way it will get as hot as the 3.4C desktop chip was getting. So I think I'll be fine. If it doesn't meet my needs perhaps I'll look into the LG....but I do agree that P-M models should be my focus for now.

I know Lickety. Dell....ack! That's what I said too..... But you got to figure it this way. It's NOT a desk top and it's made by either Compal and Quanta, and then assembled @ Dell. I'll reformat and reinstall to get rid of their junk files, and I'll have a three year warentee (that includes damage or abuse from me. ie...kicking it, throwing it out of the window of my car, etc. ) that I can't get from ODM distributors. Plus, there was that 30% off! Anyway, I would have never believed I'd be buying a Dell. I'll let you know how this ones goes.

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• #30

Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:33 pm

Ok, this is driving me nuts.

They both have a cetrino processor

There is NO SUCH THING. Centrino is a marketing term for a Spec that Intel put out. Anyone can call their laptop a 'Centrino' if it meets these requirements:

1) It must use a Intel Pentium M CPU.
2) Must use an Intel 855 Chipset.
3) Must use an Intel 802.11B Wi-Fi chipset.

No matter who (Mfg) you are, you meet those specs, you can put the Centrino sticker on your laptop.

Sorry, I just had to clear that up.