Laptop shopping!

Hawaii Five-O · Jul 22, 2008

Alex_B said:
my personal favourite are Lenovo/IBM .

Yeah IBMs are good too, my brother has one, its a nice computer.

IBM also has great tv commercials I think :lol:

XsCode · Jul 22, 2008

I got a 17" Sony Vaio myself, 2gb Ram 320Gb HD, Dual 2.4 intel, Blueray, 802.11n.... ~£800gbp

clarinetJWD · Jul 22, 2008

XsCode said:
I got a 17" Sony Vaio myself, 2gb Ram 320Gb HD, Dual 2.4 intel, Blueray, 802.11n.... ~£800gbp

You did see her budget, right? $1400 max. 800gbp is nearly $1600!

Chiller · Jul 22, 2008

I was lapdance shopping a while back, and when the girl finally came to my table.....oh wait....:lmao::lmao: oops...you mean laptop. :grumpy:

Dweller · Jul 22, 2008

It would help to define your criteria a bit more.

Which is more important between:

Weight and Screen size
Weight and Battery life
Performance and battery life

Want to play games on it? Intend to do any photoshop type work? Are you considering a docking station with full size keyboard and an external monitor? Need to be able to burn CD or DVDs? do you need Bluetooth? What about frogs?

Have you considered a Macbook?

Corry · Jul 22, 2008

Dweller said:
It would help to define your criteria a bit more.

Which is more important between:

Weight and Screen size I can handle a little weight.
Weight and Battery life See above
Performance and battery life A healthy balance of both?

Want to play games on it? Perhaps on occasion, but I'm a wussy gamer. If it handles the Sims, I'm good. Intend to do any photoshop type work? Yessir, I think I mentioned in one of my posts most of what I'll be using it for. Are you considering a docking station with full size keyboard and an external monitor? What's a docking station, exactly? Need to be able to burn CD or DVDs? At least one of those would be nice. do you need Bluetooth? I dunno, probably not. What about frogs? You know, I got one as a pet 5 or 6 years ago, and them damn things is dirty!

Have you considered a Macbook? Bite me.

My answers in bold.

I've missed ya, Dweller!

Corry · Jul 22, 2008

I'm getting excited.

I want my new laptop now!!! Is it October yet?

Dweller · Jul 23, 2008

Given your intended use and budget I would probably focus on the following specs:

2+ Ghz CPU
2GB RAM
15.4" screen
100+GB drive
extended life battery
DVD-R
Extended Warranty

The processor is the heart of the machine, so you don't want to skimp on that but you can easily blow your budget if you are not careful on this part.

Photoshop loves RAM, but XP has a limitation of 3GB and most people would have room to spare with 2GB.

15.4" screen is the "average" screen size these days. You can go to a 17" or even a 20" but its going to be quite a bit bugger, heavier and likely would consume power faster. A good video card is important though, since you have some desire to play games. A lot of notebook video cards are either crap or "workstation" cards like a Quadro. Let us know what you are looking at and we can tell you the viability for gaming.

Hard drives are like money. No matter how much you have you will want more eventually, but you learn to live with what you have. I would not spend to much going over 100GB myself.

Obviously with a notebook you want it to be portable and useful when you are away and battery life is the key to this. You can go nuts and spend a ton of cash and add a bunch of weight and get 6+ hours of battery life, but I would probably focus on one step above stock to get some decent run time without adding too much extra weight.

A DVD-R or even a CD-R/DVD will allow you to burn disks. CD and DVD media are both cheap enough now that one does not really win over the other, but CDs are more portable. Not everyone will have a DVD player in their system these days but MOST probably will so I would not let this be a deal breaker. consider a CD-R the minimum and take what is offered at that level or above.

I would consider some kind of on-site warranty for at least the first year, and more if its economically feasible. Being portable, Laptops are subject to more wear and tear than a desktop and since it is an investment its good to know its covered.

A docking station is like a "home base" for your laptop. You can plug in a full size keyboard, mouse and monitor into a docking station and leave it on your desk. When you are at home, your laptop plugs in to the docking station so it can charge and you can use it like you would a full size desktop. When you are ready to take it to class or whatever you just unplug it from the dock and take the laptop with you.

Let me see what I can find for deals to give you an idea of what your budget will get you. Keep in mind there are often "back to school" sales going on about the time you are looking to buy, so anything quoted today is just a snapshot of what you could get today.

Here is an HP dv6700t for under $952.98

* Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
* Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T5850 (2.16GHz)
* 15.4" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
* FREE Upgrade to 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS - For Core 2 Duo Processors
* HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Microphone
* 802.11b/g WLAN
* FREE Upgrade to 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive from 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive!!
* SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
* No TV Tuner w/remote control
* High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
* Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
* 1-year HP Accidental Damage Protection with HP Pick Up and Return

These are of course just my opinion and I am sure 10 people are lining up to offer you 11 more

but we are here to help you zero in on what exactly you want.

GerryDavid · Jul 23, 2008

Laptops seem to drop in price fairly fast, or at least that was my experience in the past. With the price I paid for my notebook, I could have bought a desktop with the same specs as the notebook for much cheaper, every year for a few years. And by selling those desktops I could have bought a new desktop for the next 2 years. They wouldnt have been top of the line gaming machines, but they would have done what I needed just fine, plus play the games I wanted. :0)

I wouldnt suggest getting a notebook to do everything you want, like photoshop, etc. But to get one that will do what you need like word processing, surfing and with a dvd recorder, maybe even a used one to save that much more money. And a desktop for the more poweful programs like graphics and/or video. Ive had luck with emachines for desktops and they tend to be pretty cheap.

My last emachine desktop cost like $200 after a rebate from office depot. I dont know much about notebook brands.

Corry · Jul 23, 2008

Thanks for all the good advice, Dweller!

GerryDavid, I've thought long and hard on this, and it would make the most sense for me to just get as good of a laptop as I can afford. I highly doubt I can afford to get TWO computers with even one of them being as powerful as I want, for under $1400.

This desktop still works, and I'm not getting rid of it. It'll be a backup, mostly. I am barely home. I am either at school or at one of my three jobs, or at my little cousin's house, so I can help her with her physical therapy, or travelling across the country . . . among other things. I've very mobile. I need a computer that is, too.

clarinetJWD · Jul 24, 2008

Dweller brings up something I forgot (though I remembered when I was specking out your T series lenovo) Extended life battery. YES.

Parkerman · Jul 24, 2008

Corry said:
I'm getting excited. I want my new laptop now!!! Is it October yet?

By October there will be more options.. and probably cheaper prices.

Corry · Jul 27, 2008

clarinetJWD said:
The X61 would be my ultimate choice (well, x300 actually, but WAY too pricy), but the only problem is that there's no touchpad...it has the nub only, which for me is but I know could be a dealbreaker for some.

Btw, I forgot to add my response to this post: http://xkcd.com/243/