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LadyDay
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Posted: Sunday April 23rd, 2006 22:39 |
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i am considering getting a laptop
it seems i keep going for big purchases
but my limit is 500 give or take and thats just because of the way i will be paying for it....
someone suggested acer, i have been advised to stay away from celeron processors and i mainly see toshibas, i dont mind hp compaq
what should i be looking for wi fi is one of my only criterias and a good office package where possible?
thanks in advance
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Sav
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Posted: Monday April 24th, 2006 05:51 |
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| According to the friendly salesman at my local PC World, the processor to have on a laptop these days is the Turion.
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Kunjufu
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Posted: Monday April 24th, 2006 07:37 |
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Ladyday: seriously don't go for name brand...go for practicabilty, performance and upgradability..
In that context make sure your laptop has ENOUGH hard disk space, the Best performance (ie the highest processing & RAM speed) and that the battery life will last more than 2 hours away from main charge..Oops nearly forgot MAKE sure it can connect to the internet wirelessly..(a definate MUST)..
and most important check built quality..it may look nice but trust me those shiney, glitzy Laptops soon get scratched and marked up..so check that it aint gonna fall apart when you start carrying it around with you..
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Blackthought
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Posted: Monday April 24th, 2006 11:34 |
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I have used acer for the last 3/4 years, alsthough I have changed laptops 3 times too, but they seem to be very strong.. My colleague always moan about his laptops.. and he has had different ones, BenQ, Asus, Fujistu..
I would advice to go for a Centrino and Acers do have more range with Wi-fi technology... you should probably aim for more storage space rather than processor speed....
Also you might want to check the weight of the laptops..
You should buy those pc magazines, you'll find lots of laptops offers there.
Last edited on Tuesday April 25th, 2006 11:35 by Blackthought
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umbrarchist
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Posted: Monday April 24th, 2006 18:07 |
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I have been hearing negative PR about Celerons for years, but once you get passed 1 GHz the processors are all so fast, for most people and most applications, it hardly makes any difference. If someone is doing lot of graphics rendering it could matter.
umbrarchist
ps - I do confess I am prejudiced against laptops though. They are a real pain to work on compared to generic desktops. And more expensive. I have a used Dell Inspiron off ebay.
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An_Advanced_Spark
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Posted: Monday April 24th, 2006 22:12 |
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| Could you post some pics with specifications please?
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LadyDay
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 10:28 |
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thanks for the advice
k
can you be more specific please
what processor speed make hard drive space etc
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Blackthought
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 11:34 |
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Hard drive.. 60 gb is decent.. 80 is average. 100 good.. 120 maximum you can get on a laptop so that is excellent for now.
Processor.. as far as Intel Centrino goes.. 1.3 ghz - 1.4 ghz is ok, 1.6 is average, 1.8 ghz is really good, 2.0 ghz is excellent.. 2.1 ghz is the max for this processor for now which means its excellent, but I doubt you will be able to find one in your budget range.
There are other type of processors which could even go up to 3ghz, but you mentioned you wanted wi-fi technology laptops and as far as I am aware, wi-fi technology are only on Centrino laptops..
1.4 ghz - for average use
1.6 ghz - for average usage, but want to do a lot of graphic work, which tends to chew a lot of memory... you can follow the pattern from here.
Last edited on Tuesday April 25th, 2006 11:35 by Blackthought
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LadyDay
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 13:59 |
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im looking at this one http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_289396.html so far
and http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_309532.html
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Blackthought
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 15:03 |
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Decision looks tough.. but if you was to ask moi I'll say go for this one.
http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_309532.html
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LadyDay
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 18:20 |
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Blackthought wrote: Decision looks tough.. but if you was to ask moi I'll say go for this one.
http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_309532.html
could you tell me what lead to that decision please. i like to be well researched before purchasing. what specs etc
thanks in advance
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Kunjufu
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 18:24 |
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| LAdyday:can i suggest you investigate further and check the battery life on each...because trust me that will be crucial too...also don't stop looking around at other websites and stores I think you can better that 500 plus price tag...for the spec Laptop..
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safetyblitz
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 19:13 |
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I don't know Ladyday, I have had Dells and IBMs and both have been pretty reliable.
My dell inspirion rolled down an escalator bagless picking us speed along the way and only lost a few plastic pieces and cracked some of the remaining plastic but she fired up. From what I noticed about Dell engineering a lot of times in the past they have had esign flaws that allowed too much dirt to sit on the processor and the heat sink meaning over heating problems but nothing a can of air can't solve.
I had an IBM that was dropped several times but the built in hard drive protection scheme they have going saved me a few times. Usually they run great have a great resale value but the parts are high as h*** to replace including the plastic. They d make a great lightweight machine, I give them that but you WILL PAY......Also the plastics on these crack easier than the others, but as small as they are they make a great keyboard.
Sony makes a great laptop, they are usually fast excellent boxes to watch DVDs on and come with a whole list of features, but it is like a crap shoot sometimes you have a winner for life other times they have board issue problems. Still don't look to hang on to a Sony for longer than 3 years as they love to use plastic to support their heavy screens, meaning one day you will open it up and the screen will not stay up. Japanese engineering all the way. Good electronics nice looking exterior but bad casing
HP/Compaq laptops are goofy in that the consumer end laptops suck. Which are the low cost ones that you see in the store. Their high end laptops usually hold together pretty well, but all are bogged down with HP/Compaq specific system hard and software which makes them a little slower than their counter parts Hps also usually run hot for some unknown reason. Including the one I am on that HP has installed 3 fans in LOL
Gateways are just average PCs, where you get what you pay for. Like roachs they last for ever but then again like 2 legged roaches they will last forever leaving you on the fringe of buying another one because they still work
Acers I repaired them while in college and would not touch one with my nether regions......
Toshiba crap shoot. I have a small one now I think it is an old 700 MhZ built in wireless 12 in screen my kids use it a lot for gooing around beacuse it is quick for getting on the net. Toshibas are ok if you never have problem with them if you do, you may have to hold a seance to get in touch with someone who knows about them. Put it like this, once I tried to get in touch with them and their CS person gave me a 6 digit tele # when in the states 7 digits are mandatory. Yeah.....
Fujitsu? Fahgettabout it. Board problem board problem board problemSSSSS
Panasonic toughbook expensive and heavy but will last forever. Parts are expensive but surprisingly they rarely ever get that hot and you can drive a car over them (which of course we had to try LOL) and they still work
I had two alienware laptops. Great for games and such but they are energy monsters and you have to stay near a power cord.
Now currently I am on a 3.2GhZ HP, I have an IBM T41 at home for the kids, the little toshiba protege in the corner for messing around, and a compaq evo in the closet collecting dust. I change laptops like some people change shoes LOL
Lady you should be able to get by with a Celeron if you are doing general things like excel spreadsheets, word processing or surfing the internet. You will run into problems when you start to play things like games where the processor has to do a lot more or surfing some sights with video involved, but the majority of the time you will not notice it. Some of the newer laptops have the new hyperthreading chip or run dual processors and guess what I am finding out? Some of the programs we use on the market are currently not setup to take advantage of this and gives me a Blue Screen of Death. Like my Palm Pilot. I have found a work around but new and faster is not always better....
You should be looking for 512 MB memory for the simple reason that 256 is not enough and a lot of laptop memory is shared by the video card. Meaning that if they tell you that you have a 64MB of video memory you will have to subtract that from the 256 they give you. So in other words you will see a serve lag if you have more than two things open and running firefox after a while will kill your new laptop LOL
For you as long as you get 40 GB of hard drive space you will be ok. If you plan on downloading a lot of music and movies look to get 60 GB on the hard drive as a minimum
Built in wireless saves you battery life versus getting a wireless card. my T41 proved that to me as I put in the PCMCIA card to test it and the battery life dropped by 40% as long as that card was in and it is a Centrino 1.6 MHz.
You have to check battery life if you plan on using the laptop away from the outlet. My IBMs have never given me more than 2 hours. Dells usually 2 1/2, HP because they are power hungry at the consumer level 1 hour, the business end 2. Sony 1-1 1/2 Toshiba roll the dice for anything in between.
What a lot of people do not notice about looking at a laptop is the way it takes in air and expels air. You have to look at this as well because Dells always loose the footing due to heat at the bottom (well at least mine) meaning that the laptops in take is covered and the Dell's fan will start screaming and in some cases the Dell will cut off as soon as it over heats. HP's at the consumer level will run run and run.
Another thing about buying them out the store is that you may be able to talk the salesman out of the display model for a couple of hundred dollars cheaper.
Software wise, talk to everyone on here and I am sure that you will be able to get what you need without spending a couple hundred bucks or more at the store for it because they will get you on software all the time if you let them.
I hope my experience with the little boxes have helped or will help you somewhat.............
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LadyDay
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 19:52 |
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Kunjufu wrote: LAdyday:can i suggest you investigate further and check the battery life on each...because trust me that will be crucial too...also don't stop looking around at other websites and stores I think you can better that 500 plus price tag...for the spec Laptop..
well my limit is 500 but as you can see i dont mind going over
i will look at the battery life
what exactly can i get better for my price tag that the ones i have showed is not offering
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LadyDay
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 20:16 |
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i plan to do more than just word processing and surfing
im not a game freak got better thongs to do with my time
i will probably do some photoshop and publishing type stuff
saftey at present you cant convince me on the celeron
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LadyDay
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Posted: Tuesday April 25th, 2006 20:21 |
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http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_1300?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs im looking at dell aswell not sure why but most jobs i have worked in use dell
anyway this one mentions express card slot and pc card....does anyone know what it means?
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Blackthought
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Posted: Wednesday April 26th, 2006 10:10 |
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LadyDay wrote: Blackthought wrote: Decision looks tough.. but if you was to ask moi I'll say go for this one.
http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_309532.html
could you tell me what lead to that decision please. i like to be well researched before purchasing. what specs etc
thanks in advance
Well I think that price is the lowest you can get for that laptop....
It's a centrino.. 1.7ghz
Hard drive space is on the lower end, but you can buy portable laptop hard driven or external standard hard drive, when you feel you need more space.. but you can't do the same with laptop processor's.
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LadyDay
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Posted: Wednesday April 26th, 2006 22:39 |
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ok so would you say centrino is better than turion?
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safetyblitz
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Posted: Thursday April 27th, 2006 02:49 |
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LadyDay
Go here. Dell sells refurbished laptops as well. Meaning that some of the laptops are pre ordered but never make it to the customer or the customer orders it and returns it (price, not what they thought it was, etc)
http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?country=GBR&target=InventoryPage&lob_constraint=INSP
You may get lucky but they move fast so what you see now may be gone in 30 minutes or more. It is worth checking out You can click on each individual system's number on the far left and find out more about what you are getting on that system. You can also sort the group by price so you can get as much as you want for your money and possibly save a little. Also for some of the systems that have 0 for the screen size click on them individually usually this is because of laziness on the Dell tech's part on putting them in the database. Have fun
Last edited on Thursday April 27th, 2006 02:56 by safetyblitz
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umbrarchist
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Posted: Thursday April 27th, 2006 09:53 |
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It is often difficult to understand the real world performance of a computer on the basis of the published specifications. Another aspect of the problem is that different users do different things and run different software so determining how much power a particular person should buy isn't an easy task. The task manager in Windows 2000 or XP can monitor your CPU usage as you do what YOU do on your current machine and may give you some idea how much more processing power you might need, if any.
This is a screenshot from a 1.3 GHz Gateway with an Intel Pentium 4 on an Intel mother board. The performance graph in the lower right corner shows the CPU usage. The first peak is Firefox loading.
The next peak is loading this website:
http://www.thegreatillusion.com/
After the peak of loading the web page the system stays at about 50% as long as the page is open.
The following screenshot is of the same process on a 2.7 GHz Pentium 4 on an ASUS motherboard. I was surprised by the results myself. I was expecting it to be significantly lower after the second peak but not for it to go near zero.
The Gatway has a 4x AGP video card though I think the slot in the old motherboard is only 2x AGP. The ASUS board is a much later design with integrated PCI Express Graphics Media Accelerator on the motherboard. This means the CPU doesn't have to do the work to produce that webpage so it is free to do something else. The impact of the graphics processor would be difficult to judge from a machines specs. I just discovered something else about the 2.7 GHz system. It has a DVD burner and a DVD ROM. The CPU usage is about 35% playing a movie on the DVD burner but only 10% with the ROM. So many things affect system performance depending on what is being done on it.
Seeing your current level of usage might help you judge if you might over buy performance you don't need.
umbra
Last edited on Thursday April 27th, 2006 09:56 by umbrarchist
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LadyDay
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Posted: Wednesday May 3rd, 2006 21:55 |
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okay people
i have found a wonderful laptop
by the weekend i may have purchased it but i am running it by you guys 1st
its acer amd sempron 1gb memory 100gb hardrive processor 1.8ghz built in wireless connectivity....battery life however is only at 1;30hrs.(can a better battery be bought ?)
and its costs £499 usual price of 599
advice please
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Blackthought
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Posted: Wednesday May 3rd, 2006 22:42 |
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LadyDay wrote: okay people
i have found a wonderful laptop
by the weekend i may have purchased it but i am running it by you guys 1st
its acer amd sempron 1gb memory 100gb hardrive processor 1.8ghz built in wireless connectivity....battery life however is only at 1;30hrs.(can a better battery be bought ?)
and its costs £499 usual price of 599
advice please
Sounds pretty good to me... a little bit to good to be true
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Posted: Wednesday May 3rd, 2006 22:46 |
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LadyDay wrote: okay people
i have found a wonderful laptop
by the weekend i may have purchased it but i am running it by you guys 1st
its acer amd sempron 1gb memory 100gb hardrive processor 1.8ghz built in wireless connectivity....battery life however is only at 1;30hrs.(can a better battery be bought ?)
and its costs £499 usual price of 599
advice please
Based on thaty spec..my advice is to RUN..not walk and get that Laptop BEFORE it sells out.... Yes the Battery life is short, unfortunately I think its a price you pay for having such a high spec Laptop...
Oops nearly forgot LD, does it have at least 3 USB ports very IMPORTANT given that this is how mush things connect these days...?
Better if its got firewire port too but not the end of the world...
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LadyDay
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Posted: Wednesday May 3rd, 2006 23:08 |
