Notebook Advice

A

Altcon

Regular
Hi all,
Im looking to buy my fiancee a laptop for basic stuff.It'll be mainly for web surfing, office, music and maybe some movies (for really boring times) . Things I know want built in are: reliable 811g wifi (with possibilities for wep, wap and hex and ascII keys), a nice nic, 512 mb ram, vga output (and hopefully Svideo), a topuchpad (no clit thingy they suck),3 usb ports, dvd/cdrw combo and at least a 40gb HD. I'm hoping for a three year warranty as well....
I have practically zero experience with buying notebooks so I really need some help here. I've heard good things about Dell, Acer and IBM but I really can't see the difference in spec or what the performance is about (like who makes the mobos and what chipsets are recomended).
Are there AMD64 laptops as well? I haven't seen any......
as you can probably tell, I dont know my ass from my elbow here so I'd apreciate any advice....
 
Need some more info to help out. What screen size 12,14,15,15.4,17"? What type of battery life, 1 1/2 hours for high power and long battery life 5 hours. I need a price range to help weed out notebooks too.

There are AMD Athlon 64 but there are all not the same. There are Athlon 64 DTR (high power usage 89W), mobile athlon 64 ( mid power usage 62W), and last the Turion 64 (low power usage MT model 25W and ML model 35W). There are some turion 64 Acer notebooks at newegg that use a ML model. I would get a Turion 64 for the low power use and low heat.

There are a few places that will asemble a notebook for you from a bare bone notebook that will alows you to choise what speed CPU, amount of ram, wireless card, and hard drive but the price is higher.

http://www.xmeld.com/
http://www.rawpowerpc.com/products.php
 
Altcon said:
Hi all,
Im looking to buy my fiancee a laptop for basic stuff.It'll be mainly for web surfing, office, music and maybe some movies (for really boring times) . Things I know want built in are: reliable 811g wifi (with possibilities for wep, wap and hex and ascII keys), a nice nic, 512 mb ram, vga output (and hopefully Svideo), a topuchpad (no clit thingy they suck),3 usb ports, dvd/cdrw combo and at least a 40gb HD. I'm hoping for a three year warranty as well....
I have practically zero experience with buying notebooks so I really need some help here. I've heard good things about Dell, Acer and IBM but I really can't see the difference in spec or what the performance is about (like who makes the mobos and what chipsets are recomended).
Are there AMD64 laptops as well? I haven't seen any......
as you can probably tell, I dont know my ass from my elbow here so I'd apreciate any advice....
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I am an IBM laptop nut (currently using T40p & T41p) , though I have used ACER as well. The thing most important for a laptop IMO is ease of use and battery life. That's why I prefer IBM modell: the little red knob acting as mouse in addition to the touchpad. Plus IBM Connections which is an easy to use profile manager for different networks, etc...
However, as far as I know IBM's slim laptops have only 2 USB ports...

As far as performance is concerned, check your favourite HW site, they'll definitely have a laptop section, with loads of benchmarks...
or try
http://www.notebookreview.com
or
http://laptopmag.com/index.htm
 
Because I think I'm the lone Mac user here on B3D, I can't help but advocate for Apple's iBook. I think it's a steal for $999, especially considering all the software you get with it (OS X Tiger, iLife, etc). They're very light, rugged, have excellent WiFi range, and you can get roughly ~5-6 hours battery on light computing. The G4 is a little pokey now compared to what PC laptops sport, but it is definitely "good enough" and has very low power draw/heat disp.

1.33GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache @1.33GHz
512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
32MB DDR video memory
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11g)
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Scrolling Trackpad
Sudden Motion Sensor
 
Thanx for all the replies.

Im looking for a 14-15" size screen which doesn't need to have a super high res (no high def). Battery life should be about 3+ hours (I think).
Price range should be around low to mid range for laptops (I havent the slightest idea on pricing), as far as budget Im not sure it will help you since I'm not buying it in the states.
Just for some sort of sense what pricing here is, a Dell 110l costs 940$ (celeron 1.3, 256 ram, 40 gb hd, 1 year warranty), so you can figure the price difference. I probably wont surpass 1200$.
She needs a machine for basic stuff, so it doesn't need to be too powerfull but I would like a good basis for all IO connectivity, that for instance, I haven't seen in the low-mid HP models I've come across.

As for APPLE-JUST SAY NO, there is no point in buying a computer that she doesnt know the OS, and I dont even know how compatible it is with her working enviornment. 99.99% of everyone here is on a PC with XP, meaning that unless I want to set a new trend on my own and make my fiancee hate me, then APPLE/MAC are out.

I'll see where I can get barebones here, and what the price difference is.
 
RussSchultz said:
What's "here"?

In the states, Dell regularly runs deals where you can get a hot-damn laptop for ~$800-900.
Click to expand...
+Tax unfortunately darn state anyway :(

That btw is why I did not end up with a dell.
 
Think about what you are actually going to use if for and how it is going to be used so this will give you some parameters for the processors and the form factor of the machine, which will have bearing on costs.

First time I bought a laptop I didn't really know what I was going to use it for (other than a portable computer) and my requirement was for it to be DX9 - this lead me to getting a fairly large P4 notebook, but having used it for a while and realising that I need to lug it around airports (it was heavy and wasn't very well suited for it) and I need some battery life for typing articles on planes and the like (it was a P4 so the battery life was shit!) I understood what I really wanted from the laptop. I've since got a Sony VIAO S3XP which is both pretty small and light and has a Pentium M giving me sooooo much more battery life, and I'm much happier with this purchase.
 
Also think it is for a woman. My experience with my wife, is she puts a much higher premium on small & light, even to the point of giving up some screen size.

This is what we ended up getting her early this year, and she loves it:

http://www.averatec.com/notebooks/3300series.htm

If memory serves, we got it at CompUSA for about $1,000 after rebates.
 
Altcon said:
As for APPLE-JUST SAY NO, there is no point in buying a computer that she doesnt know the OS, and I dont even know how compatible it is with her working enviornment. 99.99% of everyone here is on a PC with XP, meaning that unless I want to set a new trend on my own and make my fiancee hate me, then APPLE/MAC are out.
Click to expand...

SIGH... I guess all I'll say is that my PowerBook is more compatible with my XP network than my XP boxes, but I'll leave it at that. Some people are so prejudiced :(

You should look at the Dell Inspiron 700m. 12 inch widescreen, fairly portable, decent build quality, good battery life.
 
RussSchultz said:
What's "here"?

In the states, Dell regularly runs deals where you can get a hot-damn laptop for ~$800-900.
Click to expand...
Sorry...forgot to post that. Im in Israel, so prices range from $150-300 more for most laptops.
Dell's deals are here http://www.notebookclub.co.il/ , so for translation purposes 4.6 nis ato a dollar today.
 
I have a Compaq Presario v2000 and I'm pretty sure it meets all your needs. I'm not sure how long the battery lasts when watching a DVD though. In general web surfing usage battery life is in the 3 hour range for me. Most of the time I have it plugged in by my couch though. You might be able to get 4 hours with the backlight turned down all the way.

Compaq Presario v2000
 
3dcgi said:
I have a Compaq Presario v2000 and I'm pretty sure it meets all your needs. I'm not sure how long the battery lasts when watching a DVD though. In general web surfing usage battery life is in the 3 hour range for me. Most of the time I have it plugged in by my couch though. You might be able to get 4 hours with the backlight turned down all the way.

Compaq Presario v2000
Click to expand...
how about this one http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/e...01_HP Compaq nx6125 Notebook PC&lang=en&cc=us
I can get a great deal on it.
512mb and 60 gb hd + DVDRW.
wadda ya think?
the compaq looks nice, i'll check pricing.
 
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