Thread: Need guide for buying a new laptop...

  1. #1
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    Need guide for buying a new laptop...

    help.,.i want to buy a new laptop but don't know the basic requirements...
    anyone here to gimme a piece of advice?
    for your information i want to use for my studies..
    what's the best specs around here that suites me?
    my budget here is 800 dollars.

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    Devil's Advocate SlyMaelstrom's Avatar
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    Tell us what you want to use it for and we'll tell you what you need. For most people's usage, $800 is an acceptable budget. The only thing you'd really have to sacrifice in that range is high-end 3D graphics processing.
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    If you want it for studies, you probably want a somewhat light laptop. No more than 3 kg, less is better.
    No graphics card is really necessary for you. Though a discrete gpu is always handy since it doesn't need to leech off the system memory.
    1 to 2 GB of ram is always good, depending on what kind of studies you do - for example, image processing requires more ram (of course, if you need to work with 3D stuff, then you need a beefy gpu).
    The faster the cpu, the faster you get work done. The best mobile cpu out there (price per performance) is Intel Core 2 Duo.

    Look at a price comparison site. Enter your desired requirements for the laptop and try to pick the cheapest laptop you can find.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    Though a discrete gpu is always handy since it doesn't need to leech off the system memory.
    I'd disagree. Discrete Graphics vs Integrated Graphics is always a question of graphical power and memory vs battery life. In almost all examples of white-books that offer an integrated solution and a dedicated solution (such as the PM965 vs the GM965). The integrated solution often gets 5% extra battery life with even the weakest of dedicated cards. That can be very important if you're going to travel with your laptop often. Secondly, as long as you're getting DDR2 RAM... it's so cheap these days that upgrading is almost always an acceptable solution. I don't know why people would run a Vista machine with less than 3GB these days.
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    Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal whether you get discrete vs. integrated.

    One thing you should do, however, is replace the hard drive in the notebook with a Travelstar. They rotate at 7200 rpm but consume just as much power as a 5400 rpm drive. Plus it's much, much faster. Makes your laptop a better piece of equipment.

    Another thing to take into account - all new laptops ship with Vista. If you have an XP cd lying around, you can of course wipe it and install XP. But if you don't, then you can get around this by getting a laptop with Vista Business. Many companies actually sell you (or give you one) an XP CD so you can downgrade.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    Another thing to take into account - all new laptops ship with Vista. If you have an XP cd lying around, you can of course wipe it and install XP.
    Anothing thing worth mentioning is that many laptops these days ship with BIOS flashed that are designed for the specific operating system installed. I know for a fact that all MSI and many ASUS notebooks require that a different version of the BIOS be flashes if you're switching from Vista to XP or visa versa. Otherwise, you may have issues with ACPI or AHCI. This now comes down to how comfortable the OP is with performing a BIOS flash.
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    What do you mean by "studies"?

    If it's just internet browsing and word processing and things of that sort, any machine on the market now would do fine .

    You should then put your focus to battery life and weight (and cost obviously).

    I strongly suggest AGAINST dedicated graphics, because it consumes more battery life, and makes your machine more expensive (as well as bigger/heavier most of the time). A Core 2 Duo CPU is good. Uses little power and generates little heat and is lightning fast . Only downside being slightly more expensive than AMD parts. I have a laptop that I carry around to university that's 2kg/12". I think it's right on the border of acceptable weight. Feels heavy after a while. You probably don't want to go heavier than that. Also, I don't know about your school, but mine has lots of lecture halls with tiny "desklets", and anything bigger than a 12" on those would feel insecure.

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    go with a ibm laptop that what i use.

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    go with a ibm laptop that what i use.
    Except any half decent IBM laptop will cost >$1000, and you can get the same stuff with other brands for <$800. Whether the brand is worth that much is up to you, but definitely no IMHO.

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    IBM no longer makes laptops. Lenovo has taken over.

    I have very good experiences with Lenovo. Their products are very solid, and yes, you can get decent laptops for <$800.
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

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    how bout table pc...i like the idea of writing to screen and 'reading' it like abook...something like that ...

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    I have one a 12" convertible. It's really nice.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kypronite View Post
    how bout table pc...i like the idea of writing to screen and 'reading' it like abook...something like that ...
    Tablet PC? Not for $800. Now you'd need to be looking used and would have to sacrifice a lot more power to meet your budget.
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    The HP tx2000/tx2500 (which I use) can be found for $800-$900 if you look hard enough. If you consider used machines, a lot of decent ones fall under $800.

  15. #15
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    i was talking about the ibm thinkpad.They still sell them.

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