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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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.
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elysia
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elysia
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.
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.Quote:
go with a ibm laptop that what i use.
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.
how bout table pc...i like the idea of writing to screen and 'reading' it like abook...something like that ...
I have one :) a 12" convertible. It's really nice.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by kypronite
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.
i was talking about the ibm thinkpad.They still sell them.
> IBM no longer makes laptops. Lenovo has taken over.
You mean, they stopped making IBM badges for laptops ;)
The macbook air looks very nice...
Acer laptops always come first for me ;) I dunno if you people have technical reason why not to buy Acer and I don't really care :P
Acer laptops don't fail, are cheap enough, perfect for study and work(lightweight work) ;)
Well, I live in Europe and one of the most expensive parts of it :P (I havn't confirmed that, but it must be close) and Acer laptops have everything needed at low cost ;)
This one I'm using now doesn't support shaders, I think :P But it ain't made for games
Wrong, you can get the same amount of RAM, CPU speed and HDD space and so on. What you CAN'T get is the same high strength titanium composite case, best keyboard around (Note, i didn't say notebook keyboard), an accelerometer to keep the needle of the HDD during free fall and tons of other stuff. The build quality is just soooo much better then ANY other brand out there, a Thinkpad will generally outlast the galaxy it was manufactured in.Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberfish
Bleh... you're talking about the ThinkPad? I don't see why people make such a big deal about it... they issue ThinkPads out in work and I personally prefer the keyboard on my own notebook than the ThinkPad's. It may have a more desktop like layout but I can't stand the short arrow keys and the height of the whole thing just doesn't feel right on a laptop.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neo1
Secondly... the durability features are only useful if you are careless with your laptop. I've have several laptops over the span of about 8 years now and I use them constantly however I've yet to drop a laptop from any kind of height and I've never had a component fail on me with the exception of a Hitatchi hard drive that I once purchased for a laptop. To me spending the extra money for a ThinkPad only for the purpose of its durability is a waste of money if you're careful. It's like buying flood insurance in Arizona.
On a side note: I don't think the OP has looked at this thread since s/he created it. So we're really just talking amongst ourselves here.
I've been using mine at school, all my classmates uses one of those Targus notebook-bags, next to their other bags. My T30 is 14,1", it's not much bigger than my math book, and i can just stuff it in my backpack with my other stuff, and never have to think twice about whether it will cope. You say you have one laptop at home, and one a work, so how often do you really travel with it? I'm not surprised you don't find the added durabillity useful, if you are using a ThinkPad as a desktop replacement.Quote:
Originally Posted by SlyMaelstrom
As for the keyboard, it's widely recognized as being the best laptop keyboard ever, personally, i don't know of any desktop keyboard that is better, but ofcourse, it's a subjective matter.
I have a 12" HP tablet PC and I can put it in my backpack easily, too. I travel with it to and from school everyday. The keyboard I am satisfied, too, but I don't do much typing on it anyways. I have found no laptop keyboard to be as good as a desktop one, as they all lack the depth.
Granted it only has a 2.2ghz AMD dual core, and is without a video card (just like any other 12"), it's $900, and has fingerprint reader, bluetooth, 250 GB HD, active digitizer, etc.
I am not saying all of the IBM durability stuff is marketing hype, but how practical is it to be paying a few hundreds bucks for it?
I'm on an airplane with both I'd say once every few months. I bring the work laptop from home to work every day. The home laptop I travel with by car maybe 3-4 times a week. For years I was bringing a notebook to and from classes a few times a day. I don't know... I just don't drop things when I have possession of them. Never dropped a laptop, never dropped a hand-held console... I've dropped my phone a few times. My current phone I dropped once in the 10 months that I've had it and my previous phone I dropped about 4-5 times in 3 years. Those were all pocket transactions, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neo1
Well, gravity is a .........., and she never sleeps. So when your Acer/HP/Toshiba/Asus laptop ends up on the concrete one day in a thousand pieces (Okay, maybe not a thousand pieces, but broken), consider if the extra 200$ still isn't money well spent on a rigid chassis, high strength build materials, and drain holes for coffee/juice/long-island-iced-tea in the keyboard.Quote:
Originally Posted by SlyMaelstrom
And besides, it's an added security, even if i will never really need it, it's calming to the mind knowing that your expensive hardware is well protected :)
And they keyboard just IS better, it basically just is, obviously i have nothing to make you guys believe me, like statistics and hard numbers. Try it, notice it, love it.
Assuming an otherwise equivalent laptop is $800 and the IBM is $1000.Quote:
Well, gravity is a .........., and she never sleeps. So when your Acer/HP/Toshiba/Asus laptop ends up on the concrete one day in a thousand pieces (Okay, maybe not a thousand pieces, but broken), consider if the extra 200$ still isn't money well spent on a rigid chassis, high strength build materials, and drain holes for coffee/juice/long-island-iced-tea in the keyboard.
Assuming those extra durability features of an IBM will save your laptop 50% of the time you would've broken a "regular" laptop. (no rigid case can protect a laptop from a 1 meter fall, or a drop into a deep water puddle)
Let x be the probability that your regular laptop would be shattered into pieces or dropped into a pool or some such accidents within its lifetime.
The cost of a regular laptop is $800+$800*x.
The cost of an IBM is $1000+$1000*(x/2) = $1000 + $500*x.
$800+$800*x = $1000+$500*(x)
$300x = $200
x = 2/3
Unless your regular laptop dies from unnatural death 2/3 of the time, it is not worth it to spend $200 on those durability features :).
Well some .............. was just spamming the forum. Perhaps its your time to buy now!
huh...
That was directed at the OP. But you too, why not.
On top of all this let's not forget to mention the fact that most of the manufacturers that make less durable laptops tend to offer two years of accidental damage insurance for significantly less than $200 on an $800 laptop.Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberfish
You theorycrafting does not intimidate me Cyberfish ;)
Good point on the damage insurance Sly. A Thinkpad will generally outlast any affordable insurance solution though, that is my experience, after about 2½ years of usage, most of the hinges in the cheaper half of the laptop market has lost all strength. One of my classmates owns an old Acer Travelmate, he has to put the screen in a 90 degree angle to the table it is standing on, otherwise it will simply slide down constantly.
I've been unreasonably rough to my laptop, i would never be able to find a second hand buyer for it, since it has a million dents, scratches and holes in the chassis, yet all i've ever had to do to keep it running was change the harddrive, and it still works as well as a brand new one, and i can still squeeze around 2 hours battery-usage out of it, after 3 years. But if i were to buy a new one, i'd treat it better, and i bet you, it would outlive my grandchildren, i can hardly think of a better way to spend 200$, hardware-related atleast.
> It's like buying flood insurance in Arizona.
Bad metaphor, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144126,00.html
Feel free to point out any flaws in my theory :). I am all ears.Quote:
You theorycrafting does not intimidate me Cyberfish
A Thinkpad WILL survive a fall from 1 meter.Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberfish
But on a more serious note. Whether or not the added durability is worth it might differ from owner to owner, however it also means that a Thinkpad has a much longer lifespan than most other laptops, and surely that is worth the extra couple of hundred dollars? It is to me atleast.
I stand corrected. How about 2 meters :).Quote:
A Thinkpad WILL survive a fall from 1 meter.
I guess it depends on usage. If you intend to keep it for 10 years or something, it's a good idea to spend the extra couple hundreds of dollars. If you will only keep it for something on the order of 3 years, it's probably not worth it (especially with accidental warranty). For me I change my laptops about every 3 years, and none of my 3 laptops - one ECS, one acer, now HP - have failed (loose hinges, harddrives, anything).
I bought a Lenovo just a few months ago. The thing is so sturdy looking, I feel no worries playing arcade emulating games on it (I'm talking about serious key hammering as is the proper thing to do with most old arcade games).
So far so good... but if the OP doesn't mind waiting 3 years I'll let him know if you are right. ;)
On the other hand, precisely 3 years (the irony kills me) after I bought my Toshiba, three keys were irreversibly broken (backspace, p, and o) and I never used it for Mame. Just regular work. It has to be said though it was a sturdy laptop on many other aspects. But so are cheaper (read more just priced) laptops like Lenovo.
If you intend on dropping the damn thing, get a ToughBook. A guy I worked with dropped his 50 feet onto a concrete floor and it survived. The battery was toast, but the comp was fine.