In the market for a new laptop: Advise required

Big Guns · Post by **Big Guns** » Tue, 28 Feb 2006 3:50 pm

Dudes.
Bit of help if you could.

Looking to purchase a new laptop in coming weeks. Not posessing a great deal of PC knowledge myself, I have been told that with my requirements, I should be looking at a package empassing the below features .. .

Card reader - you can then put your camera card straight into it to download the pickies.
60-80gb Harddrive (minimum ++)
1024 MB DDR2 D DRAM minimum (this is your most effective/value adding/valuable upgrade)
Dual Layer DVD burner
Centrino (wireless LAN)
Bluetooth
International warranty
Microsoft Office
Consider tablet PC

Can you guys throw me some ideas as to where I should be shopping and what the damage will be ($$$).

Thankyou

Bremen · Post by **Bremen** » Tue, 28 Feb 2006 8:36 pm

Big Guns wrote:Dudes.
Bit of help if you could.

Looking to purchase a new laptop in coming weeks. Not posessing a great deal of PC knowledge myself, I have been told that with my requirements, I should be looking at a package empassing the below features .. .

Card reader - you can then put your camera card straight into it to download the pickies.
60-80gb Harddrive (minimum ++)
1024 MB DDR2 D DRAM minimum (this is your most effective/value adding/valuable upgrade)
Dual Layer DVD burner
Centrino (wireless LAN)
Bluetooth
International warranty
Microsoft Office
Consider tablet PC

Can you guys throw me some ideas as to where I should be shopping and what the damage will be ($$$).

Thankyou

Considering that I work with PCs every day, and researching PC hardware is my hobby, i can give you these answers:

1. Card reader: Most laptop card readers DO NOT accept CompactFlash, so be careful what format your camera uses. That being said, Compaq and Acer usually offer 5-in-1 card readers.

2. 60-80GB HDD: True, not bad.

3. 1024MB DDR2: 1 GB of RAM sure helps, but realistically, there's no performance difference between DDR1 and DDR2.

4. Dual-layer DVD burner: Yup, good idea

5. Centrino: Centrino is just a marketing term, which means you're using an Intel Pentium M, an intel chipset on the motherboard, and an Intel wireless LAN card. Be aware that there are MUCH better alternatives out there. Don't fall for the Centrino Hype.

6. Bluetooth: good to have

7. International warranty: All large laptop manufacturers offer this.

8. Microsoft Office: The "standard", though you can get a free office replacement from Sun. It's not as flashy as MS Office, but it's free.

9. Tablet PC: NO NO NO NO!!! This is VERY buggy, and the large touchscreen is very fragile.

My honest recommendation would be to get an Acer laptop based on the AMD Turion 64. Why?

1. The AMD Turion 64 is a 64-bit processor, and as such is more future-proof than the 32-bit only Pentium-M used in the Centrino bundle. microsoft Vista is coming out soon, and will be designed for 64-bit chips.

2. Wi-Fi: Acer uses Broadcom chips for it's wireless, which are far better than the Intel equivalent.

3. Screen: Acer laptops have great, great screens

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I just recently bought a new laptop for myself, and am glad I got an Acer.

sneaker · Post by **sneaker** » Sat, 04 Mar 2006 12:08 pm

Get a Mac.

Scorpion · Post by **Scorpion** » Sat, 04 Mar 2006 12:57 pm

Big guns, with your expectations the costing would be around approx 3 - 3.5k sgd.

Like bremen suggested acer does have some good model, do also look into sony vaio and fujitsu (tablet model).

MAC?? , its also an good alternative.

cheers

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Sat, 04 Mar 2006 4:38 pm

Well, I bought a notebook with the following specs last october:
1024MB 2x 512
2.0 Ghz 533 FSB
IntelPro/Wireless 2915 Dual Band 802.11a/b/g
MiniPCI Wireless Care
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
17" Wide Screen TFT Display 1440/900 resolution
External 1.44 Flobby Drive
Integrated 10/100
80 GB HDD
XP Pro
Norton IS 2005
DVD+/-RW Combo Drive with dual layer write & S/Ware
Internat 56 K modem
3 year International Warrenty
Backpack carrying case

Cost delivered, $3500 Sing.

Oh, forgot to add, it's a Dell Inspiron 9300 and it's my 2nd Dell Notebook (other is an older Inspiron 4000 that is still working today almost 5 years later) This is along with a Dell Desktop that my son has. I've had excellent service and duty from dell for the past 8 years locally.

Scorpion · Post by **Scorpion** » Sat, 04 Mar 2006 7:42 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:...
I've had excellent service and duty from dell for the past 8 years locally.

Its nice to see a postive feedback from a Dell customer after a sooo long time..

nms1 · Post by **nms1** » Fri, 10 Mar 2006 6:06 am

Don´t buy cheap n´books from discounter.

Take one of this:

Dell
IBM
HP

They´re professionel and you can work and work and work with them...

May be some Dollar more, but you will get twice so much quality than from a Gericom or Acer one...

Bremen · Post by **Bremen** » Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:53 am

nms1 wrote:Don´t buy cheap n´books from discounter.

Take one of this:

Dell
IBM
HP

They´re professionel and you can work and work and work with them...

May be some Dollar more, but you will get twice so much quality than from a Gericom or Acer one...

That's actually kinda funny, when you consider that Dell is a "cheap mass retailer".

Acer makes excellent laptops. So does Asus. You DO know that Asus manufactures the Apple iBooks, right?

I've seen Acer laptops that are over 5 years old and still going strong. Many Dells that i've seen croak after 2 years.

Bremen · Post by **Bremen** » Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:54 am

Oh, and let's not forget Acer's 2 hour service guarantee. Withing 2 hours of your laptop entering the Acer service center, you'll either get it back fixed, or get a replacement unit.

Carpe Diem · Post by **Carpe Diem** » Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:00 am

nms1 wrote:Don´t buy cheap n´books from discounter.

Take one of this:

Dell
IBM
HP

They´re professionel and you can work and work and work with them...

May be some Dollar more, but you will get twice so much quality than from a Gericom or Acer one...

I must be the exception then...
My first desktop: IBM - never had so many problems
My second desktop: HP - mother board burned one day after different problems (including the fact that the fan was not powerful enough and the case too small)
My 2 current desktops: clones assembled in Sim Lim Square... work fine so far...

Bremen · Post by **Bremen** » Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:55 am

Carpe Diem wrote:
I must be the exception then...
My first desktop: IBM - never had so many problems
My second desktop: HP - mother board burned one day after different problems (including the fact that the fan was not powerful enough and the case too small)
My 2 current desktops: clones assembled in Sim Lim Square... work fine so far...

No, you're not the exception... None of my self-assembled "whiteboxes" have had problems. The dell desktops at the office, on the other hand... *shudder*

Plus I honestly prefer buying an AMD64 over the furnace called Intel Prescott any day.

nms1 · Post by **nms1** » Fri, 10 Mar 2006 4:25 pm

No no, I think wrote it wrong...

I don´t count Dell to the disounter-area...

For me, Dell, IBM, HP are the best and the most professionel notebooks. They may be don´t look like a design-award-winner, bt hey work like a monstermachine...

that´s my personel experience...

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In the market for a new laptop: Advise required

In the market for a new laptop: Advise required

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