Laptop? More Like...Flap...crop...

[Jacoby]

Okay, I want to get a laptop, but I haff to ask a few questions about it because I'm not too good with hardware choices.

First of all I want a laptop that won't crap the bed on me like my last one did. It had an overheating problem (I think) and it would just shut down after about 45 minutes of use.

Is this a problem that all laptops go through? Was it just because I jammed a lot of useless crap into a cheap Gateway lappy?

Anyway, I was wondering if you guys have any thoughts on some really good laptops. Any models that are worth having over a PC? (Or should I just opt for a PC since you get more bang for the buck?) Should I spring for a macbook and think dirty thoughts about Justin Long?

Any advice on the topic will be helpful as I'll probably purchase in a month or two.

[frodo1511]

Well Jake, first question would be: What will you use the new lappy for? Gaming? Movie making? School? Photography?

Once you have that figured out, then we can discuss essentials.

[Jacoby]

Originally Posted by Flightfreak

Macbook pro all the way! If i had the money i'd buy one right away. Although you might want to wait for the new operating system Leopard.

Macbook pro looks nice but is so expensive! I wish I had a nicer financial situation, or I'd probably give that one a better consideration.

I've done more research, though and I'll probably go with a PC. They're cheaper and if you shop around you can get better deals than with just the laptop.

I'll probably get a nice little desktop with a 19" wide monitor and make it look all sharp.

I'll be using the comp for small amounts of gaming, small amounts of artistic expression, lots of downloading (music, movies, porn), and your everyday bullshit.

[hasselbrad]

I got a Toshiba laptop in January, and I've been quite pleased. I just got something basic because I'm not a gamer or anything, but I may upgrade the RAM soon so motion downloads smoother. It's got a nice wide screen (17") so DVDs look great on it. It was something like $499 after a $200 rebate.
Just a thought.

[Keira lover]

i have a Compaq Presario v6000z from Hp, and i love it (i'm using it right now).

For you, go for an HP pavilion from the home and home office section in the entertainment subsection. Or a dell with the same specs:


Get one with a dual core (or a 4 core if u can) processor. get as large a hard drive as you can, and as much RAM as you can afford (or, buy as little as you can, and order more from Newegg.com for a much better price. it's up to you). Get an optical drive with the ability to burn and read to DVD+/-/R/RW (which by default means it will burn to and read every form of CD). Make sure it has a lot of USB hubs, and if you can get it with firewire, go for it. When it comes to Operating System. I recommend Windows Vista Home premium, business, or ultimate. (go for ultimate if you can afford it) Make sure it has built in wi-fi. A built in webcam is optional, but nice to have.

software:

you need antivirus:
download AVG free. it is free and it is the best anti-virus program i have ever used.

anti-spyware:
Spybot: Search And Destroy:
it is free, and is a great program.

P.S. if you can afford the mac, go for it

[frodo1511]

Dell's got their new Inspiron desktop fleet that has a slim-fit tower, Jake, that you could get a decent sized HDD, 2 gigs of RAM, decent grafix card and a nice HD monitor for not too much..let me get a link for you.

http://www.dell.com/content/products...=19&l=en&s=dhs


Dunno if actual real-world space would be an issue here-the slim fits take up considerably less counter space then a conventional tower.

[Jacoby]

Originally Posted by frodo1511

Dell's got their new Inspiron desktop fleet that has a slim-fit tower, Jake, that you could get a decent sized HDD, 2 gigs of RAM, decent grafix card and a nice HD monitor for not too much..let me get a link for you.

http://www.dell.com/content/products...=19&l=en&s=dhs


Dunno if actual real-world space would be an issue here-the slim fits take up considerably less counter space then a conventional tower.

I like what I see from the highest version of that dell, and space-saving would be nice but it's not too much of an issue. I honestly wouldn't mind a bigger chasis if it saved me money and allowed for better specs/ability to upgrade.

Originally Posted by keira lover

Get one with a dual core (or a 4 core if u can) processor. get as large a hard drive as you can, and as much RAM as you can afford (or, buy as little as you can, and order more from Newegg.com for a much better price. it's up to you). Get an optical drive with the ability to burn and read to DVD+/-/R/RW (which by default means it will burn to and read every form of CD). Make sure it has a lot of USB hubs, and if you can get it with firewire, go for it. When it comes to Operating System. I recommend Windows Vista Home premium, business, or ultimate. (go for ultimate if you can afford it) Make sure it has built in wi-fi. A built in webcam is optional, but nice to have.

Is built in wi-fi hard to find on a PC? That would be very ideal beacuse my house is wi-fi right now, but I'm using a shitty Dell usb receiver that I got three years ago.

And Flightfreak, I think you're right, I'm going to try to keep it under 1000 for sure. The worst case scenario is it would go over 1000 after the tax but I still think that's too much for my uses with the computer.


A few more computer questions:
How well do PC tablets work on a program like photoshop. Is it actually similar to drawing on paper, or does it work out more like a Nintendo DS. I can't quite wrap my mind around it. And what is a good price to pay for a pc tablet? Like 100?

Also, do most graphic cards have DVI output. Because I'll get a HD monitor, and DVI would be ideal (that's the best right? Or is it something else?)

[Leonie]

Originally Posted by Jacoby

How well do PC tablets work on a program like photoshop. Is it actually similar to drawing on paper, or does it work out more like a Nintendo DS. I can't quite wrap my mind around it. And what is a good price to pay for a pc tablet? Like 100?

Graphic tablets, right? I don't have a clue how a Nintendo DS works, but here's my two cents.

I got a little Wacom thing as an early birthday present from Liam last year, and it's been great so far. It takes a little bit of getting used to as far as estimating how big or small your sketching will turn out on the screen (not a problem if you use Illustrator, of course), but soon you'll want to name your first son after it. I think mine came down to a little under $100 US dollars. I think it was $140 Aussie dollars which converst to €84, and since the euro currently kicks your dollar's arse, you'd be looking at about $100 dollars US, wouldn't you?

Ahh, Wacom does the maths for me. I have this one, and it is indeed about $100 (mine didn't have the mouse, though, so count yourself lucky).

Christ, that's a lot of money for a toy. Liam must like me.

[frodo1511]

You definitely would like to see if the monitor has a DVI connector, as well as an HDMI port in case you have a PS3/360. I think that DVI is the standard, don't see many cards running an HDMI output yet.

For processors, Intel's releasing their new Santa Rosa chip as we speak, so see if you can ask for that. It's a rather efficient dual-core chip, much farther ahead then AMD's processors. Anything 1.7 GHTz and above is fine for a non-hardcore gaming dual-core processor.

For a graphics card, you'll need at least a 128meg dedicated card if you're opting for Vista as an OS. SLI/Crossfire, while impressive, isn't needed unless you're wanted the latest and greatest in gaming. I like ATI personally over nVidia, but it's personal preference.

For RAM, 2 gigs is the sweet spot as of right now, and it'll make sure, if you get Vista, that programs run smoothly. DDR2 is a good choice, with 667mhz the minimum for speed.

For a monitor, I like to at least have 1080x720 resolution. I currently have 1440x900 on my laptop, and it works wonders. If you're wanting to use the monitor for watching movies and stuff, trying to find one that can at least run 720, or even 1920x1080 for optimum HD.

I dunno if you've selected a next-gen HD format for an optical drive, Jake. I'm not going to convert until Toshiba and Sony can kiss and make up, so that's really up to you. If you do get one, then the monitor issue should be a no-brainer: grab on that is 1080p.

Hope this helps a bit more.

[Jacoby]

Originally Posted by Leonie

Graphic tablets, right? I don't have a clue how a Nintendo DS works, but here's my two cents.

I got a little Wacom thing as an early birthday present from Liam last year, and it's been great so far. It takes a little bit of getting used to as far as estimating how big or small your sketching will turn out on the screen (not a problem if you use Illustrator, of course), but soon you'll want to name your first son after it. I think mine came down to a little under $100 US dollars. I think it was $140 Aussie dollars which converst to €84, and since the euro currently kicks your dollar's arse, you'd be looking at about $100 dollars US, wouldn't you?

Ahh, Wacom does the maths for me. I have this one, and it is indeed about $100 (mine didn't have the mouse, though, so count yourself lucky).

Christ, that's a lot of money for a toy. Liam must like me.

Coolness. I'll have to get my hands on one eventually, then.

[Jacoby]

Well I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be moving to NYC for school this winter and I want a laptop to save space and to be able to write and work in places that aren't a cramped apartment.

Does this sound like a good deal?

hp dv6500t laptop
15.4" screen, 6.14 lbs (which i think is good because it's large, but not too large)

Vista Home Premium

Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T5450 (1.66 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)

HP brightview hd screen (vereh niiice)

upgrade to 2GB DDR2 (2 Dimm)

383MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Harddrive:120GB 5400RPM

12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


And the grand total comes to $1,012 American currency (sometimes refered to as "dollars").
I think it's a good option, but I wanted to run it by you guys first. Flightfreak? Do I get the approval on this purchase?

[Keira lover]

Originally Posted by Jacoby

Well I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be moving to NYC for school this winter and I want a laptop to save space and to be able to write and work in places that aren't a cramped apartment.

Does this sound like a good deal?

hp dv6500t laptop
15.4" screen, 6.14 lbs (which i think is good because it's large, but not too large)

Vista Home Premium

Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T5450 (1.66 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)

HP brightview hd screen (vereh niiice)

upgrade to 2GB DDR2 (2 Dimm)

383MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Harddrive:120GB 5400RPM

12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


And the grand total comes to $1,012 American currency (sometimes refered to as "dollars").
I think it's a good option, but I wanted to run it by you guys first. Flightfreak? Do I get the approval on this purchase?

great configuration, although i would recommend an AMD proc (although the difference is minimal) and vista business or ultimate for college or grad school.

[frodo1511]

Good choice with the RAM and the video card, jake. For the processor, see if it's one of the new Intel "Santa Rosa" chipsets, as they are currently better then anything AMD has put out so far. Should do wonders for your myriad processes.

[Liam]

Stick with XP if you can, at least until the service pack for Vista is released. If you use the Aero Glass windows theme (and you will, with that hardware), battery life is woeful. Of course, thats irrelevant if its going to spend most of the time on your desk.

The hardware looks spot on. You will be able to throw pretty much any application or game out there at the moment and have it run very nicely on it.

[frodo1511]

Jake, if you want the look of Vista without all the flaws and annoyances that currently plague the OS, try this link:

http://www.crystalxp.net/bricopack/en.htm


It's a link to change the skins of your OS applications to mirror Vista, Linux, Mac OSX, etc. It's rather nifty to have the bells and whistles of Vista without all the hassle.

[Keira lover]

Originally Posted by Jacoby

Well I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be moving to NYC for school this winter and I want a laptop to save space and to be able to write and work in places that aren't a cramped apartment.

Does this sound like a good deal?

hp dv6500t laptop
15.4" screen, 6.14 lbs (which i think is good because it's large, but not too large)

Vista Home Premium

Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T5450 (1.66 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)

HP brightview hd screen (vereh niiice)

upgrade to 2GB DDR2 (2 Dimm)

383MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Harddrive:120GB 5400RPM

12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


And the grand total comes to $1,012 American currency (sometimes refered to as "dollars").
I think it's a good option, but I wanted to run it by you guys first. Flightfreak? Do I get the approval on this purchase?

AMD processors are better than intel in the areas of power saving and mobility. perfect for a laptop. I'd recommend vista only because it is basically a better looking version of XP and it is much harder to find a computer with XP nowadays. Hell, the usually cost more when they have XP

[Ranman]

Originally Posted by Keira lover

AMD processors are better than intel in the areas of power saving and mobility. perfect for a laptop. I'd recommend vista only because it is basically a better looking version of XP and it is much harder to find a computer with XP nowadays. Hell, the usually cost more when they have XP

Remind me to never take computer advice from you

[frodo1511]

Originally Posted by Ranman

Remind me to never take computer advice from you

...We agree on something for once...somebody pinch me...

[Ranman]

Originally Posted by frodo1511

...We agree on something for once...somebody pinch me...

Thats not true, I fully agree with your choice of the title " pin dick "

[frodo1511]

Two agreements in one day?!?!? Did Jesus come back to Earth?