Thinking of buying a new laptop

[Alatriste]

What the title says. I could use some friendly advice (and I think I should mention that for the first time ever I'm wondering if I really need a desktop too, as the gap in performance & price between laptops and desktops has got a lot narrower)

Budgetary constraints: roughly 700 to 800 euros.

My provisional priorities are:

CPU - High; at least 2,8 Ghz ( Core 2 Duo, of course)
GPU - High (ATI seems to be on top lately, it seems)
RAM - Medium, 4 gigabytes seems a general standard these days
Screen size - Low, I will usually connect it to the TV (40 inches FTW) or to my current TFT screen
Hard disk - Relatively low, I use external disks for mass storage & backup (i.e. I would like a fast hard disk, its size is secondary)
Autonomy - Very low, most of the time I will run it plugged
Web cam - Ultra low, I would go so far as to actually prefer not having one; I'm a bit paranoid about them (blame Kubrick and Orwell, '2001' and '1984')

In other words, I'm planning to use as a 'desktop replacement computer' or 'desknote'.

[Alatriste]

Thanks for nothin' you illiterate colonial basterds 

I'm considering this nice little machine

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6600 (2,2GHz, 2MB, 800MHz FSB)
ATI HD4650 1 GB
RAM 4 GB (DDR2)
HDD 500 GB
Screen 15,6" gloss (16:9)
Webcam
Windows® 7 Home Premium

Size 37,6 x 25,58 x 31.3 cm
Weight 2,55 Kg

At 630 euros it's cheaper than my original specification, and the 2,2 Ghz processor worries me, but I like its 'feel' and the keyboard is very good (I usually hate laptop keyboards).

[Barrister]

How about http://www.apple.com/ie/macbook/



I went with the Irish site so I could get prices in Euros, but content in English.  929 Euros.  Less RAM then you're looking for, but OS X is much less of a RAM hog then Windows is.  I survived two years very easily on 2GB of RAM.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Thanks for nothin' you illiterate colonial basterds 

I'm considering this nice little machine

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6600 (2,2GHz, 2MB, 800MHz FSB)
ATI HD4650 1 GB
RAM 4 GB (DDR2)
HDD 500 GB
Screen 15,6" gloss (16:9)
Webcam
Windows® 7 Home Premium

Size 37,6 x 25,58 x 31.3 cm
Weight 2,55 Kg

At 630 euros it's cheaper than my original specification, and the 2,2 Ghz processor worries me, but I like its 'feel' and the keyboard is very good (I usually hate laptop keyboards).

As long as you're sure it can do what you're going to want it to do, it looks just fine to me.

How about http://www.apple.com/ie/macbook/



I went with the Irish site so I could get prices in Euros, but content in English.  929 Euros.  Less RAM then you're looking for, but OS X is much less of a RAM hog then Windows is.  I survived two years very easily on 2GB of RAM.

Nice.  I just don't understand why more people aren't jumping all over fabulous deals like this.  Half the hard drive space and half the memory for 200 Euros more!  Awesome!   

[DisturbedPervert]

Nice.  I just don't understand why more people aren't jumping all over fabulous deals like this.  Half the hard drive space and half the memory for 200 Euros more!  Awesome!   

And a 256meg video card shared with main memory!  Amazing!   

I'm planning on getting a new notebook soon too.  Probably about like your 2nd example, but with only a 512 meg nvidia.  They were really cheap at the couple stores I checked out, the 1gig models from brand names were much more expensive, at least the models they had available.  Need to check out some more stores, especially those with custom made notebooks. 

[Vricklund]

Thanks for nothin' you illiterate colonial basterds 

I'm considering this nice little machine

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6600 (2,2GHz, 2MB, 800MHz FSB)
ATI HD4650 1 GB
RAM 4 GB (DDR2)
HDD 500 GB
Screen 15,6" gloss (16:9)
Webcam
Windows® 7 Home Premium

Size 37,6 x 25,58 x 31.3 cm
Weight 2,55 Kg

At 630 euros it's cheaper than my original specification, and the 2,2 Ghz processor worries me, but I like its 'feel' and the keyboard is very good (I usually hate laptop keyboards).

Your initial specifications of +2.8Ghz would make it hard to find anything within your budget. At least around here. What do you use it for?

I bought a new laptop for my parents last week. Similar specs as the one your suggesting but with a SU7300-brand processor. It's only 2x1.3Ghz but it has a 3MB cache and very low energy consumption. You can browse the web and listen to spotify for 10h before it needs a recharge - truely a portable.

Don't buy the mac! Win7 is probably microsofts best product ever. Installation and setup was very simple, no need to tweak EVERY SINGLE thing so that it doesn't drive me crazy. I even tried a copy on my own machine (2x1.5GHz, 2 GB of RAM, ATI graphics card 512MB). Win7 runs smoother than XP ever did.

[Barrister]

Quite honestly that Mac Book does seem quite expensive.  It would cost about a third less over here...

[Tonitrus]

Quite honestly that Mac Book does seem quite expensive.  It would cost about a third less over here...

Especially with the weak dollar.  Perhaps Apple's success is due to screwing over Euros.

[Alatriste]

Thanks for nothin' you illiterate colonial basterds 

I'm considering this nice little machine

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6600 (2,2GHz, 2MB, 800MHz FSB)
ATI HD4650 1 GB
RAM 4 GB (DDR2)
HDD 500 GB
Screen 15,6" gloss (16:9)
Webcam
Windows® 7 Home Premium

Size 37,6 x 25,58 x 31.3 cm
Weight 2,55 Kg

At 630 euros it's cheaper than my original specification, and the 2,2 Ghz processor worries me, but I like its 'feel' and the keyboard is very good (I usually hate laptop keyboards).

Your initial specifications of +2.8Ghz would make it hard to find anything within your budget. At least around here. What do you use it for?

I bought a new laptop for my parents last week. Similar specs as the one your suggesting but with a SU7300-brand processor. It's only 2x1.3Ghz but it has a 3MB cache and very low energy consumption. You can browse the web and listen to spotify for 10h before it needs a recharge - truely a portable.

Don't buy the mac! Win7 is probably microsofts best product ever. Installation and setup was very simple, no need to tweak EVERY SINGLE thing so that it doesn't drive me crazy. I even tried a copy on my own machine (2x1.5GHz, 2 GB of RAM, ATI graphics card 512MB). Win7 runs smoother than XP ever did.

Energy consumption is a non issue for me: I very rarely will use it on battery power for periods longer than 30 minutes, 60 at the most. Usage will be roughly 40% surfing the web, 30% gaming, 30% multimedia, most of the time connected to a 40" HDTV set.

[Vricklund]

Then maybe a laptop is not the best choice for you. Think about it. If you would consider putting something together yourself, you could get a spanking-new i3/5/7-core processor within your budget.

Computer chassis today doesn't look like they used to so there's no need to clutter/ugly up your home. Get a classy, girlfriend approved, chassi and it'll blend right in with your new flashy HD screen.

The perks are that you'll get more for you money and that upgrading will be easier. The cons would be lost mobility but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

[Josquius]

There are still lots of times you need a laptop even if not on batteries.
If you're travelling a lot for instance.

[Alatriste]

Then maybe a laptop is not the best choice for you. Think about it. If you would consider putting something together yourself, you could get a spanking-new i3/5/7-core processor within your budget.

Computer chassis today doesn't look like they used to so there's no need to clutter/ugly up your home. Get a classy, girlfriend approved, chassi and it'll blend right in with your new flashy HD screen.

The perks are that you'll get more for you money and that upgrading will be easier. The cons would be lost mobility but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

I thought about that solution, but I decided that a) I didn't want to keep having two PCs but b) I didn't want to lose all mobility. Autonomy isn't an issue, but mobility is!

So far my plan is

1. Pass my desktop to my dear old Mom. She never used or wanted a PC until now, but she joined a choir some months ago and discovered everyone and his/her pet uses e-mail addresses and uploads videos to YouTube and the conductor sends them the songs in mp3 and midi and the scores in pdf. She even has sent them docs in Open Office format! Grandmas these days...

2. Sell my old laptop to my younger brother, whose machine is close to dying of old age.

3. Profit! (+25 relations with brother & mother. Gain access to PC & Internet when visiting Mom)

[Vricklund]

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. In hindsight I realize I'm guilty of not reading your first post carefully enough - I mostly glanced the specs and fired from the hip. My bad.

Too bad that the i3/5/7 models are still nowhere to be seen (unless you want to pay dubble or tripple). I guess the manufacturers still have alot of older chip laptops to peddle.

[Lucidor]

I got a very neat, smallish CULV based laptop, just like the one Vricklund wrote about. Acer Timeline 1810TZ. A SU 4100 processor which performs very similar to SU 7300. Nice looks too:

[Alatriste]

I went ahead and, after checking with the store clerk that I could check it for some days and exchange it for another, more powerful (and pricier) laptop if I wasn't satisfied I got a Samsung R522

http://foro.noticias3d.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=302030

[officially in spanish but most hard data are in english]

On the plus side, it has a LED screen, which should mean more quality and longer autonomy. On the minus side, I'm still not sure about the CPU being powerful enough. For a machine equipped with a relatively powerful graphic card like this one it seems a bit weak... Anyway, 'alea jacta est'.

Too bad that the i3/5/7 models are still nowhere to be seen (unless you want to pay dubble or tripple). I guess the manufacturers still have alot of older chip laptops to peddle.

You bet... It's a pain, but every grey cloud has got a silver lining. I paid only 630 euros for a laptop that just two or three months ago had a price tag around 750.