laptop up to €1500

misho

Hi guys,
I'm looking for machine with this spec's:
- 17'' display, 1GB RAM, some good speakers, DVD-RW (and CD-RW as well), TV out
- I'm not gonna travel a lot (6x per year), so it can be a bit heavier
- big HDD is not a condition, 80 GB would be fine
- bluetooth, WiFi
- not more than €1500


I'm thinking to buy one of those, any advice is very welcome

Acer Aspire 9502WSMi
Asus A7G-R005H

and my favourite Sony Vaio A617M

If you think there is better option, let's hear you, or give me some reason why I should avoid to buy one of above. Thanx

BlackWizard

Im in the exact same boat as yourself , although I wont be buying until the
end of the summer.

You should check out www.gericom.com

They have some nice ones!

I dont know anything about the graphics cards in laptops at all. But I presume
a X1600 is better than a X600 ?

http://www.gericom.com/index.php?id=305&backPID=319&tt_products=492

But the SOny Vaio do have the looks alright.

misho

So far, I'm looking to buy DELL Inspiron 9400
Do anybody know what exactly can I expect from Support Services? I don't want to waste €€€ for some kind of useless service. I nedd only cover guarantee of no dead or permanently lit pixels.

misho

anybody has exerience with dell guarantee?

TerrorFirmer

BlackWizard wrote:

I dont know anything about the graphics cards in laptops at all. But I presume
a X1600 is better than a X600 ?

Its more or less the same as an x800 card, alot better then an x600 in any case.

misho

I'm going to buy the Dell Inspiron 9400

Please stop me, if you have any point, few details here:
- Duo Processor T2400 1.83 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB
- 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
- SATA 100GB(5400)
- Intel Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 128MB shared system memory
- Snap-On LCD Cover - Mediterranean Blue

TerrorFirmer

- Intel Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 128MB shared system memory

If you plan doing any gaming, avoid this card and chose one of the upgrades. Its actually up to 224mb memory rather then 128 in the GMA950 but its still a really poor card for playing games.

If you don't plan gaming at all then that's fine for videos, dvds, etc, but that said, if you don't plan on gaming, I would have to say unless you plan running heavy multimedia apps the Duo processor isn't really needed....for few hundred less you'd still get a 6400 that would browse the net, run photoshop, burn cds, etc, just as good, in fact unless you plan using multimedia apps even a 1300 would suffice for general tasks!

All depends on what you're using it for...

jhegarty

Some really good deals on dell outlet at the moment...


http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?target=InventoryPage&action=filter&lob_constraint=INSP&unique=1153770286929&sessionID=GFv29RJB!-1963364423!-1667068695!1153770166761#inventoryTable


€772 +vat
Inspiron 9400 Duo Processor T2300 (1.66 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory: 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
Hard Disk Drive: 60GB (5, 400 rpm) SATA Hard Drive
NoteBook Screen: 17
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
DVD Drive: 24xCDRW/8xDVDComboDrive

misho

HavoK wrote:

If you plan doing any gaming, avoid this card and chose one of the upgrades. Its actually up to 224mb memory rather then 128 in the GMA950 but its still a really poor card for playing games.

If you don't plan gaming at all then that's fine for videos, dvds, etc, but that said, if you don't plan on gaming, I would have to say unless you plan running heavy multimedia apps the Duo processor isn't really needed....for few hundred less you'd still get a 6400 that would browse the net, run photoshop, burn cds, etc, just as good, in fact unless you plan using multimedia apps even a 1300 would suffice for general tasks!

All depends on what you're using it for...

I will not playing games at all (probably), but if I will, they will not be a system hevay games. What I'm going to do, I will try to work with video from camera (cut, etc..) and burn DVDs. Are you saying, that Inspiron 9400 with 128 graphic card is just not such a good combination?

I'm already sick of the dell ordering system. Coz I haven't got a credit card, I made an order on phone. As they change prices on web so often, I make changes on system adjustment all the time. While I'm e-mailing with that lady from dell, she is probably sick of me as I'm making changes every day last week

Tchocky

CHeck out the HP dv8000t series, similiar spec to 9400, but better graphics and what seems to be a lower price.

misho

well, I'm going to buy dell
this is from HP support:

Dear Michal,

Thank you for contacting HP.
With reference to your query I would like to let you know that the HP Pavilion dv8000t customizable Notebook PC is not available for sale in UK and Ireland.

I am extremely sorry to inform you that none of the customizable Notebook PCs are available for sale in UK and Ireland.

For further query please do write to us.

I hope this information is of use to you. If you have any other queries, or need any other information, please do not hesitate to reply directly to this email, keeping all previous history.

Kind Regards,

Amaresh Chandra Panda

Tchocky

I'm moving to the states in a few weeks, hence the dv8000t

good luck with whatever you pick, man

Greenman

misho wrote:

Hi guys,
I'm looking for machine with this spec's:
- 17'' display, 1GB RAM, some good speakers, DVD-RW (and CD-RW as well), TV out
- I'm not gonna travel a lot (6x per year), so it can be a bit heavier
- big HDD is not a condition, 80 GB would be fine
- bluetooth, WiFi
- not more than €1500


I'm thinking to buy one of those, any advice is very welcome

Acer Aspire 9502WSMi
Asus A7G-R005H

and my favourite Sony Vaio A617M

If you think there is better option, let's hear you, or give me some reason why I should avoid to buy one of above. Thanx

Toshiba A100 maybe, bought all of that except bluetooth for 999 euro. So far very impressed.

misho

Tchocky wrote:

I'm moving to the states in a few weeks, hence the dv8000t

good luck with whatever you pick, man

Well, if I could make a choice between HP and dell, I would go for HP. Anyway, thanks and good luck in US.

oflynnjohn

misho wrote:

So far, I'm looking to buy DELL Inspiron 9400
Do anybody know what exactly can I expect from Support Services? I don't want to waste €€€ for some kind of useless service. I nedd only cover guarantee of no dead or permanently lit pixels.

Service is excellent and i mean it seriously. I got a 3 yr warranty which i reccomend as most problems occur after 1 year. My power cable has broken twice and the circuit board went also. A new one was provided the very next day and a technician came to my house no need to send it away. Well worth the €€€ and it took about 10 seconds to get through by phone.

misho

terrible approach from dell
I was waitnig over 16 days till I quit my order with dell (after approx. 15 calls with 4 differents persons ).
They just were not able to let me know for 16 days that they haven't recieved bank draft. I believe Dell it's really messy company and they probably just lost my mail. I'm going to buy one of these, what's your opinion?

1. I haven't found a lot information about 17'' TOSHIBA SATELLITE P100-227
Core Duo 1.6GHz, 1024MB RAM, 80GB HDD, 128 MB intel 945 Graphic memory
from dixons from €1450) this one seems to be closest to my expectations (I like those Harman/Kardon speakers some info here as well)

2. This 15.4'' Compaq could be OK, but cannot find any review as well.
COMPAQ V5155 Core Duo 1.66 GHz, 1GB RAM, 100 GB HDD, 128 MB Intel Graphic Accelerator; in Dixons for €1300

3. Last option could be 15.4'' Vaio VGNFE21H (It's kind of weird model number, but I've surely seen it in Sony centre)
Core Duo T2300 (1.66 GHz), 1024 RAM, 100 GB HDD, NVidia GForce 256MB for €1450, but I would have to wait for 2 or 3 weeks to order it (not willing to do so :eek: )

hopefully I'll get my dream laptop this week :rolleyes:

jrey1981

If you can stretch to €1600, there is a good price on the top of the range Toshiba P100 on Pixmania.com

Teamhair

I personally wouldn't touch Dell with a barge pole. Their components are the cheapest of the cheap and their support is laughable. That goes for Vaio and I'm not too thrilled with Toshiba these days either. I do quite a bit of freelance laptop repair and I'm seeing a few trends at the moment. Dell are just overall crap, hard drives and mainboards in Vaios and lcd's and hard drives in the Tosh's. I've an Acer Travelmate and HP Compaq- both are Centrino business machines with XP Pro, gig of RAM and 80GB hard drives. They're fantastic and though nearly a year old, their equivalents shouldn't be more than €1500.