help me find & understand laptops

maxitwist

ok, i've searched this forum and read the posts but came up shoert, I like many people here need advice, heres what i think i want in a laptop,

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.73GHz
1gig or ram, maybe 2 if the price is right
i plan to play some games and so wondering about graphics cardbut my desktop dosen't have a graphics card and it plays games fine.
the hardrive doesn't matter that much and is extremely flexible, if the price is right then i might get a 120gig, but if its not the a 60 gig would be fine.
battery also not that important

now, even though i said i want an "Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.73GHz" tbh i don't really know the performance differences between that and a celeron or an amd. And as for ram, well i know what it does, but i dont know how much i'd need (the reason i said 1 or 2)
and i have no idea what a cache does - something to do with cookies????

so as you can see i am half-way there on understanding laptops.
O yes, one last thing is the os, does vista take up more ram, i think i read on toshibas website that they "recommend at least 1gb of ram for vista"

Can i change from visto to xp if i decide i dont like vista? and what about the other way around if i can choose from xp or vista when buyind the laptop, could i pick xp and upload vista later??
so what do ye recommend xp or vista?
sorry if i'm babeling on, im typing this at 2 in the morning.

thanks for taking the trouble to read all this and (hopefully) reply

So finally in conclusion, do you have any reccomendations?

maxitwist

nobody?

PeakOutput

im not the person to explain the things for you but if you tell us your budget i could prob find a good deal for you in my last 15 mins of work


one thing i can explain is vista and ram

it does use more ram BUT not as much more as everyone thinks............

basically vista loads up the programmes you are using into the ram and if there is ram left over it sits there doing nothing

in vista it "learns" the programmes you use most and if you are not using them at that moment it loads them into the ram in the "background".......this makes it apepar that your ram is at full usage while you are doing very little on screen but IN FACT it means that when you choose to run that programme that is in the "background" it will load up alot faster........

in theory this means that no matter how much ram you have (within reason) it will always be under full load.

maxitwist

well thanks, a little goes along way can you switch between vista and xp (obviously it would require a whole system reboot but could you just load it up from cds?
I'm looking at c&c 3 http://www.commandandconquer.com/game_details/default.aspx#faq3
and i see that for vista you need at least 1 gb of ram but for xp you need only 512mb?

anyway yes back to you helping me find a laptop PeakOutput, this might be a bit hard considering as i said im not sure of the difference between procesors and ram. Budget max is 700 so I think i might be going overboard with what i want, if you think so to i shall write a min and max basic computer spec;

min: 1.6ghz procecessor 1mb cache 533mhz, 512mb ram 533 again, 60gig hardrive

max: (safe but expensive(probaly)) Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2350 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB), 2gb ram at 667- (I think thats to high) and 120gig hdd

thank you.

edit:forgot my manners

PeakOutput

well im at home now but when im in work tomorrow ill do a bit of a search and see what i come up with

if you plane on gaming with your laptop(ie c+c3) you wont get very far with 700 i dont think

also i would strongly recommend seriously considering a desktop instead unless your sure you are going to be bringing it to lectures/work/dinner or just generally really actually need the portability of a laptop...........

i spent 3K on a laptop almost 2 years ago and while it is still doing a sterling job for me i regret not spending that on a savage desktop because

a) i dont use the portability factor of a laptop anywhere near enough

b) the desktop spec i could of gotten for that price would of been amazing

PeakOutput

heres two dells but i cant see them as great for gaming because of their graphics cards

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=N4XENT01&l=en&oc=N06647&rbc=N06647&s=dhs&sbc=iedhsftdppnotebook1


http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=N4XENT03&l=en&oc=N06157&rbc=N06157&s=dhs&sbc=iedhsftdppnotebook3

maxitwist

Thanks, But I still don't get a few things so I'm just going to get as clear as I can on the main issue that I Dont understand - the Processor.

now first of all, intel Core Duo 1.73ghz means that it has 2 Processors running at 1.73 giga hertz, right? so 2x1.73 gives 3.46ghz, so wouldn't that make it waaaaaaaaay better then a 1.73ghz celoren m? Thats where it really gets me, I know whats good and what things do but I can't compare for the life of me.
I don't know should i, when i see the spec sheet go, "good, good, o wait it's a celoren m processor dam, o well thats out" or should i simply go "O well, minor flaw"?