Couple O' Quick Questions- buying a Laptop

looder

Firstly, I'll be using it mainly for College assignments, (Word and PowerPoint) from september
and then from now until then just for watching / storing Dvds and also listening to / downloading music,
browsing the web playing online games from websites such as mousebreaker and mini clip, and a bit of online poker.
I'll probably store the movies/music on an external hard drive. ( I have it already connected to my home PC)

My budget is €800 to €1000ish (office has to be included in this)

I've a few general questions:

1. RAM... Would 2gb be enough or should I go for 3gb?. If I chose 4, would I notice the Difference
or would i be just pissing away money?

2. Procerssor... Would "Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)" or
Would "Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5550 (1.83 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache)" be enough?

3. Warranty Is the 1 year warranty enough or should I get the 3 year Warranty for €129 extra? Is it worth it?
Surely if it's going to break down with a fault that they'll fix, it'll happen within a year ( that's my thinking behind it anyway:o:p)

4. I have it down to 2 or 3 at the moment but am open to suggestions for others. My 2 or 3 are:

This baby:
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty
WEBCAM 2.0 Mega pixel web camera
COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
OPTICAL DRIVE 8x DVD+/-RW Optical drive, including SW edit
PRIMARY BATTERY 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion primary battery edit
Accessories
CARRY CASES No Carry Case
BLUETOOTH Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data rate - Eur
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processors
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office 2007 Home and Student - English

IT WORKS OUT AROUND €750 with the EPP and 10% DISCOUNTS (I waiting on the dicount codes for may though:mad:
==========================================================
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This one
The ALDI one : http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/58_5769.htm

MEDION® AKOYA® MD 96640 multimedia notebook
each €799.99 *

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All-round Entertainer with Extended Endurance

High performance Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T5550 (1.83 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, FSB 667 MHz)

Gigantic 320GB hard drive capacity

Massive 3GB RAM for resource intensive application and multi-tasking

NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M G for powerful graphics performance (based on PCI-Express technology with 128MB GDDR3 memory)

High Speed Wireless LAN next generation 802.11 n-Draft with up to 300 Mbit/s.1

Integrated Bluetooth® v2.0
Connect a range of household media products to your new Medion® Akoya®
notebook wirelessly using pre-installed Bluetooth technology.

Incredible features

15.4" TFT WXGA Widescreen Display 1280 × 800 pixels, 16:10 cinema format
Integrated VGA webcam with microphone
HDMI-out for connecting to a big-screen, HD-Ready TV
eSATA port the high performance standard to connect external hard drives with the fastest possible transfer rate
Biometric fingerprint reader for ultimate data security
8× Multi-Standard DVD/CD Writer with DVD-RAM and Dual Layer compatibility2
6 channel surround audio out (analogue + S/P-DIF)3
All the support you need
36 month manufacturer’s warranty. MEDION offer a telephone support hotline charged at National Rates
and a return to manufacturer service for repair.
===============================================================================
=====================================
or This one
XPSTM M1530

BASE Intel? Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5550 (1.83 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)
COLOUR CHOICE 2.0 mega pixel Camera & Tuxedo Black for CCFL Display edit
LCD 15.4" Widescreen™ WXGA (1280x800) TFT Display (220nits) with TrueLife™ edit
BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION Biometric Fingerprint Reader with BLACK accent edit
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 8400M GS with 128MB dedicated graphic memory edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot Load drive, including SW edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) edit
Accessories
No Carry Case
BLUETOOTH Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data rate - Eur edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processors edit
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office 2007 Home and Student - English


IT WORKS OUT AROUND €900 WITH EPP AND 10% DISCOUNTS
===================================

____________________

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Which one of These would be the best?


sorry for the long winded post

AlmightyCushion

I'd go with the first one myself. It's the best bang for your buck system there. That processor is really good. Now if you plan on playing any games (bar the online variety) then the other two would be the best way to go because they have dedicated cards.

dulpit

looder wrote: »

1. RAM... Would 2gb be enough or should I go for 3gb?. If I chose 4, would I notice the Difference
or would i be just pissing away money?

2gb should be plenty. While you never can have enough RAM (or so they say) for what you've mentioned 2 should be plenty...

looder wrote: »

2. Procerssor... Would "Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)" or
Would "Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5550 (1.83 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache)" be enough?

Well obviously the faster the better, but will you need the extra speed? I'd go with the faster unless it breaks your budget though...

looder wrote: »

3. Warranty Is the 1 year warranty enough or should I get the 3 year Warranty for €129 extra? Is it worth it?
Surely if it's going to break down with a fault that they'll fix, it'll happen within a year ( that's my thinking behind it anyway:o:p)

I can't see why you'd want a 3 year warranty... There's a decent chance that any problems you encounter can be fixed by yourself with a simple google or by posting in these here boards. If something big is wrong, will it cost you more than €129 to fix? I dunno, but i'd stick with the 1 year...


One thing to remember is that if your budget is limited remember that OpenOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, so you can save yourself ~€100 or so (that's what office costs, right?)

majiktripp

I would highly recommend getting the 3 year warranty with any new laptop. It IS worth the €43 per year they're charging. Ask your self was it worth not getting if the motherboard fails...the lcd fails or starts causing issues.....hard drive gives issue..etc..
The amount of times I've dealt with people, one customer for example had a Dell Inspiron 1300, cheap as chips laptop but got the 3 year warranty. They broke the lcd tripping over power cable..Dell replaced it. (Bit of luck I know but come on!) Then 6 months later the hard drive died, Dell replaced it. So yes get the warranty.You can either thank me or scold me in 2.5 years time.

TerrorFirmer

For the tasks you've described, the speed difference between various Core 2 CPU's will be negligible. You're a student...save some money and get the cheapest laptop possible. In the sense of a laptop that serves you adequately, not literally the cheapest laptop available.

For example, check out this - that'd bring the total including OEM office to around 570, add a further 2gb of ram to replace the occupying modules and for 600 you'd have a solid laptop with a far better build quality then Dell. The Thinkpad is the ultimate in reliability.

The Aldi one is a nice machine but the build quality is questionable according to a lot of reviews, not to mention most of the features you're paying for would not be utilized in your scenario.

The other thing is that laptops have gotten so reasonably priced owing to the likes of Dell and as such the cheapest laptops are automatically perceived as slow and clunky...but they're not. A single core Celeron M laptop is still quite fast, and would be more then adequate for your needs. So for example, if you really wanted to save money, check out this - allow for the same extra ram and office above, and you come out with a nice portable 14.1" package at 430-ish. I'm not saying to get the cheap option, but to make you aware, that it is totally viable. People tend to grossly over-exaggerate their own needs....not on purpose, but just as a result of the current good prices and availability of dual core.

looder

dulpit wrote: »

2gb should be plenty. While you never can have enough RAM (or so they say) for what you've mentioned 2 should be plenty...



Well obviously the faster the better, but will you need the extra speed? I'd go with the faster unless it breaks your budget though...



I can't see why you'd want a 3 year warranty... There's a decent chance that any problems you encounter can be fixed by yourself with a simple google or by posting in these here boards. If something big is wrong, will it cost you more than €129 to fix? I dunno, but i'd stick with the 1 year...


One thing to remember is that if your budget is limited remember that OpenOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, so you can save yourself ~€100 or so (that's what office costs, right?)

The faster one actually works out the cheapest so I really starting to lean towards my 1st example.

as regards the Warranty, I'd kind of like piece of mind but the Warranty doesn't cover accidental damage and to be honest the money spent on the Warranty would be a bit much. Surely €150 would fix anything worth fixing on the Laptop anyway.

As regards open office, I need office so it will be compatible with the PCs in College.

majiktripp

looder wrote: »

Surely €150 would fix anything worth fixing on the Laptop anyway.

To a degree, it'll buy you the part (probably) but you'll have to fix it yourself. If its the motherboard , forget about it. I've seen it happen to people with Dells less than a week outside their years warranty. Although another tip, Dell have aweek or two grace period for warranties, ie. if it breaks upto two weeks outside of warranty,push them and they will fix it, so we found out for a customer!

looder

majiktripp wrote: »

To a degree, it'll buy you the part (probably) but you'll have to fix it yourself. If its the motherboard , forget about it. I've seen it happen to people with Dells less than a week outside their years warranty. Although another tip, Dell have aweek or two grace period for warranties, ie. if it breaks upto two weeks outside of warranty,push them and they will fix it, so we found out for a customer!

how much would the motherboard cost if that went?

majiktripp

Depends on where you got it, for example you cant just walk into maplin / pc world and buy one.They are parts only a specialist stockist would have, It would either be through Dell ( who would charge €200 minimum easily for any new motherboard), or ebay (that is if you can find the part) where you might pay between a minimum of €150 to anywhere up and on €300.

looder

majiktripp wrote: »

Depends on where you got it, for example you cant just walk into maplin / pc world and buy one.They are parts only a specialist stockist would have, It would either be through Dell ( who would charge €200 minimum easily for any new motherboard), or ebay (that is if you can find the part) where you might pay between a minimum of €150 to anywhere up and on €300.

maybe it might be worth taking out 3 year warranty so?

majiktripp

I recommend it to everyone and anyone, it is just my opinion and at the end of the day the decision lyes with you. I have extended the warranty on all my machines by another two years also recently with Dell,not to be touting for business for them but its a risk versus reward scenerio, do you want to risk a 1 year warranty and save €150? or pay the €150 and have 3 years peace of mind?

looder

majiktripp wrote: »

I recommend it to everyone and anyone, it is just my opinion and at the end of the day the decision lyes with you. I have extended the warranty on all my machines by another two years also recently with Dell,not to be touting for business for them but its a risk versus reward scenerio, do you want to risk a 1 year warranty and save €150? or pay the €150 and have 3 years peace of mind?

the only thing I'm worried about is say in 2 and a half years, it breaks down. Dell offer what the machine is worth instead of fixing , say the motherboard. they might say it's worth €200 and pay that out. Then I'd be left with nothing only the €200. Would this be the case or would they fix it anyway/ give me a new machine?

majiktripp

Dell will never give you a cash value repair for your laptop in 2.5 years. They would either repair the machine by replacing the part assuming they have a stock of it,or give you a replacement machine or refurb of a newer model laptop if the parts for your old one are not available.

looder

majiktripp wrote: »

Dell will never give you a cash value repair for your laptop in 2.5 years. They would either repair the machine by replacing the part assuming they have a stock of it,or give you a replacement machine or refurb of a newer model laptop if the parts for your old one are not available.

thanks for the info. I think I'm going to get the Warranty so. even with the Warranty it works out around €900. I just need discount codes now

majiktripp

Try an get some of the discount codes and if possible use the EPP to knock another bit off the price tag. Dell offers change every Thursday so you might get a diffferent offer of say €100 off, or free shipping or free printer etc so worth keeping an eye out each week also. Theres the thread in Bargain Alerts too with Dell Laptop offers and codes so keep an eye there too.

dulpit

looder wrote: »

As regards open office, I need office so it will be compatible with the PCs in College.

Open Office is compatible with Office, just make sure you save as a .doc as opposed to
the default settings (i think it's .odt or something).

You'll probably have to do the same with Microsoft Office if you get the 2007 version, automatically saves as docx which can't be open with older versions of office without a compatibility pack.. (which my college does not have)

majiktripp

You can change the default "Save" file type back to .doc instead of .docx so its more a less back to normal. Negates the need for other pc's to have the compatibility pack too.
Follow this guide
http://www.walterglenn.com/2007/01/13/save-as-doc-instead-of-docx-in-word-2007/

looder

dulpit wrote: »

Open Office is compatible with Office, just make sure you save as a .doc as opposed to
the default settings (i think it's .odt or something).

You'll probably have to do the same with Microsoft Office if you get the 2007 version, automatically saves as docx which can't be open with older versions of office without a compatibility pack.. (which my college does not have)

I know I have a copy of office 2003 around the house somewhere. I might just use that, It'll save me another €100 or so.
Is office 2003 compatible with Vista

Soundman

looder wrote: »

I know I have a copy of office 2003 around the house somewhere. I might just use that, It'll save me another €100 or so.
Is office 2003 compatible with Vista

Yes it is. I'm running it on Vista Business with no problem and I know that a few other users are running it on other Vista OS's too successfully.

looder

Soundman wrote: »

Yes it is. I'm running it on Vista Business with no problem and I know that a few other users are running it on other Vista OS's too successfully.

thanks soundman.

is there any real difference between office 2003 an office 2007

Soundman

looder wrote: »

thanks soundman.

is there any real difference between office 2003 an office 2007

Haven't used 2007 so I can't tell you, but if you don't know what new features 2007 has then I am guessing you don't really need them though I could be wrong. 2003 does everything that I need anyway, and I'm guessing all that you would need too.

looder

Soundman wrote: »

Haven't used 2007 so I can't tell you, but if you don't know what new features 2007 has then I am guessing you don't really need them though I could be wrong. 2003 does everything that I need anyway, and I'm guessing all that you would need too.

yes, it does to everything i need.
office2007 has one note (whatever that is) so I'll be saving myself a bit on that.
thanks again soundman, I'll put it towards my 3 year Warranty

A big thanks also to "majiktripp", you've given me some great advice in the last 24 hours

Soundman

One Note is:

Many of us carry a notebook or notepad around to take notes for business, school, or personal projects. But can you easily find — and decipher — the info you need? Is it convenient to share your notes with others? Take control with Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, the easy-to-use note-taking and information-management program where you can capture ideas and information in electronic form. Insert files or Web content in full-color, searchable format or as icons that you can click to access. Watch this demo to see how simple it is to gather, format, organize, and share information. And then say goodbye to your notepad!

(Taken from the MS page.)

Sounds like too much hassle to be making notes that you can scribble down on the back of a beermat in less time. Hehehehe...

Good luck on your purchase.

majiktripp

Thanks Looder, appreciate when people say thank you. As an aside, One Note is aimed primarily at students and people using it for research really, its handy but only for the studenty types. To be honest Office 2003 will do you fine, has the classic menu layout as opposed to 2007's new appearance which can take quite some getting used to.
Let us know what system you get in the end and I hope (knock on wood) its all ok.

looder

BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT 3 Year Warranty
WEBCAM 2.0 Mega pixel web camera
COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024]
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
OPTICAL DRIVE 8x DVD+/-RW Optical drive, including SW edit
PRIMARY BATTERY 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion primary battery edit
Accessories
CARRY CASES No Carry Case
BLUETOOTH Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data rate - Eur
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Core 2 Duo Processors

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i ended up getting this machine, it's pretty good so far, quite fast
paid €755 after discounts from Epp and 10% . it also had free shipping

many many thanks again to majiktripp, your a credit to your family

The_Conductor

looder wrote: »

thanks soundman.

is there any real difference between office 2003 an office 2007

Office 2003 uses the default Office file formats, while Office 2007 defaults to XML formats (docx etc) which cannot be opened easily in older versions of office. Recent security patches for Office 2007, may also limit your ability to open files saved in previous versions of Office (for security reasons).

Shane