Buying a laptop. Advice Wanted. I've read the sticky!!

Geometric_Jon

I'm about to go into 4th year of Multimedia Programming and design. I need to buy a new laptop. I probably should be aiming for a macbook, but I'm not going to go down that road yet. If I were to buy a mac i'd get a MBPro but since I'll probably end up going travelling in the next two years a mac would probably be a waste of two grand. So, Im going to get a windows based Laptop that will hopefully be of maximum quality for as low a price as possible.

I've followed the guidelines in the sticky, so here goes:

BUDGET: I wouldn't really like to go over 1000

INTENDED USE:
- Web Development - This will involve running a few adobe creative suite applications simultaneously (i.e. Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc) As well as a few browser windows.

- Some Video Editing - Adobe Premier can be quite demanding, Do ye know if todays laptops can handle it?

- I might even do a little tinkering around with some music production software on it.

- I'm not a gamer so the above would be the most demandinding uses I would have for the laptop.

MOBILITY: SInce I'm aiming for a 17inch screen. I don't think mobility will be huge factor. But if there are any light 17s out there, do let me know.

WARRANTY: Piece of mind would be nice.

Geometric_Jon

Im gonna build one on the dell website first thing in the morning and let ye comment on it. So if you were going to reply, u might as well hold off until then. Cheers.

Overheal

Jesus, you need to give us more than 22 minutes. This is a message board not a chat room.

I'd only go Mac if you're being trained on macs tbh: going into a 4th year of college will be stressful enough without having to re-learn how to walk.

Never used Video Editing software but yes, laptops should be able to hack it. I do some photoshop from time to time and they perform well. Bit CPU intensive.

How far over 1k are you willing to go?

ciaranmul

steer clear from dell laptops they're rubbish imo

Overheal

Do you have a reason for stating so ciaran?

OP I looked at the Studio laptop for you: € 1,146.19

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.1 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache,)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English
PREMIUM Protection: 3Yr In-Home Warranty + Acc. Damage + Norton Antivirus - English
Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish (many colors to choose from btw)
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™
4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
320GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
Primary 9-cell 85 WHr Lithium Ion battery
No Biometric Fingerprint Reader
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
Dell Wireless 1510 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word)
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera - CCFL

(3-year package is on special offer right now, very handy. Even if you dont use Norton later, youre saving money on the 3 years of accidental protection afaik)

If you really have your heart set on the 17" range, the same specs will cost you several hundred euro more. However for the difference in price, battery life (this has 9 cell the 17" would have a 6 cell by default) youre better off buying a larger external monitor later that you can keep in your room, for the same if not better cost

Geometric_Jon

Cheers for that Overheal. I went ahead and changed it around a bit. I also tried very similar spec with an inspiron. Which turned out to be slightly cheaper. Does anyone know if there's a major difference between the two?
Inspirons have been around for years so I'd guess they're a safer bet.

Studio 17 PRICE: 1,128 EURO

BASE
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.1 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache,)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1- English

HARDWARE SUPPORT
3Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays

COLOUR CHOICE
Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish

LCD
17 Widescreen WXGA+ CCFL (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™

WEBCAM
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera - CCFL
MEMORY
4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]

HARD DRIVE
160GB Free Fall Sensor (7200RPM) Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD
IntelJ Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

OPTICAL DRIVE
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software

PRIMARY BATTERY
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery

Inspiron 1720 PRICE: 1078 Euro

BASE
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - English

HARDWARE SUPPORT
3Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays

COLOUR CHOICE
Spring Green Colour with Microsatin Finish & 2.0mp camera

LCD
17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display

MEMORY
4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]

HARD DRIVE
120GB Free Fall Sensor (7200RPM) Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD
nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory

OPTICAL DRIVE
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software

PRIMARY BATTERY
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

I still have a few questions:

1. Is the Core 2 duo the best processor (i.e. better than pentium dual core) ?

2. On the subject of processors I really don't know what the jargon in the brackets means. If anyone wants to offer advice on the processor in particular I'd greatly appreciate it.

3. I'd be happier with XP. Can I ask Dell to sell me one of these with XP? Or If i put XP on it myself, is my warranty still valid?

4. This isn't the reflective one, right?

5. Am i going over the top with four MB RAM or will i be glad of it?

6. I've opted for a 7200RPM Hard drive. The reason is that someone told me the higher the RPM the better it will be for video work. Is this true?

The reason I'm starting with dell is I can fine tune it here. I havent come across any other website where i can build to my spec. Can anyone recommend other places to be looking for a laptop of this spec within my budget, which is around a grand. I just wanna shop around before I buy. I dont normally make purchaces this big, so i wanna get the best value.

Jesus this an essay Im writing here.

Metalpanic

I'm pretty sure Vista Home Premium will only let you use 3gb of RAM. You would need to use Vista Extreme to get the full benefit of 4gb and only people running very high end programs and gamers would need to.

mumhaabu

Don't even dream of anything to do with HP. I am a inches away from taking them to court and the terrible service I have received.

Overheal

So you are pretty set on the 17" screen that badly? I mean, looking at the 2 specs you picked versus the Studio 15 I've noticed some really bad trade-offs:

For the same price, in the 17 over the 15 you get

• No Accidental Damage Protection
• Half The Storage Space
• A Much Poorer Graphics Option
• A Much Poorer Battery Life
• An Extra 1.6" of Screen Space

For the same price in the Inspiron over the Studio 15 you get

• No Accidental Damage Protection
• Less than Half the Storage Space
• A Much Poorer Battery Life
• The Problematic 8600M GT GPU
• An Extra 1.6" of Screen Space

It really, really does not add up. Personally I think you'd be a fool not to consider the Studio 15.

Geometric_Jon wrote: »

I still have a few questions:

1. Is the Core 2 duo the best processor (i.e. better than pentium dual core) ?

Core 2 Duo is an advancement of the original Dual Core Technology: Yes, it has 2 processing cores.

2. On the subject of processors I really don't know what the jargon in the brackets means. If anyone wants to offer advice on the processor in particular I'd greatly appreciate it.

• Gigahertz: The clockspeed. Gauges how fast the processor can compute data. 2.1Ghz is the on par standard
• FSB: Front Side Bus. This is how quickly data can be transmitted between the CPU and the rest of the machine. 800Mhz is good.
• Level 2 Cache. This is an area of very very fast flash memory that is stored on the CPU itself, where it stores operations in queue. 3MB is about average.

3. I'd be happier with XP. Can I ask Dell to sell me one of these with XP? Or If i put XP on it myself, is my warranty still valid?

Personally I learned to like Vista and at this stage in XP's life cycle it has stopped making too much sense to invest XP into a new machine. However if you do not want Vista on your machine: Read This

Check with Dell before Installing XP, but there should be no problem.

4. This isn't the reflective one, right?

Reflective LCD? What you're looking for is "Glossy" and it actually improves on picture quality as far as I know.

5. Am i going over the top with four GB RAM or will i be glad of it?

Get it while its going. To get the most out of it I recommend a 64-bit Operating System. None of your intended use seem to require the older 32-bit OS.

6. I've opted for a 7200RPM Hard drive. The reason is that someone told me the higher the RPM the better it will be for video work. Is this true?

RPMs consume power, generate heat, but equate to improved loading times from disk. For most projects all the active data is stored in RAM, but if you are working with many large/huge video files and doing a lot of seeking, then it may be useful to you. However you wouldnt be pulling your hair out or anything if you went for the 5400RPM drives.

Other places to shop - I have no idea. Most companies don't cater to Ireland quite like Dell does.

Geometric_Jon

Hmmm. Lots of food for thought here. Pity I cant stay online all day and research some more. Hopefully you'll be able to help me out some more when I get some time to look further into this. Thanks for the help so far anyway.
By the way the reason I want 17inch is for the extra workspace for designing. Ill mull this over though as i have a pretty big monitor at home. Could save my self some money, or trade for better spec. Cheers.

Overheal

Yeah if you already have a big monitor theres little sense in not using it. New LCD monitors (big widescreen ones) are getting cheaper all the time anyway. I use 2 screens when I code a lot of the time, from my laptops 15.4" screen and a 17" monitor, it about does the trick. Ideally 22" widescreen: those are very nice.

Geometric_Jon

So Ive decided to stick with the option of a 17inch screen.

Im going to fork out a bit extra for a 3Yr In-Home Warranty + Acc. Damage.

Storage space doesn't really bother me. I have a few external storage devices so 120 built in is plenty.

Im willing to stick with the six cell battery for sake of saving a few quid, but just out of interest. Whats the difference in batt. life between 6 and 9 cell (e.g. just for web-browsing).


The Problematic 8600M GT GPU : Any update on whether this is sorted out. I looked into a bit, but I'm still a bit clueless as to what's going on with it.


Im currently at roughly 1200 Euro on both the inspiron and the studio (both 17's). Wont be buying for another week or two, so still trying to make mind up.

Geometric_Jon

I am also concerned about the vista operating system. Ideally I would like to downgrade XP Pro. Is this a huge ordeal?

I spoke with customer care on the dell website and they said If I were to do this myself it would invalidate my warranty.

Does anybody have any advice on this?

I wonder could i ring up and say the only way Im going to buy it is if it comes with XP. Or is this a waste of time?

Overheal

It can void your warranty on a new laptop because new hardware is no longer supported with XP drivers. the 8600 and 8400 for instance, are Vista cards, through and through. Honestly Id put up with it, it will grow on you once you realise all the cool **** it does without you - automatic disk defrag and all that jazz.

You can buy XP laptops in their Business section afaik but you will not get the model you want (which again, I think is a little silly regarding battery life but you forked extra for protection - good man!)

Regarding the GPU's, rumours are spreading its a glitch with a lot of nvidia cards, more so than the lower 8's, but also some 9's. The problem being a heat tolerance issue/heat sink problem. New laptops though I think are starting to implement fixes, which is a manual rebuild of the GPU's heat sink. Its all done in factory. I sent mine away for this procedure and my operating temps have dropped by over 20 celsius.

between a 6 and 9, it could be the difference of 2 hours. But this strongly depends on the laptop. Mine for example only gets at most about 4-5 hours on a 12 cell. I have never really looked into it too much; it doesnt run dry fast enough for me to complain anyway. However Im pretty lazy and have not followed these quickly googled recommendations:

I follow the Battery Maintenance and User Instructions
1)A new battery usually maintains a discharged condition with very low capacity. It is highly recommended to fully charge new battery packs before using. You can refer to the users' guide of your electronic device for charging instructions.
2)A new battery pack needs to be circled (fully discharged and recharged) three to five times to reach its optimum performance.
Rechargeable battery will undergo self-discharging when left unused for a long period of time. Thus, it should always be stored in a fully charged state and kept in a cool, dry and clean place.
3)To maintain the optimum performance of a battery pack, it is highly recommended to circle (fully discharging and recharging) it at least once a month.
4)It is normal if a new battery gets warm when being charged or used. However, please pay special attention if the battery pack becomes excessively hot. This may indicate there is a problem with the charging circuit of the electronic device. Please consult a qualified technician if necessary.
5)New batteries are hard to be charged. Sometimes, your electronic device may indicate a fully charged condition about 10 to 15 minutes when the new battery pack is being charged for the first time. When this happens, remove the battery pack and let it cool down for about 10 to 15 minutes then repeat the charging procedure. Sometimes, a new battery will suddenly refuse to be charged. If this happens, a suggested solution is trying to remove the battery from the device and insert it again.