Which laptop?

Raekwon

Okay I found two laptops that are the exactly the same model but have different specs and are in different price ranges. I was wondering if fellow boardies think that the more expensive model would be worth the extra €635 or would I be mad to pay the extra and just settle for the cheaper version? Your input would be much appreciated.

Laptop 1:

* Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 / 2.26 GHz ( Dual-Core )
* RAM - 3 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM - 800 MHz ( 1 x 1 GB + 1 x 2 GB )
* Hard Drive - 250 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
* Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
* Screen - 16.4' TFT 1600 x 900 ( WXGA+ ) - X-black
* Optical Drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - integrated
* Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 - 256 MB
* Bluetooth - Yes
* Notebook Camera - Integrated

Price: €825

Laptop 2:

* Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 / 2.53 GHz ( Dual-Core )
* RAM - 4 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM - 800 MHz ( 2 x 2 GB )
* Hard Drive - 300 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 4200 rpm
* Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
* Screen - 16.4' TFT 1600 x 900 ( WXGA+ ) - X-black
* Optical Drive - BD-RE - integrated
* Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 - 256 MB
* Bluetooth - Yes
* Notebook Camera - Integrated
* Warranty - 1 year warranty

Price: €1460

AlmightyCushion

I'd go with the cheaper of the two unless you need the laptop for something that requires the more powerful processor and graphics card. Also the second one has a slower hard drive (rediculous at that price range) so maybe that would be a bit of a bottleneck.

Run_to_da_hills

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I'd go with the cheaper of the two unless you need the laptop for something that requires the more powerful processor and graphics card. Also the second one has a slower hard drive (rediculous at that price range) so maybe that would be a bit of a bottleneck.

It seems a poor hard drive option the price of the second laptop, one can get a 2.1/2" WD Scorpio 320GB 5400RPM SATA for under €70.00 at Komplett and i am sure this crowd could get them cheaper again..

AlmightyCushion

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

It seems a poor hard drive option the price of the second laptop, one can get a 2.1/2" WD Scorpio 320GB 5400RPM SATA for under €70.00 at Komplett and i am sure this crowd could get them cheaper again..

Exactly, I can't understand sticking a 4200rpm drive in this laptop. It's just daft.

BCawley

Yeah I'd have to go for the cheaper laptop as well. What do you plan on using it for? Also do you really want that size of a screen? Ive had my 15.4 inch laptop for half a year now but am getting annoyed carrying it :P

Raekwon

Yeah I totally agree that the hard drive speed is stupid for that price, I'm really surprised that they didn't throw in a 7200rpm at the very least.

I was really just wondering if it was worth stumping up €635 for a Blu-Ray drive, faster processor, more RAM, better graphics card, upgrade to Vista Ultimate from Home Premium and more cache memory (the cheaper one has L2 Cache 3MB RAM while the more expensive one has double that).

I'd be using it mainly for gaming, work/college work, photo editing, web design & watching movies (that’s why I had an interest in the Blu-Ray version). But I suppose for €399 I could get the cheaper version & a PS3, I just don't want to look back this time next year and have regrets if you know what I mean.

AlmightyCushion

For what you want the processor in the first is more than enough, ram can be upgraded cheaply by yourself if needs be, blu ray is pretty pointless at the moment plus you could wait until they get cheaper and add one yourself if you like. For gaming the graphics card on the second one is much better but you could probably build a pretty decent gaming pc for the difference in price between the two.

Biro

Raekwon wrote: »

Yeah I totally agree that the hard drive speed is stupid for that price, I'm really surprised that they didn't throw in a 7200rpm at the very least.

I was really just wondering if it was worth stumping up €635 for a Blu-Ray drive, faster processor, more RAM, better graphics card, upgrade to Vista Ultimate from Home Premium and more cache memory (the cheaper one has L2 Cache 3MB RAM while the more expensive one has double that).

I'd be using it mainly for gaming, work/college work, photo editing, web design & watching movies (that’s why I had an interest in the Blu-Ray version). But I suppose for €399 I could get the cheaper version & a PS3, I just don't want to look back this time next year and have regrets if you know what I mean.

As said above, the cheaper one. Vista Ultimate isn't worth it, upgrade the processor yourself, and get an external Blu-Ray drive for €120 odd! Difference between 3GB RAM and 4GB RAM won't be noticed unless you use RAM intensive applications and have a 64-bit version of Vista installed.