Laptop Guide - Please read if you are buying a laptop.

spikeymike · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 08:51

Laptop Guide

To get the best performance with Windows Vista I suggest:

• AMD Turion x2 / Intel Core 2 Duo, all ~1.8GHz
• 3GB DDR2 RAM+

I personally wouldn’t suggest getting a single core processor i.e. AMD Sempron, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium. Differences between processors.

PieMaster’s Vista FAQ
Windows 7 FAQ

Student Software

If you're needing Microsoft Office (including Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) and you are a student then look here.

(Clicky)

Budget: £0-400

Budget: £400-800

Budget: £800-1200

The laptops I've posted in the above links are just some of the brands/laptops I would suggest/recommend. There are some brands that have not been mentioned simply because I don't think they are good. However you may disagree, so you do not have to follow my suggestions, the thread is only to provide some sort of idea for people who need/want a laptop i.e. uni students.

Make sure you look at laptop reviews, I mean I only choose laptop by spec, I can't say something is properly good without trying it.

Other sites to get laptops:

Spoiler:

Below are just some of the laptop review sites I like.

Credits: Fixesin, alexsheppard11

Spoiler:

Netbooks

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

A netbook is a laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet.

Primarily designed for web browsing and e-mailing, netbooks rely heavily on the Internet for remote access to web-based applications and are targeted increasingly at cloud computing users who require a less powerful client computer. Netbooks typically run on Windows XP or Linux operating systems rather than more resource-intensive operating systems like Windows Vista.

Also to add: Netbooks do NOT have a CD/DVD drive inbuilt.

Operating System (OS)

The standard operating system (OS) is now Windows Vista, Windows XP is not in production now so it will be very hard to find one nowadays (but you can get second hand ones off eBay), however some Netbooks come with XP as the OS is lighter than Vista.

Note: The standard OS is 32bit, which means the OS will not use up the full 4GB RAM as you have to consider that there is other hardware memory like the graphics card. As far as I’m aware only Dell allows you to upgrade to a 64bit OS.

Student Discount

Apple
Dell

spikeymike · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 08:52

Budget: £0-400

Netbooks

Asus EEE PC 1005HA - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166568
Lenovo S10 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169131
Lenovo S12 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169128
Toshiba NB200-11L - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165505
Samsung NC10
Samsung NC20
Samsung N120 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/162003
Dell Inspiron Mini 10/10v
Dell Inspiron 11z

Laptops

***** For Dell laptops, make sure you get the 6 cell battery or else you will suffer with a crappy 4 cell.******

Dell Inspiron 15 / Inspiron 15 Review
Dell Inspiron 17 / Inspiron 17 Review

Asus X5DIJ - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169123

HP Compaq CQ60 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169936

spikeymike · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 08:52

Budget: £400 - £800

Laptops

Dell Studio 15 / Studio 15 Review
Dell Studio 17 / Studio 17 Review

Dell Studio XPS 16 / XPS 16 Review

Asus K50IJ
Asus K50IJ - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169907
Asus X5DIN - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169124
ASUS K50IN SX025C

Samsung R522 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167269
Samsung R620 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167263
R620 Review

HP Compaq 610
HP Compaq 615

Lenovo 3000 G550

13"

Dell Studio XPS 13 / XPS 13 Review
Apple MacBook 13" / MacBook 13

Samsung Q320

spikeymike · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 08:56

Budget: £800-1200

Dell Studio XPS 13 / XPS 13 Review
Dell Studio XPS 16 / XPS 16 Review
Dell XPS M1730 / M1730 Review

Apple MacBook Pro

Alienware M17X / M17X Review
Alienware M17 / M17 Review

GokhanKocak · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 08:58

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

spikeymike · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:02

Originally Posted by GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Well don't buy from them then, It's just easier for me to choose the ones I would recommend. You can google these models and buy from elsewhere, upto you.

I personally have no problems with them.

alexsheppard11 · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:07

Originally Posted by GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

any reason....

Akkuz · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:24

Originally Posted by GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Cheap, easy and fast delivery.

alenax · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:29

Originally Posted by GokhanKocak

ebuyer.com is hopeless.

Eek why? I was going to buy an external hard drive from them...

gafaw · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:34

Originally Posted by alenax

Eek why? I was going to buy an external hard drive from them...

Ignore him, he didn't back it up with any evidence. I've bought from them lots and they've always delivered on time and it's been in perfect condition.

alenax · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:38

Originally Posted by gafaw

Ignore him, he didn't back it up with any evidence. I've bought from them lots and they've always delivered on time and it's been in perfect condition.

Ah ok, didn't want to waste 80 quid just to find out there was something wrong with them. All good

cornford4 · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:38

The new Dell 15 studio is really good value for the money.

Mr Snips · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:38

gafaw · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 09:42

Originally Posted by Mr Snips

CRAB MOTH APPLES.

butthead7 · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 10:18

which is the best netbook out there?

alexsheppard11 · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 10:22

Originally Posted by butthead7

which is the best netbook out there?

depends what your intended use is

Mr Snips · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 10:23

Originally Posted by gafaw

CRAB MOTH APPLES.

The same kind of moth one might enjoy in a sandwich?

spikeymike · 25-06-2009: 25th June 2009 13:29

Originally Posted by Mr Snips

...

Cheers for rep Mr Snips

--------------

I wouldn't list ebuyer links if they were **** would I?

I'll continue this tonight, but should more than enough to get people ideas.

The best netbook is probably the Samsung range NC10/NC20 etc. But totally depends on budget.

TI-84 · 26-06-2009: 26th June 2009 15:00

Originally Posted by spikeymike

Laptop Guide

Budget: £0-400
Budget: £400-800
Budget: £800-1200

Netbooks

Subnotebook/Ultra Portables

Mainstream Systems

Oparating System (OS)

The standard operating system (OS) is now Windows Vista, Windows XP is not in production now so it will be very hard to find one nowadays (but you can get second hand ones off eBay), however some Netbooks come with XP as the OS is lighter than Vista.

Note: The standard OS is 32bit, which means the OS will not use up the full 4GB RAM as you have to consider that there is other hardware memory like the graphics card. As far as I’m aware only Dell allows you to upgrade to a 64bit OS.

To get the best performance with Windows Vista I suggest:

• AMD Turion x2 / Intel Core 2 Duo / Intel Pentium Dual Core, ~1.8GHz
• 2GB DDR2 RAM

I personally wouldn’t suggest getting a single core processor i.e. AMD Sempron, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium.

PieMaster’s Vista FAQ

I know you've already suggested you're preferred choices of laptops here, but instead of making a new thread I thought I'd just use this one to put forward my question.
I'll be buying my laptop in the U.S. and have a budget of around $1100. I'll be an engineering student, therefore will be using design programmes on the laptop, as well as casual gaming, nothing too stressful on the laptop (FM 10 and the like). I will also expect it to last for the next ~5 years. Taking that into account, and my basic knowledge of what to look for in laptops, I've narrowed my options down to these three:

HP Pavillion Laptop

Gateway FX Edition Laptop

Dell Studio XPS Laptop

For me the most important things are:
- Processor speed
- RAM
- Hardrive
- Graphics

I dont care about a laptops weight, battrey life, how big the screen is, etc not bothered about how it looks either.

What I wanted to know was, what is the difference between the graphics card in the three laptops mentioned above?

ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT: Dell
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS: Gateway
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT: HP

cheers.
Also if you can recommend any other laptops that you think would be as good (or better) than the ones mentioned for <$1100 that would be great!

spikeymike · 27-06-2009: 27th June 2009 18:50

Originally Posted by TI-84

What I wanted to know was, what is the difference between the graphics card in the three laptops mentioned above?

ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT: Dell
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS: Gateway
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT: HP

cheers.
Also if you can recommend any other laptops that you think would be as good (or better) than the ones mentioned for <$1100 that would be great!

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...GT.9906.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...GT.9449.0.html

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