Help me, i have no knowledge of laptops at all

FrostedNipple

FrostedNipple

FrostedNipple

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Basically, i know the score with desktop pcs but when it comes to laptops, mainly laptop cpus and laptop gfx, i am lost.

I want a laptop for around 400-500 quid. I'm pretty sure it won't be able to rival my desktop pc especially in the gfx department, but feel free to surprise me :p

It will be a uni laptop, so 15inch should be plenty. I'm assuming 2 gigs is fine for vista, and if it were to be sluggish i assume i would just be able to format and whack a copy of xp pro on?

I've heard that certain laptop gfx are prone to failing :eek:what are the good ones, what games are they likely to play?

HDD i doubt would need to be bigger than 200Gb
 
Can you not be tempted by an EEE 1000H?

I bought one for school and I love it. RAM can be easily upgraded (30 second job). I bought this set from OCUK, and it speed u0p things quite noticeably.

If the 80GB HDD size puts you off, it can also be easily upgraded to something like this.

It's also very light, and ultra-portable, making transport incredibly easy.
 
Overclockers now make custom laptops:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=959&catid=1236

Some thoughts:
- I would agree 15.4" widescreen is best screen size.
- 2GB RAM will allow Vista to run smoothly for general usage, don't know about gaming.
- I have not been overly impressed by Vista on my laptop, I would probably be happier with XP, so I would consider going with this from the off, the laptop will probably run faster.
- OC custom laptops seem to be well specced for graphics cards, e.g. Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS 256MB. I'm not a gamer but I guess that should be enough to run games well.

Rgds
 
Hmm, I'm not really overly fussed about the gfx card if it costs considerably more. What sort of front runners are there? That 10" thing isn't really what I'm looking for. I've got £400-£500 to spend, so i may as well!
 
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This any good for £500 ish from dell

its a studio 15

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 SP1- English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 Year Base Warranty edit
COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™ edit
WEBCAM 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera - CCFL edit
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x2048+1x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450 edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery edit
 
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or is this better, its a vostro £450 ish

BASE Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5670 (1.8 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business with Service Pack 1 - English edit
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™ edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Glossy Black without Camera edit
MEMORY 3072MB (1x2048 & 1x1024) 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel edit
HARD DRIVE 320GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD IntelJ Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
 
The GPU is better in the first spec you posted, I have a x3100 in my laptop and it just about plays 5 year old games.
 
Note though my Toshiba Satellite early Vista Business laptop has a habit of slowing down, this is usually when I have approx 25 Firefox windows open and an additional 3 apps running. However, all the Firefox windows take a long time to open and sometimes to move and close, so it gets annoying and I usually restart the laptop. If I knew that this could be resolved with 4GB of RAM then that is what I would have specified. I'm not sure if it is a lack of memory or just a memory management problem. I guess it depends on how many apps you need to use at once.

Rgds
 
yer, i would never need 25 firefox's open, i just ordered the Dell Studio 15

T5550 1.83GHz which should do me fine for 3 years
3 Gigz of ram, which should also be fine
the mobile ati 3450 256Mb which should handle css and the likes nicely
250Gb HDD which is ample for my needs
I got the topo with red sides colour scheme
with a carry case, all delivered to my door for £570 so I'm very pleased and eagerly waiting. Just hope there is no dell-ays, because on a youtube video some Americans were complaining about that :/
 
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