Laptop Choice

Willbo

Willbo

Willbo

Associate
Joined
28 Jul 2004
Posts
1,215
Location
Solihull, Birmingham
I posted a message a few days ago saying that I'm after a laptop.
I don't want to spend too much, £400 is top budget....£450 at a push

The laptop will be used mainly for college work, Internet and general applications and tools, as well as back up for my main PC.

I had been looking on a certain auction site, but in all honesty with the spec I was looking for, they were selling for £300+ plus postage so it probably makes more sense to buy new for a extra few quid.

I have been looking at two laptops, both from Dell.

Firstly, the Dell Inspiron 1501

AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TK53
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
90 Day Base Warranty - Collect and Return
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display
1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB ATI ® Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
4 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (29 Whr)
Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for AMD Processors)
£429 inc VAT & Shipping

Secondly, Dell Inspiron 6400

Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2080 Processor
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display
1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]
60GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Up to 256MB shared graphics memory
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery (53 Whr)
Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card (for Dual-Core Processors)
£399 inc VAT & Shipping

I've rang about the 6400 but there is a minimum of a 4 week wait on it.

How do these specs sound?

Is there much difference between a Dual Core mobile CPU and an AMD Athlon 64 Mobile CPU?

And whats the difference between Intel 950 graphics with upto 256mb memory, or 256MB ATI Radeon Xpress 1150? Is the Intel shared memory and the ATI dedicated?

I hope there are some people on here who can help and give advice and opinions for me. Many thanks everyone, I look forward to reading your replies
 
Between the two I'd take the former. The HDD is much larger and the graphics capability should be better (though both aren't up to gaming). I'd probably invest in a second battery down the line since 29 Watt hours isn't so good.

Both lack dedicated graphics memory. HyperMemory is their marketing name for their system for sharing system memory for the GPU.

Both processors should perform similarly.
 
Thanks for your reply. I am leaning towards that as it is available sooner than 4 weeks.

Can anyone else give their opinions or recommendations on alternatives for the same kind of price?
 
How about his?

Acer Aspire 5633WLMi
C2D - T5500 - 1.66GHz
1GB Ram
160GB HD
DVD-RW
Intel GMA 950 Graphics
15.4" WXGA (1280x800 I think)
802.11b/g Wireless
10/100 Ethernet LAN
Vista Home Premium

All for £449 inc delivery.
 
how does that compare to the above? I've heard mixed reviews about Acer from my little knowledge of laptops.
 
I have an Acer Travelmate, but its old so I cant really coment using my laptop as a guide to the newer models. I have checked out the newer versions though in the shops, I like the build quality. Suprisingly good imo. Dell's Ive found to be a little plastic feeling. Cheaply made.

Comparing the ones you have posted.

- The cpu is quicker than both Dell options.
- Same amount of ram and same speed by the looks of things.
- Larger HD space. Would be SATA too I suppose.
- DVD-RW, practically all the same in every laptop you get. Dual layered, 8x or maybe 16x. Mostly 8x from what Ive seen on the budget laptops.
- Graphics are not as good as the ATi 1150 Hypermemory. This would take some of the system ram up though. Not sure actually on the amount though.
- The screen is a 15.4" CrystalBrite display which is good in the flesh. Same res as the Dell options too.

Overall, the main thing is that you are getting a faster cpu and more HD. Practically the rest is the same.
 
I've read a review on the Acer and sounds good. Not very moveable due to battery length and weight, but thats hardly a down side in my opinion.
I've just come across this Acer for £399 + del

Acer Aspire 5613AWLMi - Core Duo T2350 - 15.4" TFT
Intel Centrino Duo
Stereo speakers, wireless LAN aerial
Intel Core Duo T2350 ( Dual-Core )
Cache Memory 2 MB - L2 Cache
RAM 1 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM ( 2 x 512 MB )
Card Reader 5 in 1
Hard Drive 120 GB - Serial ATA-150
DVDRW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM - integrated
15.4" TFT active matrix 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - 24-bit (16.7 million colours)
Graphics Controller Intel GMA 950
Networking Network adapter - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g
Wireless NIC Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Input Device Keyboard, touchpad, 4-way scroll button
Battery Lithium Ion
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
 
Thats pretty much the same.

For the extra £49 you get a faster cpu and an extra 40GB HD space. Bargin if you ask me. The laptop is a bargin anyway, knocked down from £599 I think.
 
Does sound good then. I dont want to spend too much as it will be purely used for playing around and testing things rather than using my desktop Pc, there just seems to be so many available, and when laptops are concerned i dont know as much compared to desktops.
 
Well I'm very tempted to order the Acer Aspire 5633WLMi with

* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz
* Memory: 1GB
* Hard Drive: 160GB
* Optical Drive: DVD-SM Super Multi
* Graphics: Intel GMA 950
* Screen: 15.4" WXGA
* Network: 802.11b/g Wireless, 10/100 Ethernet LAN
* Card Reader: 5 -in-1 card reader
* Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
* Warranty: 1 Year Manufacturer Warranty

For £450 delivered. I'm just hesitant as its a bit more than I wanted to spend and I've not had any experience of Acer
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom