Looking For A Laptop..

Dingleberry88 · 7 Dec 2006 at 15:21

Hi all, so I'm looking to get myself a laptop. I'd like:

Intel Core 2 Duo
256mb Nvidia graphics
At least 1GB RAM
High res widescreen (probably 1680x1050)
Dual Layer DVD burner.
Not Dell

And a few questions:

Is it worth getting a 7200RPM hard drive over a 5200?

Can I get all that for no more than £1000? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks.

Massive Attack · 7 Dec 2006 at 15:37

**cough** no way **cough**

Surfer · 7 Dec 2006 at 16:39

for under £1000 yeah Dell

for the other biggies like Alienware, Rock,Sager/Clevo then probably no.

and yeah its worth getting a faster hard drive.

ringo747 · 7 Dec 2006 at 17:43

try the asus range of laptops

especially the F3 range..some nice specs

e.g.

from another source

* Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2GHz (x2), 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache
* 1024 MB DDRII-667MHz SDRAM
* 120 GB SATA Hard Drive
* DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD- and Dual layer discs.
* 15.4" WXGA Widescreen TFT Screen
* ATI Radeon X1700 supporting 512MB HyperMemory
* Integrated gigabit LAN
* Integrated wireless 802.11 a/b/g LAN
* Web Cam In-built 1.3 M Pixel
* Operating System: Windows XP Professional Edition - FREE Upgrade To Windows Vista
* Microsoft Windows Vista Capable
* FREE Mouse and Carry Case
* 2 year warranty

All for £1003 - not nvidia card but probably better

this_is_gav · 7 Dec 2006 at 18:01

jonnyc747 said:
* Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 - 2GHz (x2), 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache
* 1024 MB DDRII-667MHz SDRAM
* 120 GB SATA Hard Drive
* DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer - To read DVDs and CDs and write CDs, DVD+, DVD- and Dual layer discs.
* 15.4" WXGA Widescreen TFT Screen
* ATI Radeon X1700 supporting 512MB HyperMemory
* Integrated gigabit LAN
* Integrated wireless 802.11 a/b/g LAN
* Web Cam In-built 1.3 M Pixel
* Operating System: Windows XP Professional Edition - FREE Upgrade To Windows Vista
* Microsoft Windows Vista Capable
* FREE Mouse and Carry Case
* 2 year warranty

Well that's gonna half your RAM straight down to 512mb, unless you can adjust how much the graphics pinch... will also hurt performance.

Dingleberry88 · 7 Dec 2006 at 20:27

this_is_gav said:
Well that's gonna half your RAM straight down to 512mb, unless you can adjust how much the graphics pinch... will also hurt performance.

RAM's only shared with crappy onboard graphics like Intel.

ATi and Nvidia cards have their own dedicated RAM.

Unless there's a difference with laptops?

Macca · 7 Dec 2006 at 21:10

Dingleberry88 said:
RAM's only shared with crappy onboard graphics like Intel.

ATi and Nvidia cards have their own dedicated RAM.

Unless there's a difference with laptops?

"Hypermemory" if i remember means it uses the RAM and doesn't have dedicated memory, just the GPU.

Massive Attack · 7 Dec 2006 at 21:23

Macca said:
"Hypermemory" if i remember means it uses the RAM and doesn't have dedicated memory, just the GPU.

i sure does which means theres only 512mb ram, just curious why not a dell, ive just bought one and its great

ringo747 · 7 Dec 2006 at 22:00

thanks for the info about the hypermemory cards.. i thought a 512mb card in a lappie sounded rather good.. i knew it wouldnt be a full 512 dedicated but didnt think it would half the RAM!

Are all mobile gfx cards like this?

Massive Attack · 7 Dec 2006 at 22:30

jonnyc747 said:
thanks for the info about the hypermemory cards.. i thought a 512mb card in a lappie sounded rather good.. i knew it wouldnt be a full 512 dedicated but didnt think it would half the RAM!

Are all mobile gfx cards like this?

no just the cheap ones

Dingleberry88 · 8 Dec 2006 at 09:32

Are Zepto laptops any good?

Intel® 945PM / ICH7-M Chipset
15.4" WSXGA+ screen 1680x1050
Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 512MB graphics card
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.00 GHz
1x1024MB DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ
100GB 7200omdr. SATA Hitachi

£841.00 Ex. VAT

Does that graphics card use its own RAM?

Would it be worth upgrading to any of these RAM options:

1GB DDR2 PC6400 - 800MHZ (up to 15% faster) [ + £40.00 ]
2048MB (2x1024) DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ [ + £67.00 ]
2GB (2x1024) DDR2 PC6400 - 800MHZ (130131) [ + £162.00

And/Or getting a 12 Cell + 6 Cell Standard Battery [ + £70.00 ]

Surfer · 8 Dec 2006 at 15:11

Dingleberry88 said:
Are Zepto laptops any good?

Intel® 945PM / ICH7-M Chipset
15.4" WSXGA+ screen 1680x1050
Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 512MB graphics card
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.00 GHz
1x1024MB DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ
100GB 7200omdr. SATA Hitachi

£841.00 Ex. VAT

Does that graphics card use its own RAM?

Would it be worth upgrading to any of these RAM options:

1GB DDR2 PC6400 - 800MHZ (up to 15% faster) [ + £40.00 ]
2048MB (2x1024) DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ [ + £67.00 ]
2GB (2x1024) DDR2 PC6400 - 800MHZ (130131) [ + £162.00

And/Or getting a 12 Cell + 6 Cell Standard Battery [ + £70.00 ]

yeah ive heard good things about Zepto laptops. If i was getting a 15" one then yeah go for them. Yes the 7600 GO has its own ram. Although one wonders if it is 128mb or 256mb dedicated with option to go to 512mb shared from RAM. Check for more details on the system specs. Also might be worth phoning them asking about whether they have any 7700 cards in.

2048MB (2x1024) DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ [ + £67.00 ] <<<< i would opt for that option if it was me. Laptop memory is rather expensive. In my case i unfortunately have 2x512mb sticks so if i want to upgrade to 2 gig i have to get shot of the 512mb sticks and buy 2 x 1gig sticks. A tad more expensive eh.

The difference between battery size/cell doesnt really matter unless you plan on using it on battery a lot.

Energize · 8 Dec 2006 at 16:23

Dingleberry88 said:
And/Or getting a 12 Cell + 6 Cell Standard Battery [ + £70.00 ]

Battery life is about double on a 12 cell but they stick out the back.

V For Vendetta · 12 Dec 2006 at 19:34

Surfer said:
yeah ive heard good things about Zepto laptops. If i was getting a 15" one then yeah go for them. Yes the 7600 GO has its own ram. Although one wonders if it is 128mb or 256mb dedicated with option to go to 512mb shared from RAM. Check for more details on the system specs. Also might be worth phoning them asking about whether they have any 7700 cards in.

2048MB (2x1024) DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ [ + £67.00 ] <<<< i would opt for that option if it was me. Laptop memory is rather expensive. In my case i unfortunately have 2x512mb sticks so if i want to upgrade to 2 gig i have to get shot of the 512mb sticks and buy 2 x 1gig sticks. A tad more expensive eh.

The difference between battery size/cell doesnt really matter unless you plan on using it on battery a lot.

its 512mb dedicated I know this because it caused a bug in BF2 and other games, thinking it was some sort of hybrid card(they didnt do go7600's with more then 256mbs originally) Nvidia had to write a new bios to fix the issue.

V For Vendetta · 12 Dec 2006 at 19:35

Energize said:
Battery life is about double on a 12 cell but they stick out the back.

it also isnt available until next year :rolleyes:

I know they owe me a free one :mad:

Energize · 12 Dec 2006 at 19:58

You can get the HP NC8430 for £680 not bad for a more well known brand.

Intel Core Duo Processor T2300 1.66GHz
1024MB DDRII SDRAM
100GB Hard Drive
DVD-RW DL
15.4" Screen 1280x800 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB dedicated graphics
Integrated Bluetooth
Integrated wireless 802.11b/g LAN
Windows XP Home Edition - ½ Price Upgrade To Windows Vista
1 year warranty

£80 cheaper than the equivilent zepto!

trojan698 · 12 Dec 2006 at 20:02

Dingleberry88 said:
Are ***** laptops any good?

Intel® 945PM / ICH7-M Chipset
15.4" WSXGA+ screen 1680x1050
Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 512MB graphics card
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.00 GHz
1x1024MB DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ
100GB 7200omdr. SATA Hitachi

£841.00 Ex. VAT

Does that graphics card use its own RAM?

Would it be worth upgrading to any of these RAM options:

1GB DDR2 PC6400 - 800MHZ (up to 15% faster) [ + £40.00 ]
2048MB (2x1024) DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ [ + £67.00 ]
2GB (2x1024) DDR2 PC6400 - 800MHZ (130131) [ + £162.00

And/Or getting a 12 Cell + 6 Cell Standard Battery [ + £70.00 ]

Yeah they're good. I'd like to stress that memory is by no means an indicator of a graphics cards' performance. It's a common misconception when people go to buy graphics cards. To illustrate, that X1700 512mb, although it sounds good would be worse than a 9800pro 128mb if you catch my drift. The 7600 Go is a good card though. It might be worth considering going to 2gb for only £67 (Bargain) - wouldnt bother with 800mhz ram though

Edit, just realised this will nuked soon due to competitor talk..

Energize · 12 Dec 2006 at 20:08

It's a brand name, if you couldn't mention brand names you wouldn't be able to mention dell even though ocuk sell dell laptops.

kingy666 · 13 Dec 2006 at 06:30

I am thinking of building my own laptop. You can buy a barebones laptop (you get the chasis with screen motherboard and the graphics card/chip) you then buy a cpu, memory, hard drive and cd/dvd drive. MSI are the main makers of these barebones laptops and have a few different models, some have intel gpu's and some have nvidia go 7600's 256MB. I have seen some with 15.4" screens and nvidia go 7600's for around £320 - £340. Have a google for barebones laptops or MSI m677.
I think overclockers should start selling them!