Maybe getting a laptop...

Dougiebabe2003

Dougiebabe2003

Dougiebabe2003

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Hi,

Basicly I'm trying to chose atm between doing a few upgrades to my PC & building a second PC or not doing upgrades and getting a laptop.

Basicly I'm going to be staying round my g/f's more & they only have one PC which isn't in her room. I cba taking mine there & back again so it's an upgrade to mine & then with the spare bits build a PC to sit at her's (only CRT monitor) Or buy a laptop.

All I would be doing is browsing the interweb, listening to music, watching a few moveis and playing a few carp games. All my good games (CoD4 etc) will be played on my main rig still, I'm talking RCT1/2, Pirates, Portal... Those sorts of games so on-board GFX will do for now.

If I upgrade the PC I'm looking at around £300-£350 and for a laptop deffinatly no more than £500. Has to be dual core with 2GB RAM & 120GB+ HDD. Would like a 17" screen as well :D

I have seen the ADVENT 9517 but wondered: #1 if it's any good? #2 if I could change a few things if I bought it?

Basicly, I would want to put a 2ghz+ chip in sometime with maybe 4GB RAM, would that be possible?

#3 Would people recomend the laptop route or the upgrade?

The only reason I'm thinking of a laptop is because I could take it AWAY from her house as well. The PC would be stuck there along with a 17" CRT... I also wouldn't be able to sit in bed with her if I upgraded the PC which she may moan about ;):D

Also can you buy better batteries for laptops? (More cells etc?)

This will be my first ever laptop purchase so would like to make a good one ;)

Cheers for any respone, Doug.
 
I was hoping you'd get some good feedback on this as i'm thinking of getting a laptop aswell for a second PC ( wifes mostly)

I do like the look of some of the Dell ones have you had a look at them?

Here's hoping you get some feedback and advice :).
 
syke said:
Have a look at the Vostro's.
Click to expand...


They do look pretty good for the price is there a huge difference for everyday use with these:-

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache) [Included in Price]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5470 (1.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache) [Included in Price]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7250 (2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache) [add £45.00 or £2/month1]



Thanks
 
Out of them, the T7500 is faster, as its a dual core 2.2ghz, with 4mb cache.

In order of speed;

T7500
T7250
T5470

The 7500 is a lot faster than the 5470.

Depending on price, id get the T7500.
 
syke said:
Out of them, the T7500 is faster, as its a dual core 2.2ghz, with 4mb cache.

In order of speed;

T7500
T7250
T5470

The 7500 is a lot faster than the 5470.

Depending on price, id get the T7500.
Click to expand...

Thing is for every day use surfing, watching films, burning discs , playing FM08 and games like CCS as well as some editing holidays photos is the price worth it and would i notice a huge difference?

My main computer is a Intel E6600 @2.4 Ghz just to give you an idea what i'm use to.


Thanks.
 
For that, id go for the 2ghz (7250) then.

Depends on the pricing of the whole machine, with each of them.

I run FM08 etc on this 1.66ghz, and its fine, but would recommend more.

2ghz is perfectly fine.
 
syke said:
For that, id go for the 2ghz (7250) then.

Depends on the pricing of the whole machine, with each of them.

I run FM08 etc on this 1.66ghz, and its fine, but would recommend more.

2ghz is perfectly fine.
Click to expand...


Ok i will look into a spec etc for that.

Would there be any reason stoping mefrom formatting the Vista Os they install and myself installing Win Xp?

Only thing i was worried about was drivers etc?

Thanks.
 
Matrix said:
Ok i will look into a spec etc for that.

Would there be any reason stoping mefrom formatting the Vista Os they install and myself installing Win Xp?

Only thing i was worried about was drivers etc?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Nothing at all, but you'd be paying part of the vista cost too.

Try find one with XP, doubt you can though.
 
syke said:
Nothing at all, but you'd be paying part of the vista cost too.

Try find one with XP, doubt you can though.
Click to expand...

What about if i rang them up direct you thinktthey'd put Xp on it? or even better still no Os.

I've taken a very bad dislike to vista ;)
 
Would i be ok with a 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS? As the price is going up and i didn't want to break £600ish and i'm just over £650 atm


I run a Radeon X1950 pro on my home Pc and it runs everything i throw at it ( COD4 the hightest spec game i play)

I really don't think i'll play games on my laptop other than FM08 ot be honest so i'm swaying towards the 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS.

Any discount codes aroud that work? And you think i could get any discount if i spoke to them direct maybe? ( looks like i'll need to call any how about XP)

Looking at this spec :-


BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7250 (2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit
SUPPORT SERVICES 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Included - No Upgrade Selected edit
LCD 17" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™ edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera edit
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 + 1x2048 MB) edit
HARD DRIVE 320 GB (5400rpm) SATA Dual Hard Drive (2x 160GB) edit
GRAPHICS CARD 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) edit
Services & Software
MOBILITY Declined CompleteCare edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English edit
Accessories
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English edit
CARRY CASES No Carry Case edit
BLUETOOTH Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data Rate edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe edit
Also included with your system
Gedis Bundle Reference N0217005
Order Information Vostro Laptop Order - UK
Shipping Documents English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord
Dell System Media Kit Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers
Power Supply 90W AC Adapter
Modem 56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK
Keyboard Internal Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Standard Warranty 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
Online Promotion Option for GEDIS Configs Dell Internet Order.
Promotions Hidden Option Class Free memory upgrade from 2048 to 3072 667 Mhz



Subtotal £574.00
Ex. VAT & Shipping
Click to expand...


OR


Components
BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2-cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business - English edit
SUPPORT SERVICES 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Included - No Upgrade Selected edit
LCD 17" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™ edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera edit
MEMORY 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 + 1x2048 MB) edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr) edit
Services & Software
MOBILITY Declined CompleteCare edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English edit
Accessories
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English edit
CARRY CASES No Carry Case edit
BLUETOOTH Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (up to 3Mbps) with Enhanced Data Rate edit
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe edit
Also included with your system
Gedis Bundle Reference N0217009
Order Information Vostro Laptop Order - UK
Shipping Documents English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord
Dell System Media Kit Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers
Power Supply 90W AC Adapter
Modem 56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK
Keyboard Internal Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Standard Warranty 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
Online Promotion Option for GEDIS Configs Dell Internet Order.





You Save £100.00
Subtotal £574.00
Ex. VAT & Shipping
Click to expand...
 
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I'd get the second one myself.

For FM08, its about the Processor, rather than the GFX Card, the bottom spec will play COD4 too.

(Link Removed) (hope thats allowed to link to).
 
Even 8600 GT is a lot slower than an X1950 Pro, so naturally the 8400 GS is slower still, but at least it's better than integrated video. Depends how serious you are about just needing to run old or undemanding games. I kinda had that idea when I bought my laptop, but then once you've got it you get the itch to install more recent and demanding stuff (not talking crysis here, just regular games from the last 5 years) and even use it for some real gaming instead of your desktop, and then when you find it can't hack it you're dissapointed you didn't spend the extra.

If those are from Dell they usually let you select XP instead of Vista when building it. Avoiding Vista is a very good idea since it drags performance down across the board.
 
for £500, my dad just bought a HP laptop, 2gb of ram, 2.0ghz AMD dual core, 120gb hardrive, 17 inch screen and a nvdia 7150m graphics card.

Its pretty good, but i dont know how good that card is.
 
tomanders91 said:
for £500, my dad just bought a HP laptop, 2gb of ram, 2.0ghz AMD dual core, 120gb hardrive, 17 inch screen and a nvdia 7150m graphics card.

Its pretty good, but i dont know how good that card is.
Click to expand...

Was that online with HP or something?
What model number was it do you know?

Thanks.
 
fish99 said:
If those are from Dell they usually let you select XP instead of Vista when building it. Avoiding Vista is a very good idea since it drags performance down across the board.
Click to expand...


Yeah there was no option to select Xp over Vista so looks like i'll have to ring up and see if i can haggle it?

I can't see myself playing many games on it other than CSs and Fm08 as i have my computer upstairs for that its' just for traveling and for my wife to use really and i guess myself when i'm downstairs and need to surf the web quickly.

Thanks.
 
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