Should I get a good laptop? or cheap laptop & a desktop

rossyl

rossyl

rossyl

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With a budget of around £600-800

I have been wondering whether I should get a decent laptop (Penryn Core2Duo, 2GB RAM, 8600 GT).

Or

Should i try and put together a half decent PC and get a cheap laptop.

LAPTOP
I need the laptop for browsing in the lounge, playing HD videos in the lounge, encoding youtube vids, burning CD's/DVDs, and just general portability of taking stuff to a mates etc.

Desktop
If i got a desktop then I could use that for - encoding youtube vids, burning CD's/DVDs.

The reason why I am getting nervous about buying a laptop is the lack of upgradability. The desktop i can keep upgrding.

but I would like to be rid of the mess!!
 
If your not playing games on the lapto - get the desktop/laptop. If, however you want to play good games, you can just about get a good laptop or desktop for that price. A good desktop - which should last you 3 years will cost about £1200 for the box. Anything less and you are not getting the good stuff int here and it may not last as long.

Again, only counts if you want a good games pc.

Only thing to upgrade in laptops is memory really. what you buy is what you get. for browsing internet and watching movies, a Toshiba Tecra M2 or M3, shouldnt be more than £150-200 and will do everything you want.

Hope that helps. Sure others will help too.

ColiN
 
Given what you have said I would spend the entire budget on a laptop... You will be hard pressed to get a desktop/laptop with that budget (especially one that will play HD content) and it sounds like you would really benefit from having a portable computer.

Only thing that is holding you back from getting a laptop is the lack of upgradability... I don't see this as a problem as it will still encode video just as fast in 3 years time as it will now... However it won't be able to play the latest games.

Depends what your priorities are... If it is portability go with the laptop, if it is games go with the desktop... Both will be able to encode youtube videos in their sleep I think!
 
Stay clear of a laptop unless your really sure you gonna make good use of its portability.
You would be able to get more bang for buck/upgradability if you invested the cash into a nice desktop.
 
Buy a cheap PC for around £400 which when OC'd will run very well, a cheap laptop for portability and use maybe a cheap second hand Xbox as a media extender for the lounge. There's your 800 quid accounted for...
 
rossyl said:
Hi

don't get the using an Xbox bit.

How would I play say downloaded clips and the like on an Xbox?
Click to expand...

I think he means that you have the xbox connected to your TV in the lounnge and then you can use your desktop and or laptop to stream video/music/pictures etc. to the xbox over a wireless network. I think the original xboxes are held in very high regard for their ability to operate as media players.

Actually Munkeh's suggestion was very good.... If you spend $400 on a desktop £350 on a laptop and £50 on a second hand xbox you should be able to meet all your needs and have a very nice setup :)
 
pre1twa said:
Given what you have said I would spend the entire budget on a laptop... You will be hard pressed to get a desktop/laptop with that budget (especially one that will play HD content)
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hard pressed to find a laptop that will play HD content :confused: all you need is any core 2 duo processor and a graphics card capable of hd decoding, like i have a x3100 (intel graphics chip) and it has HD/Blu-ray Decoding afaik, and that matched with a 1.5Ghz (667FSB) core 2 duo, plays most stuff fine, i've had shooter running 1080p albeit at a good 90-100% CPU usage but it was still smooth.
also according to what the OP's put penryn 8600GT etc those will be fine, penryns start at 2.1Ghz (800FSB) so it'll run HD content no problem.
 
pre1twa said:
Actually Munkeh's suggestion was very good.... If you spend $400 on a desktop £350 on a laptop and £50 on a second hand xbox you should be able to meet all your needs and have a very nice setup :)
Click to expand...

Indeed. I did pretty much the same thing. Except I spent £200 on a centrino laptop for uni stuff and spent the rest on a 360. Does everything I could want especially now the 360s play XVids.
 
sja360 said:
hard pressed to find a laptop that will play HD content :confused: all you need is any core 2 duo processor and a graphics card capable of hd decoding, like i have a x3100 (intel graphics chip) and it has HD/Blu-ray Decoding afaik, and that matched with a 1.5Ghz (667FSB) core 2 duo, plays most stuff fine, i've had shooter running 1080p albeit at a good 90-100% CPU usage but it was still smooth.
also according to what the OP's put penryn 8600GT etc those will be fine, penryns start at 2.1Ghz (800FSB) so it'll run HD content no problem.
Click to expand...

I assumed that he would want an optical drive within the laptop i.e. a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. I guess they are quite expensive.
 
Munkeh said:
Indeed. I did pretty much the same thing. Except I spent £200 on a centrino laptop for uni stuff and spent the rest on a 360. Does everything I could want especially now the 360s play XVids.
Click to expand...

Is the 360 on par with what the original xbox could do? I guess not being able to plug an external HD in is a bit annoying.
 
pre1twa said:
I assumed that he would want an optical drive within the laptop i.e. a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. I guess they are quite expensive.
Click to expand...

oh right sorry :o yea i've seen add-on blu-ray for about £200-250 >.< and i dont know about hd-dvd i assume around the same, so yea that would put it out his price range i think.
 
colinuk said:
A good desktop - which should last you 3 years will cost about £1200 for the box. Anything less and you are not getting the good stuff int here and it may not last as long.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree with that. I was pricing up desktop systems for a friend and we found he coud get 8800 GT 512mb, E6750, 2 GB DDR2-800, P35 board, decent 22" screen, Vista Home Premium, quality PSU, 400GB WD caviar etc for about £800-850.
 
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wow - a lot of info.

I rarely EVER play games and am really not fussed if the laptop couldn't take it.
The laptop MUST be able to play HD content (not HD/blu-ray discs)

So what's the miniumum spec for that? CPU, GFX and Memory.

As for the Xbox - the old massive one?
Never realised that had wireless networking, anyone got a link to it running as a media centre?
Also can the OLD xbox's take HD drives?
 
for hd content just any core 2 duo above say 1.5-1.6, 2GB ram and some form of hd hardware decoding (i believe its H.264 decoding is what your looking for) essentially its only going to cost about £600-700 for a decent spec laptop like you mentioned in the first post Rossyl, for instance Fujistu Siemens i believe are putting a laptop out with a penryn very soon? so dell etc must be doing so too.
 
question is - is it worth getting a penryn/£700 laptop. or will a cheapo one suffice?

As for the HD decoder? Is this a spec I should look for on the graphics card, or is it an add-on. If an add-on - i didn;t think laptops were very upgradeable!
 
its built-in into some graphics cards i.e. 8400/8600 series and X3100 Intel graphics and also ATI 2400/2600's i believe. i dont know which is the best but my intel X3100 does the job fine, although i think for 1080p you need more than a 1.5Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, maybe a 1.8+
its really upto you, you could get a cheapish £400/500 laptop that could do 720p and most 1080p too, but it depends on whether this is your main machine or whether your going for the split pc/laptop idea? if your just going for the notebook, get the biggest harddrive and processor and H.264 accelerated graphics card, if the ram is say 1GB just upgrade it yourself as its cheaper to do so.
 
My Vaio with built-in Blu-Ray drive sits at around 25% - 35% CPU load while playing a disc, this is with a Merom 2.2Ghz, and hardware acceleration via an 8600 GS. So I would say it's worth shooting for a 1.8Ghz CPU minimum for smooth playback, depending on the HW acceleration available.
 
Since using laptops i have never wanted a desktop again :)

I love the fact i can use it any room with no hassle. I can show friends things by bringing the laptop to them or on the table etc.
 
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