Hey!
I want to buy a computer (possibly a laptop) as soon as I get money. My budget will be under $700.

I want a laptop that I can watch and make movies, record movies, and watch TV.

Is this a decent laptop? http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Ace [...] tDetail.do

I know it doesn't have a TV tuner, or the size of hard drive I want, but I think I will buy a TV tuner and an external hard drive.

I would like to know where to buy those. I want cheap as possible for the TV tuner and it could not be internal because of that being a laptop.

I want a 250gb external hard drive if possible but from what I have seen, that size generally is not portable, and if it is it is really expensive. So cheap as possible, if not portable, I can live with it, but preferably portable.

If anyone knows of a better laptop for near the same price, please respond to this.

That is most definitely a good notebook for the money. You are correct regarding the HDDs on notebooks, they are very expensive for their capacity. If you just want a drive for media files, an external will work fine. As for using an add-on TV tuner, I have no idea if it this system will work out for you.

It's not bad. I just couldn't help but laugh at the part where they say "powerful ATi graphics" and then mention it's ATi express 1100. That just made me laugh.

for a laptop that is pretty good tho...
Really anything under $700 with 1GB ram and core 2 duo is what I recommend. Bonus for dedicated graphics. Choose your size external off newegg and TBH I don't know much on tv tuners that fit pcmia(sp?) slots.

for a laptop that is pretty good tho...
Really anything under $700 with 1GB ram and core 2 duo is what I recommend. Bonus for dedicated graphics(mine with the intel dedicated will play games decently nothing compared to my 1950 Pro/desktop tho). Choose your size external off newegg and TBH I don't know much on tv tuners that fit pcmia(sp?) slots.

I thought it was good, but I couldn't help but laugh when they tried to call integrated "powerful". The two don't belong together.

I have a bunch of the Western Digital Externals, and with no issues.

Get either a 250gb WD mybook for $95 or a 500gb essential for 150.


My WD externals:
2x 80gb
2x250gb mybook essential
2x320gb
1x 500gb essential
1x500gb premium

ha ha terabytes

Seems like a pretty decent laptop; I personally would want to get something with a dual-core processor for faster multi-tasking. As for a TV tuner, there are many different USB tuners available. Just search on Pricewatch and Pricegrabber for what you want; same for an external hard drive.

Personally the Turion my friend has is incredibly slow compared to the A64 3800 my laptop had.
Mine smooooooooked his.
I would agree on an AM2/Core2.

Actually, my Core Duo T2400 @ 1.83GHz seems to be roughly equal in processor performance to my A64 X2 3800. I haven't run any benchmarks, so that is merely my impression.

Thanx for the help everyone. I said this but it was not very clear. I want an external hard drive but I think I want it to be portable. If I remember right (correct me if I am wrong) but if it is portable it does not have to be plugged into an outlet correct? Help me find a 250gb portable hard drive. I don't want it to be more than $100. If that is not possible, find a normal external one that is around $80 dollars and if you find one that is bigger than 250gb for near $80 dollars, that would be even better.

I really took it for granted that it was dual core. I don't know why. That has changed my impression of this system.

I would say that it is often difficult to find the best deals on complete systems using those vendor search engines. I found that looking at individual sites and using a regular google search worked better. Two good places for the OP to look are at HP and Tiger Direct. In December, I got my HP Core Duo T2400, GMA45, 1GB RAM, XP Professional, 40GB HDD for $700 at Tiger Direct. There were two down sides. The HDD is small and they sent me a system with the password already activated, no system discs, and a non-functioning restore partition. It took a month to get everything sorted out because the people that work at Tiger Direct are idiots.

Portable or 2.5" externals do not come in sizes greater than 200gb because they rely n notebook hard drives. You have 3 good options:
a) buy a Western Digital Passport 2 (120gb for $95 is usually the best deal, however, I just saw in today's Best Buy Circular: the same drive in 160gb for $105 w/ no rebates)

b) buy a seagate 2.5" external: they are also supposed to be good

c) build one yourself using a 2.5" enclosure and a notebook hard drive: beware though of cheap ones, I bought a cheap $8 vantec one, and it needs to be plugged in to 2 usb ports at once to get power, and even then it didnt get enough on my desktop

good luck