buying advice

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

U-Bid. Factory refurbished with warranty the same as new at about 1/2
the price.

hawk

Resh wrote:

> hi
>
> i am a scientist at columbia.. and need help choosing a laptop PC (not
> mac). i am looking mainly for excellent computing power (high speed
> CPU, lots of RAM, high bus speed and a good hard drive) and dont
> particularly care for compactness, style or design, video graphics
> speed, fast peripheral drives, etc. mainly to be used as a number
> cruncher, and then for basic writing and figure-making.
>
> i will run matlab, R, illustrator and microsoft word, mostly. of these
> matlab is the most important application.
>
> can someone give me any advice on how to get the best value for my
> money ? the cheaper the better, of course !!!
>
> thanks, suresh

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Dell Latitude 500, 1.6 Pentium M, 1 Gig RAM, XP Pro $2300.
IBM Thinkpad R51, roughly same specs as above $2300
IBM Thinkpad T41, roughly same specs as above $2500
Dell Inspiron 600M, roughly same specs as above $1700

If you change from a Pentium M to a P-4, you can save about $500 for
comparable models with roughly the same processing power. About half the
people in this newsgroup would consider that a smart move, if you don't mind
heat and noise, the other half would not consider it, regardless. Beware
that even though you are not interested in portablity or battery life,
sustained number-crunching is potentially a problem on some of the hotter
P-4 computers, even if you don't mind the fan noise.



"hawk" <hawk@spamex.com> wrote in message
news:10f8una2b9c0da2@corp.supernews.com...
> U-Bid. Factory refurbished with warranty the same as new at about 1/2
> the price.
>
> hawk
>
> Resh wrote:
>
> > hi
> >
> > i am a scientist at columbia.. and need help choosing a laptop PC (not
> > mac). i am looking mainly for excellent computing power (high speed
> > CPU, lots of RAM, high bus speed and a good hard drive) and dont
> > particularly care for compactness, style or design, video graphics
> > speed, fast peripheral drives, etc. mainly to be used as a number
> > cruncher, and then for basic writing and figure-making.
> >
> > i will run matlab, R, illustrator and microsoft word, mostly. of these
> > matlab is the most important application.
> >
> > can someone give me any advice on how to get the best value for my
> > money ? the cheaper the better, of course !!!
> >
> > thanks, suresh

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

> if you don't mind
> heat and noise, the other half would not consider it

I use Acer Aspire with P4 3 GHz. During hard working (3d rendering etc)
temperature never goes over 45C, never. That is all. As an experiment I
block all ventilation gaps and heat up as much as possible. Maximum I could
get was 65C. Heat in not fault of P4, but bad temperature flow design.

And fun work on fullest only when computer is starting. Again during hard
working it is not much noiser then average desktop.

Regards,

K.Polak

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

> i am a scientist at columbia.. and need help choosing a laptop PC (not
> mac). i am looking mainly for excellent computing power (high speed
> CPU, lots of RAM, high bus speed and a good hard drive) and dont
>
> i will run matlab, R, illustrator and microsoft word, mostly. of these
> matlab is the most important application.
>
> can someone give me any advice on how to get the best value for my
> money ? the cheaper the better, of course !!!

Cheap, start with the eMachines M6810 for $1399.
http://emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachi...

Faster than the prior model, the M6807, the M6810 is one of the
latest notebooks that run the 64-bit Athlon 64 processor, which will
significantly increase speeds in number crunching, etc.

As PC Magazine said in their review of the M6807, "...but for now the
M6807 can boast the best performance scores of any notebook we've tested
to date."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1537028,00.asp

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naturally, there's always =faster=, but at a much more expensive
price than $1399.

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Now, if you're working with large data sets on the HD and need
superior HD performance, then get the 1Beyond triple 2.5" 7200rpm RAID'd
laptop.

http://www.1beyond.com/products/3216.asp?search=laptops

Screaming fast 240GB of 7200rpm 60GB x 3 drive storage capacity; or
slightly slower 320GB/400GB of 5400rpm 80GB/100GB x 3 drive storage.

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