Help selecting a good laptop/notebook in the $600-$800 ran..

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

dspame@yahoo.com wrote:
: Hi all,

: Dunno much about laptops/notebooks. I do mostly internet surfing, word
: processing, listening to music, photo editing, dreamweaver, and voIP.
: I'll be running XP. I do some Java programming, too, so I need a
: reasonably fast CPU, probably 512MB memory, and at least a 40GB hard
: drive. I'm looking for reliable hardware, reasonably fast, and the
: ability to update drivers when necessary.

If you're familiar with desktops and not notebooks, you also need to
consider battery life, heat, and fan noise. Desktop CPUs in laptop
computers have become too hot in my opinion. I would go with a
Pentium M, which is a CPU designed for laptops: low heat and power
consumption for longer battery life (Centrino is a package that
includes Pentium M - you can get Pentium M with or without Centrino).
I'm not familiar with the AMD low-power chips but you might consider
those also.

Not all notebooks with a Pentium M CPU are created equal. At Costco
this week, I looked at two simliar Centrino notebooks. One was a
Gateway, the other was a Averatec. They were about the same speed of
CPU, but the Averatec was extremely hot on the bottom. The Gateway
was hardly warm. They were both idling in a Windows Demo, so CPU use
should have been about the same. In fact the Gateway had a better
feel on the mousepad buttons and seemed to have a better design and I
think it was cheaper too. Not that I know much about Gateways these
days, but my initial impression of it was better vs. the Averatec.

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

Cool

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

dspame@yahoo.com wrote:

> Dunno much about laptops/notebooks. I do mostly internet surfing, word
> processing, listening to music, photo editing, dreamweaver, and voIP.
> I'll be running XP. I do some Java programming, too, so I need a
> reasonably fast CPU, probably 512MB memory, and at least a 40GB hard
> drive. I'm looking for reliable hardware, reasonably fast, and the
> ability to update drivers when necessary.
>
> Right now, I'm looking at the Acer Aspire 3000 series with the Sempron
> AMD CPUs.

I'm a bit regretful of my decision to take that route. My 3020WLMi has
now spent 2 weeks at Acer Repair Centre UK, after only being in my
possession for one week (it was making a weird "ding" sound). I don't
know what the US service is like, but whilst the UK repair centre staff
are friendly/helpful on the phone, the slow turnaround is notorious, from
what I've read (due to all spare parts being imported and none kept in
store).

It did strike me as a fairly fast machine, but the speed came at the cost
of heat and noise. Running off mains power, with the processor at full
speed, the noisy fan was on almost continuously. Running off battery, the
fan still came on quite frequently.


higgy.

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

dspame@yahoo.com wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Dunno much about laptops/notebooks. I do mostly internet surfing, word
> processing, listening to music, photo editing, dreamweaver, and voIP.
> I'll be running XP. I do some Java programming, too, so I need a
> reasonably fast CPU, probably 512MB memory, and at least a 40GB hard
> drive. I'm looking for reliable hardware, reasonably fast, and the
> ability to update drivers when necessary.
>
> Right now, I'm looking at the Acer Aspire 3000 series with the Sempron
> AMD CPUs.
>
Yesterday I found the following when doing a search for a friend:

A dell was $749 and IBM was $859
both had
40 Gig HD
512 Ram
CD burner
Win XP Pro

IBM Express Program)
1842SVU
ThinkPad R50e (Think Express Program)
1842STU

Inspiron 6000 was the other.

And when one considers the tech support, Dell loses out.

Mahl

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

Hi there,

for your purposes i would recommend the inspiron 600m with 1.6 GHz
Pentium-M, 512 MB memory with 2-year warranty. They are absolute quiet and
with the included 6-cell Li-ion you get about 4 hours of battery
operation. Check this 25% off offer incl. Dell free priter:
http://www.virtia.de/l/usdi600m.htm
--
Regards

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

Nice price on the Dell. Can you please send me the link? Sounds like
the right price for me, and Dell is supposed to be good quality and
reliability. The tech support I can do mostly for myself I think.


Mahlon Wagner wrote:
> dspame@yahoo.com wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Dunno much about laptops/notebooks. I do mostly internet surfing, word
> > processing, listening to music, photo editing, dreamweaver, and voIP.
> > I'll be running XP. I do some Java programming, too, so I need a
> > reasonably fast CPU, probably 512MB memory, and at least a 40GB hard
> > drive. I'm looking for reliable hardware, reasonably fast, and the
> > ability to update drivers when necessary.
> >
> > Right now, I'm looking at the Acer Aspire 3000 series with the Sempron
> > AMD CPUs.
> >
> Yesterday I found the following when doing a search for a friend:
>
> A dell was $749 and IBM was $859
> both had
> 40 Gig HD
> 512 Ram
> CD burner
> Win XP Pro
>
> IBM Express Program)
> 1842SVU
> ThinkPad R50e (Think Express Program)
> 1842STU
>
> Inspiron 6000 was the other.
>
> And when one considers the tech support, Dell loses out.
>
> Mahl