Laptop Question

[Merlin]

I would also add that you DO NOT want Microsoft Vista for the operating system. There are too many incompatibilities right now and the market is still about 85% Windows XP. Make sure you go with Windows XP Pro SP2. Being that you are a student, you can get Vista dirt cheap at a later date when the market comes around to meeting the demand. I am sure the UW has a software purchasing agreement with Microsoft. Students can get MS Office 2003 Professional for $15 I think or maybe it's $20. At any rate it's dirt cheap.

[billy_oliver880]

I have had an HP laptop for 4 years now and I love it. The only trouble I have had with it is the wireless network is giving me trouble now.

[Zool]

If you're looking to spend $3000 or under your options are endless.

I've been in IT for 10 years now, and I've seen most brands come through. I can say that like a car, every brand will have issues of some sort.

Sony have by far the nicest screens and have for a long time. The battery life is actually a little bit shorter because of this, but its a great trade off. If you have a mediocre screen, you will get a headache after looking at it for an hour or 2.

Dell makes a solid laptop that will cost marginally less than the Sony. The exploding battery problem is now fixed, so that shouldn't be a concern if you buy a new one from Dell.

Toshiba is starting to slip in the market.

IBM sold their laptop line, so I'm not sure how the support for the Lenovo laptops will be. I haven't had to call them yet. They are a very solid machine and can take a pounding, but I've always been under impressed with their screens.

Make sure to get a Core2 or a Core2duo processor. The Pentium M dual core's are about 1/2 the speed and twice the heat of the Core2's.

Get a 15" screen if its going to be used for writing papers and such and is going to be moved alot. If the laptop is going to be stationary for the most part, get a 17" screen.

Get 2G's of ram now. The cost difference is ~$150 if you do it yourself, and the speed gain is substantial. Also like GBR already said Vista is a system hog. Get XP Pro with SP2 like Merlin said. Vista is not ready yet, but they had to release it to comply with their contracts with resellers.

Try to get one that has dedicated video memory, not shared. System RAM is much slower than video RAM and sharing is a great way to save money, but eat into performance.

/book

[Charles Woodson]

Through everyone in my family, we have had about 8 different dell laptops and they have all been good.

[pacfan]

Thanks for the advice and comments. I knew you guys would come through.

[Partial]

If you're looking to spend $3000 or under your options are endless.

I've been in IT for 10 years now, and I've seen most brands come through. I can say that like a car, every brand will have issues of some sort.

Sony have by far the nicest screens and have for a long time. The battery life is actually a little bit shorter because of this, but its a great trade off. If you have a mediocre screen, you will get a headache after looking at it for an hour or 2.

Dell makes a solid laptop that will cost marginally less than the Sony. The exploding battery problem is now fixed, so that shouldn't be a concern if you buy a new one from Dell.

Toshiba is starting to slip in the market.

IBM sold their laptop line, so I'm not sure how the support for the Lenovo laptops will be. I haven't had to call them yet. They are a very solid machine and can take a pounding, but I've always been under impressed with their screens.

Make sure to get a Core2 or a Core2duo processor. The Pentium M dual core's are about 1/2 the speed and twice the heat of the Core2's.

Get a 15" screen if its going to be used for writing papers and such and is going to be moved alot. If the laptop is going to be stationary for the most part, get a 17" screen.

Get 2G's of ram now. The cost difference is ~$150 if you do it yourself, and the speed gain is substantial. Also like GBR already said Vista is a system hog. Get XP Pro with SP2 like Merlin said. Vista is not ready yet, but they had to release it to comply with their contracts with resellers.

Try to get one that has dedicated video memory, not shared. System RAM is much slower than video RAM and sharing is a great way to save money, but eat into performance.

/book

Zool you know I love you like a brother, but all the companies are using the same panels. Sony doesn't make panels. LG and Samsung, as well as other manufacturers do. That's why the stats on them are pretty much useless. Perhaps they use brighter backlights, but they are all the exact same panel for the most part nowadays. I recommend going with an LED backlit lcd is you can find one. The lighting distribution is better and it takes less power. They aren't very popular yet.

They didn't make a pentium m dual core to my knowledge. They have core duo, which is essentially built around the last gen pentium m. Then they have the core 2 duo, which is a completely new architecture. I recommend core 2 duo just as you did.

Screen size should be 100% on what you're going to do with it. If you are going to take it to class with you and take notes on it, honestly I don't think you can beat the 13.3" laptops. I say this because this is a brand new panel and is a very, very nice display at a great size. I would never, ever go back to a 15" notebook after using my sexy 13.3".

You should make sure you try out several sizes and see what you like. 13.3", 14.1, and 15.1 are all very popular sizes.

Definitely get the 2gb of ram.

Intels GMA950 is actually no slouch in the video department. It does use system ram, yes, but it is 100% fine for any 2-d work you would need to do. I use desktop effects all the time on my mac with the GMA950 and I have never had a problem and I have 1.25gb ram. Only if you want to play the latest games would I recommend a dedicated GPU (it adds heat, sucks battery life, etc). The GMA950 can play current games such as Half-Life 2 or Counter-Strike: Source.



If I were you, I would wait until June/July ish if you can. My reasoning for this?

Intel's Santa Rosa platform is due for release shortly. It will increase the bus speed from 667 to 800mhz, which will overall increase performance quite a bit. Also, this new platform is coming with a new graphics processor built-in called the GMA3000, which is actually directx 10, have pixel shader 3.0 built in, etc. It will be a very worthy contender.


In summary, by the end of June you'll be able to get a great system that is faster than is what is out today, great graphics, and a nice LED display for about 1400-1500.

PM me for more info if you need it.

[Zool]

If you're looking to spend $3000 or under your options are endless.

I've been in IT for 10 years now, and I've seen most brands come through. I can say that like a car, every brand will have issues of some sort.

Sony have by far the nicest screens and have for a long time. The battery life is actually a little bit shorter because of this, but its a great trade off. If you have a mediocre screen, you will get a headache after looking at it for an hour or 2.

Dell makes a solid laptop that will cost marginally less than the Sony. The exploding battery problem is now fixed, so that shouldn't be a concern if you buy a new one from Dell.

Toshiba is starting to slip in the market.

IBM sold their laptop line, so I'm not sure how the support for the Lenovo laptops will be. I haven't had to call them yet. They are a very solid machine and can take a pounding, but I've always been under impressed with their screens.

Make sure to get a Core2 or a Core2duo processor. The Pentium M dual core's are about 1/2 the speed and twice the heat of the Core2's.

Get a 15" screen if its going to be used for writing papers and such and is going to be moved alot. If the laptop is going to be stationary for the most part, get a 17" screen.

Get 2G's of ram now. The cost difference is ~$150 if you do it yourself, and the speed gain is substantial. Also like GBR already said Vista is a system hog. Get XP Pro with SP2 like Merlin said. Vista is not ready yet, but they had to release it to comply with their contracts with resellers.

Try to get one that has dedicated video memory, not shared. System RAM is much slower than video RAM and sharing is a great way to save money, but eat into performance.

/book

Zool you know I love you like a brother, but all the companies are using the same panels. Sony doesn't make panels. LG and Samsung, as well as other manufacturers do. That's why the stats on them are pretty much useless. Perhaps they use brighter backlights, but they are all the exact same panel for the most part nowadays. I recommend going with an LED backlit lcd is you can find one. The lighting distribution is better and it takes less power. They aren't very popular yet.

They didn't make a pentium m dual core to my knowledge. They have core duo, which is essentially built around the last gen pentium m. Then they have the core 2 duo, which is a completely new architecture. I recommend core 2 duo just as you did.

Screen size should be 100% on what you're going to do with it. If you are going to take it to class with you and take notes on it, honestly I don't think you can beat the 13.3" laptops. I say this because this is a brand new panel and is a very, very nice display at a great size. I would never, ever go back to a 15" notebook after using my sexy 13.3".

You should make sure you try out several sizes and see what you like. 13.3", 14.1, and 15.1 are all very popular sizes.

Definitely get the 2gb of ram.

Intels GMA950 is actually no slouch in the video department. It does use system ram, yes, but it is 100% fine for any 2-d work you would need to do. I use desktop effects all the time on my mac with the GMA950 and I have never had a problem and I have 1.25gb ram. Only if you want to play the latest games would I recommend a dedicated GPU (it adds heat, sucks battery life, etc). The GMA950 can play current games such as Half-Life 2 or Counter-Strike: Source.



If I were you, I would wait until June/July ish if you can. My reasoning for this?

Intel's Santa Rosa platform is due for release shortly. It will increase the bus speed from 667 to 800mhz, which will overall increase performance quite a bit. Also, this new platform is coming with a new graphics processor built-in called the GMA3000, which is actually directx 10, have pixel shader 3.0 built in, etc. It will be a very worthy contender.


In summary, by the end of June you'll be able to get a great system that is faster than is what is out today, great graphics, and a nice LED display for about 1400-1500.

PM me for more info if you need it.

Ahh good catch on the Core Duo. Brain fart in there.

LG and Samsung do make a ton of monitors, but I would like to be shown where Sony doesnt produce their own screens anymore. I know Dell is using Samsung now, but I hadnt heard Sony was buying 3rd party. Go to Best Buy and check out the Sony screens. They are comparable to the McBook N Fries screen IMO.

[Zool]

And yet you stand corrected again Partial.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentium_dual-core/index.htm

[Partial]

And yet you stand corrected again Partial.

http://www.intel.com/products/proces...core/index.htm

It appears that I do. Interesting. When did that come out? It's kind of weird because it has the same naming convention as the Core Duos. The T2600 was the 1.67 ghz core duo, this is the T2060, I wonder if its one of the low voltage models or something.

Have you seen that used commercially?


From CNET

Unlike most other manufacturers, Sony makes a substantial number of the internal components for its TVs and manufactures the sets itself. Still, not everything is homegrown. Sony obtains its LCD glass from outside manufacturers, Naito said. A Samsung-Sony joint venture on LCD panels will start to crank out panels next year, but Sony will continue to also buy panels from third parties, Naito added.

[Zool]

Hmm...So Samsung makes the panel and Sony makes the guts. Good find. I totally missed this one.

[pacfan]

What is the Integrated Fingerprint reader?

Does this work, is there a chance it would lock me out of my laptop?

[Partial]

There is a chance it could if it malfunctions I suppose, but there is a way to circumvent any system. It's more of a gimmick than anything. If you select a very long, random password, its difficult to crack anyway.

[Merlin]

The whole manufacturing thing is quite interesting. There are only about 2-3 manufactures of laptops in the world. The only difference between them all are the specifications to which they are built. It's interesting also that LG has taken over the plasma panel market. Most plasma TV's used to have Panasonic panels in them but Panasonic couldn't keep up and LG took over. It appears Panasonic wants to re-engineer their plasma panels anyway, I think that had more to do with the switch.

[pacfan]

Anbody have any thoughts on refurbished Laptops, are they worth it?

[GBRulz]

I would think refurbished would be fine as long as it comes with a warranty and is certified by the manufacturer. As far as price differences between new and refurbished, I really don't know how much you'd end up saving to say if it's worth it or not.

Zool and Merlin know what they're talking about when it comes to computers, I'm sure they would have some good insight on this subject since they work with all kinds of them.