My parents are giving me $850 for x-mas, which I can use anytime I want. They want me to use it towards a computer, and since I already have a decent basic PC I think a laptop would be tits.

I dont know a ton of info, but from what my brother has told me I want this:

512mb RAM
128mb Video card
1.5Ghz Celeron or 2.5Ghz Pentium Processor
>30+ GB HD

I am going to use it mostly for surfing, online gaming, and video editing. Do those reccomendations sound enough for what I want to do?

I am partial to Dell, but it seems like the closest to what I want is the 8600, and with those options it is close to $1500, and I cant afford $700 extra for it.

 

too bad your getting that $$ for x-mas. The black friday sales are right around the corner!

I priced a dell recently with the same specs, it wasn't $1500...

and
"1.5Ghz Celeron or 2.5Ghz Pentium Processor"
is two different ballparks...

Notebook=waste of $$ if you don't have a real world use for it. I.E. college or making money with it.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catal...&cat=3951&lr=A

 

Well I go to schoo, but I probably wont use it for that. I really want it to use at work. I work 11-12hr midnight shifts where I basically sit around for 6 hours straight. I have very nice Dell computers, but they are monitored, so I dont feel comfortable surfing all the sites I want to.

My PC is pretty lame, as far as the current stuff goes:

600 mhz Pentium 3
128MB RAM
etc

I got a 100GB HD for $25, and I'm getting a 17" LCD monitor for pocket change, so I dont see the need for some badass home PC when I already have one that I dont spend thaat much time on. I definitely would use the laptop more than my PC because all I do at home is sleep, due to working 70hrs - 6 days/week.

Or I could just put it towards a SC for my mustang.

edit: And I thought I read that a Celeron at 1.5Ghz was equivalent to a Pentium at 2.3Ghz, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

why would you use a notebook for video editing and gaming? desktops are much better suited for these things( comparing $ for $ ).






I have both, and I use my notebook once a month tops, and usually even that isn't necessary. If you travel a lot or you are going to be using it in classes maybe it makes sense, but mine was a waste of money. If I'm home I'm on the desktop (which cost about 1/3 of the notebook for twice the computer), and anywhere else there is always access to a computer if I need one.

 

how would your notebook be connecting to the internet? if its through the same connection as the dells you mention, expect your notebook to be monitored also.

 

Used IBM Thinkpad.

 

Basically the work computers have a program on them that sends back to the server the info on the computer via packets, or something like that. I assumed I will be able to just plug in the DSL line into my notebook and they shouldnt be able to see what I'm doing, or is that incorrect? The hospital has their own server, which is what I am getting the connection through.

And a PC makes no sense for me, since I cant take it with me when I am at work. Like I said, I spend very VERY little time at home, due to work, school, and an attemtpo at a social life. If I'm at home its in the middle of the day, and chances are I'm sleeping, or its on sat night/sunday afternoon, when I usually work on my cars or hang out with the gf.

edit: and wtf is up with this windows patch BS? I dont ever use windows messenger, nd I sure dont feel like paying them $20, can I get rid of this somehw or is it an absolute must do thing?

 

well to get internet access through a network you will need to log on to that network, which means the network admins will know who you are and have the ability to monitor what you are doing.

and what windows patch costs $20?

msn messenger 7.0 > windows messenger

 

Might be over your budget, but nothing better than a Centrino if you want ur battery to last looong time.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....8&type=product

$1400 - $150 rebate = $1250

 

Thats a pretty nice setup. Maybe I'll stop by bestbuy and see how it looks.

From a gaming standpoint thouggh, is a 64mb graphics card enough to run most games online without lag?

 

If you are looking for a laptop for games, centrino is not the way to go. You might want a P4 with 128 MB video.

Centrino will give you a very thin case, and long lasting battery; a very transportable solution.

 

Gaming on a laptop is a bad idea. You need a lot of power to run the fast gaming hardware - desktop P4s and the big-dog Radeon and Geforce cards suck down a ton of power. They'll make your laptop big, hot, heavy, and have shit for battery life. Plus you'll be spending quite a bit for a capable laptop that will be outdated in 2 years.

64 megs is plenty, although most cards capable of handling the latest games easily are 128 or more. Don't let the VRAM fool you, it has very little to do with how fast the card is.

If you want a gaming machine, build a good Athlon desktop machine for $500. Then spend the other $500 on a little 2 or 3 year old IBM laptop for surfing at work.

 

I know that a PC would be 10x more afforable for gaming, but like I said I barely spend ANY time at home. I mean seriously, all I do is sleep at home an watch movies with the woman. I work 70hrs/week, and 75% of the time I'm at work I am bored out of my skull. This is why I want a laptop for gaming/surfing/whatever.

The PC at my work is fast, its a Dell 2.3Ghz with a badass 21" LCD screen, and I would use that for gaming, but I dont have administrative priviledges, so I cant install any kind of program on it.

 

go to

http://notebookforums.com

and click on the dell general link when scrolling down a little. Upon clicking on it, there should be a dell coupon sticky on the top and click the last page. There are always 20% off coupons adn such for laptops over 1499 and such.. so maybe that might help you a bit

 

You are referring to the Pentium M, aka centrino. Avoid the celeron at all costs!

 

Actually for non critical stuff, a celeron is a good inexpensive choice.
I bought one for my sister, with 802.11b, 400 Mhz FSB, 512 MB RAM and 40 GB HD like a year ago for $950 (AR) and it is working really good.

 

My brother just got a Dell 8600 with a 1.5Ghz Celeron, and it plays all his high end games with zero lag and sufrs pretty fast, so I dont see the problem with it.

 

Don't get a Dell, I've had nothing but problems with them at work and at home. I had a Dell once that was perfect but that was in 1997 when they still built things properly.


www.averatec.com

Try that website. VERY lightweight laptops that are well built and have lots of features. Best of all, they are priced reasonably.

 

Get something with an AMD chip about $200-300 less than a p4 and is as fast, and much faster than a celeron processor. well worth the $$$ but if its 1.5ghz then its the centrino processor. don' t get a dell (desk tops are fine but laptops suck) My family has had 3 of them and have a bunch of friends with dell laptops all POS. We've all had problems and my sister works for delll and the one she got from work is falling a part literaly. Parts are falling off of it. its just over 2 yrs old. even she said she wouldn't buy one if she had to get her own. Gateway , hp/compaq have AMD processors and have better Quality laptops. but the best quality laptops are Toshibas and Fujitsus, but more $$. I've had a fujitsu for 3 yrs about to buy another, my mom just bought one, one of my other sisters bought one last yr. great laptops. 0 problems. I wish they would put AMD processors in a toshiba or a fujitsu then i'd be set.

 

I always bought Toshiba for me and friends, excellent laptops. Toshiba has an agreement with Intel tho, so i dont think we will see AMDs inside them. I have a friend with a Fujitsu. No complaints he says.

 

ya Toshiba rocks

 

They're solid.

 

Your work, if it has any sort of IT department, can monitior any network traffic that is on their network. My old job used it's proprietary software for making network wide changes and other administrative tasks; this software also prevents non-approved hardware from accessing the network. You may want to ask someone what the deal is.

 

mac attack......



Love my ibook G4!!!

didn't they just re-release them too?

 

I'm gonna see if my brothers laptop works there today, and see how/if the network connection works. Thanks for the info.

 

just go pick up a Dell 700m from ebay... since Dell had that crazy $750 off coupon a while ago, there's been a ton of them on ebay for real cheap...

 

Dell has 20% off notebooks & desktops 10% off, and the desktops have a free 17" lcd screen upgrade.

My bro's laptop connected the the DSL line at work fine, but I'm still wary about using the connection if the info is easily read by an IT guy.