New Laptop Purchase...VERY Confused....

[MoreCowbell]

Deciding on the E92...EASY...

Deciding on a Laptop...Confusing as hell!!!:sad0147:

So here is my deal. I have a Macbook Pro that I bought a year ago tht I am going to sell. GREAT MACHINE, I might add, but for a heavy MS Office User(because of work), and Blackberry(No, the Iphone is NOT a viable business solution), going back to windows is the best choice for me. PLEASE PLEASE do not turn this into another MAC Vs. PC thread.

Tell me what to get...
-I do HEAVY email and Web Surfing
-I am a HEAVY MS Office user, sometimes having multiple very large spreadsheets, Words Docs, emails and presentations open on my machine at the same time.
-I have a good deal pictures and music.
-It needs to be a laptop, probably a 15 inch screen.
-I am going to get vista and use an older laptop as backup machine running XP.

Everywhere I turn I get differing advice on:

-What Specs to get
-Where to order it from
-How to obtain the best price.

Whenever I price it out at dell, I wind up north of 2g's with a 256mb Graphics card, the best processor and 4 GB's of RAM.(I am a believer in A LOT OF RAM) and probably cannot be talked out of that. As far as processor speed, graphics card(Ive heard the 256 is necessary for the best view of Vista), screen type...etc etc etc I just don' know what to get, where to look or how to buy.

I used to think Dell was the way to go but now I hear that Dell parts are awful. Some even tell me to buy from a store(CC, Best Buy, Etc), but I don't want ANY of that crap software that those PC's likely come with...

I am not afraid to spend he cash, but I want to make sure that my cash gets me a State-of-the-art notebook.

Help!!! Please!!!

[AndrewAZ]

Just run boot camp on your macbook pro, the specs on the macbook pro are equal or better than a high end Dell or HP ect.


Figure it this way.. Macbook you have $2k invested in it $2600 if you have the 256mb card.. You will lose $300-500 or more when you sell it.. Then you are going to spend $1800-2k on a new computer add in that $300 and your at $2100-2,300 and I bet you that $2k dell hp or lenovo laptop will be equal to the performance of the macbook. On the other hand windows vista or XP plus office 07 can be found for less than $300.

But I feel your pain on the BB issue, I have a PC that I use just for my BB and basically nothing else.. But the Macs handle MS office just fine and can mulit task better than any windows computer especially now with spaces on 10.5. I have a powerbook G4 and can run 4 spaces with different apps without a hitch a core 2 duo can do a lot more than what I have.

[325 Baller]

If you really want a PC and not boot camp your Macbook, then your in the same boat as me and Im leaning towards the Asus Eee pc...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220244

picture:

[Sam Da Man]

Originally Posted by 325 Baller

If you really want a PC and not boot camp your Macbook, then your in the same boat as me and Im leaning towards the Asus Eee pc...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220244

picture:

He wants sumting atleast 15 inches wide..as far as brands i would go with SONY or TOSHIBA. i work at bestbuy and alot of the HP's run super slow even with 2gb mem..they come wth alot of BS HP software that maek the boot up like 5 MIN!!!!! But yea dont matter what model u get just get sumting that will be smooth on vista with the fallowing specs

Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate
Inter CORe 2 DUA CPU either around 2.0-2.6 GHZ
2 GB MEM
120 GB HD

When ever choosing a notebook or any other PC always start with the CPU then work ur way down..

INTEL FTW
IF CASH IS NOT AN OPTION CUSTOMIZE UR OWN SONY NOTEBOOK AT SONY.COM GOTTA LOVE THE VAIOS. VAIOS FOR COOL GUYS, ASUS FOR GAMER KIDS

[ska///235i]

asus are nice


do not use Vista please...only noobs use vista

[MoreCowbell]

is 4gb of ram overkill? What about the video card?

Also...when I look on Dell, some processors have 4mb Cache instead of 2mb...does this matter?

[ska///235i]

MoreCowbell...
4gb of ram is way overkill for what you do....but its good to have more rather than upgrading in the future, I'll say go with at least 1gb no more than 3gb ram.
The processors...you will never notice how fast the cache runs, unless you're a serious gamer/hacker/server. So dont worry about that

[Sam Da Man]

If your using Vista 1 GIG is not enough!..the sytem will use 600 MB doing nothing but idle and leaves u with NOTHING..Get atleast 2gb for vista, but doesnt hurt to have 4gb...go to newegg.com you can get cheap prices for memory with good latency

[MoreCowbell]

Is it OK to get 3gb? I was told it's safer to get an even amount, like 2 or 4gb???

[ska///235i]

Originally Posted by MoreCowbell

Is it OK to get 3gb? I was told it's safer to get an even amount, like 2 or 4gb???

True even number is more balance...but that depends on how many slots you have for the rams and what rams you're actually using

Example...I have 1gb of ram, 512 + 512 on each slot (use same brand/model)

Oh..more rams = more heat also, so if you can choice...get the ones with heat sinkers

[Sam Da Man]

Originally Posted by MoreCowbell

Is it OK to get 3gb? I was told it's safer to get an even amount, like 2 or 4gb???

bah doesnt really make a diff if it did u wont even be able to tell..just get anything over 1 gb for vista..but if u have a crap cpu the mem wont even make a difference

[ska///235i]

Originally Posted by Sam Da Man

bah doesnt really make a diff if it did u wont even be able to tell..just get anything over 1 gb for vista..but if u have a crap cpu the mem wont even make a difference

+1.....the Main board (motherboard) is also important

[Sam Da Man]

Originally Posted by ska

+1.....the Main board (motherboard) is also important

SKA Ur telling him to get good mem with heatsinks lmao..i thought he wanted a notebook

[ska///235i]

Originally Posted by Sam Da Man

SKA Ur telling him to get good mem with heatsinks lmao..i thought he wanted a notebook

oops.....

well...notebook with 4gb ram = heat heat heat

[Dmitriy@AUTOcouture]

Hey man, I think this is the perfect solution for you:

Description Part number Unit price* Quantity Price*
ThinkPad T61 15 Widescreen - 1 Yr Depot Warranty
Edit 6459CTO $1,918.75 1 $1,918.75
System Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz 800MHz 4MBL2) 1
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate 1
Operating System Language: Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate US English 1
Display Panel: 15.4 WXGA TFT 1
System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB) 1
Total memory: 3 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) 1
Keyboards: Keyboard US English 1
Pointing Device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) 1
Hard Drive: 160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm 1
Optical device: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim 1
System expansion slots: PC Card Slot & Express Card Slot 1
Card Reader: 4 in 1 Media Card Reader 1
Wireless cards: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 1
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN 1
Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery 1
Power cord : Country Pack North America 1
Language Pack: Language Pack US English 1
Microsoft productivity application preload: Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 - English 1

[mpimping]

4 gigs would be too expensive through dell

[mpimping]

get a sager

[SpecC]

i suggest you get a refurbished macbook then. with an upgrade in ram and if you have an external hard drive, you should have no problem with any bit of it really. If you really wanted to, you could run boot camp on it then install windows

this'll probably cost you around 1000 dollars without the external hard drive when you're done

[TurboFan]

Originally Posted by MoreCowbell

is 4gb of ram overkill? What about the video card?

Also...when I look on Dell, some processors have 4mb Cache instead of 2mb...does this matter?

4GB is nice, but not all platforms can use it.

Check out this website to compare processors:http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_20...=882&chart=442

For what you do, you probably don't need the cutting edge machine. If you're doing heavy 3D gaming, you'll need a ball-buster processor. For what you've described, you'll be happier putting the money in RAM to handle the OS.

Check out Lenovo and Toshiba brands. I'm not sure I'd go with Dell. I've had many of them, but only because my job has always had Dell. I get a new laptop every couple years. When I have to buy my own, it won't be a Dell.

[sinnet112]

Is there any reason why you don't want to run Boot Camp on the Mac? It's been tested to run as well if not better than a PC with the same specs. The MBP can also be upgraded to 4GB of RAM as well for quite cheap (www.crucial.com). Just a thought, it'll save you quite a bit of money.

[MoreCowbell]

Originally Posted by shpuntik

Hey man, I think this is the perfect solution for you:

Description Part number Unit price* Quantity Price*
ThinkPad T61 15 Widescreen - 1 Yr Depot Warranty
Edit 6459CTO $1,918.75 1 $1,918.75
System Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz 800MHz 4MBL2) 1
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate 1
Operating System Language: Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate US English 1
Display Panel: 15.4 WXGA TFT 1
System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB) 1
Total memory: 3 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM) 1
Keyboards: Keyboard US English 1
Pointing Device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) 1
Hard Drive: 160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm 1
Optical device: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim 1
System expansion slots: PC Card Slot & Express Card Slot 1
Card Reader: 4 in 1 Media Card Reader 1
Wireless cards: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 1
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN 1
Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery 1
Power cord : Country Pack North America 1
Language Pack: Language Pack US English 1
Microsoft productivity application preload: Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 - English 1

Seems pretty good...only shsortcomings I see...

-3gb instead of 4gb...don't want odd number.
-Doesn't support draft N?
-Graphics card only 128m...but does this matter?

[Dmitriy@AUTOcouture]

Originally Posted by MoreCowbell

Seems pretty good...only shsortcomings I see...

-3gb instead of 4gb...don't want odd number.
-Doesn't support draft N?
-Graphics card only 128m...but does this matter?

GO HERE and select the line that you want, afterwards you can configure it to your specs.

I think you should be OK with a 128mb card, its only Windows Vista; you're not going to be using CAD to draw up a new design for the E92, are you?

Boozin Friday?