I know quite a few of you have been through the process of shopping for laptops. So does anyone have any recommendations for where to get a good deal on a laptop? Here's kinda what I'm looking for:
P4 3.0Ghz w/HT
15.4" widescreen LCD
756MB - 1GB of 333mhz+ memory
60GB HDD
64 - 128mb Video Card
whatever sound
12 cell lithium battery
CD-RW/DVD ROM
I don't care about built in wireless, I already have a 54G PCMCIA card. And I obviously don't care about included software, why would I wanna pay for that? I've looked on Dell, HP, CircuitCity, Fry's, and best buys websites and HP has the best deal so far. All that stuff for ~$1500. Any other ideas?
compact digital computing device shopping
Moderator: enderzero
I don't know, because I've never priced them, and don't really like the whole disposable computer idea, but I do know one thing that may be of interest. I think ATI, either released, or is about to release the Mobility 9800 Pro. Quite a nice graphics chip for a mobile. You may want to see what books like that cost. I have seen some people talking about reasonably priced Athlon 64 notebooks on some forums though, come to think of it. I don't know what the battery life would be like using a CPU like that though.
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enderzero
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First, Athlon mobile CPUs have always been the bottom of the barrel. Heat, power and chipset problems have lead to major performance issues when compared to their desktop line. I have not read any reviews of the A64 notebooks, but this has been the case up to that line.
It seems like the one thing in those specs that will really limit your options is the 16x9 screen. Are you set on this? It will just make for a larger notebook and send the price way up. If you go with an ol fashioned 4x3 you shold be able to get more bang for your buck and have a hell of lot broader of options.
You found that already for $1500? So where is the damn link? That system for $1500 is a pretty damn good deal.
The other main thing to think about when buying a notebook is the size. A "desktop replacement" notebook will cost you a lot less but it will weigh a ton and be 4 inches thick. Is that what you want? On the other side, a slim bodied notbook will be underpowered, run extra hot, and get poorer battery life. The key is to find the happy median. That is why I ended up shelling out the big bux for my notebook over two years ago. There was just almost nothing on the market that had the power and features I wanted in a slim-medium sized form factor.　The　Acer was the answer. Now it seems a great deal more manufacturers are clued in and making medium to high powered and feature filled systems in a book that won't wear your shoulder out lugging it around.
It seems like the one thing in those specs that will really limit your options is the 16x9 screen. Are you set on this? It will just make for a larger notebook and send the price way up. If you go with an ol fashioned 4x3 you shold be able to get more bang for your buck and have a hell of lot broader of options.
You found that already for $1500? So where is the damn link? That system for $1500 is a pretty damn good deal.
The other main thing to think about when buying a notebook is the size. A "desktop replacement" notebook will cost you a lot less but it will weigh a ton and be 4 inches thick. Is that what you want? On the other side, a slim bodied notbook will be underpowered, run extra hot, and get poorer battery life. The key is to find the happy median. That is why I ended up shelling out the big bux for my notebook over two years ago. There was just almost nothing on the market that had the power and features I wanted in a slim-medium sized form factor.　The　Acer was the answer. Now it seems a great deal more manufacturers are clued in and making medium to high powered and feature filled systems in a book that won't wear your shoulder out lugging it around.
Yeah, it seems like the best deal so far. There are a couple comparable deals at circuit city, but I was hoping someone knew of a not so well known online website that has smashing good deals. I can't link to the results of laptop I built online, but if you go to www.hp.com and customize a zx5000 series notebook with those specs, this is what you'll get:
The widescreen doesn't really seem to add much to the price unless you're thinking about going 17". HP, for example, offers it as a free upgrade. The prices in stores aren't much different either. And the 15" widescreen is pretty much the same size as the 4:3 15", so I figured what the hell, it looks nice.
As far as form factor goes, I couldn't care less how thick or heavy it is. If 9-10 lbs means a ton in notebook speak, I'm sure I can handle it when I lift it from its case to the table. I figure more wight means more power. If I could fold up charlyne, I'd take it everywhere I go.
J3RK, what's your opinion on HyperThreading? One area that it seems I could save a few bucks is stepping down the processor a few hertz and loosing the hyperthreading feature. I've had HT for the last couple years on my desktop, so I'm used to it and I forget what life without it was like. Does it really produce that much of a boost in performance? I'm not talking games, I'm talking basic windows application and development software usage. Is that something I should invest a few dollars in to keep or am I just paying for a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo?
The widescreen doesn't really seem to add much to the price unless you're thinking about going 17". HP, for example, offers it as a free upgrade. The prices in stores aren't much different either. And the 15" widescreen is pretty much the same size as the 4:3 15", so I figured what the hell, it looks nice.
As far as form factor goes, I couldn't care less how thick or heavy it is. If 9-10 lbs means a ton in notebook speak, I'm sure I can handle it when I lift it from its case to the table. I figure more wight means more power. If I could fold up charlyne, I'd take it everywhere I go.
J3RK, what's your opinion on HyperThreading? One area that it seems I could save a few bucks is stepping down the processor a few hertz and loosing the hyperthreading feature. I've had HT for the last couple years on my desktop, so I'm used to it and I forget what life without it was like. Does it really produce that much of a boost in performance? I'm not talking games, I'm talking basic windows application and development software usage. Is that something I should invest a few dollars in to keep or am I just paying for a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo?
I'm thinking you'd see the biggest increase in the things you mentioned. Any multithreaded application that isn't using extended portion of the CPU should benefit a lot. That means things like graphics apps, developement apps etc. that aren't using SSE and MMX and all that, but are using multiple threads. That portion of the CPU if not being used, acts as a second proc. I don't know what percentages you'd see though. I've never read any benchmarks. Like McNevin and Fastwrites, once I get a feature, I won't go back, even if it doesn't make a difference. 
3nder: I'm running an Athlon 64 3000+ notebook here at work, and it doesn't seem hot, unstable, and when I've left it unplugged, it seemed to last quite a long time. (Not that it would be drawing much power when it is just sitting around, but still,) it definitely seems to be ok. I'm going to say that Intel is probably better in those departments, but this A64 notebook is FAST.
I remember quite well the problems of the old Athlon notebooks. What a frixing joke!
3nder: I'm running an Athlon 64 3000+ notebook here at work, and it doesn't seem hot, unstable, and when I've left it unplugged, it seemed to last quite a long time. (Not that it would be drawing much power when it is just sitting around, but still,) it definitely seems to be ok. I'm going to say that Intel is probably better in those departments, but this A64 notebook is FAST.
I remember quite well the problems of the old Athlon notebooks. What a frixing joke!
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enderzero
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It looks good, but I don't see what your attraction is to the wide screen. You know it is measured corner to corner right? 1280x800 (called WXGA for you curious ne'er do wells - I've always wanted a table like this. I'll be happy when I have a QUXGA LCD) isn't really that good. An SXGA+ (1400x1050) is the way to go. I loooove that resolution. Get a 15" screen with that and you will get 30% more screen real estate and more options for brands in a smaller package. Also, splurge and shell out for the extra warranty (at least up to 2 years). If shit breaks (I had a shift key break) its not exactly like you can fix it yourself and you will get raped for service from the manufacturer.
J3rk - It warms my heart to hear AMD has fixed their mobile problems. I know the AthlonXP Mobile CPUs were actually pretty good. They just had absoltely shitty Chipset and MB support and ended up only in the bottom of the line models performing poorly. Is the A64 Mobile technology very different from the desktop line? How do they combat the huge power draw of that processor?
J3rk - It warms my heart to hear AMD has fixed their mobile problems. I know the AthlonXP Mobile CPUs were actually pretty good. They just had absoltely shitty Chipset and MB support and ended up only in the bottom of the line models performing poorly. Is the A64 Mobile technology very different from the desktop line? How do they combat the huge power draw of that processor?
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FunkyMonkey
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I imagine it's a mobile model or something. They use the standard heatpipe cooler.
As far as anything that can take advantage. Not much. They are super fast for X86 stuff, so that's how most people use them. There is a beta of 64 bit Windows, but it's not really coming out for a long time. I think there is a 64 bit patch for UT2004. I don't know what apps use it.
Other than that, I don't know much about them. I have a few systems at work, including that notebook, and they are all fast and stable. I haven't really taken the time to read about or investigate them much. I only run X86 Windows on them.
As far as anything that can take advantage. Not much. They are super fast for X86 stuff, so that's how most people use them. There is a beta of 64 bit Windows, but it's not really coming out for a long time. I think there is a 64 bit patch for UT2004. I don't know what apps use it.
Other than that, I don't know much about them. I have a few systems at work, including that notebook, and they are all fast and stable. I haven't really taken the time to read about or investigate them much. I only run X86 Windows on them.
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spidermonkey
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