Help:Looking for lappy

[TheTryHard]

I need a new laptop for school. I'm looking at thin and light mostly. I don't need something uber. Hdd is not really important. Needs good battery life. Here's some of the ones I like.

Acer
CPU Speed T7300 2.0GHz
Operating System Windows XP Professional
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics processor
Screen Size 14.1"
Resolution 1280 x 800
Display Type WXGA
Memory Size 1GB
HDD Capacity 160GB
Optical Drive Type DL DVD +- R/RW
Weight 5.6

Pros:thin/light, powerful cpu
Cons:hmm.. Need to add RAM


http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007323

Dell Vostro 1500
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Professional
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
160GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability, w/ Roxio Creator
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT


Pros:very nice specs for price of $999,
Cons:bigger than I wanted to go. Having a 8600 may distract me from learning:P Its fugly.

Apple MacBook
Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.0ghz
1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
TFT-LCD widescreen (1280 x 800) 13.3"
DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics processor
Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard

Pros:thinlight, uber sexy
Cons:price. Mac?

Offer up some advice, please. Any others you guys think I should consider?

[YO_MA_MA]

well i'll say i personally am not fond of macs at all. if you consider a mac, borrow a friends (if you can find one that owns a mac) laptop and see if you like it. also another critical thing to me is keyboard layout. i like mine because it has a full numberpad on the right side, but i hate it because the right shift key is tiny and the insert/delete and a few other keys are in weird spots (above backspace).

dell makes decent laptops, ill give them that, my friend has one and can go for a while without battery. mine (HP 17in, a little upgraded vid etc) goes for like 1.5 hours and needs plugged in, though i also hear HPs 15in (less upgrade) ones have a lot better battery life then mine.

best advice i can say is go to bestbuy/costco whatever and touch/feel them, defiantly try out the keyboard with everything u can do on it (homework *cough games*) and especial the touch pad omg they can be horrible!!!!!! a small item that means a lot, the ability to push a button and turn OFF the touch pad so you don't tap it with your thumb and really mess yourself up while typing etc.

those are my thoughts on laptops. other then that look at online reviews.

YO_MA_MA

[Silent-Er@sEr]

Dell Vostro 1500
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Professional
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
160GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability, w/ Roxio Creator
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT

thats the one i would shoot for

[superballz00]

Wow I never noticed the Dell Vostro 1500. I'm thinking about getting another laptop and giving my old one to my sis. I've been looking at the Dell Inspiron 1520 but that seems to be more expensive than the Vostro 1500 with the same specs. What gives? Oh yeah I think I have a HP 20% off coupon somewhere if you decide on a HP.

[YO_MA_MA]

Oh yeah I think I have a HP 20% off coupon somewhere if you decide on a HP. lol wish i knew you and knew that u had that before i bought mine.. would have saved a nice pretty penny.

[superballz00]

Well looks like they have a better deal going on than my 20% off coupon.

30% off $999 HP Pavilion Laptops coupon code NB3075

[YO_MA_MA]

and i have a Pavilion laptop.... damn i sux =P

[TheTryHard]

Well, I got one...

Sony Vaio FZ
15.4"
T7250 2ghz
2 gigs of memory
x3100 graphics :(
4200RPM 250HDD

Now, I wait for school to start...

[danlo]

ooh i got a vaio too. well 2, cuz i spilled water on my old one and it is broken...

when i was shopping for laptops the impression i got from Acers was that the screens were just terrible looking. Vaios don't have that problem at all and they seem to run very well. Just don't spill water on them :rip:

My laptop has an integrated graphics card which i didn't care about when i bought it but now i regret it because even though it has good specs, the gfx card brings it all down and i can't really play games.

The one you chose looks pretty nice.

[TheTryHard]

I've seen that article before. I'm not impressed. Prob expensive and you still gotta buy a pcie x16 card. I'd rather just use my desktop for graphically extensive games. CS 1.6 will play well on it(the lappy). I havn't played on it yet, but it should.

[TheTryHard]

So, I ran 3dmark06 on the new lappy. I scored a whopping 543 marks, lol.

Here's my desktop scoring 13k+.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4379023

[superballz00]

How much did you pay for it? Forgot to tell you that the dell XPS 1330 and 1530 were on sale. $700 off reg price plus another $200 using a coupon code. I got a XPS 1530 with a T7500, 3gig ram (only had option of 3 or 4gig), 8600gt DDR3, 250gig hdd, 85watt/hr battery, and 4yr nights/weekend in home service/warranty/accidental damage warranty for $1300. It was $1200 without tax. I went with the 4yrs warranty because it only cost me $10 since they give you a $70 gift card if you choose the 4yr plan. The XPS 1330 with the 8400M was under $1000.

BTW finally fully upgraded the PC at home. Mobo broke on it so I got to get a new gigabyte DS3L board, crucial ballistix ram, and 8600GT. The mobo finally allowed me to see what my E6600 could do. I have it running stable at 3.325ghz (7x475 4-4-4-9 timing on 2.1v) at 1.325v. Runs at 3.6ghz but not that stable. Prime only ran for 15mins before the first error popped up. I was really amazed by the ram though. Manufacture specs were 400mhz 4-4-4-12 timing at 2.2v or 5-5-5-18 timing at 1.8v but I somehow got 475mhz 4-4-4-9 timing at only 2.1v. I would have gotten a 3850 but since it was the fam PC I didn't think the extra $70 was worth it plus the 8600gt came with a lifetime warranty. The warranty might come in handy because load temp gets as high as 85C. Finally got a decent laptop to play CS only to find out my friend sold his CS account so I won't be playing CS until I buy a new account. Do they still sell CS at stores?

[TheTryHard]

My lappy cost $999

Glad to hear things are lucking up. I had a DS3R, same board as yor except the DS3R has onboard RAID. It did 500x7 with Ballistix RAM.

VisionTek has a lifetime warrenty. I believe that is the only ATI reference card maker with a lifetime warrenty.

[superballz00]

Aw then I should have gotten the 3850. Saw that it only had a 2yr warranty according to newegg so I didn't get it. Not sure if its my mobo or cpu because I tried running at 6x500 at up to 1.45v and 2.2v for the ram with 5-7-7-24 timing and it won't post. Ram is suppose to run at 500mhz with 5-5-5-18 timing at 2.2v. I even up the FBS by .2v and the chipset up by .2v as well but just can't get it to post at 500mhz. Even 485mhz is unstable.

[TheTryHard]

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/254734-gigabyte-ga-p35-ds3l-thread.html

Read through that.

On another note. I wish I would have keep my DS3R. I got a p5e, because I thought I was going to get another 3870. I seriously doubt that now. I can only run my p5e at 8x425, with a quad. *Me sad*

[Silent-Er@sEr]

cs is sold in the steampowered store for like 10$ i think