Pick me a laptop! :)

[PCBrandon]

Hi everyone, I hope you all are having a good night!

I've been browsing these forums for a while and have gathered some information on the different manufactures when it comes to laptops. I'm pretty much set on a Dell, even though I would never buy a desktop from them. I work at my school in the IT department and have had to call in a dozen or so Dell desktops for replacement parts and the customer service was extremely good. I don't see the problem if you know what to say, "I KNOW it's the Power Supply, OK?!" (Ironically I actually have had to call in a good portion of dead PSUs; thankfully they haven't taken anything else out with them).


Anyways, on to the point: which laptop would you recommend from Dell? I am open to other brands except for Alienware or Compaq. I am also trying to steer away from Acer, even though I hear they make decent laptops.


I would use the laptop for web & graphic design, programming, etc. and the normal daily activities such as word processing and web surfing. I do play light games, such as Medal of Honor and possibly Call of Duty 2 in the future. My desktop handles Medal of Honor well with an ATI Radeon 9800pro w/ 1 Gig DDR PC-2700 memory.


I would prefer the laptop to have a decent battery lifespan, so I hear the Intel Pentium M processors are good for that? I don't really care much about the weight, as long as it is manageable. I'd like for the screen size to be at least 15.4" (whatever the viewable area is on a 17" CRT). I would also like for it to have a wireless card and an onboard ethernet port.


I'd like to keep it as cheap as I can. Hopefully around $1200, but if you find a good deal just tell me, I might end up buying a $2000 laptop.

I might look into paying for it with monthly payments. What do you all think about this? I'm about to go into college and I want to get a feel of having to spend time managing bills before I go into the "real world".


Thanks for your help in advance,
Brandon

[Jaggannath]

Wait for a deal on the Inspiron 9300, it sounds like the best fit for your requirements. I would also suggest the Inspiron 6000, but I'm pretty sure it only comes with a rubbish video card, if not have a look at that also. Most of the other Dells don't fit the bill, including the XPS, which has poor battery life. Have you considered Sager??

[PCBrandon]

The 9300 looks good. The basic build:

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X300 64MB HyperMemory™
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)


Which adds up to $1,518. I have a few questions:

1. There is a 9-cell Lithium Ion Battery as an optional upgrade for an additional $99. What is the difference between the 6 cell and the 9 cell? Longer battery life? How much more and is it worth the extra $99?

2. Is that graphics card good for playing Medal of Honor and Call of Duty? Maybe just Medal of Honor? Also, it says 64MB HyperMemory, what is HyperMemory?? Also, for $49 more bucks I can upgrade the card to:
128MB ATIs™ Mobility Radeon™ X300
is it worth it and would I need it?

3. The internal wireless - what does the (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps) part mean? Each of those numbers and letters, what are they for?


Also - you said wait for a deal. Do you think they might knock a few hundred off for a Holiday sale or something? I also saw a website that had a bunch of cupons for Dell systems, do you know that website URL and if they have offers for the 9300?


Thanks for the help!

[yeoamuca]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1125464966640
im looking at getting that
it seems like a really good deal
and i trust gateways we use them all the time and dont have many problems with them (over 2000 computers)
its just whether or not you want an amd processor or not

[PCBrandon]

Yeah - I'm going to go by the local Best Buy's and Circuit City and stuff and see if I can find a good deal before I purchase directly through Dell.

[786ARS]

have you concidered a toshiba?

[786ARS]

like a qosmio

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCBrandon 1. There is a 9-cell Lithium Ion Battery as an optional upgrade for an additional $99. What is the difference between the 6 cell and the 9 cell? Longer battery life? How much more and is it worth the extra $99?

From what I gather, battery life is about 2 hours with the 6-cell and about 4 hours with the 9-cell. However, if you're not using a percentage-off coupon, it's actually more cost-effective to go with the 6-cell and buy a 9-cell battery off of eBay. If you are using a percentage-off coupon, I'd personally get the additional 9-cell instead of replacing the 6-cell with a 9-cell, because the additional one is only $30 more than upgrading the 6-cell to a 9-cell.

Originally Posted by PCBrandon 2. Is that graphics card good for playing Medal of Honor and Call of Duty? Maybe just Medal of Honor? Also, it says 64MB HyperMemory, what is HyperMemory?? Also, for $49 more bucks I can upgrade the card to: 128MB ATIs™ Mobility Radeon™ X300 is it worth it and would I need it?

I wouldn't get either of those cards. The 9300 is offered with the GeForce Go 6800 card, which offers very good performance. It's more money, but significantly better for gaming (~4000 in 3DMark05, for example). Incidentally, this is the best card currently for a performance/battery life compromise -- anything more powerful reduces battery life considerably.

Originally Posted by PCBrandon 3. The internal wireless - what does the (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps) part mean? Each of those numbers and letters, what are they for?

WiFi has three different major versions at this point:

802.11b -- runs on the 2.4 GHz radio spectrum, and offers 11 megabits per second (Mbps -- standard wired Ethernet runs at 100 Mbps). This is the most common.

802.11g -- runs on the same spectrum as 802.11b, so it's backwards compatible, but uses better compression to give you 54 Mbps speed. This is generally considered the best standard in terms of range/speed.

802.11a -- runs on the 5 GHz spectrum, and offers 54 Mbps speed, but has much lower range because of the higher frequency. This is relatively rare.

You could get the PRO/Wireless 2200BG card, which drops the 802.11a support, and save a bit of money.

Originally Posted by PCBrandon Also - you said wait for a deal. Do you think they might knock a few hundred off for a Holiday sale or something? I also saw a website that had a bunch of cupons for Dell systems, do you know that website URL and if they have offers for the 9300?

http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/

Right now they have the following coupons (you enter them in once you add the laptop to your cart):

$250 off $999 on select Inspiron notebooks, limit 4000 uses: W0?L3T7SM8D?F$
$500 off $1499 on select Inspiron notebooks, limit 4000 uses: $9$R6HL08VG6S0
$750 off $1999 on select Inspiron notebooks, limit 4000 uses: P686ZD1$H759L9

All of them expire on December 8 in the early morning. Keep in mind that the $999, $1499, and $1999 are the regular price before any instant discounts, so if Dell is running, say, a $250 off Inspiron 9300 promotion, you would subtract the coupon amount from the crossed out price, not the price in red.

The $750 off $1999 coupon is the best one they've had for high-end laptops in a while. These are "dollars off" instead of "percentage off" coupons -- "percentage off" ones would take, say, 30% off $1999.

[PCBrandon]

With the 6800 and the 2200b Wireless card it ends up being $1,835 without any coupons. I don't really think I need a 6800 Go for Medal of Honor or Call of Duty 2 ... or less it is different for laptops? It might be good to get in case I want to play future games.

Here is the config:
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
Dell Nylon Deluxe Carrying Case
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
128MB ATIs™ Mobility Radeon™ X300
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)

For $1,685. Just a shot in the dark - can DDR memory from a PC be put into that laptop? I know it has the slot, but is laptop DDR the same as PC DDR?

Also, would it be worth going to Best Buy for a laptop? I think they actually have some pretty good deals right now for the Holidays. I wouldn't be able to config it myself but I might find something I need for a decent price.

For example, here is a decent computer for a good price (or so I think). I don't have much experience with Sony laptops - and the warranty only goes for a year as opposed to the 3yr Dell warranty. What do you think about Sony and the below laptop?

I notice it has a 4200 RPM HDD. Is that much slower than a 7200 RPM? Or is 4200 the usual for a laptop?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1125238765660

Also, what about HP laptops?

Thanks again,
Brandon

[rave]

seriously....i know you are trying to stay way from acer....but mine is perfect
give it some thought
bought mine for 4200 ringgit malaysian= $1000 USD

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCBrandon With the 6800 and the 2200b Wireless card it ends up being $1,835 without any coupons. I don't really think I need a 6800 Go for Medal of Honor or Call of Duty 2 ... or less it is different for laptops? It might be good to get in case I want to play future games. Here is the config: [snip] For $1,685.

You forgot about the coupon. I just configured the following:

Inspiron 9300
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
80GB 5400rpmHard Drive
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (53 WHr)
Dell Nylon Deluxe Carrying Case
3Yr Ltd Warr,At-Home Service,and Tech Support plus Nights and Weekends

Then I applied the $750 off $1999 coupon. Final price was $1300.

Originally Posted by PCBrandon Just a shot in the dark - can DDR memory from a PC be put into that laptop? I know it has the slot, but is laptop DDR the same as PC DDR?

Nope. Laptops have a different form factor. Also, the 9300 has DDR2, not regular DDR.

Originally Posted by PCBrandon Also, would it be worth going to Best Buy for a laptop? I think they actually have some pretty good deals right now for the Holidays. I wouldn't be able to config it myself but I might find something I need for a decent price. For example, here is a decent computer for a good price (or so I think). I don't have much experience with Sony laptops - and the warranty only goes for a year as opposed to the 3yr Dell warranty. What do you think about Sony and the below laptop? I notice it has a 4200 RPM HDD. Is that much slower than a 7200 RPM? Or is 4200 the usual for a laptop? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1125238765660

That's expensive. If you're looking at a 15.4" laptop, I'd get the Inspirion 6000. It only has an X300 card, but it's cheaper and has better service. Sonys are also not known for their reliabilty, and they are tough to fix when they do break.

As for hard drive speeds -- 4200 rpm is pretty slow, but I had a 540 rpm drive in my previous laptop and when I upgraded to this laptop with the 7200 rpm drive, I didn't notice a huge difference.

Originally Posted by PCBrandon Also, what about HP laptops?

Yuck. If you only listen to one thing I say, don't get an HP or Compaq.

[Staren]

For the needs you listed, I would look into the HP L2000. Ya I know there is some anti-HP bias out there, but the Lance Armstrong edition is a solid laptop. With the 12-cell, it will run around 6 hours on a full charge.

[PCBrandon]

I configured the laptop to how you had it and it came out to 2,100 before the coupon. I put in the coupon code but it still says 2,100 but says:

The following coupons have been entered but require additional information or do not meet eligibility requirements. Click "View Details" link(s) for more information.
Select Inspiron affiliate offer save $750 off $1999+ (Affiliate only)

When I click on the View Details link it pops up a blank window.

What does that mean?


Thanks!

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCBrandon I configured the laptop to how you had it and it came out to 2,100 before the coupon. I put in the coupon code but it still says 2,100 but says: The following coupons have been entered but require additional information or do not meet eligibility requirements. Click "View Details" link(s) for more information. Select Inspiron affiliate offer save $750 off $1999+ (Affiliate only) When I click on the View Details link it pops up a blank window. What does that mean?

I tried it just now and it worked fine for me. Are you shoppng in the Home division on Dell's USA site?

[PCBrandon]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone. I've been on AIM with thefultonhow for the past 20 minutes or so and have everything straightned out. Big thanks to him.


Brandon