Please Recommend A Laptop.

[nadskit]

oh i forgot we only buy low spec machines from softlogic.DELL servers n laptops r bought from singapore cos they'r half the price...n that is no exaggeration...

Even we do the same shaks...

[alfaQ]

well Dilesh, laptops in sigapore are not as cheap as they used to be. in fact all electronics in sing have gone up in prices! i visited sing and malaysia a few backs back. laptops in malaysia are very very cheap.

my bro bought himself an acer, 1.7 duo core centrino processor, 512 ram (upgradable), blue tooth, wifi and infared enabled and i dunno wht else. it was a 15" tho. cost me 110k with international warranty from acer. i thought it was a pretty decent laptop for ur basic needs.

im considering one as well, but i'll most probably go for a toshiba and i will most probably buy it from malaysia as well, there are some good deal over there. i dunno how the prices will be in the US but i belive u will be able to get a decent deal there as well as sharkster mentioned. all the best!

[The Don]

Hi Guys,

I am usually reluctant to comment on automotive matters because I am no expert, but laptops, I am probably not an expert but I know a thing or two about them,

If you want performance from a Laptop there most important things to consider in laptops are HDD speed and memory, because those 2 are what lets laptops down most. Most Laptops come with 4200RPM HDD's and you really feel the difference if you are used to a desktop. You should atleast get a 5400 RPM HDD (The new seagate momentus I hear is quite good, gives performance pretty close to a standard 7200RPM Laptop HDD) or a 7200RPM HDD, which are sometimes included as standard equipment on IBM T Series Laptops (the newer ones T42 upwards). More memory means less swapping and since HDD performance is an issue in laptops this further aggrivates the problem and I suggest getting atleast 512MB Ram to run Windows XP and other applications used for photo editing.

Also I know this by practice, Laptops get shipped with all sorts of different factory applications for monitoring and whatever not that make them excessively slow. So the first thing you should do when you get your laptop from the manfacturer is use the operating system CD you get with it to reinstall the OS minus those applications, and then only install the applications you want (feel sorry for the guys who only get a restore CD), believe me the results can be mind blowing, and I am speaking with a lot of experience here.

Now about Laptop brands, every brand has pros and cons and I know people have their own preference. My own is for the Compaq business class laptops because I think they are pretty good laptops at a decent price. Infact undoubtedly (and I am supported by reviews in every single Computer magazine I read here) the most value for money Laptop out there is the Compaq NX6110, does not have enough 3D performance for gamers, but for office use exceptional keyboard, exceptional battery life and the price is very reasonable, sometimes as low as 1600 singapore dollars or 450 pounds for a Pentium M (centrino), which I think is an exceptional deal.

I currently use a Dell .... why cheap as chips, and I don't use the Laptop much so I don't need blistering performance or anything. I play games on a Xbox (that also very very very very rarely) so I am satisfied with that. But let me tell you something about Dell, Dell is a computer company who does not include a single new innovation in their products. If you look at their motherboards, they are all pretty close to the Intel reference design, the reason they can give you their computers for so less is because they spend very little on research and Development, and they use direct marketing and thus dont have to pay sales commissions. And Dell products suffer from build quality issues, not much of an issue with desktops but Laptops if you are planning on using one for a while it can be an issue, for example its usually the hinges that crack away first, touch pad buttons keyboards etc, though I must say can't fault the electronics, though I do know older Dell screens have a relatively high tendency to suffer backlight faliures, and faliures of the slim ribbon cable that connect the VGA card to the screen.

IBM stopped their PC business earlier this year, and most of the business has been taken over by Lenovo, but I don't know if you have noticed but most IBM's we were getting were probably made by Lenovo in the first place (because its all made in china) while IBM was providing the technology and doing the research. And what I am about to tell you is fact. No other Laptop manufacturer has provided more inovation in the Laptop industry than IBM, they were the first to introduce colour screens, first to fit a full size keyboard on a laptop, came up with the track point, and I think are also the first to integrate fingerprint security to laptops. Their laptops also have a technology to protect data on HDD's in case of faliures, cos the laptops senses it is in the process of falling down and braces for impact, good stuff all arround. And anybody who has used an IBM will tell you they aren't pretty, but sure as hell sturdy and duarable, so if you can afford one, and dont give much for bells and whistles and Looks IBM's are a sure choice.

I also think Toshiba and Fujitsu and even Acer make pretty good laptops,

Also when chosing a laptop and when it comes to choosing a processong, you can get ones with mobile processors and then ones which are called desktop replacements, which have bigger screens, bigger keyboards, and sometimes even use desktop processors, they are sometimes a bit cheaper compared to their mobile counterparts, and are ideal if you are only going to be mobile very rarely.

Also the new Pentium M processors are known to outperform their desktop counter parts as Fuzzo will tell you and thus are certainly the way to go. The AMD desktop processors always have a lot of respect from me, but their current Turion and Sempron range suffer from the lack of a good motherboard chipset which seems to inhibit their performance, so if you are a AMD fan, better wait and see if VIA or somebody comes up with a better motherboard chipset, cos they don't do very well against the Pentium M's on benchmarks atleast, of course i might be a bit out of date,

hope this info helps everybody,

The Don

[Duncan]

Hi guys

Thanks so very much for all the replies. It has been quite useful and now I need to do some shopping around and come up with something ideal for my needs as well as my pocket.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks once again everyone !!!

Cheers

[milinda]

hey guys,

i too am looking for a laptop/notebook (btw, is there a difference between the 2) for when i start Uni i'll need one....

i can buy one form S'pore when i get there or i can get one from the US (going on holiday there).. where would it be cheaper?

from what you guys say i guess DELL would be the best brand to go for... i'm looking for a laptop which i will hopefully be using for the next 4 years.... not lookt looking for hiend but a little above average.....

can someone recomenr some specs for a machine.... speed, ram, vga etc

and how would a international warently work out.. i'll be using it in S'pore 90% of the time though...

thanks!

I hereby officially declare DILESH as the Master Hi-Jacker of threads in Auto lanka.

No offence.Peace

[Watchman]

I hereby officially declare DILESH as the Master Hi-Jacker of threads in Auto lanka.

No offence.Peace

ya true...

i jacked 2 threads in the past 2 days... yesterday the RAM thread and today this... but all in fairness, todays jacking was as much help to duncan as it is to me :P

[Hola]

Guys, I opened up this thread again for your opinon on lap tops...

My Budget is below 100,000. And I got two which caught my intrest. One was a HP which is sold for 80,000 with a 1.5 celeron procesor , 256 ram, 40GB HDD.

And there is a Acer for the same price with a 1.7 procesor and all other specs are same as the HP. (Sorry cant type the model names/numbers).

My question is, will HP be better than Acer?

[Elvis_Pil]

Hp is waaaay better than Acer. Our office had a lot of issues with the Acer machines. But if your comparing a HP celeron with Acer Pentium- I'd say Acer all the way. Celeron is crap(sorry fuzzo) Mine keeps getting stuck and over heating.

Edited September 5, 2006 by Pilawoos

[Hola]

Acer cant be Pentium machang. The least pentium they have is 145k.

Is the Centrino processor good or is it Celeron in another name becuase there is a Centrino Processor Acer at 112k

[Elvis_Pil]

I think Centrino is the mobile version for Intel chips.. It's got certain wireless capabilities.

No the Acers are cheap 112k must be the price of the narrow screen 1.6 processor

[GihanFX]

HP is better than Acer

Bt im a Big Acer Ferrari Fan ooops only the Design those Amd cpus's Sucks

New Acer Ferrari 4000 & 4005WLMi

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1733

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2476

[fuzzo]

hola... if the processor int he acer is a pentium 4... go for it. also check if the processor is a pentium m (m for mobile) or you may have heating issues later on. If it's not an m, that means they are using a normal desktop processor.

you can get pentium m processors for below 100K if you go with assembled notebooks.

[Hola]

Hi Fuzzo,

Machang, the Acer which i had mentioned was not a Pentium as it was just 80,000 bucks. You had adviced to use assembeled laptops but i thought the assembeled scenario is best recomended for desktop Pcs as notebooks are very delicate and it some how got to be branded.

[sharkster]

hola brand new laptops cannot be that cheap unless it comes with a MS Dos operating system...check the spec and post it here...

Edited September 5, 2006 by sharkster

[fuzzo]

it's actually faster and easier to assemble notebooks these days.you just have to plug in the processor, ram hard disk and battery. i maybe missing another part but all the other stuff comes pre assembled from the supplier. they are called barebones.

a few dealers in SL are selling these. plus like shak said, buy it with dos, then u save more money

[Hola]

hola brand new laptops cannot be that cheap unless it comes with a MS Dos operating system...check the spec and post it here...

Yeah machang, the quatation said it was MS DOS but they said they will load up Windows XP for me. And since the guys who offred me is a well reputed PC/printer company i am sure they will use a licened copy. I am talking about the HP not the Acer. The guys who offred the Acer are just a commercialized PC retail chain who got many branches in Sri Lanka though but still it doesnt have the good will like the compnay who offred me the HP.

Here is the link for the HP

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product...ng=en&cc=us

The appearence doesnt look good, but the PC fits my budget.. I just want it to use Internet,MS Office, Emails,SAP. I wont be doing programming and heavy stuff. I will be using 7.30am to 10pm (not non stop) and 7days a week. Hope HP will hold on

Edited September 5, 2006 by Hola

[The Don]

Hola,

If you are not gonna do a lot of stuff with your laptop a celeron m should be more than sufficient for your needs, even i use a Dell 1.5 celeron laptop which i only use for demos and have a more powerful work station for my proper work,

Acers represent very good value for money, and so does the HP 611* series they are supposed to be very well built. In singapore I think I saw a pentium M HP 6110 for about 450 pounds (sorry i always remember prices in pounds) which puts it arrond 90K SLR, i dunno how much they sell it in SL for,

also Hola a bit extra memory is a better investment than a faster processor to get better performance, if you are not gonna be using it for processor intensive tasks,

Also reinstall the operating system when you get the laptop and dont install all the apps that come with it cos they tend to slow the laptop down unnecessarily,

hope this helps

The Don

[Hola]

It sure does...I heard laptops are very cheap outside the country but wondering how when the goverment has not put up VAT or import tax on PC materials. You are right on the RAM, a RAM upgrade is only 5000 more. I will anyway stroll around MC and Unity before i make a final decison. Thanks Guys!

[nira74]

Guys, I opened up this thread again for your opinon on lap tops...

My Budget is below 100,000. And I got two which caught my intrest. One was a HP which is sold for 80,000 with a 1.5 celeron procesor , 256 ram, 40GB HDD.

And there is a Acer for the same price with a 1.7 procesor and all other specs are same as the HP. (Sorry cant type the model names/numbers).

My question is, will HP be better than Acer?

Hi,

There is also a Toshiba with a 1.6 Celeron and same specs as the other two for just less than 80k.

Plus local agents offer an interest free installment payment option through their credit cards.

[ruwds]

Yeah machang, the quatation said it was MS DOS but they said they will load up Windows XP for me. And since the guys who offred me is a well reputed PC/printer company i am sure they will use a licened copy. I am talking about the HP not the Acer. The guys who offred the Acer are just a commercialized PC retail chain who got many branches in Sri Lanka though but still it doesnt have the good will like the compnay who offred me the HP.

Here is the link for the HP

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product...ng=en&cc=us

The appearence doesnt look good, but the PC fits my budget.. I just want it to use Internet,MS Office, Emails,SAP. I wont be doing programming and heavy stuff. I will be using 7.30am to 10pm (not non stop) and 7days a week. Hope HP will hold on

hi,

the one u are looking at is a compaq presario series but currently compaq is owned by HP so its ok.

my laptop is a compaq presario m2000 series (m2215) wth 1.4Ghz celeron. bought is from a popular PC dealer in SL and it did come wth only MS-DOS. The price (one yr ago) was 94,000/=. They tld that they can put win xp but i took the machine wthout an OS. it came wth 256MB RAM, 40GB hard, internal wireless card, dvd/cd-rw, 64MB shared VGA...

just within a week the display got a problem and so got them to replace the laptop. After that the second one has no prob so far.

about 3 months back added a 512MB ram (total 768MB) cos the system was running quite slow and now its ok. got a vga increase also to 128MB shared.

I use the machine mostly for internet, chat wth voice, MS Office ,c programming, downloading and games as well. It is on for 10-15 hours per day and is fine. no heating issues though temp of cpu is 50-60C and hard drive is 45-48C. (mine can even handle nfs most wanted )

i think a celeron is quite ok as ur not lookin into use it for demanding applications.

Edited September 6, 2006 by ruwds

[Hola]

Guys,

Here is the spec of the 80k ACER (Acer TM 2441 NWXCi Notebook ). Compared to the HP which is on offer at 80k this got blue tooth

CPU : Intel P Celeron 1.46GHz (1.46GHZ, 1MB, 533FSB)

Intel 915 Chipset

Memory : Dual-Channel 256MB DDR2 400 RAM

Hard Drive : 60GB

Optical Drive : Combo (DVD+CD-RW)

Display Size : 14 "WXGA TFT LCD 1024 X 768, 16.7 M colors

Graphics : Intel 915PM

I/O Ports : 1Card Bus type II slot, 1xRJ45 for Ethernet, 1x RJ11 for modem, 1 XFIR, VGA, 3xUSB 2.0 port,1 X IEEE 1394 port, S-Video TV out,1X microphone,1 X Headphone/ speaker /line out jack.

Commu : Integrated Intel Wireless Pro 2200 network connection 802.11b+g 56Kbps ITU V.92 data fax Software modem (PTT approval) 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet, wake-on-LAN ready, Wireless LAN, Audio system with built-in speakers, MS-Sound compatible, Built-in microphone, Bluetooth

[noaim]

Guys,

Here is the spec of the 80k ACER (Acer TM 2441 NWXCi Notebook ). Compared to the HP which is on offer at 80k this got blue tooth

CPU : Intel P Celeron 1.46GHz (1.46GHZ, 1MB, 533FSB)

Intel 915 Chipset

Memory : Dual-Channel 256MB DDR2 400 RAM

Hard Drive : 60GB

Optical Drive : Combo (DVD+CD-RW)

Display Size : 14 "WXGA TFT LCD 1024 X 768, 16.7 M colors

Graphics : Intel 915PM

I/O Ports : 1Card Bus type II slot, 1xRJ45 for Ethernet, 1x RJ11 for modem, 1 XFIR, VGA, 3xUSB 2.0 port,1 X IEEE 1394 port, S-Video TV out,1X microphone,1 X Headphone/ speaker /line out jack.

Commu : Integrated Intel Wireless Pro 2200 network connection 802.11b+g 56Kbps ITU V.92 data fax Software modem (PTT approval) 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet, wake-on-LAN ready, Wireless LAN, Audio system with built-in speakers, MS-Sound compatible, Built-in microphone, Bluetooth

For 80K, very attractive...

[Hola]

Yeah very attractive. But to see lot of guys in this thread is pushing for a HP

[The Don]

Hola,

If you have any friends going Singapore way, you might be able to get it a bit cheaper, problem is warranty I guess, Acer in Britain is a very good buy simply cos it offers one of the best extended warranties in the business that covers accidental damage as well,

The Secret for keeping a laptop going for long is to limit the number of times you open and close it, and if possible use a mouse in the place of the touch pad since its the hinges and the touchpad buttons which tend to go first, and also power cycle your battery regularly (from full charge to zero). My personal experiences with Acer is quite positive.

Check on the after sales service, and see if the agents would honour the warranty, I remember Compaq agents as being the best in tackling warranty claims in the form of megadynamics and DMS, and I dunno how the situation is now (and they did use to honour the international warranty) check this cos unlike desktops no bob or harry can fix problems that arise with laptops, and make your final decision based upon that also,

this is my own opinion but personally I would have expected a Celeron 1.5 processor, and a DVDRW for that price though, the pity is even with UK VAT you could have had that and maybe with a Pentium M processor for that money over here (my company just bought a few Acer TM's for work with Pentium M 1.7 processors 512MB Ram 60GB disk DVD RW for £370 each excluding VAT cos as a company we dont need to pay VAT for our own purchases)

The Don

[ruwds]

Guys,

Here is the spec of the 80k ACER (Acer TM 2441 NWXCi Notebook ). Compared to the HP which is on offer at 80k this got blue tooth

CPU : Intel P Celeron 1.46GHz (1.46GHZ, 1MB, 533FSB)

Intel 915 Chipset

Memory : Dual-Channel 256MB DDR2 400 RAM

Hard Drive : 60GB

Optical Drive : Combo (DVD+CD-RW)

Display Size : 14 "WXGA TFT LCD 1024 X 768, 16.7 M colors

Graphics : Intel 915PM

I/O Ports : 1Card Bus type II slot, 1xRJ45 for Ethernet, 1x RJ11 for modem, 1 XFIR, VGA, 3xUSB 2.0 port,1 X IEEE 1394 port, S-Video TV out,1X microphone,1 X Headphone/ speaker /line out jack.

Commu : Integrated Intel Wireless Pro 2200 network connection 802.11b+g 56Kbps ITU V.92 data fax Software modem (PTT approval) 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet, wake-on-LAN ready, Wireless LAN, Audio system with built-in speakers, MS-Sound compatible, Built-in microphone, Bluetooth

seems quite worth it. wht the specs for the hp one? can u post it in this format plz.