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Does this sound reasonable? (Sorry to bother again!)

post #1 of 12
8/4/04 at 8:47pm
Thread Starter 
Briefly, I need a laptop for college. My requirements are mainly typing notes and a couple old games. My concern is that I may eventually want to use future games. Also, I dont have a lot of money.. (I dont want to spend more than $1300 shipped.)

So I'm thinking like this. I'll get a cl56 or 1557gl, but instead of putting in a new 1.7ghz processor for $300, instead I'll put in a used 1.4ghz processor from ebay for like $60 which will for sure last me until next summer when I'll have the money to uprade to a 2.2 or 2.4 or whatever the cheap processor is then. Also, I'll only get 512 mb of ram now and add the other 512 next summer. Same goes for a wifi card and a big fast hard drive (I'll get a 4200rpm 30gb hdd now off ebay ($40) and then next summer upgrade to a 7200rpm 60gb drive) and an external DVD drive.

How does this sound (the total cost should be well within my price range), and does anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks in advance!
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post #2 of 12
8/4/04 at 8:55pm
www.rjtech.com
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post #3 of 12
8/5/04 at 1:15am
Thread Starter 
Anyone else?

Thanks in advance!
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post #4 of 12
8/5/04 at 1:19am
You might as well try & find a 5400rpm hard drive right off the bat, that will be your single biggest performance barrier.. the cpu & mem will make a difference but a 5400 over a 4200 will be the difference between desperately hanging out for next year when you upgrade and sitting comfortably until the prices drop sufficiently..
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post #5 of 12
8/5/04 at 1:29am
Thread Starter 
Thanks alot! Thats the advise I'm looking for!

Anyone else have input?
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post #6 of 12
8/5/04 at 2:19am
Thread Starter 
Also what parts should I be looking for?

In other words, what type of RAM? Is any SO-DIMM ok?

What type of hard drive? Is any 9.4mm ok? And will I need to buy a special mount. (Assuming that I'll be building a compal cl56)

And what type of CPU? Is any Pentium M ok? Does it have to have 1mb of l2 cache of can I get one of those 512kb/256kb ones? (Of course I'm getting one with 1mb; I'm just curious about this.) And whats the highest the cl56 will support? Will it support every Dothan chip that will come out?

Thanks alot in advance again!
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post #7 of 12
8/5/04 at 3:57am
well since no ones answering yet..
I think ram has to be 200-pin sodimm (ddr 2700 highest) and only supports up to 2.0 ghz dothan =_=
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post #8 of 12
8/5/04 at 4:38am
You can find PC-3200 200-pin SODIMMs. Kingston, Corsair, Kingmax all produce it.

You won't need to buy a mounting kit for the hard drive, but if you're buying the barebones CL56 you'll need to buy a frame-thing for the optical drive - unless you buy the optical drive from rjtech along with the machine. Any 9.5mm (2.5") HDD will work fine.

Any P-M will work fine, they go down to 1.0Ghz for a ULV chip though you're probab;y not saving any money there. 1.3Ghz might be available somewhere. As long as it's a Dothan it'll work with that chipset but the Dothan isn't likely to go much higher than where it is now (maybe another .2-.3Ghz) before it's replaced by the next iteration & the Alviso chipset..
Not sure about the 256k/512k ones - haven't seen anything about them.
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post #9 of 12
8/5/04 at 4:44am
I think you should build it now how you want it (now). Next summer you aint gonna be looking at upgrading, you're going to be looking for a new laptop. There's going to be way too much cool new stuff. As the above poster said, the highest this series of Dothans may go is 2.0. The next batch are going to be 533fsb and incompatible with the current cl56 or 1557. There was word of maybe getting a 2.1something but who knows. Build yourself a nice 1.7 and enjoy it for a couple of years.
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post #10 of 12
8/5/04 at 8:34am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the help guys; keep it coming!

About me not wanting to upgrade next summer, I dont think you're correct. As much as there will be new toys, I wont have the money to buy a whole new laptop. But I think I will be happy with an upgrade to my currect one of 600mhz (1ghz if you count the 1.7 multiplier) and 512mb of ram and a faster hard drive. That will make a big difference next summer.

Even if my computer will be OLD technology, i will be sufficient.
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post #11 of 12
8/5/04 at 1:03pm
When will the new chip come out? I swear they'll price at $500+...
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post #12 of 12
8/6/04 at 3:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by a13antichrist
You can find PC-3200 200-pin SODIMMs. Kingston, Corsair, Kingmax all produce it.
oops.. I didn't know CL56 fully supports pc3200..
I thought only 2700?
I dunno
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