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Help me selecting a laptop....

post #1 of 17
6/23/05 at 11:22am
Thread Starter 
I'm interested to buy a new laptop. My requirements are:

17" Wide screen
P4 2.8GHz +
1GB RAM
80GB + Harddisk
min. 4 hours battery life

I've short listed to HP ZD8000 series and have customized it and it'll cost me < $1500. Is it a good deal? Can I get better model? How is HP ZD series? How is the battery life? Please suggest me whether it's a good buy or if there is some other better buy for the above requirements. Also where can I get a detailed review on HP models?
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post #2 of 17
6/23/05 at 11:28am
P4 processors are not very good for laptops because they get VERY HOt to the point where it shuts down automaticly.. they drain a lot of power.. you might want to look into a mobile processor such as a Pentium M the processor in the heavily advertised Centrino technology or the AMD turion mobile processor brand new from AMD..
the Centrino at 1.8ghz is much faster than a P4 2.8ghz and probally drains 1/3 the power and not nearly as hot...

check out the Dell i9300 for a very economical 17inch laptop..
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post #3 of 17
6/23/05 at 11:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1CenT
P4 processors are not very good for laptops because they get VERY HOt to the point where it shuts down automaticly.. they drain a lot of power.. you might want to look into a mobile processor such as a Pentium M the processor in the heavily advertised Centrino technology or the AMD turion mobile processor brand new from AMD..
the Centrino at 1.8ghz is much faster than a P4 2.8ghz and probally drains 1/3 the power and not nearly as hot...

check out the Dell i9300 for a very economical 17inch laptop..
Thanks for your quick response.

I'll need a laptop for high end video application + Oracle Database etc. That's why I thought of P4 + 1GB RAM. I didn't know that Centrino 1.8 is as good as P4 2.8 .... I'm not interested in AMD. Do you think Centrion 1.8 can handle my above requirements? Will I get more than 5-6 hours battery life for Centrino?

I'll check Dell i9300 and come back to you.
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post #4 of 17
6/23/05 at 12:08pm
Dunns, Toshiba just launched a new 17" Wide Centrino platform the M60. Where are you located (Canada, US, etc)?
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post #5 of 17
6/23/05 at 12:10pm

How comes...?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1CenT
P4 processors are not very good for laptops because they get VERY HOt to the point where it shuts down automaticly..

How comes mine hasn't shut down automatically? also, just wondering, what happens when it shuts down automatically?
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post #6 of 17
6/23/05 at 12:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by YP5 Toronto
Dunns, Toshiba just launched a new 17" Wide Centrino platform the M60. Where are you located (Canada, US, etc)?
My budget is max $1500. These Centrino laptops are way too expensive for my configuration.

I'm located in US.
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post #7 of 17
6/23/05 at 12:34pm
Hmmm.... try the P30

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...7&ccid=1291021

P4 and should hit your budget. I have had the opportunity to use one for a few weeks and it ran extremely well. It played Chaos Theory very well.
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post #8 of 17
6/24/05 at 5:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by YP5 Toronto
Hmmm.... try the P30

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...7&ccid=1291021

P4 and should hit your budget. I have had the opportunity to use one for a few weeks and it ran extremely well. It played Chaos Theory very well.
Thanks for the link. I checked in that site and for P30, according to my configuration requirement, it'll cost me $2100... which is well above my budget. In this config, I'll get single layer DVD burner and without a bluetooth... as HP provides all those above with dual layer + bluetooth for $1500.

Please advice me.. is the heating up of P4 processor happens to all HP Pavilion users? Will it really shut down the laptop? Also how long will the battery last.

Other than heavy and heating up of p4, is there any other cons for HP pavilion?
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post #9 of 17
6/24/05 at 10:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunns
Thanks for the link. I checked in that site and for P30, according to my configuration requirement, it'll cost me $2100... which is well above my budget. In this config, I'll get single layer DVD burner and without a bluetooth... as HP provides all those above with dual layer + bluetooth for $1500.

Please advice me.. is the heating up of P4 processor happens to all HP Pavilion users? Will it really shut down the laptop? Also how long will the battery last.

Other than heavy and heating up of p4, is there any other cons for HP pavilion?
That last part (heavy and heating) already makes me wary. One of my friends recently purchased a HP for college and its got a 3+ Ghz P4 but its battery life is incredibly bad and it weighs like 10 lbs. I think that defeats the whole purpose of a laptop - the mobility issue.
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post #10 of 17
6/24/05 at 11:50am
yes a p4 laptop will be heavy and drain battery fast. And for video rendering, the processor will be running constantly for a long time, which means it will get hot and thats whit it could shut down.
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post #11 of 17
6/24/05 at 12:02pm
Dunn, it comes down to making sacrifices. If you want P4 performance than there are drawbacks, if you want mobility and battery life, then it has its own.

Remember, there is a huge part of the population that are looking for desktop replacement.... thats where the heavier 15.4" and 17" notebooks come in.
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post #12 of 17
6/24/05 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunns
Please advice me.. is the heating up of P4 processor happens to all HP Pavilion users? Will it really shut down the laptop? Also how long will the battery last.

Other than heavy and heating up of p4, is there any other cons for HP pavilion?
My brother have a vz5000 p4 2.8 and it's hot. Yes it is but it's no where near to overheat and shutdown!!!

Those who tells you that don't know nothing... I got a p4 2.8ht sager, my bro has a hp 2.8 and the cpu never overheated... Never saw anything higher than 63C while gaming in both laptop... and you need to reach over 70C so that the board's protection cuts power and for that to happen, you need to have problems with your fans or using your laptop in a very hot environment. My brother has his zv5000 for over 6 months and he never had any overheating issues...

it's not the fact that it's a p4 that makes the laptop heavier... a chip is a chip it weights next to nothing... a 17" laptop IS heavy on the start... add the battery, the hdd, etc and you have a 10lbs laptop. get a model with 2 hdd and 2 drives and you can get a 15lbs laptop so don't base weight on cpu chips. While considering buying a 17" notebook, expect it to be heavy and less portable.

as for battery life, you won't ever get near to 5-6 hours with a 17" centrino... 5-6 hours battery life laptop are those small 12" centrino models... the bigger and more performant a laptop gets, the little the battery life is. On my 17" p4 2.8ht 9600pro I got 45 mins max...
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post #13 of 17
6/27/05 at 12:17pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you guys for giving me more informations. Now I have new questions in my mind.

1. I understand that 1.8 Centrino is as fast as 2.8P4. How does these Pentium M processors perform in video applications? Will it be as fast as P4 2.8GHz? Why is Centrino 1.8 faster than 2.8 P4? Let me know the theory behind it.

2. Should i get 5200rpm HDD for video applications. I read somewhere that 4200rpm can slow down the frame rates for video, games and even typing speed. Is it true?

I'm looking for a desktop replacement. I won't be carrying it often. But my worry is whether it'll shutdown due to overheating. Tar-Minyatur shared his experience and I'm a bit happy now. I'm worried because I use video applications, editing etc.
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post #14 of 17
6/27/05 at 1:06pm
Definitely get a 5200 rpm minimum, although 7200 is ideal. As for the desktop replacements, you don't really have to worry about overheating because they are built to handle heat. The problem lies in trying to make a high end lappy that weighs 5 lbs.

I don't think overheating is an issue in the desktop replacement class.
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post #15 of 17
6/27/05 at 1:10pm
Dell i9300 BABY!!!
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post #16 of 17
6/27/05 at 2:18pm
Look at the Dell i9300 with a coupon. You could probably get the config you want for under $1500 easily with a coupon.
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post #17 of 17
6/27/05 at 2:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunns
Thank you guys for giving me more informations. Now I have new questions in my mind.

1. I understand that 1.8 Centrino is as fast as 2.8P4. How does these Pentium M processors perform in video applications? Will it be as fast as P4 2.8GHz? Why is Centrino 1.8 faster than 2.8 P4? Let me know the theory behind it.

2. Should i get 5200rpm HDD for video applications. I read somewhere that 4200rpm can slow down the frame rates for video, games and even typing speed. Is it true?

I'm looking for a desktop replacement. I won't be carrying it often. But my worry is whether it'll shutdown due to overheating. Tar-Minyatur shared his experience and I'm a bit happy now. I'm worried because I use video applications, editing etc.

i would seriously just go with the a laptop with the Pentium-M processor, it falls behind in some audo encoding and maybe video encoding.. but it isn't a big difference... overall performance wise... it will not go wrong... the only drawback of the P-M compared to say a 2.8ghz p4 is the price.. you can go to your local bestbuy and check out the laptops under 1000usd and you see they are all celerons and p4's and you dont' see ones with centrino until you move up the price range..

the RPM of the harddrive determines the access time of files... no it will not slow down typing or frames of a 3d game... it will slow down loading a game, loading up programs.. maybe by a few milliseconds , dont' sound like that much but realize that the CPU can perform thousands of operations in that millisecond.. it isn't a big deal.. but get at least a 5400rpm Harddrive...

i recommend you looking into the asus lineup (z70v,z71v) for the 15.4inch widescreen notebooks ... the z71v is probally best bang for the buck with tons of reviews in the asus section, and the z70v has top of the line quality design.. the i9300 should be good too
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