Help Choosing A Laptop - Page 2

Okay, I got around $1,800 for the 6000, but you're going to use a coupon, right? That would knock it down to around $1,200 or so.

I really recommend the Dell Inspiron 6000. The Toshiba seems to be like the 600m in the way of outdated technology. I'm not sure if it is, but I can find out later.

First of all, the processor on the 6000 is slightly faster.

Second, the maximum memory for the 6000 is more. The Toshiba is only upgradable to 1.5GB, while the 6000 can handle up to 2GB. This is one reason I believe the Toshiba is made of outdated technology.

Third, the memory for the 6000 is faster than for the Toshiba. The Toshiba memory runs at 333MHz, while the 6000 runs at a minimum of 400MHz, but can run at 533MHz.

Fourth, the graphics card on the 6000 is much better than the card in the Toshiba. Granted, the x300 is not a gaming card, but it is much better than integrated graphics.

Fifth, the Toshiba will use 128MB of memory for graphics. The 6000 has a dedicated graphics card, so all of your RAM will be used for its intended purpose, and not video.

Sixth, the wireless card in the 6000 is better. While the a format might be outdated, it might still be used, which means the 6000 will be more compatible. It's a good feature to have, just in case.

Seventh, the battery life is better for the 6000. You can about 3-4 hours on the 6000 with the standard battery. With the extended battery that you are planning to get, you could get more than 5 hours. The Toshiba's average is about 3.5 hours.

Now, last, but definately, definately, not least, the warranty. You would get a 1 year warranty on the Toshiba, and I really doubt that's anything like complete care. With the 6000, you would get 4 years of warranty plus Complete Care coverage for that 4 years. Now, it's true that you can buy an additional warranty from CompUSA, but the price is ridiculous. The warranty would be a 2 year warranty, or a 2 year warranty plus screen protection. That would make me assume that if your screen broke and you didn't get the screen protection crap, you would be screwed. With Dell, that's not a problem. In fact, I can't even tell what the Toshiba warranty covers. At least with Dell, you know what you are getting before you even buy the system.

My personal opinion is that Toshiba sucks. I know people that say otherwise, but a lot of people say that the Satellite series sucks. They say the Terca series is good, but a lot of people agree about the Satellite series being crap. If I were you, I would not even consider Toshiba. If you want to consider some other quality systems, I recommend IBM or Sony. Both of these can be overpriced, however. I don't have much experience with anything else, but I've heard that Sager and Asus are good, too.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, with the Toshiba, you would only get XP Home.

However, I really suggest you get XP Home with the Dell. It is much cheaper to buy Pro from the university. My dad works for a university, and he got XP Pro for less than $10. I believe the total was $8.50 or something. I know when I go to college this fall, I will get all my software for my laptop (which I will get at the beginning of next year) from the university, including the Operating System. Of course, I could always just install from the disk I already have and have what technically would be a pirated copy on my laptop. I already have it on my desktop, and I don't plan to remove it. I'll probably just buy another copy, though. I think it's time to start doing things the legal way.

Wow, that's a good deal. That's a really good deal.

Wow, that's a good deal. That's a really good deal. You gotta tell me how you managed to get that.

Based on your level of hardware expertise, I really doubt you need this computer for more than simple office apps / standard computing. Alot of the previous posts don't really take that into consideration. This is what I'd suggest getting:

-1.6 ghz Pentium M

-512 Ram

-Biggest Hard drive you can select

-Whatever Warranty/Service package you want

-lowest graphics card option(doesn't sound like you play games, otherwise you'd need something like the 9300, selecting integrated graphics will get you better battery life anyways, which would probably be more important for you)

-6 cell battery + 9 cell battery + free 64mb memory key, extra batteries can come in handy when you dont want to sit by a wall outlet all day, with those two batteries you should get at least 5-6+ hours of battery life.

-Wireless 2200 BG Card (All universities use B or G)

-Windows XP Home(your college might say you NEED windows xp pro, but you dont, if you dont know/understand the differences between them you dont need the more expensive one)
And thats all you really need, that computer is probably overkill as it is for what you'll probably end up doing with it. If you like small resolutions and small fonts, get the WSXGA+ or WUXGA display, if you dont stick with the WXGA.

Also, check the coupon threads on here, and make sure to use whichever one is applicable to your case. I really dont think you should end up spending more than $1200, and thats a bit on the high end I think, I paid $1271 for my system, and $114 for aftermarket ram.

You can upgrade the options if you want, or go with another brand, but in my opinion you'd just be throwing your money away. If you dont like the way it feels in terms of the build / size / etc. remember you can return it for no restocking / shipping fees to Dell within 21 days, and you've got plenty of time to do that, school is two months away.

In general I find what people recommend to others in these threads can be overkill, try to keep in mind what they're actually using it for, ex: you dont need a gig of ram, x600 and a 2.0 p-m to run AOL and Word at the same time now, or 3 years from now...the example is exagerrated, but you get the idea.

Good luck.

Please can you answer me or anyone else.

Im a total noob ordering pcs via internet. I'm not even from the US so I have to be really sure what I have to order cause theres no turning back.

I ask on another topics if those coupons that say something like:

"MHN4P3P7JP270R Save $600 on any Inspiron Notebook purchase of $1499 or more. Coupon expires 6/30/05 at 5:59 am CT or after 4000 uses, whichever comes first."

When they say ANY Inspiron Notebook,does that include the XPS?

Someone told me about trying the code at the end of where I have to put all the information to buy the product but Im kinda afraid of doing this don't know why.

Could somebody confirm me if the offers include the XPS please.

Thanks

I was messing around and I tried it on the XPS before and it worked.

Thanks a lot, thats great.

"Now- I'm going to need help as to what I do to install XP Pro, what programs I should install, and how to setup a wireless router at my current home (running on a linksys router right now, I'd like to make it a linksys wireless)."

To install XP Pro, basically, it's an upgrade. You can either reformat your whole hard drive and do it, or you can upgrade the basic OS. Or, you can have both XP Pro and XP Home installed on the same system. I have two versions of XP Pro (one has a feature that got corrupted). I plan to get rid of that when I get a new computer, though. Right now, I don't want to reformat and lose all my information, and I don't feel like getting rid of it by just deleting the files.

Anyway, all the instructions for all the types of installations you can do are here:
Installing or Upgrading to Windows XP

I would recommend a clean install to get rid of all those extra things that Dell puts on your computer. Make sure you have all the drivers ready to install after you reformat. I suggest downloading the drivers before you reformat and burning them to a CD. Or, you can call Dell and ask them to ship you a Drivers CD. I'm pretty sure they will. I know that they ship OS CDs on request.

As for what software to install, if you do a clean install like I would, install the Office software or whatever productivity software you got. This would be stuff like Word, Excel, etc. Then, install your security software. Hopefully, you got all of this software from your university. Then, you can install any other software you would like. I also recommend installing the Mozilla Firefox browser. I like it a lot better than Internet Explorer. Firefox can be found here.

Hope this helps. I wish you luck with your new system. I'm sure you'll love it.

If you follow the instructions under the bold title that says Perform a clean install of Windows XP, it will delete everything from your hard drive when you install XP Pro. That will clean out all that extra stuff that Dell puts in. As I said, make sure you either have the drivers ready, or make sure you have a second computer that you can use to download the drivers for your system. All your drivers can be found at Dell Downloads and Drivers
Or, you can simply call Dell and request a disk. They should give that to you with no charge or anything. If you get them from the site, download them to your hard drive, and then burn them onto a CD. Then, after you install XP Pro, just put in the disk that your either burned or got from Dell, and open it up. Then, start installing drivers.

For the security program, I use Norton, and I like it. I use Internet Security, which is basically a firewall and anti-virus all in one. It has some other features, too. Norton does cost money. Technically you can install it off of the same CD, but I think that would be against the license agreement. I do stuff like that all the time, but for inexperienced users, it's difficult. I would just buy it from the university if I were you.

If you are really uncomfortable with the drivers and all that, just upgrade to XP Pro, instead of deleting everything. Then, you should not have to install any drivers. You can uninstall some of the things that Dell puts on there by using Add/Remove Programs, but that might still leave stuff in the registry. Anyway, do whatever you are comfortable with.

I hope this helps, and I'm sorry if I confuse you. Feel free to ask again.

Should be. Just enter your service tag and download the latest drivers for the components in your computer.