Hi, and sorry I took so long to reply

Anyway, performance-wise, the turionx2 and the C2D are pretty similar clock by clock, but the C2D wins when it comes to power efficiency - it uses much less power in real world applications than the turion x2. that's why in my opinion you should go for the C2D if you can.

I think you did a great job stressing build quality, it is something I was not thinking of at the time I bought my laptop, It's a great computer, but might as well be made of glass.

Ruin your HD? Why? No, it's ok, you can use the TV tuner without any worries... Enjoy your new notebook

Filipo, hi again.

I am almost (99%) ready to buy a laptop now.
my budget now is much less than what i originally planned ($2000), so getting Dell e1705 with 7900gs and 2gb ram is out of the question cause its too expensive.

My current budget is $1200-$1300 canadian taxed and shipping included (that's around $1100-$1200 US).
My absolute highest point is $1500 cnd which is $1350-$1400 US (only will spend this much if i got a great deal)

Anyways, what I wanted is a laptop that i can play World of Warcraft on highest settings and Battlefield2 on medium settings. I do not need to play the latest game and highest settings.

I do not care about size/weight/screen size/hard drive speed (although 15.4 is optimal for me cause 17 is too expensive)/brand.

What I do need though is:
-1 or 2GB of RAM
-glossy screen (preferably widescren)
x1600 or 7600 video card.

Any suggestion? I know you listed many examples in this sticky for my budget, but i think they are bit out of date cause i couldn't find the setup you mentioned for the price you mentioned.

I have asked this in another thread, but i would like your opinion about these questions I am curious about:

1) will nvidia 7600 or x1600 be able to run world of warcraft on high settings and battlefield2 on medium settings.

2) how much of a difference will i really see going from 5400rpm to 7200rpm?
is it drastic? is it worth the $80-100 that i will pay? like will windows load 2-4 seconds faster and will games load like 5 seconds faster? how much of a difference in seconds will i see?

3) am i making too much of a deal by ignoring core duo and getting core 2 duo? for example when playing world of warcraft, how will core 2 duo be different versus core duo? if i get core duo instead of core2duo, then it will open some possibilities

4) you said X1600 is same as 7600....but i noticed that x1600 only has 128mb memory while 7600 has 256. How can they be same on perfomance? isnt 256 surely better?

PLAESE HALP!!1

1- Yes
2- There is a difference, but it's not worth the money, especially if you're buying on a tight budget
3- Core Duo is just as good as the T5xx series core duo, although it is 32bits (won't make any difference in games like BF or WPW though). Definitely get the core duo if you get a good deal on it
4- There is a 128mb and 256mb version, of course the latter is better

The problem is that you're in canada, so I don't know much about prices and suggestions to give you, unless you buy in the states and import it...

A few possibilities:

Dell outlet -> E1705 or the precision M90
Asus S96j
Compal Hel80

Also, bookmark a deal page like slickdeals.net and check it everyday. Eventually you'll see a good deal on a notebook

Btw BF2142 > BF2 !

In particular, about the 128 vs. 256 MB thing for video cards:


The performance of a video card doesn't have much to do with the amount of RAM it has attached, other than that faster cards usually have more RAM on them. The 7700 in my machine has 512 MB of RAM, but there are many 256 MB cards that would blow it out of the water.

So, what does this number mean?

Well, the purpose of a video card is to do a bunch of math so you can draw pretty pictures on the screen. To do that it's got a specialized processor built in. The faster this processor is, the better framerates you get. However, if that processor had to go to your system's main memory every time it needed to look at a texture, it'd have to wait around forever. (Your main CPU, especially if it's AMD, has very quick access to your system RAM. The video card, not so much.) So, your video card has some RAM built in, only so the video processor has something to store textures and the like in.

Having more video RAM won't make the video processor any faster. However, if there's not enough room in video RAM to store everything, you wind up with slowdowns as textures have to be loaded from system RAM.

You probably do want to get the 256MB graphics card. A 7600 or x1600 is fast enough that it can, in some games, make use of all that memory. 512, like my card has, is overkill -- it's not fast enough to deal with that many textures!

I can second the recommendations of the HEL80 or Asus S96j. I believe MilestonePC is a Canadian company that sells both; go give them a look.

I'm looking for pretty much the same thing as airforce, but I want to get a 17" sceen for games etc. What I got lined up so far is an HP Pavillion dv9000 core 2 duo 1.83 with 2gb ram and a geforce 7400f for about 1400. How do you think that copares with the asus? I'm not really interested in dell. tx

If you do any gaming, I advise against it.

I know you don't want a Dell, but go to the Outlet -> www.dell.com/outlet and search for the Precision M90. It's an AWESOME notebook, much better than the dv9000 and that Asus. You can get a basic one for $1300 or so, just add RAM and maybe a DVD RW from newegg and you have a great machine with a 3 year warranty for $1500 or so.

what would be the real difference, the vid card? overall integration?
also, is wide XGA+ going to be a problem for running games, for example is the screen going to look shitty at non-native resolutions? okay and another stupid question, EIDE is just the HD standart people have been using before SATA, right and its slower?

And another...whats your take on scratch and dented? I don't really mind the look its just that I'm worried about hardware damage.

and yet another. what about m90 vs e1705? seems expensive with descent upgrades but I saw some kid on the forum got a descent machine for 1500.


Okay, configured e1705 for about 1500, looks like a sweet deal to me, 20% coupon really saves a lot of money. Looks better than any deal witht he m90, only question is how much better is the quad than the 7900

Module Description Show Details Inspiron E1705 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™ Memory 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS Hard Drive 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability Sound Options Integrated Audio Wireless Networking Cards Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g Office Software (not included in Windows XP) No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) No Security Subscription Primary Battery 80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery Warranty and Service 1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service Internet Access Service 6 Months of EarthLink Internet Access Miscellaneous Inspiron 1705 Dual Core Environmental Options Recycling Kit and Plant a Tree for Me Upgrade to Windows Vista No Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Selected Dell Digital Entertainment Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo Processor Branding Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor Labels Windows Vista™ Capable

dammit looks like all the coupons got redeemed fuq, back to looking for something else i guess

hello guys.
please i really need some help coz i got so confused now, i'm in my way to buy a Notebook and i found dell, but there is a Problem,, sometimes they say in the description that it is a Core 2 duo , but it got a label on it says it's Centrino,, so i got so confused, so please , any one can tell me, is there any differences between Centrino processor and Core 2 duo,, and If so,, then which is better ?? " although they have the same speed " 2 GHz " and the same cache , please please, Inform me about that and please e-mail me On ahmedessa222@yahoo.com

its called a centrino core 2 duo as far as i know. Centrino is like a brand name and then core 2 duo is the latest version

Does anyone know if there will be a new battery technology in the future? I'm growing tired of lithuim-ion batteries. they die out so fast, are heavy, and have reported problems in the past.

on a side note, does anyone have any info about the hybrid drives?

Filippo, I'm looking to guy a laptop, but after reading threads all day, I thought it might just be best to ask your opinion.

I'm looking for an affordable laptop [$700-1200], but I want it to be usable [and somewhat current] for a few years. I don't game at all, I just like to surf the net [with lots of open windows], and use some basic applications [word, excel, power point]. I'd like to be able to play around with photoshop a little.

From what I've gathered on the FAQ's, I'm looking for an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor [since I would prefer it didn't become outdated too soon], probably a T5200 since I'm trying to stay on the cheaper side. Since I don't plan on doing any gaming, I don't think I'll need a dedicated GPU, but since they aren't upgradeable after-the-fact, I'm guessing I should get some kind of 256MB card. I'm sure a 15" screen will suffice, and even 100GB hard drive should be plenty [I mostly just have pictures taking up space]. I figure I can get one with 1GB of RAM and add another 1GB on my own [assuming it's as easy as that].

I'd rather stick to the major namebrands, and the major stores so that if I have any issues I can take it back fairly easily. I'm leaning towards the Dell e1505 series, but before I order one, I wanted to ask if I'm buying more than I need considering the limited things I plan on doing with the laptop, and if there is anything else I should really consider in my looking?

I generally shy away from refurb gear, but it looks like you've recommended the dell outlet before. Since they warranty the computer, is it reasonably safe to buy refurb?

Thanks for your help.

dh

I'm no Flippo but I have a pretty good knowledge about notebooks, and yes the Dell E1405 or E1505 is your best bet. Yeah the Dell Outlet is great. I haven't bought anything personally from their but tons of people have had great expierences with the outlet