The Notebook Buying Guide v1.0 Beta
By: K.Nguyen-Tu
04/01/2005

After spending a little over a year on several of notebook related forums and websites to find the perfect notebook for myself, I came across numerous amount of questions circling around the same question “What Notebook Should I buy”. I, too, was on the same boat as I did not fully understand what I am getting myself into. After many long months of research, reading, and pondering, I hope to share my experiences. Maybe this will at least guide you through some of the decision making answer you are pondering about as well.

Before you consider buying a notebook and dig deeper into buying a notebook, there are two key elements you would need to first pass through.

1) What justification do you have for buying a notebook? In meaning can you justify the needs for a notebook and the purpose of using a notebook?
2) Understanding the LINGO! This is important as you should not be confused around several of terminology being used in the notebook world.

Section I: What Justification Do You Have For Buying A Notebook?

This is an important factor in assisting you on buying a notebook. Once you have determined the need and able to justify the need, you will be able to then understand what notebook you should get. It is what you will use it for determine the type, style, and feature of the notebook.

For example, in your mind right now you want to buy a notebook, but you are not sure on which one to buy. First of all, what are you going to use that notebook for? Will it be use mainly for educational purposes, such as reporting writing, school home works, etc? Or will it be used for entertainment, such as video games with extensive needs in graphic details?

Each notebook out there is tailored to a specific audience. Depend on your need, there will be one out there tailored for you. Let say, for example, your need is primary gaming and entertainment purposes. If that would be the case, you have in mind to find a notebook with good graphic performance and fast processing. However, on the other hand, if you need it for educational purposes or business traveling purposes, you want something that has good battery life, light weight, and not dent your pocket book with features you would not utilize and need.

If you need it for neither one of those purposes above, do you have a justification for needing a notebook? Most people just want a notebook for the sake of having a notebook. In today world, a notebook is a trendy object, such as a having an Apple IPod or driving a VW Bug. If you can not justify your need, then the road of determining the notebook for you would be extremely difficult and you should wait until you could properly justify your need. Technology advances very rapidly, due to this your “want” will change constantly for the latest and greatest. Once you are able to come to terms with yourself and properly justify your need, at that point you have a sense of direction for finding the notebook you will use it for.

To assist you in finding a notebook, I highly recommend you review this link first. It list some of the most asked about notebook and reviews of people who have already purchased it. This will at least give you an idea of what notebook are out there and get yourself familiar with the notebook world. Link: FAQ: Most asked about laptop (version 2.0) http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=61505

The most common question you will come across asking yourself many time would be “Should I buy now or should I wait” or “When is the best time to purchase a notebook”. You will find yourself asking these questions several times during the cycle of finding a notebook. Again, it boils down to the justification. If you can not properly justify the need, then you have not justified the urgency. So the answer is very simple, wait. Wait until you have justified the need, at which point you will understand the urgency. Once that is established, you it is a perfect time to purchase the notebook. Keep in mind at all time, technology waits for no one, thus it always advances. So the only good time to purchase a notebook is when you really need it.

Section II: Understanding the LINGO!

When buying a notebook, it is extremely important to understand what you are trying to buy. The differences in processor types are only the beginning of your headache. Try to visit these links first before you proceed with buying a notebook.

1) Ten Points Every Beginner Should Know -> http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=114968
a. This is a nice post which will guide you through 10 basic steps you should know as a beginner before you dive yourself into the technology world.
2) FAQ: Mobile Technology and Terminology -> http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67357
a. This post consists of the most common questions people have around various terms and technology pieces involve in a notebook.
3) Notebook and Respective ODM Models -> http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=47288
a. This post will show you “who” are the original designer / manufacturer of a particular notebook model you see for sell. For example, you like to get yourself an Alienware notebook, but can’t afford it. That exact same model is offered by other places for a lot less, minus the fancy color scheme Alienware offers.

After you finish with reading these links, you have attained a bit more knowledge than you originally started out with. By this point, you should at least have the basic understanding of various terms and lingo use in the notebook world. From here you could visit anyone of these forums and websites to further discuss and expand your horizon.

• Notebook Forums: http://www.notebookforums.com
• Laptop Logic: http://www.laptoplogic.com
• Notebook Review: http://www.notebookreview.com
• AMD Board: http://www.amdboard.com/athlon_64_notebook.html

Section III: Where To Buy?

Where should you buy your laptop? Once you have determined the laptop you would like, the next hardest decision is where to buy it. It is not as simple as walking into CompUSA or BestBuy and purchase a notebook. The place you buy your laptop will be the place you will interact with if there are any needs of repair.

To find out some reviews of notebook you’ve decided on, try anyone of these links:

• http://www.laptoplogic.com/reviews/
• http://www.trustedreview.com/articles.aspx?sec=13
• http://notebookforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=107
• http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews/default.asp
• http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mobile
• http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/index.html

If you plan to purchase a major brand notebook such as Toshiba, Sony, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Acer, and Fujitsu, for some of them you could visit their website directly and make the purchase (except Acer). It is highly recommend and I can not say this enough, you purchase extended warranty with these companies. If you want to go the extra mile, purchase the accidental protection warranty with them as well. While they try to make the notebook as sturdy as possible, there are always unexpected problem. This is the nature of technology. Whether it is hardware failure or you accidentally spill coffee over it, you will be able to sleep at night you wouldn’t have to shell out a few extra hundreds or more down the road for repair.

It is human nature to try to purchase an item for as cheap as possible. I advise you to avoid online auction as much as possible. You might not get such a bargain as you expected. Online auctions purchasing, while some products are legit and good purchases, other might be stolen item or damage goods. Save yourself the headache and purchase from a reliable source.

A good place to start is a good price index search engine. You could look at anyone of these:

• Price Grabber: http://www.pricegrabber.com
• My Simon: http://www.mysimon.com

You could find some pretty competitive pricing from these websites to base your decision upon. You could also look at http://www.bizrate.com to see the rating of these online stores as well.

Some of these major brand notebook companies offer their product from their very own sales channel (their website). Buying directly from them give you the advantages of dealing directly with the source. Warranty, shipment, customization, etc are dealt directly with them. This way, you wouldn’t have to go through the middleman for repairs or any communications. Some of these companies have authorized repair and service shops across the United States and other part of the world. This allows you to bring it to the authorized repair location for service without having you to ship the product. If you do need to ship the product, they will send you a shipping box where you could place the notebook inside and ship it to them free of charge!

If your purchase is for what we call ODM notebooks, the route of purchasing them is a bit different. First you have to understand the term ODM (Original Design Manufacturers). This link will provide you with a little more information on ODM:

• http://www.powernotebooks.com/articl...fullnews&id=17

In summary, these are notebook that is design by one major company, but being sold by various companies under their own brand / logo. For example an ODM company such as Uniwill has models being sold under various brands as Cyberpower Systems, ViciousPC, and ABS Computers.

Similar to the branded notebook purchase, visiting http://www.bizrate.com or http://www.resellerrating.coms will give you an idea and some form of information for you to base your decision on where to purchase these notebooks. You will be able to see some of the notebook in the link provided in Section I above.

Some of the popular and highly rated places to purchase notebooks are (according to resellerratings):

• Power Notebooks - http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1980.html
• ProPortable - http://www.resellerratings.com/seller5631.html
• PC Torque - http://www.resellerratings.com/seller3048.html
• Discount Notebooks - http://www.resellerratings.com/seller3507.html
• ABS Computers - http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1431.html

Depending on the ODM brand, some of them only allow you to send your notebook to the original place where you purchase it for warranty repair and service. The draw back is the company you purchase this laptop with “might” not be around when it times for you to need a repair. This is one major thing to consider when purchasing your notebook through these channels.

Here is some information on warranties:
• http://pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,112590,00.asp
• http://pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,105827,00.asp

This link below will provide you with a starting point and guidance on who is the ODM for some of the popular notebook models you see in magazine and other online websites.

• http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=47288

For example, where did Alienware and Voodoo PC get their laptop from? You might like the specification of Alienware or Voodoo PC, but would rather pay at least 20% lesser in prices. There are many places which carry the exact same model, minus the chassis color design for very competitive price. A popular place for Clevo is www.pctorque.com. For Asus product, you have places like www.proportable.com that specialized in Asus notebooks.

Other places are:

• ViciousPc – http://www.viciouspc.com
• ABS Computers – http://www.abspc.com
• Mwave – http://www.mwave.com
• Discount Laptops – http://www.discountlaptops.com
• Power Notebooks – http://www.powernotebooks.com
• RJTech – http://www.rjtech.com
• Hypersonic PC – http://www.hypersonic-pc.com

These are some among the many places to purchase ODM notebook out there. If you carefully look, you will see many models being sold by these companies resemble each other. This is because they are all manufactured and designed by the same ODM Company, such as Uniwill, Clevo, Mitac, etc. Some of the popular ODM websites are:

• http://www.asus.com
• http://www.mitac.com.tw
• http://www.uniwill.com
• http://www.clevo.com
• http://www.compal.com

One thing to keep in mind, a lot of the major brand laptop manufacturers comes from one or more of these companies as well. They have exclusive designs to particular model thus that is why you don’t see them offer by anyone else.

Section IV: Additional Resources

FAQ: Most asked about laptop (version 2.0)
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=61505

FAQ: Mobile Technology and Terminology
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67357

Ten Points Every Beginner Should Know
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=38254

Notebook and Respective ODM Models
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=47288

Arctic Silver Compound - Help keeps CPU Cool!
http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

The people who does paintjob for Falcon NW PC
http://www.smooth-creations.com/

CPU-Z, the CPU Detection Software
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Simple Undervolting Tutorial - Pentium M Dothan
http://notebookforums.com/showthrea...2194#post762194

Notebook Temperture Monitor - MobileMeter
http://dssc3031.ece.cmu.edu/~tamaru...terreadme-e.htm

Konfabulator - Widget Software To Make Your Desktop SING and SHINE!
http://www.konfabulator.com/

Making Mozilla's Firefox Faster!
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=54679

DIY Custom Paint Laptop
http://spiike.shadowdragon.net/laptop%20painting.htm

Battery Optimization Guide
• Basic: http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/guides/9/1/1/
• Advance: http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/guides/10/1/1/
DVD / VCD Info and Discussion
http://www.videohelp.com

Laptop Modding / How-To:
• HowTo: Asus M6 - Redefine The Internet & Mail HotKeys - http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=60952
• HowTo: Asus - HotKeys Control Mod - http://216.119.64.238/_misc/asus_atk0100_mod.htm
• HowTo: Compal CL-5x Optical Drive Mod - http://notebookforums.com/showthread...288#post507288
CPU Manufacture Information
• AMD Athlon 64 Mobile Processor - http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...0_9486,00.html
• AMD Athlon Mobile Processor - http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...8_1276,00.html
• AMD Processor Roadmap - http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...18_608,00.html
• Intel Pentium-M Processor - http://www.intel.com/products/notebo...iumm/index.htm
• Intel Mobile Pentium 4 w/Hyper-Thread Technology - http://www.intel.com/products/notebo...ium4/index.htm
• Intel Celeron-M Processor - http://www.intel.com/products/notebo...on_m/index.htm
• Intel Processor Roadmap - http://www.intel.com/products/roadmap/notebook.htm

Other useful tools and informations:
• Memtest - Memory test program - http://www.memtest86.com/
• Sisoftware Sandra - Benchmarking Software - http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/
• 3D Benchmarking - http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark05.shtml
• PC Mark - Computer Benching Software - http://www.futuremark.com/download/?pcmark04.shtml
• Memory Terms - http://www.kingston.com/notebook/nb_terms.asp
• Memory Discussion Provided by Corsair Technology - http://www.houseofhelp.com/
• How RAMS Works - http://www.howstuffworks.com/ram.htm
• Kingston Memory Guide - http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/default.asp
• RAMS vs HardDrive - http://www.weeno.com/art/0699/87.html
• ATI Mobile Video Card Crash Course (Including PCI-E versions) - http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=62934

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Please provide additional information of your experiences and lesson. This will be a useful tool for people who want to buy laptop, I hope

I'll post the PDF version and any update to it on my website at http://www.smilepak.com when i get a chance.

Thanks!!

Thx Enderet!

That should clear up the sticky list a bit..hehehe.

Awesome post. Do you know if Smooth Creations sell custom cases to individuals? Thx

wow! very comprehensive!

theres an wrong link in the first link group.
• Laptop Logics: http://www.laptoplogics.com
think you mean www.LaptopLogic.com
as in the lower part of the article.

and thanks for the real great job...

Opps. thax for pointing that out. I will correct it.

This is incredible. Definitely one of the best threads I've seen here. Thanks!

-jcll2002

Awesome. I'll get reading this as soon as i can.

Please help me to pick one laptop. I am making decision to buy one of Qosmio G15-AV501 or Dell XPS (old version, not G2). As the price is not an issue for me, which one has reliable quality and good image?

Any reply will be highly appreciated.

i have never been on a site like this one
hope i did it correct

i need a laptop
and know nothing about them
i have a sony vaio pcv rs320 desk top at my home
it has windows xp home

after i install my copy of quick books on the laptop
what i need the lap to do is

while out of town
1 i want to work on my quickbook or works on the laptop than
when i am done i want to be able to send the information to my desktop at home or to my printer at home
2 go on the internet for email

that is all i need do on the laptop

most of the time i will be at campgrounds where i won't have a phone hookup

i don't have a lot to spend not over $1000
can you tell me what to look for and what laptop to get
as you can tell i have never had a laptop and know nothing about them

thanks

I would like to add some informations on used and refurbished items to this buying guide as not everybody can afford brand new laptop. Refurbished item is a used notebook, returned to producer by previous owner (for various reasons). The producer makes full tests and review of such hardware, changes broken/faulty parts if needed and gives you warranty for such notebook. Most often it's 90 days warranty. This is what we call factory refurbished laptop.
There are also third party companies which are buy used laptops from various brands, and are reconditioning them theirself - this is what we call 3rd party refurb laptop.
The price of such laptop is much lower than brand new item. Such computers are not always extra old 300MHz laptops. There are often PIII notebooks or new models with P4 available, with big HDDs, a lot of RAM, DVDs etc. It's only hard to find a refurbished AMD laptop.

There is a link in my signature, to a site that provides you with more information on this topic, laptops and online sellers reviews and laptop offers.

One other comment about refurbished notebooks. You can usually buy an extended warranty, sometimes from the manufacturer (like HP). This will usually allow you to save money on the purchase and still protect yourself with a good warranty.

My son-in-law says the Sony T140 would be a good choice for me. Is there a comparable less expensive way to go or do you think this is optimal? I'm impressed by your research. Thanks

really great barebones/laptop site: www.xmeld.com
Great customer care.

Smilepak, this is incredible.

You should get paid... sheesh.. excellent job.