Shopping for notebook, What do I look for?

[Wulfman]

normal p4 mobile vs. amd = most likely equal power consumption, maybe the amd is even slightly better (power now is more flexible).

p3 mobile vs. amd = no match, p3 consumes less power.

banias vs. amd = I feel sorry for amd.

in that price range I would really consider the AMD.

mfg
wulfman

[cjolley]

What do you thing of Compac's Notebooks?

Here is an alternative at the same price by compac:

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11216315&m=488&cat=494&scat=0

Celeron 1.8
256meg
Radeon
dvd/cdrw

chuck

[Belwarrior]

Funny thing is i wouldnt mind an AMD based laptop as long as it is made my toshiba.. if anyone is going to implement AMD's power saving features it would be toshiba.. not too sure about HP/Compaq though..

but the radeon 9600 mobility looks tempting

[Wulfman]

Originally posted by cjolley
What do you thing of Compac's Notebooks?

Here is an alternative at the same price by compac:

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11216315&m=488&cat=494&scat=0

Celeron 1.8
256meg
Radeon
dvd/cdrw

chuck

keep in mind: no mobile cpu
-> heat (you don't want to get a burnt lap )
-> noise.

mfg
wulfman

[GNEP]

Heat is not just about your lap - the keyboards can also get uncomfortably hot

[Jammrock]

Have a good deal of knowledge regarding laptops, so here's my $0.02.

- Any high clocked laptop will run hot at full speed. Centrino's aren't that bad, but they will still warm up your lap. P3 Mobiles are the best afaik, but they are slow. It can't be avoided. Unless you want to get a Transmeta Crusoe based laptop, but those are about P3 mobile speeds.

- Pay the extra $$ for the 3-year warranty. You can't repair laptops and they are prone to blowing up, no matter who makes them. Some are better than others, but everyone is suseptable to a bad batch.

- Don't drop the cash on a 'Super-Duper-Ultra-XGA' TFT LCD display's. The largest PC laptop screen is 15.4" at best. All you need is 1024x768 native res (XGA), maybe a bit more, at 32-bit color. The video card will have no issue displaying a larger picture if you output to a bigger monitor.

- As for RAM ... get the largest amount you can afford on 1 DIMM. That leaves you open for a nice upgrade when SODIMM RAM prices get cheaper. Often times it's cheaper anyway to buy 256/512 MB on 1 DIMM and go to www.Crucial.com and buy your own, instead of upgrading through the manufacture.

- Don't shell out the cash for a big HDD. They aren't worth the cash and make more noise and heat. 20 GB is fine, network it to your desktop and dump files if you run low on space.

- Avoid buying one at major retailers like Best Buy or Circuit City. You can buy a better machine factory direct online for the same price. All major online dealers have local service contracts so you don't have to ship stuff out if you get the good warranty.

As for brands:

Dell - My current personal favorite. They have excellent machines, excellent warraties, very good prices and TONS of options. You can build a laptop from $800 to $6000 in all sizes and weights. Intel CPU's only.

Toshiba - Haven't been impressed with them lately. They have gotten better in teh past year, but their QA and designs have been lacking from their glory days. Way to expensive. I would avoid it for consumer laptop.

Gatway - Don't really like them.

Compaq - Don't like them. Too generic, costly for the build quality. Have gotten better since the merger though.

HP - Nice laptops, not the best though.

Jammrock

[Technoid]

Compaq's (both amd based and P4 based) gets damn hot!!!
Hp's are much better
(funny that shows that they still arnt one )

[Wombat]

256MB doesn't seem like that much memory, I'd double it. The more you cache, the less you hit the HD, and the longer the battery lasts.

Also, most laptops don't have the energy to play an entire DVD, due to keeping the drive spinning. Check out those statistics. Or consider playing DVD or DivX rips off the laptop's hard drive.

[Technoid]

Originally posted by Wombat
256MB doesn't seem like that much memory, I'd double it. The more you cache, the less you hit the HD, and the longer the battery lasts.

Also, most laptops don't have the energy to play an entire DVD, due to keeping the drive spinning. Check out those statistics. Or consider playing DVD or DivX rips off the laptop's hard drive.

my HP omnibook with a P3 800
3 hours per battery
2 hours while watching DVD's or doing heavy stuff

[cjolley]

I'm not too worried about battery life,
We will almost always be near a plug.
Assuming you can run the things plugged in....

Our old laptop is a 386-16 with 4 megs of ram.
So I'm a little behind on my notebook tech.
chuck

[Jammrock]

What are you looking to spend?

Dell is running a $300 mail-in rebate on the Inspiron 8500 line. Plus a free upgrade to 4-yr support and warranty. And a few other nice things. Plus the 8500 uses a 16:9 aspect LCD disply for DVD playback

Jammrock

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Jammrock
What are you looking to spend?

Dell is running a $300 mail-in rebate on the Inspiron 8500 line. Plus a free upgrade to 4-yr support and warranty. And a few other nice things. Plus the 8500 uses a 16:9 aspect LCD disply for DVD playback

Jammrock

As little as possible
The HP I'm looking at is $799 at BestBuy or CompUSA
w/o the service agreement.
chuck

[Wombat]

I'd probably lean towards the Dell.

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Wombat
I'd probably lean towards the Dell.

Well, so would I, but the Dell is almost twice* as much the HP even with the rebates*.
chuck

$799 -vs- $1399 = 75% more

[Kurt]

watch out for the cheap radeon notebooks. most use the radeon IGP, i.e. integrated graphics, and are vey slow. you need at least the radeon 7500 with 32 or 64mb ram.

the thing is that it's probably not in your price range...

AMD notebooks will surely offer the best deals in the price range you're looking for but the problem will be build quality.

don't forget that "you get what you pay for"

I'd go with the Dell if I were you, or the Toshiba Tablet PC (another price range entirely...). If you can find Acer notebooks, they have incredibly low prices -but you'll always get integrated graphics if you don't want to go above the 1200$...