Laptop Shopping

[4 cam torino]

I currently use my work laptop for everything and my other computer option is a desktop, P-II, 450 MHz, 256 MHz of RAM, historic edition. So, since I got a new job I need to get myself a new personal computer. I really like having a lap top. I haven't really done much computer gaming in the last few years but if I had my own personal computer again I might do a little more than I have been. I don't want to spend a ton of money, screen size in the 15 - 17 inch range, prefer 17. Reasonable hard drive size but I don't do a ton of MP3's and burn my pictures to CDs so I don't need anything too crazy. All that said, I've done some looking and this seems like a great deal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115410
Any thoughts on this machine based on the specs and my criteria? My looking around shows the AMD's to have better specs than the Intels for lap tops, especially in the bus speed area and in many cases RAM capactiy as well, many of the intels only seem to go to 2 total instead of 4. This computer starts at 2 and I could go to 4 if I were compelled. The graphics cards that I was commonly seeing were ATI's and NVIDIA's and this seems to be one of the higher end NVIDIA's among the cheaper lap tops I've been looking at. I haven't really priced out more expensive ones at all but it seems to be a decent card for a lap top.

Just trying to see if there is anything I should be thinking of and haven't thought of or whatever since I don't really keep up on computer stuff as much as I once did.

[David]

AMD has nothing over the lastest generation Intel... even AMD nutswingers have a really hard time arguing that point...

I have a hard time arguing the deal there... Personally i'd try to get a duo... but if you are on a budget and want alot of options this seems like a pretty decent deal.

i'm searching for a better deal..

[4 cam torino]

My AMD over Intel observation is based solely on computers I've seen in that ball park price wise. The AMD's have a faster bus speed and while some Intels can go to 4 gig of ram most of them only looked to be able to go to 2. I have no AMD alegiance at all, I don't think I've ever touched a computer with an AMD processor in it before. If you can find me a better deal I would love to see it :)

[David]

the AMD processor cost less because they suck... to put it simply. so trying to find an exact match in price and options with the duo would probably be impossible.

Do you have to have a dedicated graphics card? if your not playing games i dont' see much need for it.

[David]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834210003

[David]

Getting the 17" and the dedicated graphics card with teh duo's for under $1,000 is impossible it appears. If your willing to spend more money for a better product then their are options... if this is the price point... your giving something up... the duos are a better processor so by going with teh AMD your taking the hit on the processors. If you keep the same price point but with duo's you have to give up one of the other options either the card or the screeen.

it's deff. priced well.

[4 cam torino]

Beyond the processor speed itself, what does more for the performance of the computer, the L2 Cache size or the front side bus speed?

[David]

it's hard to explain... it's not about speed anymore.. i mean it is but.. damn it' my brain is to fried (tired and been pwning PS3 vs 360 all night.

your going to get what you pay for.. the question is whats more improtant. There is nothing wrong with those AMD processors... should be faster than anything you currently own is sounds like...

I just wouldnt' buy AMD right now... or even the next generation at this point.

if it was me... and this is what i did... i bought a gateway with no DGPU. it's pretty limited on teh games it can play.. example it plays generals just fine but wont' play command and conq. 3. I know have a desktop that will plan any game on the market that i built from myself.The laptop does everything it's suppose to fast, and looks great doing it... just can't handle hardcore games and i would't expect it too. thats what my desktop is for.

[4 cam torino]

Any games I will be playing will be car related or Madden. I have the old Papyrus NASCAR game which is still a sweet game even though it is getting up in it's years. It is fairly well supported for updates by the community on the internet although I think there is a newer non NASCAR game that has kind of replaced it and gained the community's support so much so that there are patches that change the cars into NASCAR cars. People get nuts. I'm not a first person shooter fan at all, I would think a laptop's graphics card will suit any gaming I want to do just fine. I don't want to end up finding myself too restricted by an integrated card but I don't need a hard core gaming machine that can only be had from a desk top.

I know at this point the actual processor speed isn't the most important thing, that's kind of why I was asking about what other aspects of the processor are most important to performance. What is it that makes the intel better than the AMD because I really don't see it. They have a slower front side bus but more L2 cache size, although the AMD has two of smaller L2 caches, is there some advantage to splitting that up. What else is there behind it all that I'm not seeing that would make the intels better?

[David]

considering your needs I think the AMD will be more than sufficent. The Duo just handles better.

[spoonraker]

Gaming and laptops don't mix.

A "gaming pc" is simply a very powerful PC because games are large programs that demand high performance from every aspect of your PC.

Laptops are designed to be small, portable, light, and low-powered. This is why laptops aren't good for gaming.

To get a laptop that is up to speed with current games, you have to completely defeat the purpose of a laptop. You have to make it big and heavy and consume lots of power. So you end up with a huge ass laptop that eats a battery every hour. Oh and it probably costs twice as much as a comparable desktop, and for the same amount of money you could build a considerably better desktop.

What do you REALLY need a laptop for. If you're bored and pull out your laptop, are you really going to fire up counter strike source? I doubt you'll like playing on a touchpad, are you going to carry an external mouse and pad with you all the time and then search around for a good spot to set up at? Realistically the only things people ever use a laptops portable capabilities for are things that a $300 laptop could easily do : surf the net, take notes, play solitaire or other simple games when you're bored.

I strongly recommend you save yourself a ton of money and just use the laptop you have now as... a laptop, and build a desktop for personal use.

I'd help you pick out parts and I'd help you build it for free.

[David]

i kinda agree.. but disagree on keeping your current laptop. I love my laptop (even though she always has it). Built in wireless, able to pick up wireless anywhere even in my garage when i'm working on my car and need information on the internet or need to pwn noobs on scr... Also anymore websites aren't just some text. THey a full blown media sites.. surfing the net at reasonable speeds requires a highspeed connection, sufficent ram and a processor to handle all teh task.... Also with microsoft releasing Vista, there is so much going on having two processors is a requirement if you don't want to wait a decade for the next application to load.

The duo does a great job at being a high performance processor while being energy efficent. I think vista is absolutly amazing and if you get a new laptop or pc i'd make sure it has it and is able to smoothly run it. 1 gig ram is sufficent while i'd suggest nothing less than 2. I run 4 on my desktop. at times i've maxed out 2 gigs and went into the 3.. never touched 4.

Ifyour just looking for a good laptop that can handle most anything you can toss at it except for hardcore games... I'd say get a bigger screen and duo processors 2 gigs of ram and then from there you can price them out based of brand name, options like HD DVD or blu ray capabilities... i"ll spare my thoughts on those, since i think my postion is well known... other options like bluetooth, weight etc then become individual prefrence. My laptop has bluetooth and i've never used it.

another option would be get a darn cheap laptop for your laptop needs $300-400 range... which will have built in wireless and duos.. you can always upgrade the ram later... and then take the difference you would have piad on this laptop in question a buy a new desktop for about the same price... You can always toss in a graphics card to handle some of todays most intense games... handle being the key world, not to be confused with running at the games highest FPS/resolution etc. You willl need to spend alot more for that.

[4 cam torino]

When I do play games, it's nothing like counter strike. My current laptop is owned by my soon to be former employer so anything that involves continuing to use it beyond December 21st is a no go.

One major plus for a laptop is automotive tuning, obviously that doesn't require a high powered computer at all. But then again I really think a laptop can do everything I need to do. When more battery life is needed on the move it isn't hard to change some settings on them and extend the life a significant amount. Part of it is that I've also just becoming accutomed to dragging my current lap top around the house with me and into the garage when I'm trying to do something and need to look at how to do it online or whatever.

My current work laptop runs my cad software for work, which is another thing I'd like to be able to do with it, acquire a functional copy of some CAD software so I can still do thing like that that I want to do for myself.

[4 cam torino]

I was making that post before David posted. My current laptop also has bluetooth, which I have never used. My phone has it too, I never use it there either. The insight on RAM and what not is much appreciated. The one I'm looking at has 2 gigs and upgrading was something in my mind but based on your comments it could just be a waste of money, although with the shared video card resources it could be more beneficial?

But hardcore gaming still isn't something I'd be looking at. Even when I played games all the time it was Madden and racing and that was seriously it.

[David]

Sounds like a dedicated graphics card is a waste on you. I'd spend the money on making the computer faster in applications. I've not used cad or watched how it uses resources but i'd assume it uses far more CPU power than GPU for running calculations instead of graphic processing.

The computer you are looking at will handle the internet and running applications jsut fine.. the nvidia card can't be shut off... while it uses different levels of power depending on the application using it... but it's still not goign to get the battery life of a computer with the came set up and internal GPU... The duo's run more efficently so.. if battery life is importnat... scrap the graphics card the internal will be more than enough for what you want.... and the duo's will save you some power while adding speed.

[David]

not gonna lie i was pretty pissed at my laptop when i put Command and conq 3 in it and it crashed... **** if i got a big enough game of generals running it would crash. When i put CC3in my laptop and watched it crash i immediatly got on newegg and boughtl all SLI parts... 5 days later I had it all put together and was cranking CC3 up to its max and laughed at...

[4 cam torino]

Any CAD stuff I would be doing would be 3D stuff that's all rendered all the time. I think it takes a bit of resources graphics wise to keep everything in CATIA, Solidworks, etc. running nice while you are working. Battery life isn't really a huge concern to me. The laptop I currently use as pretty poor battery life and I've never been stuck not being able to do what I wanted with it because I had it unplugged too long or anything like that.

[4 cam torino]

Looking at the nvidia site, the graphics card does have the ability to use less power when it isn't being utilized. So the battery life is even less of an issue than maybe it would really have been thought of as. I went to Staples. They have one that will be on sale Sunday for $600, it's really tempting although it isn't quite as nice of a system across the board, Athlon instead of Turion, less ram, slower processors, less hd space, etc. They have one on sale with rebates now that comes out to $850 with some things better and some worse than the one on newegg. Although new egg has free shipping on the one I'm looking at and tax on one at staples is going to hit me for $50 in tax.

[4 cam torino]

Computer is ordered :)

[David]

newegg?

[4 cam torino]

yep

[David]

cool.......... congrats.

[s13curtis]

If you don't even play games, then $800 is way too much to spend on a laptop. You can get away with spending in the $549 range if you can find a sweet deal. As far as laptops go, I think it's a little ridiculous to have a "gaming" laptop, because it takes A LOT more money to make a laptop perform the same as a PC.

Here's an almost identical laptop to what you were just looking at, except it's a core 2 duo platform, and $150 cheaper
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8001587

If you're not completely stuck on getting a 17" laptop, this is a great deal as well..
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer-Aspire-AS5520-5334-15-4-Laptop-Computer-AS55205334/sem/rpsm/oid/191737/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

****, you can find another stick of DDR2 on newegg for around $30 to throw in there.

[s13curtis]

Aw you ordered it? lol you could have saved yourself a few hundred bucks. One thing newegg is actually overpriced on is laptops..