Buying a laptop for my wife

[PascalT]

Shopping for a new laptop for my wife. She uses her laptop almost all day writing and browsing the net mostly. She doesn't travel with it and won't play games on it.


On dell.ca:

Intel® Pentium® dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB
Genuine Windows Vista? Home Premium
15.4 inch UltraSharp? Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife?
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive edit
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
256MB ATI MOBILITY? RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory?
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless
Integrated Audio

749.00 CAD


Then there's this one:

Mobile AMD Sempron? 3500+ (1.8GHz/512KB)
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife? (not WXGA+)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
256MB ATI MOBILITY? RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory?
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Integrated Audio

649.00 CAD


And finally, on Best Buy:

AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50
15.4" WXGA High-Definition Brightview Widescreen (1280 X 800) Display
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (UMA)
1024MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
100GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Weighs only 2.99 kg and measures just 3.96 cm thin for easy portability.
1 ExpressCard/54 Supports ExpressCard/34 (is that wireless?)

749.00 CAD


So the 2nd one has a Sempron instead of an Intel Dual Core, doesn't have WXGA+, but has 40gb more hard drive space. For those differences is it worth to save 100.00 or to get the Dual Core/WXGA? Is the Sempron A LOT slower? What about the Compaq one at Best Buy? Is compaq a better option?

thanks for any advice.

 

[gus6464]

Get something with a c2d so that it will last her longer. Sempron performance is pretty crappy even if shes just going to be doing the basic stuff. And the video card is overkill too.

This is a nice gateway for the price at best buy canada. My mother in law bought the same model when vista came out and its a pretty nice laptop for the price. Vista runs pretty good on it.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/...5F799&logon=&langid=EN

 

[PascalT]

That's a smaller monitor tho, which is not very good. She would need 15.4". Would an Intel Dual Core (Not c2d) perform that much better than a Turion X2?

 

[gus6464]

For the most part any chip based on Pentium M (yonah (core duo), merom (core 2 duo)) will perform better than Turions in both performance and battery life. The T2080 is actually a yonah with 1mb of cache disabled. I have owned turion laptops and honestly the battery life does not compare to the intel chips.

 

[Brainonska511]

The Turion X2 is a little slower than the Core Duo. In any case, I can't see your wife performing any activities where she will notice the difference between a Turion or Core processor, except when it comes to battery time, but you said your wife won't be traveling around with it.

 

[Matt2]

I just bought a laptop almost exactly the same as Option #1.

Toshiba Sattelite
Core Duo T2080
2GB RAM (Came withbought 512mb, bought a 2GB kit)
80GB HD
15.4" widescreen (1280x800)
ATI Mobility X200
etc..

I got it for $600 US after buying the 2GB kit and I couldnt be happier with it. I use this laptop for school, web browsing, no games and it is perfect.

I would recommend #1 for sure.

 

[Kadarin]

Writing and browsing the web? Hell, a Pentium III machine would be fully capable of that...

 

[Athena]

What do the first 2 weigh? When it comes to a portable, I don't want a desktop replacement, I want the lightest option available. And why the giant screen? If she's doing mostly Office and browsing, a smaller screen will be fine if it means a lighter unit.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Athena
What do the first 2 weigh? When it comes to a portable, I don't want a desktop replacement, I want the lightest option available. And why the giant screen? If she's doing mostly Office and browsing, a smaller screen will be fine if it means a lighter unit.

"She uses her laptop almost all day writing and browsing the net mostly. She doesn't travel with it and won't play games on it."

This scenario makes weight almost a non-issue. It really describes a "portable" desktop.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: corkyg
"She uses her laptop almost all day writing and browsing the net mostly. She doesn't travel with it and won't play games on it."

This scenario makes weight almost a non-issue. It really describes a "portable" desktop.

Not true

A man might see it that way but a heavy machine in ones lap is no more comfortable on the sofa than it is in an airplane seat. And a big screen is still cumbersome no matter where you are. And the first time she wants to take it anywhere at all, she'll wish that it was really portable.

 

[PascalT]

thanks for all the replies.

The laptops are just 3kg in weight at most, so portability are not really an issue with any of them. She uses it on the table/couch 99% of the time, so it'll be fine in any size below 17".

With the battery life being better than the Turion I might just go with the Core Duo one at Dell.ca (the one on Best Buy doesn't seem to have wireless in it already)

 

[Brainonska511]

The Bestbuy laptop listed above does have wireless:

10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port), 802.11g Wireless LAN

 

[Matt2]

Good choice going with #1.

I would recommend that you ditch the 2*512 DIMMs and get her a cheap 2GB kit.

1GB is barely enough to run Vista Premium and she's going to have less than 1GB of system memory because it is shared with the GPU.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Athena

Not true A man might see it that way but a heavy machine in ones lap is no more comfortable on the sofa than it is in an airplane seat. And a big screen is still cumbersome no matter where you are. And the first time she wants to take it anywhere at all, she'll wish that it was really portable.[/quote]

I guess we can just disagree - I almost never see anyone using a notebook computer on one's lap. That is mot a good idea. It messes up the cooling system and the heat can be very uncomfortable. If she wants to take it somewhere, just pop it into a roll-on case and tow it.

Agree about the big screen. I had a 9# 17-incher a few years ago - went to a 15 wide screen, now back to a 14 in Thinkpad T60. But I travel and carry it all over the place - domestic and abroad. If I did not have to do that, I would prefer to work on a 17-incher.

Cheers!

 

[zig3695]

is the power difference between the turions and the core2's really that different? i know the core2's are a good deal quicker, but i thought the amd's had low power consumption too.

 

[gus6464]

Originally posted by: zig3695
is the power difference between the turions and the core2's really that different? i know the core2's are a good deal quicker, but i thought the amd's had low power consumption too.

Turion power consumption is decent but still doesnt compare to the core architecture. AMD is still ways away from competing with intel in the mobile cpu market.

 

[PascalT]

Since dell ends its sale I had to look elsewhere and found these two:

Gateway MX6960 (refurbished):
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/appl...dpNo=2986812&body=MAIN

and

Hp Compaq 530:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/appl...pNo=3071658&CatId=1891

They're the same price but one is refurbished (3 months warranty instead of 12), and the Gateway one has a faster processor/bigger hard drive. Those are only major differences.

Which one would you recommend? Is the screen on the HP a glossy/reflective one?

Thanks

 

[zig3695]

Originally posted by: gus6464

Originally posted by: zig3695
is the power difference between the turions and the core2's really that different? i know the core2's are a good deal quicker, but i thought the amd's had low power consumption too.

Turion power consumption is decent but still doesnt compare to the core architecture. AMD is still ways away from competing with intel in the mobile cpu market.

well any market really. theres no doubt the core2 desktop chips are better all around then any amd chip. that said, its not a noticeable difference for most people. i do notice my new turion x2 laptop cranks out some heat, i was a little surprised by how quickly it warmed up. oh well, the 9 cell battery lasts over 5 hours... if i need my laptop away from a plug for longer then that i need a life.

 

[PascalT]

Well her laptop died all of a sudden tonight so we went out and bought one in a store. We got an Acer Aspire with an intel Dual Core (1.7ghz I think), 1gb of ram, 160gb HDD, 17" WXGA screen, wireless, etc. It was on sale at 799.00 and I think it was a great buy (for now anyway!).

 

[gus6464]

Originally posted by: zig3695

Originally posted by: gus6464

Originally posted by: zig3695
is the power difference between the turions and the core2's really that different? i know the core2's are a good deal quicker, but i thought the amd's had low power consumption too.

Turion power consumption is decent but still doesnt compare to the core architecture. AMD is still ways away from competing with intel in the mobile cpu market.

well any market really. theres no doubt the core2 desktop chips are better all around then any amd chip. that said, its not a noticeable difference for most people. i do notice my new turion x2 laptop cranks out some heat, i was a little surprised by how quickly it warmed up. oh well, the 9 cell battery lasts over 5 hours... if i need my laptop away from a plug for longer then that i need a life.

Yeah my old Turion ML-36 laptop would get insanely hot after an hour of usage. Havent encountered this problem with core based or pentium m based laptops.

 

[zig3695]

mine dont get insanley hot, but it can be a bit uncomfortable on my lap. it is summer though, in the winter this will be a welcomed problem.

its also a 2.0ghz stock chip, i suppose i could undervolt/underclock this maybe... bah who cares i just ran for over 4 hours on the battery with full lcd brightness and movies runnin galore. sweet. it wont be long before we get those methane powered laptops that dont need recharging, just fill er up and go.

 

[zig3695]

edit for DP


figure it out