could this be the best performance laptop for under $1000?

[gwlam12]

for those who are saying that its not my celeron, what else could it be?

are you guys running on battery power?

i have 384 mb of ram.

i blame the celeron because when i am running on AC power, everything is fine. When I'm running on battery power, everything is not fine. Maybe it's just because I have a Dell. 🙂

 

[Bekker]

Originally posted by: EverydayTreats

I've a Celly 2.2 Inspiron with 512 megs ram and it is quite fast enough for anything I throw at it. Truth be known, this forum is overloaded with power seekers who are often heavily into gaming and keeping up with the latest and fastest. Outside this world the great majority have no need for any extreme speed for, after all, where will it ever show up except in gaming, video, etc. production, and maybe cad and programming. Most of outsiders use the compuer for Office applications, which generally fly with a 2.2 gig Celly with sufficient ram. Web surfing is no faster with a P4. After all, if you buy an Inspiron or other low end machine the graphics are going to be bad anyway. Hence, why pay the premium for a P4?

Everybody in this world like to have a thing called "unrestricted". That is how america was created, to keep order without restricting too much. And we here are always talking about free speech and our rights but yet would settle for a machine that is restricted. IMO

The truth is, graphics are now important, not for gaming or presentation or production. Graphics have become important because we have a thing called entertainment. We all watch movies or do entertaining things and I can't imagine a machine that can't do such a simple task without stuttering.

Are you sure you have tried a Celly any newer than about a 366 or simply listened to too many myths? I have DVD and have no probs whatsoever and also streaming video, which works great. I would like to have a P3.06 or whatever, but only for bragging rights since I certainly don't need one.

 

[whizkid]

My opinion.....

COMPAQ LAPTOP /DESKTOP ----> NEVER BUY.. always bugged, H/Ware crashes often.. VERY BAD cust. Ser. Many
experiences.
HP ----> Can consider
DELL ----> GOOD EALS, SO CAN BUY, VERY GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE, ANOTHER TOPS......
AND BASICALLY WE GET DEALS MOST OF THE TIMES ON DELL LAPPIES....

SONY ----> ANYTIME THE BEST.. but the prices are too high... :-(

 

[gwlam12]

how about averatec? i believe its $800 after rebates at office depot.

 

[myelvis]

" YOU ARE KIDDING, right? LOL"


Yup toshiba man ,... but offcourse not good for the ppl who laughs a lot 🙂

No hard feelings ...

Like they say opinions are like BUTTs, every one has one 🙂

 

[Dacalo]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
I would look elsewhere first, off the top of my head:

1) Wait for another Dell Inspiron 5100/5150 deal for around $700 after coupon, rebate, free upgrades and free shipping.

2) Check out some HP/Compaq models such as these found on xpBargains.com

• HP has free shipping on your entire order w/ a $250+ item. better yet, get 10% off any item $250+ (excludes refurbs) w/ Coupon Code, exp 12/4.
  
  $50 drop + free wireless LAN upgrade from 802.11b to 54g + free 15" SXGA+ upgrade from 15" XGA! New Customizable HP Pavilion ZE5500 notebook w/ Celeron 2.6GHz, 256MB DDR, 30GB, DVD, 15" SXGA+ screen, Mobility Radeon 7000, modem/NIC, XP Home for $999 - 10% HP coupon - $100 rebate (exp 12/1) = $799 w/ free shipping.
• HP has free shipping on your entire order w/ a $250+ item. better yet, get 10% off any item $250+ (excludes refurbs) w/ Coupon Code, exp 12/4.
  
  New PentiumM processor and large 15.4" WVA WXGA (1280x800) display.
  
  $100 drop! New Customizable HP Pavilion zt3000 Notebook w/ PentiumM-1.4GHz, 256MB DDR, 30GB, CD-ROM, Modem/NIC, 15.4" WXGA, 32MB Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200, modem/NIC, XP Home for $1224 - 10% HP coupon - $100 rebate (exp 3/1/04) = $1002 w/ free shipping.
• HP has free shipping on your entire order w/ a $250+ item. better yet, get 10% off any item $250+ (excludes refurbs) w/ Coupon Code, exp 12/4.
  
  Now minimum is 1.4GHz insdead of 1.3GHz, good reviews. Customizable Compaq Presario X1000 notebook w/ PentiumM 1.4GHz, 30GB, 256MB, DVD, 15.4 inch WXGA (1280 x 800), 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, modem/NIC, XP Home for only $1249 - 10% coupon - $100 rebate (exp 3/1/04) = $1024 w/ free shipping.

Of those choices the excellent Compaq X1000 gets my vote, awesome Centrino equipped laptop.

Those are some awesome deals.

I like the X1000 myself but I heard some horror stories about it's ethernet card and freezing problems.

 

[wfay]

Originally posted by: FranksAndBeans
I'll be captain obvious here and tell you that has nothing to do with the Celeron, buddy. I'm typing this on a 1.8 GHz Celeron Toshiba (1415-S173), to which I added another stick of ram (for 512 total). Coincidentally I also currently have 87 meg Unigraphics NX assembly file, a 74 slide Powerpoint project, a 4 meg Excel file, Lotus Notes, and Internet Explorer running with a second monitor spanned. It does this every day and will also run C&C generals or UT2003 at modest settings at the end of the day.

Anyone that blindly says Celerons are not sufficient isn't smart enough to realize not everyone needs to run a FPS at 100 FPS. Past that, they are also not smart enough to realize that 99% of all laptops will be limited by:

- Graphics hardware, graphics hardware, GRAPHICS HARDWARE!!!
- HDD subsystem
- Memory

And even a P4 3.06 lappy will blow if you don't have these parts to up to par to match it.

I have that same Tosh 1415-s173 and upgraded the memory, added wifi-b minipci card, and its GREAT. I use it for work (java development) and play (various games, thanks to geforce2go they are playable). I can't say enough good things about Toshiba laptops.

 

[daveshel]

For that money you could get an Athlon. Narrows the field a bit, since Dell is way up Intel's ass, but there are deals on HP Athlons.

 

[MontyBurns]

The blanket statements about Celerons are pretty ill-informed. All chips are different, and there are a wide range of Celerons. You can't simply say every Celeron is better or worse than an entire other class of chips.

I think people here are smart enough to know that a P4 2.0 Ghz runs faster than a Celeron 2.0 Ghz.

 

[daveshel]

OK Monty, but at any given price point, a PC equipped with an Athlon will outperform a similarly equipped Celeron every time.

 

[cmetz]

TEAMSTI, I got in on one of the HP Pavilion ZE400 CTO (AMD) deals. I have the Athlon XP-M 2200+. In terms of CPU performance, it's quite a good box, especially for the $720 net I paid for it. The main downsides to this system are size, weight, and a horribly slow HD (many laptops have the last problem). I don't think a 2.4GHz Celeron would perform nearly as well.

The thing to keep in mind with laptops is that there are several different important variables, and often CPU performance isn't the big one. You may value size, weight, battery life, screen size, keyboard feel, or I/O more than that. In my case, having a CD-RW and a 15" screen were very important to me, and the HP deal gave me both. I'd strongly urge you to think about what's important in a laptop and take a look at the one you're thinking about buying, and make sure it satsfies all your needs. Most of the time, the difference between an Athlon 2400+, a P4 2.4, and a Celeron 2.4 will not really matter - it'll be either plenty fast, or they all won't be fast enough 😉

When I was looking, Dell was in one of their non-deal modes, and HP was just plain the best out there. I don't think HP's running the 10%-off-everything deal they used to be, but they still have pretty aggressive pricing, on both AMD & Intel based systems (for the same price, IMO, the AMD wins, but if you'd really rather have Intel they do that too). Circuit City and some other B&M stores often have deals on HP laptops, but they include memory & disk upgrades that you're best off getting aftermarket (everyone gouges you on memory & disk upgrades, while this season especially there are plenty of deals on 'em as parts). I'm sure HP's customer service is awful, but in my case, it was completely painless and easy to order from their web site and I had my laptop just shy of two weeks later, custom built and drop-shipped from Shanghai.

 

[noiretoile]

Originally posted by: whizkid
My opinion.....

COMPAQ LAPTOP /DESKTOP ----> NEVER BUY.. always bugged, H/Ware crashes often.. VERY BAD cust. Ser. Many
experiences.
HP ----> Can consider

The Hp and Compaq I looked at were exactly the same, minus the cosmetic changes. The compaq was $25 cheaper due to the software bundle according to the hpshopping rep.

 

[cmetz]

whizkid, HP & Compaq notebooks both appear to be OEMed from Compal, just with different color plastic and a different logo on it. Same exact electronics.

Compaq desktops I have issues with.

 

[dmw16]

Doesn't seem stellar. I just got a Dell Inspiron 1100 w/ about the same specs. Well I ordered it, but it wont be here till right before xmas. It has 14" screen and a 20gig HD. But other than that it is the same as that laptop you described. I payed $608 (after $250 MIR), but that was with the larger battery so that brought the price up $30. So it would have been $578.

-doug

 

[Bekker]

Totally agree. Because of past experiences with Athlon, I really like them, maybe better than Pentiums. I have HP P 450 MHz that is the doggiest machine I ever had. My 300 MHz AMD ran circles around it. Then again, I have a 300 Mhz Pent Gateway laptop that seems more like a 1 gigger. Very quick. At the office I use a 550 Pentium that flies, mainly because it is a scuzzi setup. At home a 950 Athlon I love. There are many good choices out there now. My employer is having me choose a desktop replacement now and I am really torn ... want another notebook, but hate giving up a desktop. If I do get another notebook, it will have a Centrino or Pentium of some kind since it does not come out of my pocket .... have been given a limit of about $2,000 and hate to commit. I got to use a Dell 600 Notebook with a 1.4 MHz Cent. and loved it. Night and day difference in weight, build, and so on compared to my Inspiron. Decisions, decisions! Wish I could get an IBM, but those are out of the acceptable range.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: IgoByte

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: IgoByte
Celeron & Performance don't really go together. . .

Well considering a system like this has integrated graphics I doubt it's going to be a gaming rig. Even so, a Celeron 2.0+ will run rings around any used P3 based laptop that might cost only a little less than the Dell 1100 currently going for $575 AR.

Really? a Cellie 2GHz CPU will run circles around a PIIIM 1.13GHz, for example? My experience has been contrary and the used notebooks that have PIIIM CPUs are of much better quality overall than these new budget notebooks...

Sure it will, there's a lot more raw processing power of a Celeron 2+ than any P3 based system, look the benchmarks up yourself. Course there's a lot more going on in a laptop that just the processor. Insufficient ram (I'll take a P2-350 with 512mb RAM rather than a P4-3.06 with only 128mb), hard drive is a BIG issue as 2.5" drives are several orders of magnitude slower than modern 3.5"'s, and of course the video makes a world of difference if doing any gaming.

And quality of the system has nothing to do with this entire thread. If you want build quality, then get yourself an Apple.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Lets just say...

IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO USE IT FOR.

You should consider some of the factory refurbs., or used lappys.

I picked up a Toshiba Satelite 5205-S503, for $750.00. It truly is just like new (still has all the stickers on it). However they no longer make this laptop (I don't care, as that is the way technology is... here today, better, faster, tomorrow). With buyer protection, shipping.... I am out $850.00. This sports a Pent4 "M" (processor) 2.0 Ghz. DVD/CDRW, BUILT IN HARMON KARDON WITH SUBWOOFER speakers! (the best sounding lappy out there), "Dedicated memory on the video card - 32 mb, instead of shared memory. Super long battery life, firewire, modem/NIC, 512mb ram, 15" screen XP installed, and lots of other great features. For me..... I think this is far better than a celeron laptop. But I intend on doing more with it than check email.

I would not pay more than $500-$600 for a celeron laptop myself. I think you should consider what you want to use it for.

 

[lepper boy]

I believe the hp 10% thing ends tomorrow..

 

[ChipMaker]

Actually, I am into chip manufacturing. Guys, the secret is that these corporations want you to keep arguing about which one is a better chip. The reality is that if you have a better luck, your processors survive long enough till you find something new in the market. To make more money, these processors are given a shorter life cycle after which they become ineffective and start causing problems. Then one has no choice but to pat their pockets again to buy a new laptop ...

 

[Muhbush]

I am thinking get a lop for college next year, but since i missed the deal of IBM 20% off I don't see any deal for thinkpad X31..1.5K is too much for me..

2 bad..

 

[jrichrds]

Toshiba's A15 line is the successor to their 1415 line. But unlike the 1415, it uses an integrated graphics solution rather than a dedicated graphics solution (like the nVidia GeForce4 420 GO in the 1415-S173 mentioned a couple times in this thread).

Mobile Celerons have double the cache of desktop Celerons. The Toshiba A15 and 1415 use mobile Celerons. Dell's equivalent offering, their Inspiron 1100, uses desktop Celerons - slower, hotter, and more power hungry.

But 2Ghz+ in either mobile or desktop Celeron is plenty for the majority of general users. It seems the same pointless argument comes up in every Celeron laptop thread. There's always those who fully well know a budget laptop is going to have a Celeron, but come into the threads anyways to put some pointless comment about how the Celeron is crap. I'm betting a some of these people couldn't even tell you the difference between them off-hand. It's a good scapegoat for poor performance though, especially with the inexpeirenced who have no clue what's actually causing their performance problem but see a bunch of posts about how the Celeron sucks.

If you had the need for top performance, you wouldn't be shopping for a sub-$800 laptop. And I don't see any of these people asking about the Hard drive - that's one of the largest bottlenecks in modern laptops. You can have 2Ghz+ CPUs in laptops, but paired with the typical 4200rpm laptop hard drive, it's going to feel slower in general responsiveness than a 1Ghz PC with a 7200rpm hard drive.

I'd rather get a good price on a mobile Celeron laptop and have money left over to purchase a new-generation 40GB/platter 5400rpm or 30GB/platter 7200rpm laptop hard drive, than spend more to get a P4 and be stuck with the default 4200rpm slug. If price is no object, then get the best of both worlds. But when it comes to sub-$800 laptops, it's about overall value.

As for the A15-S129, $799 is warm, but nothing special. I've seen it at this price quite a few times.

 

[udonoogen]

the $499 toshiba laptop deal from best buy's black friday was a good deal

 

[Lurker1]

Originally posted by: gwlam12
for those who are saying that its not my celeron, what else could it be?

are you guys running on battery power?

i have 384 mb of ram.

i blame the celeron because when i am running on AC power, everything is fine. When I'm running on battery power, everything is not fine. Maybe it's just because I have a Dell. 🙂

Sounds like a battery problem - too low a voltage, or not enough amperage. If you're still under warranty, call Dell.

As for the Celeron argument, for many things, a newer Celeron is just about as fast as the same class P4. That's right, if you're bounded by memory, HD, or CD/DVD response, it doesn't matter what processor you have. The main things I look for, after adequate memory (at least 512MB as a bare minimum) are decent, non-shared graphics (eats into memory and usually are much slower with most architectures used today) and a decent hard drive.

The only time a P4 is faster is when you're doing heavy crunching. Guess what? Word, Powerpoint, etc, do not do heavy crunching. Even Web Browsing is usually not heavy crunching, and is more limited by network speeds and HD speeds than anything else.

I happen to have 2 systems with 2.4GHz Celeron and P4 sitting side by side. For most day to day tasks, they are indistinguishable. I do notice a difference when I program, as the Celeron has a SCSI RAID setup, and the P4 has a nice quiet IDE. The RAID setup blows away the IDE, but the noise level is generally too great, and it sits in the off-state most of the time now.

I too am in the market for a laptop. My main consideration is going to be battery life, followed by graphics, then HD, and then memory amount. Battery life will dictate 90% of the choice of type of laptop, regarding CPU and screen. Graphics will decide which one of that small collection. HD and memory can be modified, so it then becomes an issue of cost.

 

[Aravot]

Since we are on topic of sub $1000 laptops, which one of these two laptops is better in terms of battery life, performance, durability and after buy customer support.
I bought both during BF sale, one from CompUSA the other from BestBuy.
Compaq Persario 1282us or Toshiba A15-S1292

Thank you

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: Bekker
I've a Celly 2.2 Inspiron with 512 megs ram and it is quite fast enough for anything I throw at it. Truth be known, this forum is overloaded with power seekers who are often heavily into gaming and keeping up with the latest and fastest. Outside this world the great majority have no need for any extreme speed for, after all, where will it ever show up except in gaming, video, etc. production, and maybe cad and programming. Most of outsiders use the compuer for Office applications, which generally fly with a 2.2 gig Celly with sufficient ram. Web surfing is no faster with a P4. After all, if you buy an Inspiron or other low end machine the graphics are going to be bad anyway. Hence, why pay the premium for a P4?
And, Adobe Phyotoshop does not require a super processor. I used it quite often with a 300 pentium and had no problems at all.
To me, it is often a matter of overkill or a "whose got the biggest baddest processor?" Just my 2 cents

Yeah cept that laptop he shows only has 256MB ram, which might be cutting it close for XP.