Help...I'm a newby when it comes to laptop

[Soujiroh]

Hi, I'm thinking about buying a laptop but I don't know what are good deals and what are bad deals. But after looking around, I think this laptop is a very good deal because it has good power for the bucks. I've been leaning towards a dell laptop, which I will mainly be using it for school work and very little gaming.
Here is the link to the page:

http://www1.us.dell.com/conten...s=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

I'm kind of leaning towards the dell inspiron 5160.

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome!

 

[Ken90630]

Hi, Soujiroh,

I'm not that knowledgeable about laptops myself yet, but I do know of a few things you should consider:

1) Laptops with the high-end, really fast Pentium chips can get quite hot -- so hot that some people have to buy a laptop "cooler" to put between their lap and the computer. My guess is that a P4 at 2.8GHz like that Dell 5160 you mention might be a real scorcher (but that's just conjecture -- I don't know it for a fact).

2) You might look at Toshiba and Fujitsu laptops. They typically get very positive reviews, look really sharp, and have good reputations for reliability. You prolly won't find either at a price that'll match a Dell though, so if money's tight (it was when I was in college!), you might wanna go with the Dell. But if performance is more important to you, look at other brands. And if you can find a laptop with an AMD chip rather than a Pentium, it'll run cooler and actually be faster than a P4 on typical Microsoft Office and most Adobe apps (except for Photoshop). Looooonnnngggg explanation on that subject, so I'll skip it here. (I'll assume you won't be getting into overclocking nonsense with your laptop ....)

3) Screen size is one of the key things to consider with laptops. The bigger screen you can afford, the better (obviously). Same with battery life -- compare battery life specs thoroughly before you buy.

Hope these few things help you a little. I'll let those with more laptop experience provide you with the more in-depth stuff.

Ken

 

[modedepe]

How much are you looking to spend? Personally, I would avoid dell. After looking at some of my friends' laptops from them, I am not very impressed with the quality. If you're looking for something that is cool and has good battery life I recommend getting a Pentium M over either a P4 or an A64.

 

[stevty2889]

It depends a lot on how much you want to spend. I think you would be better getting a 1.6ghz-1.8ghz Pentium-m over a Pentium 4 M 2.8ghz, and the probelm with dell laptops, I believe they all use intel extreme graphics, so if you wanna do any gaming on it whatsover it's gonna have pretty crappy performance. The pentium-M runs much cooler, and draws a lot less power, gives you better battery life, and a 1.6 or 1.8ghz pentium-M will perform at least as good as, if not better, than a 2.8ghz mobile P4. Acer makes some good laptops, I would check them out.

 

[isekii]

Check out the Dell 700M when htey go on sale.

wide screen
with the extended battery you get 5-6 hours
wireless and overall a very well built notebook.

it's under $1000 when the go on sale.

 

[AxeMurderer]

I got the Dell 5150 about 8 months ago and am very happy with it. The 5160 is just a little updated 5150. I also do light gaming on it and it works great. Don't listen to what people say about Dell, they are bias and don't own one themselves. For the money you can't beat Dell.

 

[vegetation]

3) Screen size is one of the key things to consider with laptops. The bigger screen you can afford, the better (obviously). Same with battery life -- compare battery life specs thoroughly before you buy.

Not necessarily the case with "bigger is better". Depends on your situation. For many people, the smaller the overall laptop size, the better it is. A 15" screen laptop has a much larger footprint and is quite a bit heavier than a 12". For someone on the go a lot, a 12" is in a completely different category and would never go to a 15" model due to the weight/size issues. On the other hand, someone looking for a desktop replacement would find a 12" model too small and cramped to use all day and night. I'd suggest trying out some laptops by typing on them in a store before committing to a purchase.

 

[PezRadar]

I personally own a toshiba tablet pc..

My list too look for


1) Processor: Pentium M or those desktop type M chips are the big sellers, personally I prefer Pentium M's there lighter on battery life, usually smaller in size and dont heat up nearly as much and arent as loud.

2) Screens: 15,15.4, 12.1, 17 ... what do you go for? Well look at the resolution for sure.. dont go for a 15" screen with a max res of 1024 .. trust me it looks bad look for what you would prefer and most brands are switching over to that same type of material that sony uses on vaio notebooks that "XBrite" stuff.. makes it look clear but with a bit more glare

3) Memory speeds: Some still use 2100 most use 2700 a few use 3200.. look at what you prefer of course if u know desktops you obviously know the differences

4) Graphics: some will come with built in video.. please dont buy these.. please dont buy "shared video" or "integrated video" they will trick you by saying its an ATI, but really its an ATI "SHARING" memory from the mainboard and sucks hard.. Get ones that are "Dedicated" radeons or "Dedicated" geforces

5) Harddrive: Size is of course a factor, but then speeds a big thing.. question hard.. 5400RPM, 4200RPM, 7200RPM.. ? What is it?

6) Battery Life: Big BIG! factor .. its a notebook of course you need decent battery life.. I dont care if its sitting on your desk 75% of the time.. it comes in handy in the most peculiar places (watching tv on the couch while doing work is great )

7) The others.. CD-RW/DVD-RW/Wireless Builtin/Modem/etc etc etc


i do want to double reccomend a laptop cooler if you do go for a laptop that has some nasty probelms with warming your hands too much, i have on for my tablet in laptop mode.. works great.. feels cooler then if ti were off (targus chill pad)