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Help with new laptop choice

B

BG4533

Golden Member
I am thinking about buying a new laptop, but I am having trouble deciding what to get. I could spend $1500 or so now and get a decent IBM that will need to last me a few years or I could spend $700 or so now on a Dell or something similar and get a new one in a year or two if I want. The $700 is a bit more in my price range right now anyway.

I already have a decent desktop, so I only need something for portable use. The laptop will be mainly for web browsing and email. I also plan on using it for movies and GPS stuff. I doubt I will ever play games on it. It will dual boot XP and linux (probably Debian).

I am set on a widescreen now for movies. I need a DVD drive, but I don't need a DVD burner. I will upgrade RAM and HD as necessary. Will the onboard graphics be adequate for watching movies and GPS stuff? Will I see any advantage with a dedicated graphics card? For my uses will I see much of a difference between say a 1.6GHz Pentium M and even a 2GHz Pentium M. Anything else I need to look into?

I guess the biggest question is should I go cheap or splurge and get an IBM? If I go cheap it will probably be a Dell B130 or 6000. Anything other brands or models to consider?
 
Nothing prohibits you from going cheap and getting an IBM. I just got an R50e two weeks ago for $599:
Celeron M 1.4, 14.1" screen (I prefer this size over 15"), 256MB ram, 40GB HDD, 24x CD, Intel 2200BG wireless. It's not expensive to upgrade your own ram and HDD, like you've pointed out, but in addition, getting a lower clocked Dothan on ebay (like a 1.5) shouldn't run more than $70. Also depending on if you're watching movies on the go, you could use an external DVD or even a burner.

If you're intent on widescreen though, IBM might not be the choice because their Z60t notebooks are pretty expensive, and the Z60m's aren't that portable. If you want a cheap, fairly portable widescreen, the compaq v2000/z notebooks seem pretty nice for the price. Since you won't be gaming, any old integrated graphics is fine. As for CPU speed, I'd say that any old dothan is fine (if your notebook comes with a celeron m standard, upgrading shouldn't be hard). Most of the time, the cpu underclocks itself anyway, and a dothan 1.5 or 1.6 should be plenty of cpu power.
 
I am a student at Ohio State and we get a decent discount on IBM machines.

For $1042 I can get:
IBM Z60M
1.73GHz, 40GB HD, 512MB RAM
DVD/CDRW, Radeon X300, wireless, gigabit ethernet

A similarly configured Dell Inspiron 6000 will cost me ~$800 and I can probably get that down even more with all of Dells deals. A Dell B130 will be even less.

Is the IBM worth $250+ more than the dell?

What I would really love to get is the IBM Z60T AMEX has a deal on for $1566:
2GHz Pentium M, 1GB RAM, 100GB HD, DVDRW, X600, higher res LCD
 
I am just all over the place in terms of what I want. Originally I wanted an ultraportable type machine. Something lightweight with nice battery life. Then I leaned toward the full size machine. Now I am thinking I should go ultraportable. I bought a Gateway solo 5300 about 4.5 years ago. I left it at home a lot because it was big and heavy. A lot of the machines I have been looking at are even bigger and heavier. I guess I just need 2 laptops...
 
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