Need laptop advice

[DGolem]

I'm finally going to get a new laptop but the market has changed so much I wouldn't know what to buy.

Right now I have a UMax I got cheap from ebay with no display and no power supply but since UMax sells scanners now they won't sell me an adapter and a universal one from RadioShack is like $80. I figure screw it, time for a new laptop that I can play UT2003 on .

What I'm looking for is a laptop with a decent amount of ram. 192mb or 256mb would be nice. A 15gb hdd maybe. Has to have an amd cpu. A dvd drive would be nice. An onboard nvidia card of some kind. and finally an ethernet NIC. I'd prefer 100 mbits but 10 is ok. Software doesn't matter neither does the OS it comes with because I'll be formatting it and putting on linux and OSS apps. I'm looking to spend $1500 at the most maybe a little more if I have to but well under $2000.

So if anyone could recommend a good model or at least a good company to buy from I'd be very happy.

Last time I looked around for laptops was when it was IBM vs. Compaq + a few minor companies. Now there's Compaq and IBM still + Sony + Dell + Gateway + some more I can't think of. I've tried putting specs into pricewatch but I'm just not getting results and I don't know which companies would be a good place to browse for models..... I guess I'm just used to building comps myself .

 

[DGolem]

I've decided that I'll consider ATI because I finally found out that they do have official linux drivers.

Also I've done some browsing on compaq.com, sony.com, and ibm.com and so far the vaio is looking best. IBM doesn't have any AMD comps and compaq's stats are really confusing, I couldn't figure out if the one I was looking at even had a cd-drive.

Sony VAIO® FXA63 Notebooknull

This one looks good for $1399.99 except I'm not so sure about the 8mb rage. If it's anything like the PCI rage IIc pro it can't do anything useful when it comes to 3d. I'm hoping that since it's a rage mobility it's actually a newer better model that has nothing to do with the old rage line up.

 

[ai42]

This one looks good for $1399.99 except I'm not so sure about the 8mb rage. If it's anything like the PCI rage IIc pro it can't do anything useful when it comes to 3d. I'm hoping that since it's a rage mobility it's actually a newer better model that has nothing to do with the old rage line up.

Man that rage is not going to let you play games at all.

I suggest a Dell Inspiration 8200 laptop. You can get the GeForce 4 Mobile or Radeon 9000 which should play UT2003 pretty nicely. Honestly AMD is terrible at making mobile chips I got a friend with a Persario 700 and it overheats and freezes up on him like mad. Sorry but Intel is the only way to go for a mobile processor.

Also Sony laptops are pretty expensive for what you get, but they have great well built design. Also Gateways are in the same boat. If your going to drop the money into it get a nice one, and the most band for your buck. Cruise the hot deal forums they got deals all the time.

 

[DGolem]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll go intel then if AMDs mobiles aren't any good. That Dell Laptop sounds just like what I need. It comes with 128mb which should be enough since I won't be using bloated windows xp and will instead be using a slim window manager for X like "window maker". Now to find a good deal on it

 

[KoolHonda]

I've owned a Compaq and 2 Dell's (currently an 8200), and I won't be buying another of either brand. My next one's likely to be a Toshiba, but I don't think they offer any video other than Nvidia.

 

[DGolem]

I could go either way with the video. NVidia always seems to have the better framrate but supposedly ati has better crossplatform drivers that are more open. I've used NVidias drivers under linux and they have never been unstable for me like with some people. So in the end I'd probably prefer nvidia. btw, toshiba makes laptops now?

I just checked their website and I'm looking at the Satellite 2410-S204 with Win XP home. It looks pretty good and matches my price range so I'm going to consider this one too.

Satellite 1410-S174
ESUP: $1,399.00
Equipped with a Intel® Celeron® Processor4 1.80GHz, 15.0" TFT active matrix display, 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM, NVIDIA® Geforce4? 420 Go? graphics controller w/16MB VRAM memory, DVD/CD-RW multifunction drive, 30GB1 Hard drive, V.92/56K modem, 10/100 Ethernet LAN and Windows® XP Home Edition. (Optional Service upgradeable Wi-Fi? (802.11b)available).

 

[ai42]

Yeash stay away from Celeron prcocesssors. I learned the hard way. I don't know if they changed it but previous versions of the celeron did not support speedstep which is a big deal and is a huge help on the battery/heat.

 

[KoolHonda]

Both Toshiba and Dell have user forums where you can ask other users opinions of how well they'll handle what you plan on using the puter for. I run XP on my Dell, and after they finally fixed the problem with the modem drivers, it runs fine. However, the build quality is horrendous compared to my brothers Tosh which also runs XP and has never had a problem. Also, I'm not sure about ATI mobile GPU's, but Nvidia's have a powermiser feature similar to Intels speedstep.

 

[DGolem]

I've never really liked celerons or even durons for that matter. They seem to lose too much speed (on a desktop anyway) but I was figuring that in games I wouldn't notice too much with the video card taking most of the workload and I could also save some money (I would never do this on my main computer mind you). I didn't know about speedstep though, is it a power saving feature?

 

[KoolHonda]

Yeah, it throttles the CPU down %20-%30 unless you really need the processing power. It confuses lots of people, bout every day someone's posting on the Dell forum how they paid for a P4 X.XG CPU but it only shows up as a X.Xg when idle.

 

[DGolem]

I think I've heard of that. Does it power down when you're on the battery but run at full speed when you're plugged in?

 

[ai42]

I think I've heard of that. Does it power down when you're on the battery but run at full speed when you're plugged in?

No, it throttles down all the time, however you can change the settings and such. But I honsetly would leave it as it will clock up when you need the power ie playing a game. Also it would seriously heat up your laptops honsetly the P4 running at full blast all the time can get just as hot as mobile Athlons. Also at least for the P4 it can clock down way below 20-30%, it can go down to 200-300mhz range from 1.7Ghz.

 

[alexruiz]

I would suggest still an AMD powered notebook. The freeze problems are usually BIOS or chipset issues.

Check this one Compaq Presario 900
or this one Sony VAIO NVR23

Both of them offer ATI's IGP 320 with radeon 7000 graphics. The sony offers an nvidia GeForce 4 420, but I guess that if you can get a mobility radeon 9000 by separate, you could have that instead!!

Both use DDR as memory, and the FSB of both is 133 MHz. Not to mention that the radeon 7000 graphics are the best for a notebook so far.

Regarding heat, if you have the chance, go to any retailer and check the computers in person.... you would be surprised of how close they are in heat dissipation to the P4-M.
Battery life??? AMD's powernow! is superior to speedsteep or whatever that is called..... and yes, with the same kind of battery, the Athlon notebook will last powered a little longer.
Size??? Both, p4-M and athlon are pretty bulky, but that is the price for portable power.

I am in the market for a laptop myself, and those are my 2 choices.... not to mention that the compaq is about $1300 and has even some rebates.....

As I suggested, do a "test drive" at a retailer near you....

Alex

 

[DGolem]

I was just thinking about stopping at comp usa this weekend. There's also a best buy right next to it in case that doesn't work out.