New Laptop ... need help choosing a reliable one

[b4u]

Hi There,

My brother in law is thinking about buying a laptop pc. I told him I could gather some info and help him choosing, so here I am, getting some more info from the best source around

So first of all, the brand ... I don't really know if there are substantial differences between brands, but anyway my order of choosing would be:

1. HP (because of those wide screens I saw around, don't know if others also have them) HP zd7000 Pavilion series
2. Toshiba (I worked with some of them, and they seem reliable)
3. Compaq
4. Dell

So would you disagree with this list?


Now for the specs ... the laptop is mainly for work, but the person may give a casual go at a game or too ... nothing serious, that would make him choose an ATI 9800 256Mb if we were talking about desktop pc's.

Anyway, a laptop with good performance would bring a medium/good graphic board, so I believe it would be able to handle some games (not talking about HL2 nor DOOM3 at high settings).

So what would be a good choice for graphic card? I don't know the products available from ATI/NVIDIA on mobilie market, and if I find a laptop, I don't know if I'm buying the newest or oldest graphics from the manufacturer.

And what would be a good choice for processor? I believe P4 would be the way to go, but how many flavours there are? I heard about a Centrino, which I believ it's a "Mobile-Celeron" from P4 core ...

Gimme some clues, to help me choosing a good machine. I'm thinking about one for myself, but maybe latter. So any knowledge would serve my personal option too.

I'm googling for some more info from the manufacturers right now.


Thanks

 

[Abhi]

Hi b4u ...

First, here is the order in which i would personally rate the brands

1) IBM
2) Toshiba
3) Dell
4) HP/Compaq

Also, the best processor is the Pentium M (Cetrino), NOT the P4...
There is also AMD64 laptops for sale these days... so check them out if battery life isnt your priority...

 

[b4u]

Thanks for the answer.

Why is Centrino better than P4? I see bigger clockspeeds with P4's than with Centrinos ... I know that clock speed isn't everything, but looking at a Centrino 1.7Ghz and a P4 3.06Ghz w/ HT the option seems to be on P4's side ...

 

[ForceCalibur]

First of all, what kind of "work" does your brother do. Is this laptop a "on the go" one, or more of desktop replacement that he can just take home at the end of the day.

If it's a truly mobile system:

Pick a Centrino based or Athlon 64 based processor. The former has wonderful battery life. Theres alot of info about processor speeds and "real life" performance, and especially Intel's GIgaherzt naming scheme, but if you've been reading up on the news, you'll know that Gighz does NOT = performance. Intel is now changing its naming scheme to one like AMDs.
Centrino is just a name for the set of chipset + processor with integrated wireless, but the processor itself is called Pentium - M. A pentium M 1.7 gigahertz (currently the top, but we will see 2 gigahertz in May), with 400mhz FSB, operates at an equivelent to ~2.5 gigahertz pentium 4. It also has 1 megabyte of L2 cache, which increases performance by quite a bit. In most applications, especially games, the processor is not the bottleneck, so unless your brother is going to be doing protein synthesis/genome folding at home or whatever, he's not going to need a massive 3.4 gig Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.

If your going with more of a desktop replacement laptop:

Pentium 4s will be fine, but AThlon 64s will be better (but there are very limited options at this point). Make sure to NOT pick an Extreme Edition, as it is ridiculously expensive and offers only slight performance gains from 3.4 gig Northwood (aka, normal P4)

As for your choices of resellers, I would have to ask you what your brother's budget is. I mean, obviously if you want the best for the best price, those you named will most certainly NOT offer you that kind of price-performance ratio. Support? Perhaps. Quality of build/whatever? Sure. Dell may be an exception, since they have pretty POOR support (outsourcing) but good prices and good quality (except for the construction of some it's laptops, namely the Inspiron series, of which many consider lacking in quality).

Anywayz, if you were on a budget like I am, I would consider:

Powernotebooks.com
PCtorque.com
Dell
eMachines
Cyberpower.com

If I was a bit more enthusiastic (like me)

Hypersonic-pc.com

Now I'm not trying to dissuade you from Toshiba/HP/Compaq, its just that those companies don't offer you good price performance ratio that's all. If money is not a big deal ofcourse, you could just go to a few sites you know and a few I've mentioned and configure some, and compare and see which you like best.

 

[Abhi]

When comparing P4s to Pentium Ms... Performance of Pentium M GHZ * 1.5 = Comparable P4 performance

That is to say that a Pentium M 1.7ghz will perform close to a P4 2.53 ghz.

The pentium M has 1 mb l2 cache. Add to that good battery life.

I myself own a Pentium 4 M, a mobile version of the p4, with lower power consumption than the desktop models.

 

[Abhi]

BTW... Best built and best supported laptops are IBMs...

Unfortunately they are the most expensive as well. You normally get a similarly configured Dell at 60% the price of an IBM.

So if quality is important to you.. the best business laptop in my opinion is an IBM.

 

[aakerman]

If he needs an on-the-go machine, get a thin-and-light or even ultraportable.. good choices would be the ibm t41 (2.2kg) or x31 (1.6kg), if he has the cash - that will buy you the best notebook keyboard around, and since you're going to be typing an awful lot on it, that's no small concern.

Try not to get too blinded by the "widescreen" displays of some notebooks, they are really best suited for desktop replacements.

 

[Wuzup101]

I'd have to go with IBM T41 if he has the cash. The keyboard and support alone are worth the extra cash over a dell (which would be my next choice split w/ toshiba). If he needs ultra portable the fugi 5020D lifebook or the sony tr series would fit the bill.

 

[b4u]

Thanks for your answers, they have really cleared up my mind

I still have one more question regarding P4M vs P4 ...

I have a P4 2.4c desktop machine, and since P4's are quad-pumped, that would make it a 100MHz*4*6(multiplier) ... for a FSB of 800MHz.

The processor works internally as a 400MHz (100*4), but communicates with the bus at 800MHz (double wide bus).

If I overclock it to say 120MHz, that will make it a 120*4*6= P4 2.88GHz.

Now looking at the P4M (Centrino), if I follow the same generic architecture calculations, I find that a P4M 1.4GHz it's a 100MHz*4*3.5.

A P4M 1.8 it's a 133MHz*4*3.5.

A P4M 1.7 it's a ... what?

Am I correct, or am I missing something?

 

[replicator]

Originally posted by: b4u
Thanks for your answers, they have really cleared up my mind

I still have one more question regarding P4M vs P4 ...

I have a P4 2.4c desktop machine, and since P4's are quad-pumped, that would make it a 100MHz*4*6(multiplier) ... for a FSB of 800MHz.

The processor works internally as a 400MHz (100*4), but communicates with the bus at 800MHz (double wide bus).

If I overclock it to say 120MHz, that will make it a 120*4*6= P4 2.88GHz.

Now looking at the P4M (Centrino), if I follow the same generic architecture calculations, I find that a P4M 1.4GHz it's a 100MHz*4*3.5.

A P4M 1.8 it's a 133MHz*4*3.5.

A P4M 1.7 it's a ... what?

Am I correct, or am I missing something?

I dunno what the exact comparison is, but as the others said, a PM 1.7 is about equivalent in performance to a P4 2.5

Remember though that a P4M is NOT a PM (Used in centrino)

Pentium M uses P3 architecture

 

[gopunk]

well as everyone else said, ibm is heads and shoulders above the rest... don't have much else to add except i love my t41