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recommendations for Core 2 Duo laptop w/Windows Vista

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phryguy

Member
I'm in the market to replace my falling apart ancient Dell Inspiron 4000 (Celeron 800 mhz laptop) that I bought in Oct 01. The new laptop will not be my primary machine (have an Athlon 64 3200+ system running WinXP and 1 gig of RAM).

I'm looking for a Core 2 Duo laptop (preferably 2 ghz or higher), must come w/Vista (don't want to deal w/driver hassles or weirdness if it comes w/XP and I have to blow it away and install Vista, find drivers, find that some drivers have probs, etc.), decent video hardware (no crap Intel GMA 950), 7200 rpm hard drive, DVD burner, have a screen <17" (I don't want a huge beast), not be too heavy (<7 lbs.). With 2 gigs of RAM (I'm ok w/buying the base amount and buying more from crucial.com), I'd want the system to be under $2K (well under if possible).

If the system has a Core Duo, a Turion, 5400 rpm drive or crap integrated video, I don't want it. 17" LCD laptops are also too big and heavy.

The brand must be reasonably reliable too. I hear of too many people have troubles w/Toshiba laptops. Another friend had an older Fujitsu laptop that gave her lots of trouble.

Any recommendations? I glanced around on Dell's site last night and the Inspiron E1505 might fit the bill, but it doesn't let me choose anything faster than the Core 2 Duo T5600 (1.83 ghz) despite their tech specs claiming they offer up to the T7400 (2.16 ghz). The XPS line is rather pricey and usually not eligible for Dell coupons/discounts.

I wonder if the supposed Intel price drop tomorrow will affect mobile CPUs.
 
May be getting one of these soonhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220137

1500 gets you this, just add a stick of 1gb and your good.
CPU
CPU Type Intel Core 2 Duo
CPU Speed T7200(2.00GHz)
CPU FSB 667MHz
CPU L2 Cache 4MB
Chipset
Chipset Intel 945PM
Display
Screen Size 14"
Wide Screen Support Yes
LCD Features Glossy
Display Type Wide XGA+
Resolution 1440 x 900
Operating Systems
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
Graphics
GPU/VPU NVIDIA GeForce Go 7700
Video Memory Dedicated 512MB
Graphic Type Dedicated Card
Hard Drive
HD Capacity 120GB
HD RPM 5400rpm
Memory
Memory Slots 2 x DIMM
Memory Speed DDR2 667
Memory Size 1GB
Max Memory Supported 2GB
Memory Spec 1GB x 1
Optical Drive
Optical Drive Type DVD Super Multi
Optical Drive Interface Integrated
Optical Drive Spec 8x Super-Multi DVDRW Dual layer
Communications
Modem 56K
LAN 10/100/1000Mbps
WLAN 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN
IRDA Yes
Ports
Card Slot 1 x Express Card
USB 5
IEEE 1394 1
Video Port 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI, 1 x S-Video TV-out
Audio Ports 1 x Headphone-out jack (SPDIF)
1 x Microphone-in jack
Audio
Audio Integrated Sound card
Speaker Internal Speakers
Input Device
Touchpad Yes
Keyboard Standard
Supplemental Drive
Card Reader MMC, SD, MS, MS PRO
Webcam 0.35 Mega-Pixel web-cam
Power
Battery 6-cell lithium ion
Physical spec
Dimensions 13.19" x 9.65" x 1.37-1.46"
Weight 5.25 lbs.
 
I think I've narrowed my choice to either the Dell Latitude D620 or XPS XM1210 but leaning towards the latter. I found that the E1505 is just too big compared to my Inspiron 4000 (which is already too big). I physically compared them at a Dell kiosk to my Inspiron 4000.

The Lenovo T60 and R60 are almost ruled out because of size.

The above Asus seems ok but the HD is only 5400 rpm.
 
The T60 also comes in 14.1". Weight-wise it's pretty good; the 15.4" version is about 5.5 lbs. I just ordered one after my Macbook failed on me. The main reason for me was the construction (Mg alloy roll cage, probably the best notebook keyboard available).
 
Are you planning on doing much serious gaming or HD Video watching (at 1080p)?
Are you planning on doing hard drive intensive activities such as i'm not sure what?
Are you planning on putting 4GB of RAM into the system, or using 64bit specific applications?

If you answered yes to any of the above three, then I will leave you alone. However, if at any point you answered no, or had to think about it, then you dont need dedicated graphics, a 7200 rpm drive, or a Core 2 Duo. If you can spend less and get a Core Duo, then that is an acceptable compromise.

As far as the graphics go, I have the intel GMA950 and absolutely I wouldn't mind a better graphics card for playing games at a higher res, but honestly in my position, I have had so little time to game that I haven't had a chance to really concentrate on that lately.

The hard drive issue is mostly moot actually, my main thing is that I can usually get more space at 5400 rpm than the same price at 7200 rpm.
 
Originally posted by: phryguy
I think I've narrowed my choice to either the Dell Latitude D620 or XPS XM1210 but leaning towards the latter. I found that the E1505 is just too big compared to my Inspiron 4000 (which is already too big). I physically compared them at a Dell kiosk to my Inspiron 4000.

The Lenovo T60 and R60 are almost ruled out because of size.

The above Asus seems ok but the HD is only 5400 rpm.
Click to expand...
The XPS M1210 is a very thick and heavy 12.1" machine. I don't call it an ultraportable, it is too much for the form factor. The Go 7400 graphics won't game worth a crap and GMA950 runs Vista just fine - so why get it? Beats me

ThinkPad T60 starts at 4.6lbs with 14.1" display. It is about 1" thin IIRC. Too big?

If you want widescreen, you might wait a little:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3657

Why are you talking about buying now? Every news source in the world is saying Santa Rosa is right around the corner.
 
To answer another post, I don't plan to do serious gaming, watch HD video or use 64-bit apps. I doubt I'd go w/4 gigs of RAM eventually either.

I hate laptop drives as they're too slow. Hard drives in general are bottleneck anyways but even more so if the drive is a laptop drive. Getting a 7200 rpm drive at least means lower latency. The space isn't a real issue for me. I have a primary desktop machine w/plenty of space. My old Inspiron 4000 has a 20 gig drive and I still have free space on it.

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Originally posted by: phryguy
The above Asus seems ok but the HD is only 5400 rpm.
Click to expand...
The XPS M1210 is a very thick and heavy 12.1" machine. I don't call it an ultraportable, it is too much for the form factor. The Go 7400 graphics won't game worth a crap and GMA950 runs Vista just fine - so why get it? Beats me

ThinkPad T60 starts at 4.6lbs with 14.1" display. It is about 1" thin IIRC. Too big?

If you want widescreen, you might wait a little:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3657

Why are you talking about buying now? Every news source in the world is saying Santa Rosa is right around the corner.
Click to expand...
As for XPS XM1210 being thick and heavy... well, maybe it's heavy for a 12.1" machine (are there others I should consider that meet my criteria?) but the 14" T60 is starts at 5.1 lbs w/optical drive (the 4.6 lbs is w/o optical drive) and is 12.2" x 10 x 1.0-1.2". The XM1210 is 11.7" x 8.7" x 1.2" and 4.37 lbs WITH optical drive. My (IMHO) too big ancient Inspiron 4000 is 12.5" x 10" x 1.47". I've done of the physical comparisons of the my 4000 vs. XM1210 and I like its size.

I didn't travel THAT much w/my laptop, but when I did, it just sucked carrying it around w/AC brick, 2 batts, optical drive and mouse. That's what I'm leaning towards something smaller and lighter.

As for Santa Rosa, thanks for the heads up. I'm reading up on it now. I normally don't have the time to keep up w/the latest news in CPUs or chipsets when I'm not in the market for something. I hit that stage years ago.

As for why now, Dell offers my company employee discounts on various systems and they have a special deal (it is better than normal prices, and no coupons can be applied to XPSes right now) on XPSes that ends April 30th. I also came to the realization (that for future job reasons) I should have machine @ home running Vista to play around with while I'm loathe to install it on my (currently working fine) Athlon 64 3200+ desktop. At the same time my current laptop is getting almost intolerable since it's ancient...

update: Ok, from all the enhancements of Santa Rosa, I'm now leaning towards holding off till it ships. Thanks!
 
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