made mainly for my friend, cause then he can refer to it quickly and often. i thought this might be usefull for others, so i posted it here.
A laptop, like a pc, is just a bunch of parts that work together. These are the parts...
Display
Case
Motherboard/video card combo
Processor
RAM
Hard drive
Optical drive
keyboard
pointing device
pcmcia/internal wireless
speakers
extras
branding
price
overclocking
undervolting
DISPLAY
The display is arguably the most important part of the laptop, so go for a quality one. Display size matters in the respect that it is usually the largest screen that the laptop can hold, so it roughly determines the size of the laptop. If you want a small laptop, get one with a small screen. Don't be shyed away from a small screen because it is small, because small screens have many benefits, mainly lower power usage and more portability. However, with size usually comes increased resolution, reduced response rates (people buy small laptops for portability, and generally don't play many games on them, as small laptops are generally not too powerful compared to larger alternatives, so manufacturers can cut costs a bit and get a cheaper screen), and higher contrast ratios. Don't beleive specifications on contrast ratios or response rates stated by the manufacturer as they are often inflated (or deflated) by a marketing staff. To truly judge a screen, you have to physically look at it before you buy it. About resolution, try to get as high resolution as possible UNLESS you have trouble seeing text and images (the images moreso, because text size can easily be changed with os settings). DO NOT run the screen at anything other than native resolution to make things look bigger, this greatly degrades image quality. Once again, find a laptop with the same screen in a brick&mortar store and check it out to see if you like it or not. In some laptops, it is possible to upgrade the screen, but a lot of research is necessary to ensure compatibility. If you ever crack your screen, a lot of research is need to ensure compatiblility, but replacing the actual screen is easy to do.
CASE
A good case looks good, is lightweight, and sturdy enoguh to take a daily beating. Usually, one of these things is missing to cut costs. Metal cases are preferable because they are stronger (imho, aluminum looks cool) and are tough. My recommendation for tough laptops is IBM or an old toughbook. Once again, its best to play with the case hands-on, to get the feel of it. Decide for yoruself if it suits your needs.
MOTHERBOARD/VIDEO CARD
Unfortunately, nearly all video cards in laptops are integrated onto the motherboard and cannot be upgraded by themselves. This means that you need to carefully evaluate what you need in terms of 3d performance and balance it against cost and power consumption. Lately, ATI mobile solutions have been doing well and I personally think that the 9700/9600 mobile radeons are a good choice because they perform rasonably well yet use VERY little power (xbitlabs.com had a power consumption comparison of desktop video cards a while back and iirc, the 9600/9700 mobile radoens both use a modified 9600 core, so power consumption should be low like the desktop radeon 9600). Laptop reviews can be found here at anandtech.com, at tomshardware.com, and a few other sites (or you could ask on these forums for a recommendation). About motherboards, there's not much to say that I know of.
PROCESSOR
If you want a p-4 mobile based laptop, I highly recommend against it, they simply use too much power.
If you are eyeing a p-4 based celeron laptop, look elsewhere, they are even worse than the p-4 laptops, they put out tons of heat and are not fast at all.
Athlon 64** based laptops are fast, cheap, and have decent battery life.
Mobile sempron socket745... just like the athlon64 mobile, these are quick chips (a little slower than an athlon 64), are cheap, and have decent power characteristics.
Athlon XP/Sempron socket A/462: These are decent performing chips, battery life isnt that good (unless you get the really low voltage chips(eg:35w 2400+), ask dealer), but these sure are cheap! These laptops are a much better deal than similarly priced celeron (p4 based)
Pentium M* laptops are fast, don't put out much heat, and generally have long battery lives. I recommend these
Duron based laptops: Cheap, decently quick (beats the crap out of most p4 based celerons), ok on battery life. I'd avoid durons, but if you find a REALLY cheap deal, they arent bad.
Celeron M* based laptops are great! Performance is practically the same as their larger-cashed brother, they are cheaper, and still have great battery life.
**: If you do get an athlon 64 laptop, make sure it uses low voltage chips. You can tell by taking it apart and looking at the stepping or simply asking the dealer.
*: If you get a p-m or celeron-m laptop, make sure the cpu uses a dothan core, they are better in terms of power consumption. Once again, ask the dealer.
Via epia: very low power, but low performance and not super cheap
RAM
Unless the upgrade options from the dealer are REALLY cheap (do resarch), which they usually arent, get the least amount of ram possible. If you can, get the laptop without ram. Then, go to an online store and get laptop ram (nearly all laptops now use pc-2700 ddr sodimms). I recommend low latency stuff, but carefully compare costs to the performance gained by the reduction in latencies (its not much). Getting pc3200 sodimms isnt a bad idea if you ever need faster laptop ram, but its not necessary. I recommend geil golden dragon (the stuff with bga mounting for the chips) because it does not use much power at all (the chips dont even get warm with my friend's DESKTOP stuff, even at higher voltages, so the chips are effecient). Bottom line, buy aftermarket.
HARD DRIVE
Hard drives similar to ram in the essence taht aftermarket upgrading is the way to go. Get the cheapest drive (or the best deal compared to online store prices), then remove it and put in whatever drive suits your needs. Higher rpm is better for performance, but uses more power, creates more noise, and more heat. What do I do with my old (new) drive you ask? Get an external usb2 (or firewire) 2.5" enclosure for it and keep 40gb of data in your pocket. Or you could sell it on ebay or the fs/ft forums here. You wouldnt beleive how handy a pocket drive is, its like a usb stick, but better! I have to stress that higher rotational speed is far better because it greatly increases the overall responsiveness of the computer (loading applications and such).
OPTICAL DRIVE
Replacing optical drives aftermarket IS possible, but you wont match the bezel, so I don't recommend this. A good question to ask yourself is "do I really need to burn dvds or cds on the go or can I wait till I get home?". I recommend getting at least a dvd reader so you can watch movies on the go. Just get whatever drive you need from the manufacturer
KEYBOARD/POINTING DEVICE
There isnt much to say about these except that its best to go to a store and use them for a while. The only thing about keybards and 'mice' that matters is that they don't break and you are comfortable with them.
PCMCIA/INTERNAL WIRELESS
Personally, I prefer internal wireless IF there is an easy way to disable it to save battery life (and increase security). Generally, there is a relatively large internal antenna to boost signal range and reception (thus speed too), so there is one andvantage. Another is the fact that you don't have anything sticking out the side of your laptop. The downside: price, manufacturers usually charge an extra pretty penny for wireless. You choose what you need, the extra dough in your pocket or a laptop with better wireless and nothing sticking out the side. It is also important to note that the speed of the internal wireless may not be 'G', so make sure it is (g>b)
SPEAKERS
I dont recommend making a buying decision based on speakers in laptops because headphones are much better in power usage and audio quality (and you are the only one to hear it, which may be a + or a -)
EXTRAS
Extras that are almost a must include wireless networking, a usb stick (or the external hard drive mentioned in the HARD DRIVES section), a mouse (trackballs are the way to go because they don't actually move, so you can use the mouse on any surface), and thats it.
Some people like laptop cases, but its easy enough to toss the laptop into a backpack or hold it in one hand. To me, the bulkyness of a laptop case does not justify the extra protection, which is not much because laptops are most vulnerable when in use, because heads can crash, stuff can crack the weak lcd, drip throug a keyboard, etc.
External floppy drives.... I detest these because they serve no purpose on laptops. Often, laptops have problems booting off of a usb foppy drive, any files small enough to fit on a floppy can easily be emailed to yourself or shared over a network. Most desktops nowdays don't even come with floppy drives, so why carry around an extra couple pounds of stuff?
BRANDS
um.... i dont know too much about which brands are best but I like apple and ibm laptops
PRICE
I cannot stress more than to look for a sale, especially pay attention to fatwallet.com and anandtech's own hot deals section.
OVERCLOCKING
Overclocking a laptop is possible, but is ony practical on dothans because most can get up to around 2.4ghz on stock voltage. Increasing clockrate while keeping voltage at stock will use more power, but not much more. However, overclocks are not easy to do on laptops because you must first (well, should, not must) change the thermal pads inside the laptop out for thermal grease, like arctic silver (make sure there is good contact!). Then you must find a way to overclock the laptop... ill break it up into sections to keep the information understandable
OVERCLOCKING-PENTIUM-M AND CELERON-M (dothans)
Since these chips are only unlocked downwards, overclocking must be done by increasing the FSB. If you plan on overclocking one of these, get a laptop with a 400mhz (4*100) fsb and NOT a 533mhz fsb version (4*133). A good idea is to get a laptop that has a higher end version supporting the higher fsb variants of the dothan. Another good idea is to get a laptop with the i855gm chipset for the sole reason that clockgen programs are easily available and clockgens are not currently available for the i915 chipset (but they will probably be in the future
). If you did your homework properly and got a 400mhz fsb chip and an i855gm based laptop that had a higher end revision supporting 533mhz fsb chips, overclocking shoudl be a breeze. Just open the clockgen and raise fsb to 134 (be sure to set memory spped dividers in bios properly if they are available). Be sure to run prime95 for at least 12 hours before you call it stable. In most cases, the laptop's cpu speed will be limited by the motherboard's fsb and not the chip itself.
OVERCLOCKING-SOCKET A/462 CPUS (ATHLON XP, DURON, SEMPRON)
To put it shortly, mobile semprons are not overclockable in the sense that it is not worth the gain.
Durons are not bad overclockers on stock voltage, but don't expect much
Athlon XPs are not good overclockers UNLESS they are the low voltage versions. On a desktop replacement, you might be able to get two speed grades increase on stock voltage
Low voltage athlon xps (45w, 1.45v)are good, reaching about 2.3-2.2ghz on stock voltage. these chips are good overclockers and are barton cores, so they have more cashe too
Thin and light(35w, 1.35v) athlon xps are GREAT. they are slightly better than low voltage athlon xps. the 2400+model is the one to look for
Overclockng mobile athlons involves either changing the multiplier or fsb, jsut like any other chip. However, like other laptops, overclocking via FSB is possible and more fruitful, but is not as sure to work as overclocking via multiplier. Both methods involving cutting traces on the cpu and sticking wires inside the socket. here is a good refrence site (desktop and mobile socket A are identical)
http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?/html/workshop/pinmod/amd_pinmod.html
Keep in mind that the stock mobile fsb is 133.
OVERCLOCKING- PENTIUM 4s AND P-4 BASED CELRONS
Don't get these chips, they simply run too hot and ineffeciently for mobile applications. Overclocking with them is not wise because as said above, increasing fsb on laptops is tough and they run HOT (prescott models, ugh!). Northwoods are also not good chips to use in laptops and have the same overclocking troubles as prescotts. Fsb on laptops does not overclock that well as there are too many things integrated onto the motherboard and all are overclocked when the fsb goes up.
OVERCLOCKING-SOCKET 754 CPUS (ATHLON 64, SEMPRON)
This is not really possible. Since these chips are unlocked downwards only, overclocking must be done throgh the FSB, which isnt really changable easily with a laptop.
UNDERVOLTING
The neverending quest to longer battery life often looks towards the screen and processor (the most energy using parts of the laptop. Lowering brightness is the first step, then diabling stuff like wireless networking when not used and slowing processor when not used. Like overclocking, undervolting requires work (but much less, you don't need to mess with the cooling to make it any better). Since finding the maximum clockspeeds at each voltage is a HUGE chore, you really have to evaluate what you need. Undervolting is not for everyone, its a lot of work. The only experience I have with undervolting is on the socket A platform, sorry, i just don't have enough knowledge about the other sockets to write anything meaningful. If you pm me some good info, I'll put it in this guide. Undervolting is even less of an exact science than overclocking, but i've seen that there is very little to be gained at undervolting mobile cpus (they are already quite effeceint). For example, my 2600+ barton mobile stock voltage 1.45v at 2ghz can run just fine at 1.375v, but this is only a 4.5w decrease in power consumption. This will help battery life, but so slightly that you won't even notice. Its not worth the trouble. However when playing with a 40w duron 900mhz, I was able to lower the voltage such that the chip only used 30w at max load. 10w is a significant amount of power (equivalent to 4 mobile hard drives at full rpm, data screaming from teh platters). This is such a small sample, but from other chips i've played with (don't rememeber specs ), I've noticed that undervolting standard desktop processors (dtr processors are the same as desktop processors with powernow enabled) can save 10 or more watts of power, but its really up to you if a 10w reduction AT FULL LOAD (the undervolting mostly affects full load power usage and not so much idle usage, so this reduces the viability of this mod even more) is even worth voiding your warranty and risking screwign up and killing something. I don't recommend this, especially since you are reading a guide such as this, meant "for noobs mainly". As with overclocking, run prime95 for at least 12 hours before calling it stable.
OTHER ADVICE
Before buying a laptop, it is wise to get the approval and criticizm of the anandtech forums
research research research!
this seems to be a pretty good laptop guide
http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/guides/4/7/1/
any additions are welcome, just pm me with the info you want me to add.
i'm in the process of adding more info
OMG, THIS WAS MY 1000TH POST. i think its the best 1000th post of anyone on this forum!!
A laptop, like a pc, is just a bunch of parts that work together. These are the parts...
Display
Case
Motherboard/video card combo
Processor
RAM
Hard drive
Optical drive
keyboard
pointing device
pcmcia/internal wireless
speakers
extras
branding
price
overclocking
undervolting
DISPLAY
The display is arguably the most important part of the laptop, so go for a quality one. Display size matters in the respect that it is usually the largest screen that the laptop can hold, so it roughly determines the size of the laptop. If you want a small laptop, get one with a small screen. Don't be shyed away from a small screen because it is small, because small screens have many benefits, mainly lower power usage and more portability. However, with size usually comes increased resolution, reduced response rates (people buy small laptops for portability, and generally don't play many games on them, as small laptops are generally not too powerful compared to larger alternatives, so manufacturers can cut costs a bit and get a cheaper screen), and higher contrast ratios. Don't beleive specifications on contrast ratios or response rates stated by the manufacturer as they are often inflated (or deflated) by a marketing staff. To truly judge a screen, you have to physically look at it before you buy it. About resolution, try to get as high resolution as possible UNLESS you have trouble seeing text and images (the images moreso, because text size can easily be changed with os settings). DO NOT run the screen at anything other than native resolution to make things look bigger, this greatly degrades image quality. Once again, find a laptop with the same screen in a brick&mortar store and check it out to see if you like it or not. In some laptops, it is possible to upgrade the screen, but a lot of research is necessary to ensure compatibility. If you ever crack your screen, a lot of research is need to ensure compatiblility, but replacing the actual screen is easy to do.
CASE
A good case looks good, is lightweight, and sturdy enoguh to take a daily beating. Usually, one of these things is missing to cut costs. Metal cases are preferable because they are stronger (imho, aluminum looks cool) and are tough. My recommendation for tough laptops is IBM or an old toughbook. Once again, its best to play with the case hands-on, to get the feel of it. Decide for yoruself if it suits your needs.
MOTHERBOARD/VIDEO CARD
Unfortunately, nearly all video cards in laptops are integrated onto the motherboard and cannot be upgraded by themselves. This means that you need to carefully evaluate what you need in terms of 3d performance and balance it against cost and power consumption. Lately, ATI mobile solutions have been doing well and I personally think that the 9700/9600 mobile radeons are a good choice because they perform rasonably well yet use VERY little power (xbitlabs.com had a power consumption comparison of desktop video cards a while back and iirc, the 9600/9700 mobile radoens both use a modified 9600 core, so power consumption should be low like the desktop radeon 9600). Laptop reviews can be found here at anandtech.com, at tomshardware.com, and a few other sites (or you could ask on these forums for a recommendation). About motherboards, there's not much to say that I know of.
PROCESSOR
If you want a p-4 mobile based laptop, I highly recommend against it, they simply use too much power.
If you are eyeing a p-4 based celeron laptop, look elsewhere, they are even worse than the p-4 laptops, they put out tons of heat and are not fast at all.
Athlon 64** based laptops are fast, cheap, and have decent battery life.
Mobile sempron socket745... just like the athlon64 mobile, these are quick chips (a little slower than an athlon 64), are cheap, and have decent power characteristics.
Athlon XP/Sempron socket A/462: These are decent performing chips, battery life isnt that good (unless you get the really low voltage chips(eg:35w 2400+), ask dealer), but these sure are cheap! These laptops are a much better deal than similarly priced celeron (p4 based)
Pentium M* laptops are fast, don't put out much heat, and generally have long battery lives. I recommend these
Duron based laptops: Cheap, decently quick (beats the crap out of most p4 based celerons), ok on battery life. I'd avoid durons, but if you find a REALLY cheap deal, they arent bad.
Celeron M* based laptops are great! Performance is practically the same as their larger-cashed brother, they are cheaper, and still have great battery life.
**: If you do get an athlon 64 laptop, make sure it uses low voltage chips. You can tell by taking it apart and looking at the stepping or simply asking the dealer.
*: If you get a p-m or celeron-m laptop, make sure the cpu uses a dothan core, they are better in terms of power consumption. Once again, ask the dealer.
Via epia: very low power, but low performance and not super cheap
RAM
Unless the upgrade options from the dealer are REALLY cheap (do resarch), which they usually arent, get the least amount of ram possible. If you can, get the laptop without ram. Then, go to an online store and get laptop ram (nearly all laptops now use pc-2700 ddr sodimms). I recommend low latency stuff, but carefully compare costs to the performance gained by the reduction in latencies (its not much). Getting pc3200 sodimms isnt a bad idea if you ever need faster laptop ram, but its not necessary. I recommend geil golden dragon (the stuff with bga mounting for the chips) because it does not use much power at all (the chips dont even get warm with my friend's DESKTOP stuff, even at higher voltages, so the chips are effecient). Bottom line, buy aftermarket.
HARD DRIVE
Hard drives similar to ram in the essence taht aftermarket upgrading is the way to go. Get the cheapest drive (or the best deal compared to online store prices), then remove it and put in whatever drive suits your needs. Higher rpm is better for performance, but uses more power, creates more noise, and more heat. What do I do with my old (new) drive you ask? Get an external usb2 (or firewire) 2.5" enclosure for it and keep 40gb of data in your pocket. Or you could sell it on ebay or the fs/ft forums here. You wouldnt beleive how handy a pocket drive is, its like a usb stick, but better! I have to stress that higher rotational speed is far better because it greatly increases the overall responsiveness of the computer (loading applications and such).
OPTICAL DRIVE
Replacing optical drives aftermarket IS possible, but you wont match the bezel, so I don't recommend this. A good question to ask yourself is "do I really need to burn dvds or cds on the go or can I wait till I get home?". I recommend getting at least a dvd reader so you can watch movies on the go. Just get whatever drive you need from the manufacturer
KEYBOARD/POINTING DEVICE
There isnt much to say about these except that its best to go to a store and use them for a while. The only thing about keybards and 'mice' that matters is that they don't break and you are comfortable with them.
PCMCIA/INTERNAL WIRELESS
Personally, I prefer internal wireless IF there is an easy way to disable it to save battery life (and increase security). Generally, there is a relatively large internal antenna to boost signal range and reception (thus speed too), so there is one andvantage. Another is the fact that you don't have anything sticking out the side of your laptop. The downside: price, manufacturers usually charge an extra pretty penny for wireless. You choose what you need, the extra dough in your pocket or a laptop with better wireless and nothing sticking out the side. It is also important to note that the speed of the internal wireless may not be 'G', so make sure it is (g>b)
SPEAKERS
I dont recommend making a buying decision based on speakers in laptops because headphones are much better in power usage and audio quality (and you are the only one to hear it, which may be a + or a -)
EXTRAS
Extras that are almost a must include wireless networking, a usb stick (or the external hard drive mentioned in the HARD DRIVES section), a mouse (trackballs are the way to go because they don't actually move, so you can use the mouse on any surface), and thats it.
Some people like laptop cases, but its easy enough to toss the laptop into a backpack or hold it in one hand. To me, the bulkyness of a laptop case does not justify the extra protection, which is not much because laptops are most vulnerable when in use, because heads can crash, stuff can crack the weak lcd, drip throug a keyboard, etc.
External floppy drives.... I detest these because they serve no purpose on laptops. Often, laptops have problems booting off of a usb foppy drive, any files small enough to fit on a floppy can easily be emailed to yourself or shared over a network. Most desktops nowdays don't even come with floppy drives, so why carry around an extra couple pounds of stuff?
BRANDS
um.... i dont know too much about which brands are best but I like apple and ibm laptops
PRICE
I cannot stress more than to look for a sale, especially pay attention to fatwallet.com and anandtech's own hot deals section.
OVERCLOCKING
Overclocking a laptop is possible, but is ony practical on dothans because most can get up to around 2.4ghz on stock voltage. Increasing clockrate while keeping voltage at stock will use more power, but not much more. However, overclocks are not easy to do on laptops because you must first (well, should, not must) change the thermal pads inside the laptop out for thermal grease, like arctic silver (make sure there is good contact!). Then you must find a way to overclock the laptop... ill break it up into sections to keep the information understandable
OVERCLOCKING-PENTIUM-M AND CELERON-M (dothans)
Since these chips are only unlocked downwards, overclocking must be done by increasing the FSB. If you plan on overclocking one of these, get a laptop with a 400mhz (4*100) fsb and NOT a 533mhz fsb version (4*133). A good idea is to get a laptop that has a higher end version supporting the higher fsb variants of the dothan. Another good idea is to get a laptop with the i855gm chipset for the sole reason that clockgen programs are easily available and clockgens are not currently available for the i915 chipset (but they will probably be in the future
). If you did your homework properly and got a 400mhz fsb chip and an i855gm based laptop that had a higher end revision supporting 533mhz fsb chips, overclocking shoudl be a breeze. Just open the clockgen and raise fsb to 134 (be sure to set memory spped dividers in bios properly if they are available). Be sure to run prime95 for at least 12 hours before you call it stable. In most cases, the laptop's cpu speed will be limited by the motherboard's fsb and not the chip itself. OVERCLOCKING-SOCKET A/462 CPUS (ATHLON XP, DURON, SEMPRON)
To put it shortly, mobile semprons are not overclockable in the sense that it is not worth the gain.
Durons are not bad overclockers on stock voltage, but don't expect much
Athlon XPs are not good overclockers UNLESS they are the low voltage versions. On a desktop replacement, you might be able to get two speed grades increase on stock voltage
Low voltage athlon xps (45w, 1.45v)are good, reaching about 2.3-2.2ghz on stock voltage. these chips are good overclockers and are barton cores, so they have more cashe too
Thin and light(35w, 1.35v) athlon xps are GREAT. they are slightly better than low voltage athlon xps. the 2400+model is the one to look for
Overclockng mobile athlons involves either changing the multiplier or fsb, jsut like any other chip. However, like other laptops, overclocking via FSB is possible and more fruitful, but is not as sure to work as overclocking via multiplier. Both methods involving cutting traces on the cpu and sticking wires inside the socket. here is a good refrence site (desktop and mobile socket A are identical)
http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?/html/workshop/pinmod/amd_pinmod.html
Keep in mind that the stock mobile fsb is 133.
OVERCLOCKING- PENTIUM 4s AND P-4 BASED CELRONS
Don't get these chips, they simply run too hot and ineffeciently for mobile applications. Overclocking with them is not wise because as said above, increasing fsb on laptops is tough and they run HOT (prescott models, ugh!). Northwoods are also not good chips to use in laptops and have the same overclocking troubles as prescotts. Fsb on laptops does not overclock that well as there are too many things integrated onto the motherboard and all are overclocked when the fsb goes up.
OVERCLOCKING-SOCKET 754 CPUS (ATHLON 64, SEMPRON)
This is not really possible. Since these chips are unlocked downwards only, overclocking must be done throgh the FSB, which isnt really changable easily with a laptop.
UNDERVOLTING
The neverending quest to longer battery life often looks towards the screen and processor (the most energy using parts of the laptop. Lowering brightness is the first step, then diabling stuff like wireless networking when not used and slowing processor when not used. Like overclocking, undervolting requires work (but much less, you don't need to mess with the cooling to make it any better). Since finding the maximum clockspeeds at each voltage is a HUGE chore, you really have to evaluate what you need. Undervolting is not for everyone, its a lot of work. The only experience I have with undervolting is on the socket A platform, sorry, i just don't have enough knowledge about the other sockets to write anything meaningful. If you pm me some good info, I'll put it in this guide
. Undervolting is even less of an exact science than overclocking, but i've seen that there is very little to be gained at undervolting mobile cpus (they are already quite effeceint). For example, my 2600+ barton mobile stock voltage 1.45v at 2ghz can run just fine at 1.375v, but this is only a 4.5w decrease in power consumption. This will help battery life, but so slightly that you won't even notice. Its not worth the trouble. However when playing with a 40w duron 900mhz, I was able to lower the voltage such that the chip only used 30w at max load. 10w is a significant amount of power (equivalent to 4 mobile hard drives at full rpm, data screaming from teh platters). This is such a small sample, but from other chips i've played with (don't rememeber specs ), I've noticed that undervolting standard desktop processors (dtr processors are the same as desktop processors with powernow enabled) can save 10 or more watts of power, but its really up to you if a 10w reduction AT FULL LOAD (the undervolting mostly affects full load power usage and not so much idle usage, so this reduces the viability of this mod even more) is even worth voiding your warranty and risking screwign up and killing something. I don't recommend this, especially since you are reading a guide such as this, meant "for noobs mainly". As with overclocking, run prime95 for at least 12 hours before calling it stable.OTHER ADVICE
Before buying a laptop, it is wise to get the approval and criticizm of the anandtech forums
research research research!
this seems to be a pretty good laptop guide
http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/guides/4/7/1/
any additions are welcome, just pm me with the info you want me to add.
i'm in the process of adding more info
OMG, THIS WAS MY 1000TH POST. i think its the best 1000th post of anyone on this forum!!
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