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Trying to decide between Black friday notebooks...

P

PoisonCandyGram

Member
At about 400 dollars each, I'm having trouble deciding from the Toshiba at best buy and the HP at Walmart. The main difference is that the Toshiba has a celeron M 370 processor at 1.5ghz, with 1mb l2cache and 400mhz fsb. The sempron is 1.6ghz, and only 256k l2cache. I am unable to find anything about the fsb on the sempron. Both have radeon xpress 200 igp graphics and I am trying to decide between the two. I want to play older games such as warcraft 3 on them. I would also upgrade whatever one I got to a gig of ram(the toshiba also uses faster pc4200 ram, while the hp uses pc2700). Which processor is better? Also, which laptop would be better overall. Anyone have any opinions? Benchmarks?

Thanks.
 
Why? I have not seen any benchmarks or anything, but I would assume that the celeron would perform better because the l2cache is so much bigger. Could you please explain why?
 
More battery life. Performance should be around the same, give or take some. THe Key is the battery life.
 
I have heard that the BF deals do not have the same components the "retail" versions have. Ma want to look into that.

Liver
 
I too will be getting one or the other, and would like to know which one is better and why, as well. All I wanted was the 200M igp and it looks like both have it. DDR2 over DDR seems faster, as well as the larger cache on the celeron. To me, the BB lappy takes a slight edge in performance for both reasons. But I know little to nothing abotu moble processors as well as laptops (this will be my first one).

Can anyone give some specifics as to why you would choose on over the other if you were going to get one?

Thanks

 
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
early next week I will have an article out discussing the diff BF laptops and which we recommend to buy 🙂
Click to expand...



Wow, thank you very much! Looking forward to it.
 
I pretty much had my mind made up to get the Toshiba from best buy. The only thing that is causing me to question that decision is that the spec pdf for it is showing it as having a 90 day warranty instead of a 1 year warranty. All new Toshiba laptops come with a 1 year standard warranty, and their refurbs come with a 90 day warranty. After a quick call to Toshiba, I found out that the part number in the pdf (PSL2XU-00Q00P)is showing up as a refurbished unit.

Don't get me wrong, $379 is still a helluva deal for that laptop, but if that HP one is actually new it seems like a better deal IMO...
 
I'll be getting the bb laptop and the extended 2 yr warranty for $129 and they don't charge tax on the warranty. I just thought I'd mention what toshiba said.
 
Have you actually tried to purchase a BF "tech" deal in the past?

Previous deals amount to about a 1 out of 10 chance, to about 1 out of 100 chance, that you will actually be one of the few in line that sees any of these BF tech deals. It sucked waiting in line for hours, only to find that all sold out within 10 minutes of stores opening. After 4 years of this, last year finally paid off with a big grin. I slept in and avoided it all.

I would say your best bet is not the best laptop, but the best store to score a laptop.
Forget BB, as techs flock there on BF.
Walmart will give you very slim but better odds.
Good Luck!
(if you are not in line by 3am or 4am, might as well stay in bed, although that is based on Florida 65 degree weather at 4am BF. Cold weather might see a deal if in line at 5am).
 
Planning on getting in line between 2am and 3am! However, at Walmart I would be able to wait inside. But the faster ram in the best buy would make me think that the igp graphics would perform better. I just don't know about the processors. The toshiba has a larger cache, but I generally don't like celeron processors. If the toshiba is noticably better, it would be worth the wait in the cold.
 
I remember reading here on AT after someone saw the ad scan and realized the computer models were a little different. Not the same components listed on the manufacturers web page. Things like different and cheaper motherboard, same processor, different off brand optical drive, unknown hard drive. Things like that. I believe it was here at AT.
 
I find it hard to fathom that Toshiba or HP are going to make a special lappy for BF... They may be refurbs but that is why you get the extra warranty anyways..


Will G.
 
i'm debating on which one i should get too. im happy with my ibm t42 from work, but im looking for one for personal use
 
Liver..I read it to. I think it was mentioned about previous Walmart laptop specials. It was like..instead of using trusted brands it was a bunch of off branded equipment. Like instead of Asus board its was some second tier Tawain brand board.

Shellguy...the HP at least is a special made version for Walmart. Check the last letters on the model name. WM. They have no other laptops with those designations as far as I know. Walmart is king of retail in the US. I'm sure they could sway a company like HP to cut costs to fit their mold.
 
I'm a little bit afraid of anything Walmart sells, personally.
On the other hand, if I recall, the super-extended warranty is only about 80$.
 
Originally posted by: RobsTV
Have you actually tried to purchase a BF "tech" deal in the past?

Previous deals amount to about a 1 out of 10 chance, to about 1 out of 100 chance, that you will actually be one of the few in line that sees any of these BF tech deals. It sucked waiting in line for hours, only to find that all sold out within 10 minutes of stores opening. After 4 years of this, last year finally paid off with a big grin. I slept in and avoided it all.

I would say your best bet is not the best laptop, but the best store to score a laptop.
Forget BB, as techs flock there on BF.
Walmart will give you very slim but better odds.
Good Luck!
(if you are not in line by 3am or 4am, might as well stay in bed, although that is based on Florida 65 degree weather at 4am BF. Cold weather might see a deal if in line at 5am).
Click to expand...
I used to work @ BBY and it isn't that bad. Get there at least 4am, 2-3am is a sure bet. At most stores they should have a ticket system where they hand out tickets to the people in line outside. If you've got a ticket and you pick up the machine in a timely manner, its yours 🙂
 
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