Trying to decide between two laptops.

[Nutdotnet]

I'm thinking about the emachines laptops. For the money and features they seem awfully nice.

I am a college student so most of my activity on it will be doing papers and surfing the internet. However, I will also be using it in my home recording studio for the music I write.

I'm pretty much torn between the 2400+ emachine and the new Athlon 64 emachine. I would be saving $450 if I go with the 2400+ version. But not only does it have a slow processor, it also runs on DDR266 (as compared to DDR333) and the video memory is shared. But, I probably won't be doing any gaming on it so I don't know if that matters that much.

Which one would you go with? Or if there is another laptop that exceeds these please tell me. Really, I would like to buy one from Best Buy since they have interest fee financing for 12months. Which would give me plenty of time to pay it off.

Thanks!

 

[coolred]

Well I have heard from a couple best buy employees that the M6805, the 64 bit machine will have 250 dollars worth of mail in rebates starting Sunday. That makes pre tax but after rebate price 1299.00.

Personally I think for 1550.00 this is the best machine in its class, but I must confess I don't know all of whats available. But for 1300.00 I am sure you will find nothing even close to it. If I had the cash iw ould definately be getting one. Heck i am having a hard time trying to talk myself out of putting it on credit.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Yeah, I'm going to buy the 64 laptop if that deal actually goes tomorrow. $1300 can't be beat.

 

[dripgoss]

I almost bought the 6807 today, but I got to check one out at BB. For all the sweet features vs. the price, I couldn't get past that screen. I personally didin't like the screen. It proly didn't help that they had the 6807 sitting next to a VAIO and an HP zx5000. When next to those displays, the 6807 comes up short. But you'd still be hard pressed to find a machine with a DVDRW for around 1500...

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: dripgoss
I almost bought the 6807 today, but I got to check one out at BB. For all the sweet features vs. the price, I couldn't get past that screen. I personally didin't like the screen. It proly didn't help that they had the 6807 sitting next to a VAIO and an HP zx5000. When next to those displays, the 6807 comes up short. But you'd still be hard pressed to find a machine with a DVDRW for around 1500...

what do you mean the screen is not nice? resolution? image quality?

 

[preslove]

It's an xga.

 

[coolred]

How exactly does resolution work. I mean I understand what it is and I understand the higher the res. the better the image quality. But I am currently using a Dell FP1800. Its 18.1" screen runs at 1280x1024. SO the display on this laptop will have the same amount of pixels squeezed into a smaller package width wise, but it will fall 224 short heighth wise. SO will the resolution be worse or better. I mean its less resolution but smaller screen to, but its also a widescreen which i have never had before so I am somewhat confused by all this.

 

[coolred]

Okay nevermind I figured it out. The whole widescreen stuff was throwing me off, so the emachines is XGA where as my current setup is SXGA?

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: coolred
Okay nevermind I figured it out. The whole widescreen stuff was throwing me off, so the emachines is XGA where as my current setup is SXGA?

No, the emachines screen is WSXGA

 

[coolred]

Are you sure about that? The emachines site says WXGA and if it is WSXGA then that doesn't make sense, and therefor I would be confused again. But I think it is XGA as preslove said.

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: coolred
Are you sure about that? The emachines site says WXGA and if it is WSXGA then that doesn't make sense, and therefor I would be confused again. But I think it is XGA as preslove said.

It is WXGA.... 1280 x 800. I think it is perfect, for the 15.4" size. Regarding image quality, if you thought that an HP or crapshiba look better (color, contrast, angle of vision), well, maybe it is time to see the ophtalmologist. The only downside of the screen is the resolution (size maybe), but regarding image quality, it is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[mcleo19]

Definately go for the AMD 64...I would have been all over it if it had an option for a higher resolution display, as I need the real estate.

 

[SKC]

Originally posted by: alexruiz

Originally posted by: coolred
Are you sure about that? The emachines site says WXGA and if it is WSXGA then that doesn't make sense, and therefor I would be confused again. But I think it is XGA as preslove said.

It is WXGA.... 1280 x 800. I think it is perfect, for the 15.4" size. Regarding image quality, if you thought that an HP or crapshiba look better (color, contrast, angle of vision), well, maybe it is time to see the ophtalmologist. The only downside of the screen is the resolution (size maybe), but regarding image quality, it is absolutely gorgeous.

My eyes are fine. My compaq x1000 (HP zt3000) has an absolutely beautiful wuxga (1920x1200) display.

If you don't mind the lower resolution, the emachines is a fantastic deal.. I personally find that that little screen real estate cramps my work. To each his own

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: SKC

Originally posted by: alexruiz

Originally posted by: coolred
Are you sure about that? The emachines site says WXGA and if it is WSXGA then that doesn't make sense, and therefor I would be confused again. But I think it is XGA as preslove said.

It is WXGA.... 1280 x 800. I think it is perfect, for the 15.4" size. Regarding image quality, if you thought that an HP or crapshiba look better (color, contrast, angle of vision), well, maybe it is time to see the ophtalmologist. The only downside of the screen is the resolution (size maybe), but regarding image quality, it is absolutely gorgeous.

My eyes are fine. My compaq x1000 (HP zt3000) has an absolutely beautiful wuxga (1920x1200) display.

If you don't mind the lower resolution, the emachines is a fantastic deal.. I personally find that that little screen real estate cramps my work. To each his own

You obviously didn't read it completely...... I can image that 1920x1600 screen will look awesome, but I even stressed the fact that the downside was resolution. Take another WXGA and then we have a valid comparison.