Best notebook solution?

[reikoshea]

the only problem ive had with my dell is my hard drive broke down because i was litterally throwing my laptop around. it made a loud noise when it wasnt level, then it got really loud....and bad cluster, meaning SUPER slow seek if it worked at all. I cant blame dell for me being stupid.

My dell has helped me fix all of my friend's compters, so even though i hate on dell (desktops), my laptop rocks.

 

[posol]

you can get usb tuner cards that are cheaper than buying one integrated and getting shafted with a crappy video card in the system.
tv tuner cards usb - Froogle


i've never had an acer, so i can't say anything about them. they USED to be crap... seems like they swapped spaces with dell.

the amd turion is a single core 64-bit processor.
AMD Turionâ„¢ 64 Family

i still stand by my orig post as being the best bang for the buck.

the altech lansing speakers built into the front of is actually sound damn good too. so thats a big plus... no need for externals.

 

[reikoshea]

i forgot you had a turion...yeah, thats a cool chip.

 

[totalburnout]

you can get usb tuner cards that are cheaper than buying one integrated and getting shafted with a crappy video card in the system.
tv tuner cards usb - Froogle


i've never had an acer, so i can't say anything about them. they USED to be crap... seems like they swapped spaces with dell.

the amd turion is a single core 64-bit processor.
AMD Turionâ„¢ 64 Family

i still stand by my orig post as being the best bang for the buck.

the altech lansing speakers built into the front of is actually sound damn good too. so thats a big plus... no need for externals.

Lets compare that single core AMD chipset to the Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2250.

I know AMDs are underclocked, but wouldn't it be a lesser chip simply because its a single core?

I can get a refurb'd/opened new system with 17in display, 80gb hd, 1gb ram, 128mb built in video, with the dual core 1.6ghz cpu for like ~$950 from dell.

 

[totalburnout]

I couldn't really find anything on NewEgg under Acer or HP.

Acer had one 17in system with a pentium chipset that was nice for $969, HP didn't have anything I was interested in with a 17in monitor. Most are 15.4in monitors.

I want the 17inch monitor so its easy viewing and I could watch movies and such and use the notebook as a desktop if i want to get a dock or something like that.

 

[reikoshea]

Lets compare that single core AMD chipset to the Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2250.

I know AMDs are underclocked, but wouldn't it be a lesser chip simply because its a single core?

I can get a refurb'd/opened new system with 17in display, 80gb hd, 1gb ram, 128mb built in video, with the dual core 1.6ghz cpu for like ~$950 from dell.

not always. the way technology works, more is not always better. in the case of the duo it runs hotter (meaning more resistance which requires faster speeds to make up for the heat produced), the on dye cache is lower and the amd has better memory access. they are still pretty equal right now.

If i can put it a different way, my 2.8GHz pentium 4 was WAY slower than my 2.0GHz Pentium M (aka centrino). My Pentium M has better memory management and higher on dye cache, and tada, we found the performace increase.

 

[posol]

in testing, dual cores run about 28% faster than single cores when utilized at over 80%. How often do you spike a cpu to 80%? The difference is great for a full load application, like a database server.... but for posting on HS and doing papers and email, i doubt you'll notice a difference.

I ALWAYS have a full task bar... 3 ff widows with about 5 tabs open in each, editplus, outlook, thunderbird, winamp, aim, msn, skype, gtalk, photoshop, word, and a windows explorer window are currently what I have open. Not to mention avg, my alarm clock, a windows update pending note running in the bg.

i'm averaging about 40-50% cpu usage. and the amd is smart. it de-clocks it self when you don't need it to save battery juice. I've seen it anywhere from 1.3 to 2.1 ghz on the properties of my system.
i am using no pagefile on my 1gb system. 1gb is plenty due to its fast transfer bus speeds.

i'm a developer and use high 'bandwidth' tools all day long, half the time through a remote desktop session open on top of it with vpn'ed networked drives... and i have 0 problems.

Do you need more than that?
i'll post a screen shot as proof in full display.

if your looking at hp, go to hp.com. why bother with a middle man?

 

[totalburnout]

I believe you that it works B and I know dual core would be overkill - I was just saying if there was an instance where I could get the amd single core or pentium dual core for the same price - which do I go for?

Any of these computers are going to be overkill for me. My i-tunes has like 250songs and I don't have limewire or any other music downloading p2p on this computer anymore, I no longer game, I haven't photoshopped in forever. Basically I use firefox, microsoft office for school or home use, and aim.

Sound would definately be a plus, but I might find myself buying a surround sound type deal with tiny speakers with a high output so I can use the notebook as a dj when having a party at school. Maybe thats not the best idea at school though, at home we trust each other and my buddy always ran his system that way with his notebook or ipod.

 

[posol]

i'd choose the amd.... especially with vista right around the corner. the intel's aren't 64 bit.

www.hardwarezone.com Forums - Intel centrino duo core vs AMD Turion64





not notebook related, but on a server head-to-head, the amd opteron blows away the intel xeon.
AMD vs. Intel: AMD Challenges Intel to a Dual-Core Duel

 

[posol]

also, the amd turion 64 X2 is a dual core. but its a few more buxks than the single core orig. version and will probably bump you out of your price range.

 

[MikeBergy]

sager, panasonic, sony vaio, or toshiba ftw, but they're probably not in your price range. I'll most likely get a toughbook when I am in the market for a laptop.

 

[reikoshea]

i still love my computer.......except the charger died today....so i probably wont be on much in the mornings.

 

[totalburnout]

I might just go with the HP then, depending on what I can get with it in comparison to the Dell.

 

[posol]

dooooooo it

 

[reikoshea]

i cant say anything about NEW HPs but the old ones (before HT but after P4) really sucked, those are the ones im always "fixing".

 

[posol]

screw intel...

 

[reikoshea]

lol...ill keep saying it. Intel has always served me well, i think for my next desktop system (or notebook) if i go pc, ill probably run with an AMD chip. Something tells me that my next system will be a mac though. They are so easy and i really dont do anything that the mac will restrict me on. Itd also be nice to have final cut pro again. Im glad my boss bought me Premire. Having legit software is pretty nice.

There are torrent clients for mac, right?

 

[posol]

demonoid has a mac category...

and final cut has a pc version...

 

[reikoshea]

the pc version of final cut sucks about as bad as the pc version of flash. i had to use it for school once, and it does not function right at all. its like trying to play soccer on crutches.

 

[phyregod]

Dell/compaq/hp/gateway/etc..

Its all the same cookie cutter stuff. Mass produced with the cheapest components available. I would interchange any of those.

You are looking to spend around $1k, so a custom system wouldn't be in your price range.. But these run of the mill systems are good enough to do anything an average user would require of it. Unless you are into graphic production or hard core gaming or something like that, any of the above would kick ass and take names for you. Very rarely do these systems actually have hardware problems.. 99 times out of 100 its some iddiot who jacked up the software in one way or another or dropped it. Yeah, one pukes up a hard drive or whatever once in a while.. I'm not saying they are bullet proof, but they will certainly make the "good enough" mark.