Laptop Options

[x-pride]

Honestly if you are keeping the Laptop for a long time. I would upgrade the Proccessor to the fastest they have, go with dual dim so you can upgrade if needed later(if you go only 1g to start with). Better graphics card and for hd I would opt for a 100g and then buy an exteral usb drive HD to store all your data. The nice thing about the media xp is that you can record you favorite tv show.

[DoughtCom]

Go with a midrange CPU... maybe the 1.66GHz with the 667FSB. Honestly I had a 1.66 single core and upgraded to the 2.13 on my last laptop and didn't notice a difference. MHz really doesn't matter much especially when using it for windows apps. And really considering the cost difference.

Get 1-1.5GHz of RAM you'll have hibernation problems 90% of the time with anything over that, if you hibernate. Get the lowest amount of RAM you can there and get the rest at newegg and save 100 or so dollars.

The 80GB 7200RPM drive is the best option that's what I have in my 1705 and it's awesome.

And I think I would get the ATI 1300 or something... maybe the intels are nice now but they used to blow total ass. If you're a gamer.... go with the 7300... this will be about as fast a 6800go... well almost.

Hope this helps.

[AJ]

Ahhh I'm confused. LOL. I do plan on keeping this for a few years at least so I want it to be something that will hang that long. Why wouldn't I go for the fastest of anything?

[awd_owns_you]

You should go for the fastest stuff but look at the price jump like the processor for example

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $225 or $7/month1]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7400 (4MB Cache/2.16GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $400 or $12/month1]

the only difference here is .16ghz and for an extra 175$ its definatly not worth it. What I would go with here would be:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $225 or $7/month1]
Genuine Windows® XP Professional with re-installation CD [add $159 or $5/month1]
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm [add $65 or $2/month1]
100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $175 or $5/month1]
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™Go 7300 TurboCache [add $129 or $4/month1]

This is what "I" reccomend, now if you budget doesnt allow it then get what you can afford.

[Steeltwo]

Ahhh I'm confused. LOL. I do plan on keeping this for a few years at least so I want it to be something that will hang that long. Why wouldn't I go for the fastest of anything?
to sound like a retard

you have to do roughly a cost benefit item for yourself.


is going with the biggest graphics card worth the $ for you?
is the extra processing power worth it for what you'll be doing.

etc etc

I generally go one step from the top. Because the top end stuff, is just marked up too much. You pay for the bleeding edge technology.

While one step down, it will be nearly as fast and in the case of processors for PC's i've build. There tends to be a 30-40% difference in price for maybe a 5-8% increase in performance.

[AJ]

Here's another question. If I go with the Media Setup and not the XP setup does software like AEM and DSMLink still allow full use? This would be the laptop to also handle any of those duties as they would come across in the future. Probably never be AEM, but DSMLink is a good posibility.

[AJ]

2 more questions:

Whats the difference in these 2?

1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm [add $65 or $2/month1]

1GB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 1 DIMM [add $175 or $5/month1]

What is DIMM and what's the difference in the single or dual channel.


Also anyone know how easy it is to upgrade Dell Laptops after initial purchase? In case I where to buy better items from places like newegg down the road?

[tim]

Ahhh I'm confused. LOL. I do plan on keeping this for a few years at least so I want it to be something that will hang that long. Why wouldn't I go for the fastest of anything?

I bought my Dell a couple of years ago with a Centrino 1.6Ghz processor, 512mb ram and 40gb hd and it still works just as well as my roommates brand new top notch machine. If anything, make sure to have plenty of RAM and HD but dont worry so much about the processor speed. My comp was top notch when I bought it and I havent noticed anything different with the new ones.

[DoughtCom]

yeah in my personal opinion I would go with what I told you (obviously).

If your especially not gaming... a lower end of that machine will be plenty for you for a long time. Like Tim said.... lots of HD space and RAM are the most important things for a general user.

Dual channel RAM enables interleaving... basically it reads/writes to 2 sticks at once making it much faster in some scenereos. However the downside is if you ever want to upgrade... you'll need to take out 1/2 of the RAM you have to do it to free up a slot.

Windows Media Center Edition is windows XP with a few added programs that enable it to act like a PVR. It's basically like the XBOX 360 media options (I think I don't own a console).

[AJ]

So what does the 1DIMM and 2DIMM mean?

Sorry if I am sounding retarded, but you guy are at least explainging this stuff within my understanding.