Laptop Options

[AJ]

Say I was getting a new dell through work and it came with the specs below as the original setup:

Components
Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2050 (1.60GHz/533MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™
512MB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ, 1 DIMM
60GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Integrated Audio
Service
1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support
No Security Subscription
Accessories
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Software
No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
Starter pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo
Also Includes
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
Windows Vista™ Capable
Intel Core Duo ProcessorCompatibility Alert
Recalculating Price


----



What would be a few things I'd want to look at upgrading in terms of the what It would be used for, which would be:

School, Music, Web Design, and Wireless Web use. I'd obvious want something that has a touch of speed to it, but isn't over kill.

Here are some of the otpions I could add:

Processor:

Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache) [add $150 or $4/month1]
Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2050 (1.60GHz/533MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache) [Included in Price]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $100 or $3/month1]
May delay your E1505 Dual Core ship date
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (4MB Cache/2.00GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $225 or $7/month1]
May delay your E1505 Dual Core ship date
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7400 (4MB Cache/2.16GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $400 or $12/month1]
May delay your E1505 Dual Core ship date


OP:

Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 [Included in Price]
Genuine Windows® XP Professional [add $149 or $4/month1]
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition with re-installation CD [add $10]
Genuine Windows® XP Professional with re-installation CD [add $159 or $5/month1]
Dell Recommended


Memory:

512MB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ, 1 DIMM [Included in Price]
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm [add $65 or $2/month1]
Dell Recommended
1GB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 1 DIMM [add $175 or $5/month1]
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM [add $300 or $9/month1]


Hard Drive:

60GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive [Included in Price]
80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $35 or $1/month1]
120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $75 or $2/month1]
Dell Recommended
60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $65 or $2/month1]
80GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $125 or $4/month1]
100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $175 or $5/month1]


Video Card:

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 [Included in Price]
128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™ [add $49 or $1/month1]
256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™ [add $99 or $3/month1]
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™Go 7300 TurboCache [add $129 or $4/month1]
Dell Recommended


Let me know what would be suggested. The one thing I hate is when shit slows down when trying to run multiple programs at once.

[Steeltwo]

Originally Posted by DSMStyle

Processor: One of these two - if you've got the $ go for the 1.83, but if you do not, at least get the T5500 processor. Mainly for the bus speed increase.

Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache) [add $150 or $4/month1]

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz FSB) [add $100 or $3/month1]



OP: I've never used Media Center Edition. But if it isn't going to be connected to a big network, then I do not see a reason why you would need to get another OS. I would opt for the reinstalliation CD for the 10 bones.


Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition with re-installation CD [add $10]



Memory: One of these two - Once again if you have the money go for the single DIMM. I'm surprised they do not have faster RAM available.


1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm [add $65 or $2/month1]
Dell Recommended
1GB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 1 DIMM [add $175 or $5/month1]



Hard Drive: No doubt, go with a 7200rpm drive at the MINIMUM. It'll just make life easier. The hardrive is the slowest part of the computer, might as well help it as much as you can by adding a few RPM's. However, you can get cheaper add-on drives than what they are asking for here. So i'd go with the 60 for now. You might not even need that much space. If you do you can just add a big fatty drive later for cheap.


60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [add $65 or $2/month1]



Video Card: If you plan on using the laptop for gaming at all or video editing.
up this to the X1300 and if you have the money, the maybe look at the other two. For 50 bones, it would be worth the X1300 just to have an option for later if you want to play some games on the road or whenever.

128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™ [add $49 or $1/month1]

hope this helps.

[scheides]

Get XP Pro, 1Gb (or 2 if you can) of RAM, and a bigger hard drive. Radeon graphics card would be a nice upgrade too, if you wanna go all out

[AJ]

Well I've changed a few things to reflect the following:

Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2400 (1.83GHz/667MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition with re-installation CD
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™
1GB Shared Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 1 DIMM
60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ HD Software Edition

With these upgrade I'd be at the $1150 mark with what you guys would say would be a pretty fast laptop with ability to doing gaming and video editing.

Through work I can pick this up with a cheap payment play over 12, 18, or 22 months and it would be 100% intrest free.

Anyone think for the options and price and payment structure it's a good deal?

[Hoffer00]

No intrest! Shit go with the 22 months. Thats like 50 a month, sweet. If you want you can always pay more. It looks like you will have a winner.

I personally would get a faster CDRW though.

[AJ]

I still have a main computer that will handle 90% of the CD and DVD burning duties.

[92EvilTalon]

Then don't worry about the CDR then. What you are asking for seems like a good deal. I really like the Truelife LCD's. They are so much clear. But that sounds about good for what you need to do. And yes the 22 month plan will be great. Cut the payments down ... can you only get Dells?

[AJ]

Yeah, it's only through dell.

[JET]

I would upgrade the processor to the T7200 for only $75 more.

[Steeltwo]

Originally Posted by JET

I would upgrade the processor to the T7200 for only $75 more.

the 4mb cache would be nice.

[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]

Originally Posted by DSMStyle

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]

Originally Posted by DSMStyle

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.