Dell laptops.. Worth the price...

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

Go with the 900 one. The Pentium M chip walks all over the turion line of processors. It's no contest. Other than that, they look the same.

Turion is that bad? I thought they were supposed to be descent.. But most everyone whos posted in this thread knows more than me so I'll stfu //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif .. Is it worth the $50 for the core duo over the solo? And not to keep beating a dead horse over this question but is there a huge difference between the solo, duo, and 2 duo ??

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

Norton and McAffee are the AOL of PC Protection. They burn through RAM fast enough that only 256 megs of RAM will up your PC's load time by well over a minute. I've seen it happen. A / B comparison, I'd format a machine with 256 megs of ram, fresh install of XP, fresh install of Norton, bang, lose a minute of startup time. =\

Oh, they don't do a good job of finding virii either. I would scan things in Norton (My boss LOVED Limewire), transfer then to the minidrive (6g laptop hd converted to USB drive) and transfer whatever it was to my PC (The network fileserver), sure enough my copy of Avira would go off with a virus alert. When Norton DID find a virus, 90% of the time it'd try to delete, then quarantee the virus and fail both times.

Oh, and their update process is STUPID. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Takes too much time, too much bandwidth, and need to restart a half dozen times just so you can update crap Norton can't even use properly.

Their interface is just stupid. In Avira, I right click the bottom icon, click update, it downloads the updates, stops the antivirus, installs the updates, restarts the antivirus all on it's own. In Norton, sometimes it would fail to update at all, I'd have to download the manual updates, and run some lame-*** update installer to get it to work. Too much hassle.

You want a real antivirus? Try Avira, Bit Defender, or Etrust, all of which are pretty good antiviruses.

 

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

Norton and McAffee are the AOL of PC Protection. They burn through RAM fast enough that only 256 megs of RAM will up your PC's load time by well over a minute. I've seen it happen. A / B comparison, I'd format a machine with 256 megs of ram, fresh install of XP, fresh install of Norton, bang, lose a minute of startup time. =\
Oh, they don't do a good job of finding virii either. I would scan things in Norton (My boss LOVED Limewire), transfer then to the minidrive (6g laptop hd converted to USB drive) and transfer whatever it was to my PC (The network fileserver), sure enough my copy of Avira would go off with a virus alert. When Norton DID find a virus, 90% of the time it'd try to delete, then quarantee the virus and fail both times.

Oh, and their update process is STUPID. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Takes too much time, too much bandwidth, and need to restart a half dozen times just so you can update crap Norton can't even use properly.

Their interface is just stupid. In Avira, I right click the bottom icon, click update, it downloads the updates, stops the antivirus, installs the updates, restarts the antivirus all on it's own. In Norton, sometimes it would fail to update at all, I'd have to download the manual updates, and run some lame-*** update installer to get it to work. Too much hassle.

You want a real antivirus? Try Avira, Bit Defender, or Etrust, all of which are pretty good antiviruses.

So when i Do end up getting my new laptop is there anything i should take off right away and install something new ... If you or anyone could check the 2 HP laptops im looking at and see what it comes with and/ or if i should remove anything , that would be another great help..

its the dv 6000 and the dv5000

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/generic_category.do?catLevel=1&landing=notebooks&category=hp_pavilion&storeName=computer_store

 

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

Get the dv6000t w/ the Core Duo and the GeForce 7400 ... Maybe a larger hard drive, too ...
Oh, and for an anti-virus, I recommend Kaspersky (Internet Security or Anti-Virus), NOD32 (Anti-Virus), Zone Alarm (Internet Security), PC-Cillin (Internet Security) ...

Where can i get/buy the security, anti virus software? And do i really need the best processor and graphics card if its only basicaly for the net music movies, photos, etc ? What does a better graphics card do for me When i dont play games or do much of anything technical

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif
Turion is almost as good and much cheaper ... Pentium M (now known as Core Solo) gets slightly better battery life and is noticably better for multi-tasking, but at a considerably higher cost ...

Turion is an admirable performer, however the origional poster was debating spending almost two grand on a laptop. The extra couple hundred dollars will be more than justified for the Pentium M, better performance longer battery life, lower heat, better onthefly frequency changes, a much longer product lifespan...

On another note, I'd recommend PC-Cillin or Kaspearsky as well. I dislike E-trust and for Zone Alarm... the firewall build in to antiviruse (especially pc-cillin) is more than capible.

 

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

Yea, i was looking over things again, and im going to get as much as i can on one of those HP's for under $1k.. Like i said i wont think ill need anything as nice and decked out as i origonally wanted to since i'll be getting a new desktop soon and a new laptop in about 5 years or so.. So what ever graphics card, processor etc i can get to jest make it 5 years will be good at this point, I like the 1gb ram on the 6000 a few other things, but with what im going to use it for i dont know if ill need anything super nice

 

[kngadrok 10+ year member]

Remember the rule of thumb, buy as much PC as you can afford.

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

I've always told my customers to buy as much as you need. No reason to lay down 3k on a computer if you can afford it, only to use it for email and word processing.

 

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

no, i understand everything your saying about getting what you can afford, but now money isnt an option, but it comes down to the point of.. Do i need a super nice laptop for 1500 if im just using it for the net, downloading music, media, photos, and a few other things, or could i get by with a $800 laptop w/ a 2 yr or 3 yr. warranty.. I'll end up buying a new laptop 5 yrs down the road if i need one but my desktop is my Main computer, But even tho i dont know much about them im sure that a $800 laptop now is as good or better than most average desktops from 3-4 yrs ago.. Right?

 

[kngadrok 10+ year member]

[quote...................

And if you just need it for internet only puroses You listed, then any laptop will do.

I have a cheap gateway M3215 for internet only and my music. It was $430 bucks two years ago and is still fine for the same purposes as I originally bought it for. Now that same computer is still under$500.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

[quote...................And if you just need it for internet only puroses You listed, then any laptop will do.

I have a cheap gateway M3215 for internet only and my music. It was $430 bucks two years ago and is still fine for the same purposes as I originally bought it for. Now that same computer is still under$500.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Gotcha .. BOTTOM LINE.....

I just want a computer that will work good for me for the next couple years.. And the only thing im debating is do i need the centrino duo or will the turion work, do i need 1.3 megapixel webcam, and will 512 mb of ram work for me.. I know i'll prolly get $50 4 yrs from now if i trade in or sell w/ onlly 512 Mb RAM and a 80 GB hd so thats why im wondering if i should just spend a lil more now so i can get a lil more later

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

You'll be fine with 512. However, which processor depends on HOW you're going to use the laptop.

Going to leave it plugged in in a dorm for the most part? Save the cash and get the turion.

Going to take the laptop a lot of places? Get the intel because of the better battery life.

 

[kngadrok 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Gotcha .. BOTTOM LINE.....

I just want a computer that will work good for me for the next couple years.. And the only thing im debating is do i need the centrino duo or will the turion work, do i need 1.3 megapixel webcam, and will 512 mb of ram work for me.. I know i'll prolly get $50 4 yrs from now if i trade in or sell w/ onlly 512 Mb RAM and a 80 GB hd so thats why im wondering if i should just spend a lil more now so i can get a lil more later

512 ram is borderline useless

 

[kngadrok 10+ year member]

QUOTE=hzsogood;2252013]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif
Gotcha .. BOTTOM LINE.....

I just want a computer that will work good for me for the next couple years.. And the only thing im debating is do i need the centrino duo or will the turion work, do i need 1.3 megapixel webcam, and will 512 mb of ram work for me.. I know i'll prolly get $50 4 yrs from now if i trade in or sell w/ onlly 512 Mb RAM and a 80 GB hd so thats why im wondering if i should just spend a lil more now so i can get a lil more later

[bThis is from a software engineer who used to work for microsoft for 25 years.[/b]

"I will tell you this, however: if I were to purchase a new machine, which I did recently, I would start with 1 gigabyte of memory, and make sure it was expandable to 2. Today 1 gigabyte is plenty of room ... probably more room than most people need. But applications grow. Operating systems get bigger. Heck, most people's own usage grows as they discover more and more things to use their PC's for. Making sure that you have lots of memory, and the potential for lots more, is perhaps the single biggest thing you can do to increase the usable life of your computer."

Similarly, as I've said before, Windows loves memory. It's by far the most cost effective investment to speed up a slow machine.

And I dont know what the hell is wrong with my quote function.

 

[hzsogood 5,000+ posts]

Gotcha .. BOTTOM LINE.....
I just want a computer that will work good for me for the next couple years.. And the only thing im debating is do i need the centrino duo or will the turion work, do i need 1.3 megapixel webcam, and will 512 mb of ram work for me.. I know i'll prolly get $50 4 yrs from now if i trade in or sell w/ onlly 512 Mb RAM and a 80 GB hd so thats why im wondering if i should just spend a lil more now so i can get a lil more later

512 ram is borderline useless

I know its sad these days .. 512 MB ram is weak... But then again this dell desktop ive been on for about 5 yrs now is working just fine and it is only 512 MB RAm 120 GB hd and an avg. grphics chip... Not to mention im still running Norton and Macafee