Laptops and Notebooks?

[personman]

You can build a pretty nice but still reasonable laptop at HP for about 1100. That was still a bit expensive for my tastes but you seem to have a bit more money to blow.
And as for the gaming desktop, you could build a nice one for under 1k. Unless you want to go all out with a new DX10 card (dont, they arent good enough yet. wait till next gen).
It just depends on how much gaming you want to do.
But one things for sure, for the price of your 2k laptop you could get a pretty good laptop AND a sweet desktop.
The desktop im going to build will probably be under 900. I plan on using AM2+ so I have forward compatibility for two whole generations of AMD processors.

Oh, and build your own PC. You'll get ALOT more bang for your buck. Trust me. And its easy to learn if you've never done it before.

[jenarelJAM]

A while ago I bought a 7600GT for my current desktop as an upgrade. Assuming I just rip it out of this computer(it has a backup GPU on the motherboard), and stick it in the next one, buy a good motherboard/processor/ram/power supply, and stuff, and get a good video card later if/when I need it, sound like a good idea? Then I could cut out probably ~$100 for the video card, as the 7600 is plenty for me right now, I just know I'm going to want F.E.A.R. 2 and Starcraft 2, and a video card to play them both...

And if I end up having a desktop as my main powerhouse, then would it be worth it to start looking at more of the ultra-portable laptops? Does anyone have experience with these? I want decent screen resolution (?I don't know if this exists on the smaller screens), easy internet browsing, bluetooth, wifi, and the ability to watch DVD's (good battery life would be really nice for this). Also, since vista is recommended by my school, I'd like 2Gb ram, or at least 1.5GB, and anything else needed to make it compatible with schoolwork.

Okay, so more questions... now about building a desktop...

I understand power supply is (most?) important, but I haven't researched it at all yet, so if you've got things I should know, I'm all ears, but I'll be looking into these soon.

GPU - covered

CPU - Should I wait for the quad core technology to become more available/cheap, or should I just invest in a faster core 2 duo?

HDD - Um... any differences besides disk space and speed?

RAM - Gotta look into the benefits of different speeds. I see a lot of 2x1GB at 667... Thinking of maybe going a little higher than that though, depending on cost/benefit. Any favorite brands?

Motherboard - Okay, here's where I spent several hours today, and I'm still completely lost. What is it I should be looking for in a motherboard? I've looked up stuff about ASUS motherboards (my computer-oriented friend loves asus motherboards), and they've got a new P35 chipset that runs DDR3 ram, but then I read a fairly in-depth review about DDR3 ram that made it seem very much not worth it at this stage. So what should I be looking for here? I know that I have to get either an intel-compatible or an ATI-compatible motherboard, depending on the processor, or vice versa. Are there other compatibility issues?

Again, I'll try to look this up for myself, but does anyone have a list of all the parts I'll need to build a complete computer? So far... power supply, case, optical drive, motherboard (usb ports are included on the motherboard, right?), cpu, gpu, bluetooth, wifi(possibly), hard drive. I'm sure I'm missing something... or several somethings...

Oh, and about my "pockets." Again, I'm 18, going to work all summer and pitch in for a large portion of this. I tend to like to buy things more high-end the first time because I can't stand the feeling of "if I had only spent $50 more..." And then wanting to upgrade right away. So I save up and buy the higher-end stuff straight off. That said, I'm also 18. Money saving's good. For instance, I'd much rather get 80% the value for 50% the price. I don't need the absolute top of the line...

Thanks guys, your help has been invaluable

[geekwarrior]

pc mech

build you own forum

a great place to find info on building.

don't know what your budget is, but i built the following for under $1000

Asus P5B-E Mobo
Duo Core E6600
2 Gig Corsair ram (667, dont need the 800 unless your planning on overclocking)
7600GX 512MB video card
Corsair 520 power supply
Liteon dvd/cd rw
Thermaltake Armor case
300 GB Seagate Harddrive (make sure you get some version of SATA)

and look at newegg for parts...great prices, fast shipping.

[Lenny]

OH my god - lol, we need signatures. Neppo is wise beyond his years.

That's exactly what I was thinking!

/Yeah, I know I'm alittle late.

[personman]

A while ago I bought a 7600GT for my current desktop as an upgrade. Assuming I just rip it out of this computer(it has a backup GPU on the motherboard), and stick it in the next one, buy a good motherboard/processor/ram/power supply, and stuff, and get a good video card later if/when I need it, sound like a good idea? Then I could cut out probably ~$100 for the video card, as the 7600 is plenty for me right now, I just know I'm going to want F.E.A.R. 2 and Starcraft 2, and a video card to play them both...

And if I end up having a desktop as my main powerhouse, then would it be worth it to start looking at more of the ultra-portable laptops? Does anyone have experience with these? I want decent screen resolution (?I don't know if this exists on the smaller screens), easy internet browsing, bluetooth, wifi, and the ability to watch DVD's (good battery life would be really nice for this). Also, since vista is recommended by my school, I'd like 2Gb ram, or at least 1.5GB, and anything else needed to make it compatible with schoolwork.

Okay, so more questions... now about building a desktop...

I understand power supply is (most?) important, but I haven't researched it at all yet, so if you've got things I should know, I'm all ears, but I'll be looking into these soon.

GPU - covered

CPU - Should I wait for the quad core technology to become more available/cheap, or should I just invest in a faster core 2 duo?

HDD - Um... any differences besides disk space and speed?

RAM - Gotta look into the benefits of different speeds. I see a lot of 2x1GB at 667... Thinking of maybe going a little higher than that though, depending on cost/benefit. Any favorite brands?

Motherboard - Okay, here's where I spent several hours today, and I'm still completely lost. What is it I should be looking for in a motherboard? I've looked up stuff about ASUS motherboards (my computer-oriented friend loves asus motherboards), and they've got a new P35 chipset that runs DDR3 ram, but then I read a fairly in-depth review about DDR3 ram that made it seem very much not worth it at this stage. So what should I be looking for here? I know that I have to get either an intel-compatible or an ATI-compatible motherboard, depending on the processor, or vice versa. Are there other compatibility issues?

Again, I'll try to look this up for myself, but does anyone have a list of all the parts I'll need to build a complete computer? So far... power supply, case, optical drive, motherboard (usb ports are included on the motherboard, right?), cpu, gpu, bluetooth, wifi(possibly), hard drive. I'm sure I'm missing something... or several somethings...

Oh, and about my "pockets." Again, I'm 18, going to work all summer and pitch in for a large portion of this. I tend to like to buy things more high-end the first time because I can't stand the feeling of "if I had only spent $50 more..." And then wanting to upgrade right away. So I save up and buy the higher-end stuff straight off. That said, I'm also 18. Money saving's good. For instance, I'd much rather get 80% the value for 50% the price. I don't need the absolute top of the line...

Thanks guys, your help has been invaluable

The 7600GT is a pretty good card, I built a computer for my brother with it and its doing great. I'd say it would be a good idea to keep that card until the next generation of video cards come out. Starcraft 2 probably wont be that graphics intensive from what I've seen but ill bet FEAR 2 will be crazy.
As far as powersupplies go, a favorite seems to be the Corsair power supplies. They've gotten excellent reviews. They are a little pricey, but a good power supply is essential.
HDD isnt really all that important of a choice. Just get 7200rpm or higher and get one that has good reviews
For ram you can go with ddr2 667 or 800. I wouldnt go 533. Im personally going with 800 because I dont think theres much of a price difference. Again, check out reviews.

I'm not sure if I would go quad core. There arent many programs out there that can fully utilize a dual core processor, much less a quad. Then again I have heard alot of things about future games using multiple processors to their advantage. I'm going to wait until I see more conclusive benchmarks, personally.

Check out hardforum.com. Great forum with generally very knowledgeable people.

[jenarelJAM]

Okay... so I talked to my dad, and he's kinda against the whole desktop idea. He really wants to get me a high-end laptop only so I don't have to deal with syncing the two machines. To that end, if I can get the C90S and ability to upgrade it in the future, and I can keep it plugged in basicly 24/7, I think it would be a good compromise... gr... I wish I had more space in the dorms. From your guys' experience, is it possible to plug your laptops into a floor socket or something in class? Or would I need it to run off the battery? That really would influence my decision a lot...

I was starting to really like the idea of a desktop and lappy though...

[jenarelJAM]

Real quick question about motherboards... if it has four 240pin memory slots, does that mean I could use 4x 512MB to make 2GB? Or should I still go 2x1GB? or could I go 4x1GB?

[jenarelJAM]

Hehe... I think I finally found something...
Okay, so my friend's advice was originally to get a laptop for schoolwork and get a console for video gaming, and I was kinda hesitant at first, but after realizing that laptop gaming is problematic at best, I started thinking (just in passing at first) about laptops with integrated graphics. I started looking specifically at the Lenovo (IBM) line of laptops, for their build quality, and saw the T series, which looked pretty interesting. Definitely high end and very compatible with what I'd need for school. Then just for kicks, I browsed the rest of the lenovo website, and came across the X61 Tablet.

Wow. This seems almost too perfect. Now, admittedly, it would be completely unable to play games, and it is a bit more expensive than the G1S I was looking at before... but it's ridiculously small, still with a 1400x1050 resolution screen, touchscreen(with special pen) decent processing power (L7500, 1.6Ghz core2duo), tons of communications options, and did I mention it's ridiculously small? 12.1" with SXGA+ resolution is incredible imo... maybe that's just me. Batery life is advertised at 7.5 hrs, but by reviews it gets more like 7 max, and more like 5 with regular use. Still pretty good.

And that would take care of the whole bringing paper to class for notes issue that was addressed earlier in the thread. It would be much much much more convenient to keep all my notes organized on the computer (I understand there is software to do this, a free limited version and then a full version)

Configured with Vista Ultimate, 2GB ram, 100GB HD at 7200 rpm, intel turbo memory, wireless WIFI, Ultrabase(like, a docking station) with DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer optical drive, it comes out to $2,263. Now, I can save $70 if I go with vista business instead of ultimate (need business for tablet, I think, premium isn't an option), and I can save $100+120 if I opt out of the ultra base with optical drive, but then the computer wouldn't have an optical drive, and I'd have to use an external one. Also, I could save $50 if I chose not to have the turbo memory, which I still have to look up some reviews on, but looks like a decent idea to me.

So... Thoughts anyone?

[d4m4don3]

Personally I think tablets are at their infancy. If you were a businessman a tablet would work for many situations but note taking using the windows journal to me is still problematic. The hand writing recognition software will take some time to get used to if you want to translate your notes to doc or text format. Stick with a compact laptop for now and bring a notepad/binder with you for your notes. It's still a bit hard to draw images with a tablet pc pen. I feel its still a compromise. It's like taking notes on a palm pilot or pocket pc.

As for the laptops Lenovo and dell makes some great laptops with a caveat. You get what you pay for, the entry level laptops tend to break more often than not. Thats what I see more being serviced than the medium and higher tiered laptops. If you do get a low end make sure you have the better warranty that has a no questions asked policies that they have. That way you don't have to deal with the support technicians over the phone as much. Good luck with your choice.

[jenarelJAM]

Personally I think tablets are at their infancy. If you were a businessman a tablet would work for many situations but note taking using the windows journal to me is still problematic. The hand writing recognition software will take some time to get used to if you want to translate your notes to doc or text format. Stick with a compact laptop for now and bring a notepad/binder with you for your notes. It's still a bit hard to draw images with a tablet pc pen. I feel its still a compromise. It's like taking notes on a palm pilot or pocket pc.

Are you talking about Wacom technology? Not all tablets have it, but the X61t does. I saw a video of it being used side by side with a touchscreen input, and it looks practically as good as pen and paper. Definitely looks usable.
See here: http://www.gottabemobile.com/LenovoT...Ultrabase.aspx
The video is for the x60, but it's the same computer, just with better components.

[jenarelJAM]

Another update:

I went to Fry's Electronics today, to test out one of their display tablet models, just to make sure I liked the way a tablet felt. Other than the sales associates knowing absolutely nothing about the computer, or computers in general for that matter, I found the tablet idea to be a great success. The penstroke was very fluid, and actually made my handwriting more legible. I don't know how to explain it other than that there is a very small delay on the cursor following the pen around the screen, so it smoothes out the pen strokes. You'd have to try it, but it's immediately obvious, and very nice. It was incredibly easy to write on the tablet, as well as navigate menus and options.

One thing I was incredibly impressed by was actually the handwriting recognition software. Now, I don't have neat handwriting by any means. It's generally legible, but I was amazed when it picked up my handwriting right off the bat. I wrote www.automags.org into the address bar in IE and it turned into type right away. The tablet I used was running XP, and I'm told that the recognition software is even better in Vista...

So... now I'm 99.5% sure I'm getting the X61. I tested a Fujitsu 4215, which was very lacking in components, as well as screen resolution, and just functions and options in general. I'm looking forward to the release of the X61.

Thanks for all your help guys.