I’m lazy and pretty much computer illiterate, find me a deal.
Wife and I are in the market for a new comp. Not really sure what we want. Primary use will be managing iTunes music files, pictures, some vids, web surfing. No gaming, no huge movie files.
I think this will be more than adaquate, not great or anything but w/e the price is right.
The only thing is the last laptop was a Toshiba and gave her problems although I have heard good things about them? It was a floor model so running 12 hrs a day for 2+ months straight as a demo couldn’t have helped?
Should 1GB be enough (Vista) or should we step it up to a 2GB?
The Acer nameplate isn’t a huge turn-on, although what do I know. The $600 - $650 range opens up a lot of 2GB options with in all name brands. Just that it all gets into the slippery slope of “for only $100 more…”.
Yup, part of “cheap” includes “obsolete”. $899 is the lowest priced Dell in the non dual core catagory.
Part of my “logic” is that a 12" portable DVD player is like $200, so for $250 more I get a larger screen, 120 GB MP3 player, something to steal internet, pay bills online, surf.
I picked up a “cheap” laptop for the wife / garage, through dell ~month ago. I went through dell because there was a ~$200 coupon on slickdeals, and I got ~$85 off through work discount (PM me for).
Dell 1501, Amd Turion, 1gb ram, Vista basic.
IIRC it was ~$720 -275 coupons = 445.
and got a $50 Dell gift card which I plan on selling
IOW, check slickdeals & that once a week to see whats on sale. Dell is has pretty good sale items fairly often; Toshiba does it too.
"The original models built a year ago were based on a different Intel chipset. The specs that are being published are for the older model.
The new model that Best Buy is selling is actually based on the Intel GM965 chipsets.
Why is this important?
The manual says it has a 533 Mhz FSB. Reality is that the new version can go up to 800 Mhz on the FSB. For people who are less technical…the computer is VERY upgradeable. The current fastest Core 2 Duo @ 800mhz is the T7700. It drops right in…with no mods.
The manual says that the computer has 1 gig of RAM (true) and has a maximum capacity of 2 gig(not true). The new GM965 chipset in the newer revisions allow for a 4 gig of RAM maximum.
No bluetooth?? You can add external or INTERNAL!! I spent a couple of hours and made calls and found the part numbers for anyone interested.
The Bluetooth Module is part # V000090200
You will also need cable part# V000900770
So for about $70 bucks you can have internal bluetooth.
Any authorized Toshiba service center can get these parts for you(I bought mine from spare parts warehouse.)
So…moral of the story…great laptop for the money! Can’t be beat ANYWHERE right now. If you want to upgrade to a high end laptop (Core 2 Duo T7700, 4 gigs, 8 in 1 ExpressCard Card Reader, Internal Bluetooth)it can be done for less than $400 bucks. If you decide to go to this extreme then you have a $1500 dollar laptop and you only spent around $850. SWEET!
One other note…the video is an Intel X3100. It is comparable to a GeForce 8400M. It can handle just about anything you want to throw at it. DVD playback is beautiful!"
So, I can just get two of these…
put them in 2 of the 4 slots, leave the 2 512 mb in and end up with 3GB ram?
ehhhh, you could…But the effects are open to debate, and I doubt a laptop has 4 ram slots.
In theory you want to put 2 matching stick of ram in the slots. This is where the advantage in DDR comes in. Matched pairs of ram will sync, hence the name “dual channel”. Clock speed is also a factor, the faster clocked ram with automatically reduce its speed to match the slower clock speed.
So yes, the computer will run with 2 different size/speed stick of memory in the slots. But you will lose the advantages of having matched/synced RAM.
(Note: The effects of RAM that is unmatched is debatable, I tend to believe the less RAM the machine has the greater the negative effects)
“Wife and I are in the market for a new comp. Not really sure what we want. Primary use will be managing iTunes music files, pictures, some vids, web surfing. No gaming, no huge movie files.”
Besides the 2gigs of ram for Vista…As long as its not some shitty processor you should be fine.
Here and Here say 2 slots, 4GB possible on the GM965 mobile platform
If you’re worried about the machine being on all of the time, here’s a decent idea: Check with your credit card company, a lot of companies offer extended warranties on things bought on the card. AMEX is the first name that comes to mind, from what I hear the process is simple and they cover nearly anything you buy including electronics.
A LAPTOP WITH A 3 YEAR “THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW” WARRANTY!!
Specs are worthless, but when you can spill coffee and pitch it out the window… and get another no prob, thats whats KEY. To be honest the only thing you will notice anyway is the screen reso and RAM upgrade.
why?
Cause like every other idiot you’ll have spyware and gay porn all over it slowing it fucking down to pretty much a halt.
Dont buy a Dell. Very flimsy build quality. I know. I have one.
Best advice would be to buy a new machine like an Acer or HP and downgrade Vista to XP.
It will run much faster.
I am making the jump to Ubuntu Linux myself. FUCK microsoft and their piece of shit, cluster fuck of software like windows explorer
I love my dell. Bought it refurbed with a warrenty. My first problem was I got some memory error. Called dell at around 7pm that night, some guy walked me through a trouble shooting process and one of my memory sticks was bad. He said he ordered a new one for me and send the bad one back once the new memory gets in. I’m assuming this will be 3 days before I get my memory. I go to leave for school at 6am and at my doorstep is a box from dell. In under 12 hours, they already shipped it to my house which made me pretty pleased.
About a year later, I was getting “green lines” across my screen (which I found out was known as artifacting, something the video card does) while playing games. Online chatted with dell, they took control of my comp, updated all my drivers, then called me to see if it was any better. I told them know and they said they would have a tech at my house. They didn’t know if it was my video card (mine is not intergrated) or my mobo. She came to my house and installed the whole set of internals for me, saw it wasent any better, came out the next day with a new video card and just to be on the safe side, replaced my screen with a brand new LCD.
My refurb is now practically brand new thanks to the warrenty.
I’d take that route for cheap, but im a little biased.