Laptop?

[joshSCH]

Hey, I know there are a couple threads out there with a similar question; however, this thread isn't quite the same, nor will it last long.

Okay, I'm buying a laptop for college this summer.. The one I had wanted to buy went up too high in price. I'm trying to stay at about $1k.

Anyway, here are the two different systems I am thinking about buying:

HP (CompUSA)
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?ref=google&product_code=344567&pfp=external&tabtype=rv#rb

Processor Brand: AMD
Processor Class: Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology Processor
Processor Number: TL-52
Front Side Bus: 1.6 GHz
Mobile Technology: Turion
L2 Cache Size: 2 x 512 KB
Memory Type: DDR2-SDRAM
Installed Memory: 1 GB
Maximum Memory: 2 MB (huh? I think they meant 2 GB)
Hard Drive Capacity: 120 GB
Rotational Speed: 5400 RPM
Optical Drives: LightScribe Double Layer DVD+/-RW SuperMulti Drive:

* Create a DVD Writable at a maximum 8X Write speed
* Other speed specifications are not available from the manufacturer

Additional Drives: LightScribe DL DVD SuperMulti
Sound Support: Digital Audio (16-bit)
Video Chipset Brand: NVIDIA
Video Chipset: GeForce Go 6150
Resolution: 1280 x 800
Screen Size: 12.1 in

Fingerprint reader, rotating monitor

From $1200 to $950

Dell
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?reconfigure=true&vw=list&cart=ActiveCart&id=5efd41de-592b-46ca-9a21-986b735e6dc3&ecomm=ecomm.dell.com&c=us&l=en&cs=19

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5300 (2MB) Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB

OPERATING SYSTEM Ubuntu Edition version 7.04

LCD PANEL 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife

MEMORY 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM

HARD DRIVE 120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

OPTICAL DIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

VIDEO CARD Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950

BATTERY OPTIONS 9-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery

WIRELESS CARDS Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio
Processor Branding Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor

From $1422 to $922

What do yall think? I'll bring my desktop down too, so I only really need it for classes.. I'm kinda leaning towards the Dell, but I do like the fingerprint reader and rotating monitor on the hp. Please post your opinions and links to laptops that you prefer.

[Sturm]

I personally like hp. My hp laptop dv6000t ( A laptop I would highly recommend. The newer version (exactly the same except for some cosmetic changes) got the "best buy" award from pc world.) is awesome. I paid only $1600 and got <see computer specs in profile>.

And dells come with intel video cards instead of nvidia ones. Of course if this is just a cheap crappy laptop for school while your real rig is going to be a desktop than maybe dell is better.

[joshSCH]

icic.. actually, I could use this instead of integrated video: 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300 TurboCache™

It's an extra $80.. I just think the integrated video card should be fine b/c I have my desktop for gaming :)

[hbk619]

2mb of RAM? hehe.

Sorry, i haven't used either. I'm inlove with my Acer Aspire 5610 :)

[joshSCH]

Hey, I decided to change up the dell a bit.. I added the graphics card, and upgraded the processor to 1.83 GHz.. decided to go with 1 gig of ram instead of two (It costs $200 more to get 2 gigs of ram instead of one!! wtf? I can get ram for $35 off newegg.)

[jbennet]

Dells are picky about RAM. go for the dell supplied stuff.

[TheNNS]

when buying a dell, buy as little ram as you can, because it is so expensive, you can always buy it a newegg.com, since it's very cheap there.

[jbennet]

The turbocache cards are crap. Dont get them, The "256 meg" cards are like 2 - 64mb cards which steal the rest from system ram

[Sturm]

but if you have 2 gigs I wont make a difference. my geforce 7400 go has 128 dedicated and 128 system.

[TheNNS]

how many casual users hav 2gb ram in their computer?

[joshSCH]

Me!

[Sturm]

me too! 2 Gigs is cheap.

[jbennet]

you neee 2 gigs if u have vista

[TheNNS]

yeah, but you guys are power users.

[jbennet]

I have 512 in most of my (nonvista) machines

[Sturm]

actually since I run linux w/ evilwm I only really need 1 gig. I just have another gig for the heck of it.

[TheNNS]

dude, sturm, give me a gig

[Sturm]

lol it would void my warrenty!

[jwenting]

how many casual users hav 2gb ram in their computer?

me. And thinking of upping it to 4...

[hbk619]

i want 2. Because it's more than 1.

[joshSCH]

4?? Why do you need that much? 2 is quite sufficient, and I never have any ram problems.

[TheNNS]

if you have 4, you could probably get rid of the paging file.

[Sturm]

You can get rid of swap with 1 gig. I have swap just for the heck of it.

[jbennet]

I have 3 . 1 gig for vista, two for my game

[TheNNS]

You can get rid of swap with 1 gig. I have swap just for the heck of it.

That's not a very good thing to do. You should have paging file still, some programs like photoshop use it always.

[Sturm]

I do not use photoshop. What open src apps use it? And anyways I have 2 gigs of swap space.

[TheNNS]

most applications use it.

[Sturm]

My friend uses debian w/ no swap and he has not had problems.

[TheNNS]

when in windows, in case of a BSOD, the errors are written to the page file, so you can look at what they were and fix them to prevent it from happening again.

[Sturm]

Well I don't use windows do I?