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Bartacus
Il Buono
Joined: 24 May 2003
Posts: 4706
Location: Belgium Flemmish part |
My dad wants to buy a laptop. Unfortunatelly I don't feel right at gome with laptops, so I have a copple of questions. He's not into games, but wants to use it for photoprocessing. (Although he wil generally use it for internet and office tasks.)
1st possibility
Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 3.06 Ghz met Hyper-Threading
Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system
533 Mhz Front Side Bus
512KB on-die L2 cache
512MB 333 MHz DDR SDRAM (2x256)
15,0" TFT SXGA+ Kleurenscherm (1400*1050)
64MB DDR nVidia® GeForce™ 5200 Go 4x AGP
60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Disk
Internal 24x CD-RW/ 8x DVD combo drive
3.5'' 1.44 Mb External USB floppy drive
One type I/II PC Card slot
Ports: USB 2.0 (x2), VGA, Headphones, Speaker, RJ-11, RJ-45, S-Video, EEE1394
10/100 networkcard en 56k/V92 modem
Built-in Stereo speakers
Lithium Ion 12 cell (94Whr) batterij
AC Adapter
Touchpad
Dell E-Support Solution Centre
Software: WinXP Home + Works 7.0 + Norton AntiVirus 2003 (90 days free updates) + Dell Picture Studio with 60 day trial version of Photo Album Premium Edition and Paint Shop Pro 8.0
Price: €1560 (1024MB 333Mhz DDR RAM (2x512MB), 80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Disk, Internal 4x DVD+ RW Drive -> €2163)
2nd possibility
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 1.70GHz 1MB cache
400MHz Front Side Bus
1024MB 333Mhz DDR RAM (2x512MB)
80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Disk
15.4" Breedbeeld WSXGA+ TFT UltraSharp Kleurenscherm (1680x1050)
128MB ATI® Mobility™ Radeon™ 9600 PRO TURBO
Modular 4x DVD+ RW Drive
Geintegreerde 10/100 netwerkkaart en 56k/V92 modem
Ports: Parallel, Serial, VGA, S-video out, 2x USB 2.0 , IR (IrDa v.1.1), IEEE 1394
High quality audio system with built-in speakers
One type II PC Card slots
Touchpad & pointing stick
AC Adapter
Lithium Ion 9 cell battery pack
Dell E-Support Solution Centre
Software: WinXP Home + Works 7.0 + Norton AntiVirus 2003 (90 days free updates) + Dell Picture Studio with 60 day trial version of Photo Album Premium Edition and Paint Shop Pro 8.0
Price: €2116
Now what I don't understand is that they put a 1.70GHz in the best laptop. Can it be that the processor of the 2nd is roughely the same as a 2.5Ghz of the 1st suggestion?
What's the best sollution for my dad?
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member of the Sports Fans Forum
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Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:54 am |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
The second notebook listed uses a Pentium-M (*not* to be confused with Pentium 4-M) which is commonly known as the "Centrino". The Centrino was designed from the ground up in Israel for mobile use. It uses significantly less power and generates less heat than other notebook processors. If you check the details you should find the Centrino notebook has around double the battery life (typically ~5.5 hours compared to <2 hours but it does vary). They're also usually a thinner profile and lighter.
As a *very, very* rough guide, add around 1Ghz to the Centrino speed when comparing to a P4 (Intel performance charts show a 1.7 Centrino > 2.6 P4).
The 3.06 model is probably still faster but the 1.7 is a better mobile product, has better graphics, widescreen, bigger HDD and a DVDRW. So...if it's a desktop replacement and he doesn't want to burn photos onto DVD (very handy) the cheaper one should be fine. If he wants to use it on the road or use the DVDRW, go for the Centrino model.
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Tue Jan 27, 2004 12:24 pm |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
The second one is better mobile solution (as Dhruin said) - this mean that it will be better if her really wants to use it as mobile solution. First one will be probably faster, so you can suggest this one, if he will put it on table in work and then he will take it and put it on table at home. |
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Thu Jan 29, 2004 5:58 am |
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Myrthos
Spoiler of All Fun
Joined: 07 Jul 2001
Posts: 1926
Location: Holland |
As always it depends on what you want to use it for. I've switched to a laptop a year ago as a replacement to my normal PC. I wouldn't want to go back to the PC. My next one will be a laptop again.
I'm using my laptop not on a desk but on the sofa mostly while sitting next to my wife who watches the television  So I need a wireless network, as I don't want to hassle with the cables. Because I don't have a fixed place anymore for my PC, there is no place to plug in the printer, so I ended up with a printer server installed on my router. All of them are extra costs.
What would be of interest also is to knwo if you can use an external mouse on it. You really don't want to use the built in mouse for a long period of time. If it doesn't have a separate mouse port then you will need to get a USB mouse, which leaves you with only one USB port left. Which is not a lot actually as you might want to consider getting some external peripherals.
I myself have bought an external harddisk and an external DVD burner. One user firewire/USB and the other uses only USB. Also my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive anymore, so I use a USB stick to transfer data. Which then occupies all my 3 USB ports.
If you want to use it for gaming then realize that the speakers in the laptop suck. No matter what they say as a selling point for this, they are not good for gaming. Luckily there are plenty of external soundcards that you could use which do give you a great quality. Again, they are on USB.
When it comes to the screen then size matters. The bigger the better, especially if you are going to use it with photo or film editing. Most packages require some screen space, to put all the interfaces on and such. So big is good. But maybe 1680 wide is a bit too much, atleast you can choose then to go down. Alternative you could always connect an external monitor.
I'm not fully up-to-date on what video card is better. I would try to find some tests of these two video cards as they are important when gaming.
As I use my laptop as a replacement for my PC and hardly ever am on the road withj it. The time it can run without a battery is not important to me. So I would go for speed. Even how hot it gets or what weight it has are of lesser importance. What is important though (remember I'm sitting next to my wife who is watching the tv) is the noise the fan makes. If you have the possibility then try it out and leave the laptop running for more than 15-20 minutes and make it do something intensive (like playing a 3D shooter), as it takes some time for the fan to start running on full speed.
Just some observations from a happy laptop user 
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Reports Myrthos for making me scared and humbled at the mere sight of his name - kayla |
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Thu Jan 29, 2004 12:43 pm |
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Bartacus
Il Buono
Joined: 24 May 2003
Posts: 4706
Location: Belgium Flemmish part |
Thanks to all of you for your helpfull input.
@Myrthos: The USB stick you spoke about: does that mean you can connect it with any USB port or do you have to install sth else first. (drivers for example, but also possible hardware changes  )
BTW, I'm a floppy fan. I still use them on my computer and it commes in handy stm. (following a French course where I got a 1.44MB disk where a good simple program has been put on.)
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Moderator and Council Magician of the RPGDot Shadows
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Thu Jan 29, 2004 1:45 pm |
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Chekote
Where’s my Banana?!?!
Joined: 08 Mar 2002
Posts: 1540
Location: Dont know, looks kind of green |
You'd be lucky to get an internal floppy on a laptop now.
Just burn the program on a CD (Or USB Stick as Myrthos suggested). That floppy will probably die the moment you need it anyway.
Floppy's are the bane of my life!
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IMHO my opinion is humble |
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Thu Jan 29, 2004 2:18 pm |
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cfmdobbie
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 1859
Location: London, England |
quote:
Originally posted by Bartacus
@Myrthos: The USB stick you spoke about: does that mean you can connect it with any USB port or do you have to install sth else first. (drivers for example, but also possible hardware changes )
USB memory sticks should work with most computers today, but some older computers just can't recognise them. We've got a Dell-branded memory stick that came with an 8500 that isn't recognised by our 3500, and there appears to be nothing we can do about it - there are no drivers available and nothing obviously wrong with the 3500's USB support.
New computer, no problem. Old computer, maybe.
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Charlie Dobbie
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Moderator of the Morrowind/Oblivion Forums= |
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Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:21 pm |
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Myrthos
Spoiler of All Fun
Joined: 07 Jul 2001
Posts: 1926
Location: Holland |
Windows 200 and Windows XP should recognise the USB stick automatically. For windows 9x platforms you need a driver.
_________________
Kewl quotes:
I often have an odd sense of humor - Roach
Why quote somebody else, think of something yourself. - XeroX
...you won't have to unbookmark this site, we'll unbookmark you. - Val
Reports Myrthos for making me scared and humbled at the mere sight of his name - kayla |
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Thu Jan 29, 2004 9:12 pm |
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Bartacus
Il Buono
Joined: 24 May 2003
Posts: 4706
Location: Belgium Flemmish part |
Ah, I guess WIN ME is a WIN 9.x system (if you can call it an operating system.) so I have to get some drivers installed for my PC.
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Moderator and Council Magician of the RPGDot Shadows
member of the Sports Fans Forum
Leader's Right Hand at the Gothic Rogues
NFG member |
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Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:32 pm |
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