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Post subject: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:11 am 
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Hey everybody,

I'm tight on funds right now but I wanted to get a new laptop and printer and I saw this deal at Walmart:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Student-Home- ... r/10966053


I know this stuff is a step behind the best stuff but I need to save some money. I'm trying to pick out the right balance of processor speed and memory. Choosing the best processor is a little more complicated than it used to be. Also if there are other features anyone thinks I should put precedence on, please let me know. I've kind of become reconciled to a 250 gb hard drive to save some money so that is probably the least important thing. I really don't want to cross $500. I would really like to hear the advice of some members here since most of you here are probably more computer savvy than me.


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:24 am 
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I would put in at least the extra $60 for the dual core Athlon Compaq. Avoid Celerons, Semprons and AMD V series processors if at all possible. Although keep in mind compaq's laptops are pretty darn cheap made so you have to be careful with them. They tend to have extremely cheaply made hinges that break quite easily on their laptops.


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:50 pm 
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ultpaladin wrote:
Hey everybody,

I'm tight on funds right now but I wanted to get a new laptop and printer and I saw this deal at Walmart:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Student-Home- ... r/10966053


I know this stuff is a step behind the best stuff but I need to save some money. I'm trying to pick out the right balance of processor speed and memory. Choosing the best processor is a little more complicated than it used to be. Also if there are other features anyone thinks I should put precedence on, please let me know. I've kind of become reconciled to a 250 gb hard drive to save some money so that is probably the least important thing. I really don't want to cross $500. I would really like to hear the advice of some members here since most of you here are probably more computer savvy than me.
I've had good luck with refurbs, and I rather like this little number here... http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid ... -R&cat=NBB

I would narrow to a few target models then shop Amazon, Tiger Direct, Computer Geeks, and Newegg. Believe it or not, the same exact models get milked up on eBay because people get into a frenzy of trying to win there and don't do thorough searches and spend enough time waiting for a good deal to come along. Also, I once found a really good deal at Newegg, then one of the other kids wanted the exact model. The special was expired, but Newegg still had some in inventory. I was able to talk them into the lower price.

Once, I found a good unit at half price, but it came with a rather small HDD. For less than $100 I bought an HDD that tripled the capacity, snapped a backup of the load on the installed HDD, burned it over to the new HDD, swapped them out, and voila! I had a laptop with 1/3 TB of storage that still came in more than $200 below retail. Memory is also cheap.

If I were in your position, I would be patient for a big sale on units that fit into my general target group, preferably combined with the extra incentives of free shipping and no sales taxes. This means that in my experience, I tend to save a lot of money shopping online. Agreeing with TF, I would also recommend the best current AMD chips (i. e. fully loaded Athlon series), but I'm also getting pretty good service with Intel's Core2 Duo.

If I were to single out the two greatest factors in finding an amazing PC or Notebook bargain, I would number them (1) exhaustive searching and (2) patience. Good luck!


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:33 pm 
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Here is a better deal on a new laptop over the refurb that Bill posted

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 115858-L0E

This would leave you $100 to grab any printer you wanted. Better hurry on this one though. This is a deal that newegg just put up and I doubt it would last that long. The one area the laptop Wildbill posted would probably beat this one is video games. But neither laptop would be that great for playing them and none will be at this price.

Update: And its already gone :) Told you it wouldn't last at that price :)

And to follow up on Wildbill's post, I'd also buy online if it were cheaper. This is usually the case but sometime you can find that perfect deal in town that even with tax can't be beat. Meant to post the idea of shopping online to avoid tax last night but got busy and didn't get it done :) And I'd actually recommend the current core 2 duo over AMD's CPU's. However, for your price point, AMD is probably the better value, more bang for your bucks. The AMD is definitely better than a generation 1 Pentium dual core. (Pentium D class) And I forgot to mention the Atom CPU in that first post. Avoid this CPU at all costs. No matter how fast the atom may rate in MHZ, that CPU still underperforms even Celerons by a large margin. That processor is a joke. I've never tested an AMD V series, but I'd suspect the performance lies somewhere between a Celeron and an Atom.


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:48 am 
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Arrgh, I was out all day, I just got back right now, thanks for finding the deal though Taskforce. I guess I'll keep an eye out at Newegg.com as well as other sites. The one thing that was unfortunate from Wildbill's link was that when I went through the Amazon link, they didn't give me free shipping and they charged for the tax which Amazon usually does not do either for me. I guess its because its through a sub-seller.

If you see any other great deals like the one you posted before, please let me know, I would have gotten that one if I had been back earlier :D


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:24 pm 
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I'll stay on the lookout and let you know if I see anything.


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am 
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ultpaladin wrote:
Arrgh, I was out all day, I just got back right now, thanks for finding the deal though Taskforce. I guess I'll keep an eye out at Newegg.com as well as other sites. The one thing that was unfortunate from Wildbill's link was that when I went through the Amazon link, they didn't give me free shipping and they charged for the tax which Amazon usually does not do either for me. I guess its because its through a sub-seller.

If you see any other great deals like the one you posted before, please let me know, I would have gotten that one if I had been back earlier :D
Be patient, Grasshopper!


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:01 am 
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How well do the Intel Core i3 processors compare to the Intel dual core 2 and the Athlons? I saw some deals with this chip in my price range and from what I understand it is slightly better than the dual cores. I'm also seeing Intel Pentiums on models that are usually a little more expensive than those previous 2 processors but I thought the Pentium processor was weaker.

So is this the order of strength i7 > i5 > i3 > Dual core 2 > Pentium? Not sure where the Athlon dual core would fit. This is so much more complex than it used to be :?

Btw, I was looking at this laptop and using the special for a printer.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+S ... Id=1443308


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:38 am 
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ultpaladin wrote:
So is this the order of strength i7 > i5 > i3 > Dual core 2 > Pentium? Not sure where the Athlon dual core would fit. This is so much more complex than it used to be :?

Btw, I was looking at this laptop and using the special for a printer.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+S ... Id=1443308


i7 > i5 > i3 > core 2 duo > athlon dual core > pentium D > Sempron dual core > celeron dual core > athlon single core > pentium single core > sempron single core > celeron single core > AMD V-series > Intel Atom :)

And yep that is a very nice laptop for the money.


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Post subject: Re: Advice on laptops
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:31 pm 
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ultpaladin wrote:
How well do the Intel Core i3 processors compare to the Intel dual core 2 and the Athlons? I saw some deals with this chip in my price range and from what I understand it is slightly better than the dual cores. I'm also seeing Intel Pentiums on models that are usually a little more expensive than those previous 2 processors but I thought the Pentium processor was weaker.

So is this the order of strength i7 > i5 > i3 > Dual core 2 > Pentium? Not sure where the Athlon dual core would fit. This is so much more complex than it used to be :?

Btw, I was looking at this laptop and using the special for a printer.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+S ... Id=1443308
One bit of info I would like to pass along on the Pentium-IVs... High speed P-IVs (3.0 Ghz+) are plentiful and cheaper than used corn cobs these days and are being poked into hundreds of barebone units and refurbs being sold cheaper than the original price of the CPU chips! However, each time I have tried a Pentium-IV, after being wow'ed by the speed initially, I have experienced these situations:

Laptops - They tend to run hot and slow down with accumulating dust residue collecting and building up on the inside over time until the computer freezes from restricted airflow and overheating. I've seen people buy these fan platforms to set their laptops on that work only marginally, are a pain to tote around, and add an extra expense.

Desktops - A beefed up fan, heat sink, and sometimes extra internal wiring is required to run a P-IV at a reduced temperature. Then, the dust builds over time, summer arrives, and/or I try to place the tower in a narrow vertical shelf closed in on five sides or a totally enclosed void inside a computer desk specifically designed for a tower. Before I realize it, the thing is locking up in the middle of multitasking ops. It irritates me to be forced to install software to constantly monitor CPU cores and their diodes running as high as 145 degrees F!

So, I would advise anyone south of the Arctic Circle to steer clear of P-IVs!


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