Laptops
Posted by: alex95 on 22 July 2004
Hi
Am looking to replace my desktop with a laptop up to £900, does anyone have any recommendations ?
Saw a nice HP one with a widescreen but it had only a 1.4Mhz processor with Centrino can someone explain if this will be enough or as fast as a 2-2.6Mhz model.
Thanks
Am looking to replace my desktop with a laptop up to £900, does anyone have any recommendations ?
Saw a nice HP one with a widescreen but it had only a 1.4Mhz processor with Centrino can someone explain if this will be enough or as fast as a 2-2.6Mhz model.
Thanks
Posted on: 22 July 2004 by Roy T
I got my Dad a Satellite A30 for surfing the net, packing into a small space and having a good screen. The machine looked like one of last years models still wraped in a pre-shrunk faqctory fresh packing and on the first booting the system installed (XP home) without any problems at all. The software + rescue disk were all numbered and just as they should be.
Do what Cliff suggests so as to get it clear in your own mind exactly what you need.
Are you after super fast games?
Something to hold vast collections of digital music, photos and such?
Simple surfing or what?
Roy
Do what Cliff suggests so as to get it clear in your own mind exactly what you need.
Are you after super fast games?
Something to hold vast collections of digital music, photos and such?
Simple surfing or what?
Roy
Posted on: 22 July 2004 by Geoff P
The Centrino processors are "stripped down" Pentiums which have added WiFi functions (wireless connectivity using the 8xx series protcols which is pretty fast). Great for connecting to the internet "on the road" at WiFi Hotspots (public places) by payment of a small amount of money.
Actually the Mhz thing is not the whole story. Graphics is a seperate thing so if you want fast and detailed graphics for games look at the spec on the Graphics driver and associatede memory.
To be honest for "pecking" out a word doc. and the occasional e-mail or XL spreadsheet you will never notice the difference once you get above about 1.2Mhz (virtually evrything out there is faster than that). Look also at Hard disk size if you plan to store music off CD as wav. files (large) and digital image files from cameras then a large Hard disk (60-80Gb) would be good.
regards
GEOFF
Listening every day planning to "not fade away"
Actually the Mhz thing is not the whole story. Graphics is a seperate thing so if you want fast and detailed graphics for games look at the spec on the Graphics driver and associatede memory.
To be honest for "pecking" out a word doc. and the occasional e-mail or XL spreadsheet you will never notice the difference once you get above about 1.2Mhz (virtually evrything out there is faster than that). Look also at Hard disk size if you plan to store music off CD as wav. files (large) and digital image files from cameras then a large Hard disk (60-80Gb) would be good.
regards
GEOFF
Listening every day planning to "not fade away"
Posted on: 23 July 2004 by Phil Barry
Pentium M vs Pentium 4 performance depends on workload as well as clock speed. The M has larger on board cache which helps dramatically in common applications.
And anybody who tries to cool a P4 knows how nice the lower voltage of the M is - cooler and longer battery life and lighter.
My 933 MHz Toshiba Satellite - which ahs been to Toshiba twice in less than 3 years, so I'll never buy a Satellite again - responds faster than I can move my fingers to a new key, with XP Pro, Office XP (both resource hogs).
If you want a laptop, I'd go for robustness over speed, since I want it to last.
And today I'd go for IBM over anything else because of its 'airbag' for the hard drive (available in R51, T41, X40 and above) and its 'Rapid Retsore Ultra' functions - which prevents many HDD failures and which GREATLY facilitates recovery.
And I wouldn't buy a consumer-level laptop (Satellite, Presario, IBM G series, Gateway, etc.) - too delicate so it's too likely to experience damage, and too expensive to repair.
Regards.
Phil
And anybody who tries to cool a P4 knows how nice the lower voltage of the M is - cooler and longer battery life and lighter.
My 933 MHz Toshiba Satellite - which ahs been to Toshiba twice in less than 3 years, so I'll never buy a Satellite again - responds faster than I can move my fingers to a new key, with XP Pro, Office XP (both resource hogs).
If you want a laptop, I'd go for robustness over speed, since I want it to last.
And today I'd go for IBM over anything else because of its 'airbag' for the hard drive (available in R51, T41, X40 and above) and its 'Rapid Retsore Ultra' functions - which prevents many HDD failures and which GREATLY facilitates recovery.
And I wouldn't buy a consumer-level laptop (Satellite, Presario, IBM G series, Gateway, etc.) - too delicate so it's too likely to experience damage, and too expensive to repair.
Regards.
Phil