DescentBB

Her old machine is too slow, so I've been looking at used laptops on craig's list. I havent kept up on laptop technology/processors etc...what should I keep in mind as I look around? Is there one brand that is better than another, or a brand to avoid at all costs?

I'm not opposed to buying a new laptop, but I dont want vista....so seems like a used laptop is the way to go.

Thank you for any input

RM

Define what is fast enough (desktop equivalent specs are fine) what she uses it for and how much you can spend.

She uses it for work, some graphics stuff, mostly excel and publisher etc. word processing.
She wants to burn dvds

I'd rather get her a dual core, and stick with a pentium (dont know a thing about centrino).

It'd be great to be able to use her george w check for it ($600), though if it'll have more umph down the road $1000 doesnt seem unreasonable (though that kills MY george w check )

Avoid anything \"Pentium\" in a laptop, since that either spells an older Pentium M design that is showing its age. Or worse a desktop Pentium processor in a notebook which will cook your wife's lap quite nicely (good to use if you live in the arctic though). Not to mention burn through batteries like crazy.

With $1000 worth of GWBribe available I would aim for a system with a Core 2 Duo in it, just accept that it will come with Windows Vista. I suggest you rip the old copy of XP she is probably using on the existing laptop, slipstream a new SP3 disk then format and install XP on the laptop instead. (I did my laptop that way just because laptops and Vista shouldn't mix). Also laptop memory is dirt cheap, get a laptop that you can load up with 2 GB or more.

But before you do that, make sure the laptop has XP drivers available. New models are spotty with this.

I just got a lenovo T61p (the are having a massive sale right now). While the workstation version may be a little overkill for what she is doing, they do offer some nice laptops with discrete graphics for her graphics work. If she does alot of work in excel you would probably want to get a monitor capable of high resolutions.

also: http://www.notebookreview.com/

is this worth $400? Office Depot has it for sale...with free shipping

Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2390
2GB DDR2 Memory, Expandable to 3GB
15.4\" BrightView LCD
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
6-cell lithium-ion battery; 65W AC adapter
802.11b/g wireless LAN (WLAN)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1

it also has a RW CD/DVD

If it wasn't for the Burn DVDs thing - I'd consider an Asus Eee PC or Acer Aspire One... you'd pay close to the same money.

How many DVDs would she burn in a month? You may get by with an external USB DVD drive. Otherwise she's going to be carrying around a lot more weight than she needs - given the stuff she wants to do with it.

Granted, an 8.5 inch screen isn't that great for graphic design or large spreadsheets, but you'd be suprised with what the specs in those machineswill let you do. Both the Aspire One and the Eee PC 1000+ have a keyboard you can touch-type on.

This all may be a few compromises too many of course, but it really depends on exactly how involved the work she wants to do is.

Both also ship with XP Home if you want, so that's a big plus in my book.

I'm an HP kinda guy. Had good luck with 'em. Lenovo is another winner.

I saw that Office Depot has a number of Lenovo laptops that still carry xp. I was thinking of getting one, as opposed to just buying a vista machine and loading xp on it (I have another original copy)...but it's hard to make sense of the processor speeds.
for instance, what is the speed difference between a:

Core 2 Duo T5870
a
Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1 Ghz
a
Pentium Dual Core T2370 1.73 GHz
a
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2 GHz
or a
Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2390

augh! There's too many numbers...it used to not be so hard to understand.

RM

This will help, and agreed the numbers game has achieved a whole new level of confusion;

http://processorfinder.intel.com/Default.aspx

Just to add to the confusion:

My personal HP has a T5500 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo) (Merom)
My work Lenovo has a T2400 (1.83GHz Core Duo) (Yonah)

Current laptops we are giving our students:
Lenovo with a T8300 (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo) (Penryn)

Go, go marketing confusion!!!1

finally decided to just buy a dell. They'll sell it with xp \"downgraded\".
Before I finalize it though, I was wondering:

for $75 more I can upgrade from 1.8 duo core to 2.0 duo core. Seems worth it...

however, the hd is 5400rpm. and for $90 I can upgrade to a 7500rpm.

I'm trying to keep it under $1000, so I'm kind of in an either/or situation. seems the processing power is more important, though will she suffer with a hd at 5400rpm (as opposed to 7500rpm)?

also, I decided for a system with a mobile graphics processor for her. It's a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

It's about $100 more, but seems like a must have over the integrated graphics Accelerator (X3100) that they have without the card.

any thoughts?

thanks!

RM

Laptop hard drives are slow regardless, even the 7200 RPM drives are no match for their desktop counterparts because they are so much smaller. It will make a big difference, but it still wont be enough to match a desktop drive.

As for the graphics processor, assuming there are any plans whatsoever to do gaming on it, absolutely get the geforce. But if it is only a web surfing/email checking/watching video laptop and will NEVER touch a 3D game, then the integrated Intel chip will be sufficient and will likely save a decent amount of battery power.

Just purchased it. I decided the HD upgrade was necessary (5400 is so slow), and kept the mobile video processor.

Never thought I'd buy a dell...but it was one of only a few options for a system with xp.

Canuck's link for processing information was really clear!

Thanks for all the input everyone! More specifically, thank you from my wife

-RM