Which notebook should I get?

[ThE BrIcK]

Ok, well, my mom asked me if I would like a laptop for Christmas. So, I've been looking around for some cheap, good laptops. I've found 2 that are pretty good for the price.

Compaq V6500Z (Compaq and HP merged BTW)

Operating system -- Genuine Windows Vista ( ) Home Premium (32-bit)   

Processor -- AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-55 (1.8 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache)   

Display -- 15.4" WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)   

Memory -- 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)   

Graphics Card   NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M   

Networking -- 802.11b/g WLAN   

Hard Drive -- 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive   

Primary CD/DVD Drive -- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer

Primary Battery -- High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery   

Productivity Software -- Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2007   

Total - $766.99


Dell Inspiron 1521

PROCESSOR -- AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58 (1.9GHz/1MB)   

OPERATING SYSTEM -- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition   

DISPLAY -- Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)   

VIDEO CARD -- ATI RADEON® Xpress1270 HyperMemory™   

MEMORY -- 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz   

HARD DRIVE -- Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)   

INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE -- CD writer / DVD player (Combo Drive)   

WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS -- Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card   

BATTERY OPTIONS -- 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)   

SOUND OPTIONS -- High Definition Audio 2.0

Total - $749

Soooo, what do you guys think? What's better?

If you have a better deal please, show me. Budget of around $800.

[Rázgrěz]

ide take the compaq. but see if you can upgrade to a faster RPM harddrive. even throught its dulecore, it will be dumbed down by the harddrive

[ThE BrIcK]

All the hard drive RPM upgrades are the same. 5400RPM. Just the capacity is different.

[Rázgrěz]

oh well... i gess you can do aftermarket upgrades if you want.

[Xenocide]

ide take the compaq. but see if you can upgrade to a faster RPM harddrive. even throught its dulecore, it will be dumbed down by the harddrive

I completely agree with this, the majority of Laptops are completely bottlenecked by their harddrives, try to get a slower processor if you can if that enables you to get a 7200rpm harddisk, as otherwise the processor will sit idle waiting for data from the drive much of the time.

There are two Inspiron 1521s, you chose the one with the faster processor, if you look at the one that starts at 599 it has a slower processor (TK-55) but has the option of a faster 120gb 7200rpm harddisk, i recommend having a look at that.

Despite what people say, there's nothing inherently wrong with Vista, so don't worry about that.

Are you planning to play Halo on this? It may not run at full settings on those mobile gpus, and they certainly won't run more modern games. Unfortunately its quite hard to find laptops with a decent gpu, particularly for that price. Between the ATI and Nvidia one, performance will probably be about the same, so i would tend to favour the ATI one as they have better drivers imo. That said i prefer HP over dell but the dell website is a lot easier to use for configuring and such, and tbh i doubt there's much difference between dell and HP quality wise.

I don't know about you but i find these glossy lcds quite irritating, they look very nice but they are extremely reflective. Its a personal preference thing, but if you haven't used a glossy screen before i recommend having a look at one with a glossy screen before you choose that. Same goes for HP's brightview.

[ThE BrIcK]

The processor upgrades are:

Mobile AMD Sempron(TM) Processor 3600+ (2.0 GHz, 256KB L2 Cache) - (Included in price)

AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-55 (1.8 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache) - $35 (What I have listed above)

AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-58 (1.9 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) - $100

AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) - $150

AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-62 (2.1 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) - $225


There is a free upgrade for the hard drive now.

120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive from 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive


Does that help?

[Xenocide]

Its the harddrive rpm that counts. A larger harddisk will usually be a little faster, but its the rpm that makes the difference.

Looking on the HP website, that model isn't offered with a faster harddisk. It looks like HP don't do any model in your price range with the faster harddisk, which is a pity.
Its not a major problem if you can't get one with a faster harddisk, i recommend doing some price comparisons between HP and Dell though as it looks to me like you can get a Dell with a faster harddisk for the same price as an HP without...

[ThE BrIcK]

How is the graphics?

Which one is better?

[Xenocide]

Performance wise, I don't really know. Problem is, they don't do 3D stuff like gaming very well so no-one bothers to test them and publish the results. That said, i doubt there's much in it at all.

I recommend going for the ATI, because there have been a lot of problems in the past with nvidia drivers, particularly their chipset drivers. Their desktop chipsets also make a lot of heat, bad for a laptop, although i don't know what their laptop ones are like.

The chipset btw is the bit that connects the cpu to everything else, and it will be the same chip that does the graphics (gpu) in a laptop.

I prefer HP as a brand but it looks to me like Dell have a better product...

[ThE BrIcK]

I checked the nvidia on the HP and it says it will do fine for gaming.

[Xenocide]

Depends what you mean by gaming. It'll play solitaire fine...

Seriously, its not a gaming gpu by any stretch of the imagination, it'll play older games, but that's because the games are old, not because the gpu is a gaming gpu. Try playing modern games like BF2142, Oblivion, Flight sim X, Bioshock, Orange Box, COD 4, and none of them will be playable i.e less than 10fps on the lowest settings.

However, i just noticed that HP are offering the GeForce 8400M as an option on the 6500z, and that is considerably better and probably can play the above games in low settings. Try a configuration with that and see if it fits your budget. I don't think dell offer it...

Edit: Dell offer it too, and they offer the 8600M which really is a mid range gaming card. I guess its just a matter of juggling the numbers until it fits the budget, but if you want gaming i recommend getting either the 8400M or 8600M.

[The Rebel™]

I would go for the HP myself Brick. That is what I have and I am happy with it. I also would recommend upgrading the processor as much as possible. I believe that you graphics is the kind that is on the motherboard. If it is then your main processor will be doing the graphics work. I have a 2.4 Ghz processor and it is great. Burns the battery fast on performance mode but it does well in battery saver mode. Vista has the option to adjust your power consumption of your processor. The problem with the Dell computer is that they are hard to upgrade. I personally wouldnt worry so much about the speed of the hard drive. Gaming doesnt pull from the drive that much. I actually used to load maps faster at the start of a game than many people with gaming specific computers. Dont worry too much about Vista also. Give it a good tryout before you just erase it. Also, I believe that you have to ask for a disk of your operating system when ordering your computer. Remember to do that.

[ThE BrIcK]

Depends what you mean by gaming. It'll play solitaire fine...

Seriously, its not a gaming gpu by any stretch of the imagination, it'll play older games, but that's because the games are old, not because the gpu is a gaming gpu. Try playing modern games like BF2142, Oblivion, Flight sim X, Bioshock, Orange Box, COD 4, and none of them will be playable i.e less than 10fps on the lowest settings.

However, i just noticed that HP are offering the GeForce 8400M as an option on the 6500z, and that is considerably better and probably can play the above games in low settings. Try a configuration with that and see if it fits your budget. I don't think dell offer it...

Edit: Dell offer it too, and they offer the 8600M which really is a mid range gaming card. I guess its just a matter of juggling the numbers until it fits the budget, but if you want gaming i recommend getting either the 8400M or 8600M.

The 6500z is my first choice ^^^^

I would go for the HP myself Brick. That is what I have and I am happy with it. I also would recommend upgrading the processor as much as possible. I believe that you graphics is the kind that is on the motherboard. If it is then your main processor will be doing the graphics work. I have a 2.4 Ghz processor and it is great. Burns the battery fast on performance mode but it does well in battery saver mode. Vista has the option to adjust your power consumption of your processor. The problem with the Dell computer is that they are hard to upgrade. I personally wouldnt worry so much about the speed of the hard drive. Gaming doesnt pull from the drive that much. I actually used to load maps faster at the start of a game than many people with gaming specific computers. Dont worry too much about Vista also. Give it a good tryout before you just erase it. Also, I believe that you have to ask for a disk of your operating system when ordering your computer. Remember to do that.

Rebel - I have the processors that I can upgrade listed in my 6th post. The only problem with that is, the best processor they offer is an extra $225.

 1.)  Mobile AMD Sempron(TM) Processor 3600+ (2.0 GHz, 256KB L2 Cache) - Total cost = $781.99

 2.)  AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-55 (1.8 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache) - Total cost = $816.99

 3.)  AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-58 (1.9 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) - Total cost = $881.99

 4.)  AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) - Total cost = $931.99

 5.)  AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-62 (2.1 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache ) - Total cost = $1006.99

Because of cost issues, the highest is probably #2. Maybe #3.

Now, I upgraded the memory to 2GB instead of 1GB because I don't want Vista to get mad.


                                           

[Xenocide]

Can you afford the 6500z with the 8400M? That seems like the best route to go down...

Edit:

I also would recommend upgrading the processor as much as possible. I believe that you graphics is the kind that is on the motherboard. If it is then your main processor will be doing the graphics work.

I disagree, no amount of extra processor speed will make up for a slow gpu, you simply wouldn't notice the improvement. Particularly when you can probably get the better 8400M for the price of a cpu upgrade.

[ThE BrIcK]

Can you afford the 6500z with the 8400M? That seems like the best route to go down...

8400M for the Hard Drive? I don't see any upgrades for that.