Getting a Laptop, is this a good deal?

[jessman1988]

Yo. I'm having a friend get me a custom-made laptop, and it seems like a great deal, but my stupid parents think that there's many better prices out there. Well, I'm trying to get an AMD 64bit processor with 3GHZ. It has an 80GB Hard drive, 512MB DDR SRAM, an ATI 9800 AGP card (I think, because I asked him to give me the best gfx card that doesn't cost a million bucks. I'm not too sure about the card though), a DVD Burner drive, 3 USB ports, Windows XP Home Edition, a 17 inch Widescreen moniter, and a wireless DSL router. I can get this for $1700. Is this a good deal or not? Dell has a much worse Laptop for over $3000, and it's only advantage is that it's 3.4GHZ instead. Please give me some info. I need all of these factors in a PC, but don't know what a good deal is or not. Thanks.

 

[minkster]

sounds like a good deal to me.... but what brand is the laptop?

 

[Knuckles]

"Well, I'm trying to get an AMD 64bit processor with 3GHZ"

wait some years for that..... the highest AMD Athlon64 is the 3800+ clocked @ 2.40GHz so, if you want a 3GHz, wait

 

[jessman1988]

well, I think it's an AMD. All I know is that he said that most people have a 32bit processor and a 64bit is a lot faster. i could be wrong though, lol. i'm not too sure about the brand name yet, but are the specs at least worth getting?

 

[jdsony]

"Well, I'm trying to get an AMD 64bit processor with 3GHZ"

wait some years for that..... the highest AMD Athlon64 is the 3800+ clocked @ 2.40GHz so, if you want a 3GHz, wait

My guess is it's an Athlon 64 3000+ (runs at 2ghz) which is why he mentioned 3ghz as that's what it's supposed to compare to. I wouldn't worry about the ghz though the Athlon 64 3000+ is comparible with the 3.2 - 3.4 ghz Pentiums (better for some things and slightly worse for others).

Sounds like a really good deal for a laptop though as most laptops are lacking in good hardware for a good price. I'm not sure how the Mobility Radeon 9800 compares the the desktop variants but I believe it's the fastest laptop video card you can get at the moment. One good thing about going 64bit is you will get a speed boost once 64bit software is widely available and you will have a very fast processor anyway until then.

 

[jessman1988]

Sweet! That's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear! The thing is, I want a gaming laptop and that's why I've been really going for this, and Dell's Inspiron XPS gaming Laptop has all the specs of my custom pc excapt that it's 3.4GHZ instead, but then again, anything over 2GHZ is just extra gravy, imo. Also, the custom pc has a 17" widescreen moniter whereas the XPS only has 15.4". They both have the same GFX card, ram, and dvd drive, and my pc has 80gb instead of 60. I truely beleive that 400mhz isn't worth an extra $1399, do you? Dell's just trying to rip me off. Well, thanks again! At least I'm gonna get a good deal!

 

[sammyboy]

Well, I have a similar computer (specs wise) and all I can is, it hasnt crashed once (since about a year ago when I got it), it can handle alot of apps and it barely uses the CPU at all (ounce I had the latest version of Chankast and the version before hand running (to test the new improvements) and playing the BIOS, plus music playing and a word document and internet running, my CPU was at about 20%). It can play games that shouldnt even work on XP (dont know how). You can store so much music, roms, games, movies, emulators, images on it (but it is 80 GB) my computer is made by Evesham, quite a large company in the UK.
A word of advise to anyopne in the UK getting a new computer think about an evesham computyer (or laptop) go to http://www.evesham.co.uk. There quite nice. Plus the customer support is excellent and you dont get a 25 year old girl whos more interested in her nails than helping out customers, you usually get through to them in about 1-3 minutes so you dont have to wait at the phone long (unlike the dreaded Sony, 35 minutes my mate had to wait to talk to an indian girl who didnt know much English at all).

 

[jdsony]

Sweet! That's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear! The thing is, I want a gaming laptop and that's why I've been really going for this, and Dell's Inspiron XPS gaming Laptop has all the specs of my custom pc excapt that it's 3.4GHZ instead, but then again, anything over 2GHZ is just extra gravy, imo. Also, the custom pc has a 17" widescreen moniter whereas the XPS only has 15.4". They both have the same GFX card, ram, and dvd drive, and my pc has 80gb instead of 60. I truely beleive that 400mhz isn't worth an extra $1399, do you? Dell's just trying to rip me off. Well, thanks again! At least I'm gonna get a good deal!

The speed difference is definitely not worth that much extra, you could buy another desktop PC with that extra money, or a big tv or something. The Widescreen is nice for movies and from the latest Half-Life 2 screenshots it looks like that will support widescreen as well.

 

[zAlbee]

Well, I have a similar computer (specs wise) and all I can is, it hasnt crashed once (since about a year ago when I got it), it can handle alot of apps and it barely uses the CPU at all (ounce I had the latest version of Chankast and the version before hand running (to test the new improvements) and playing the BIOS, plus music playing and a word document and internet running, my CPU was at about 20%). It can play games that shouldnt even work on XP (dont know how).

my god, running music, word, AND internet? now that's stressing the system

bear in mind the AMD is not a 3 GHz processor...

btw if you've never had a laptop before, you might want to know that laptop hard drives are usually very low rpm (~3200 rpm) to keep down the power consumption + heat generation. you may find using the HD quite a bit slower than a desktop's. and if you don't get enough RAM, the virtual mem will really piss you off, but 512 should be alright (for now)

 

[sammyboy]

Ha ha, its chankcast that people think takes up a lot of CPU

 

[jessman1988]

Yo, I have an update. Well, the pc would've been too expensive, so I requested a link to some final info in my email. Let's just say that I'm not too impressed. Instead of a 256mb agp card, I have to settle for a 128mb agp, and I'm only getting a 40GB hard drive instead of an 80. I could go higher than this, but I told him to make whatever sacrifices he had to for a good pc that's under $2000. Is this STILL a goo deal?



Advanced 64-bit Processing Widescreen Gaming

Processor

· AMD Athlon 64 Mobile 3000 processor

· AMD PowerNow!™ mobile technology

Display

· 15.4" WXGA TFT 1280x800

Graphics

· 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 (M11P)

· AGP 3.0 Compliant, 4X/8X

Memory

· 512MB SO-DIMM Unbuffered DDR400 up to 1GB*

Bus Speed

· 800 MHz (dependent upon processor)

Hard Drive

· 2.5" 9.5mm 40GB HDD

· Ultra DMA 133

Optical Drive

· 4X DVD+R/RW

Audio

· 3D Audio AC'97 V2.2 compliant

· Sound Blaster Pro compatible

· SPDIF pure digital output

Networking

· Integrated 10/100 Mbps Ethernet

Modem

· 56K V.92 Modem

Keyboard and Mouse

· US Keyboard with Internet keys

· FN Shortcuts for Brightness, Volume, Suspend Mode, LCD/External Display Switch

· Touchpad with 2 Buttons, 1 scrolling rocker

Media Card Reader

· 3-in1 Media Card Reader: Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Multi-Media Card

Power

· ACPI Compatible

· Uniwill Smart Power Management

· Li-ion Smart Battery

· AC Adapter 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 160W/20V

Operating Systems

· Windows XP Home

Physical Dimensions

· Width: 14" (358mm)

· Depth: 10.5" (269mm)

· Height: 1.4" (36mm)

· Weight: 7.7 lbs, (3.5 kg)

IO Ports

· 3 USB 2.0

· 1 IEEE 1394 port

· 1 Mic-in jack

· 1 Headphone jack

· 1 Infrared port

· 1 RJ-45 Ethernet plug

· 1 RJ-11 Modem plug

· 1 Parallel printer port

· 1 External VGA

· 1 S-Video output port

· 1 PCMCIA Card Type II

· 1 DC-in jack


This final product is $1711.48 and has a 1 year warrenty. Thanks guys,

 

[jessman1988]

Sorry, ok?

 

[sammyboy]

The edit button is your friend... USE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[smcd]

jessman1988 we need a username and password to see the contents of that link :bouncy: (Don't post links to/from your email accounts)

 

[jessman1988]

ok, ok. I'm sorry for giving a link that you couldn't view, and I'm sorry for 2 posts. You can now look above and see all of the specs. I thank you all for being so patient with me, and I just need a final word on if the FINAL product is any good. Thank you.

 

[minkster]

buy it!

 

[sheik124]

no! i never trust dealers like this, go for this pc, its from a reputable OEM brand, Acer, (FYI dell and them don't make their own laptops, OEM laptop makers like ASUS and Acer make them and sell to the corps)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=34-115-114&depa=0
the specs are very good, 80 gig, 512mb ram, xp pro (sometimes home can be a bitch with networks, simply refusing to work, happens alot on our school network), and the 2800+ isn't significantly slower than the 3000+, i mean, unless 2 FPS in UT2004 and opening emutalk.net faster by .0001 seconds is important to you
EDIT: forgot to mention something, this laptop also has built in Wi-Fi (802.11 b and g, that means 11 Mbps and 54 Mbps)

 

[jessman1988]

hm....looks like a good pc, but it's just a TAD too expensive for me. It does seem good though, and I like the colors. I'm kinda getting mixed messages now...

 

[minkster]

never buy laptops from comp usa cause i got ripped a good 700 bucks!

 

[sheik124]

hm....looks like a good pc, but it's just a TAD too expensive for me. It does seem good though, and I like the colors. I'm kinda getting mixed messages now...

1900 isn't much more than 1700 when it comes to a pc