Recommend a laptop

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2009, 04:16:22 AM »
I'm looking at:

A Confusing Variety of Ass Pyres

and

A Bunch of Expensive Thinkpads

A Thinkpad SL400 could be good, not counting having Vista installed. 
And as for the Aspires... I think I'd probably like one, but which one?!?!?!

What you got?


Also, anyone heard anything about the Lenovo 3000 G series?  They cheap.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2009, 04:39:01 AM by Calach Pfeffer »
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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2009, 04:54:48 AM »
my aspire is the 6920 comes with a 320g hdd, bluetooth, 3g ddr2, nvidia geforce 9500 16" crystal screen, dual core intel 2g processor etc etc etc.... but if you buy it here you will probably get your choice of knock off windows systems

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babala

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2009, 07:38:22 AM »
My Apire is the 4520. It has less memory than some of others but I didn't need too much. My Acer did come with Vista but like adamsmith, I got used to it.
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. Homer Simpson

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Spaghetti

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2009, 09:02:51 PM »
My Apire is the 4520. It has less memory than some of others but I didn't need too much. My Acer did come with Vista but like adamsmith, I got used to it.


Babala and I have the same model.

For an extra 200RMB (or less) you can juice the thing to 3GB (4GB of RAM or more is beyond XP's exploitability, but if you go Vista it recognizes the full 4 and more. I won't go Vista, so the 3GB is acceptable on this laptop) and not dramatically over clock the processor. Add the cooling pad , which is basically a few fans, and you're good to go.

It is AMD Turion 64 X2 2GHz, came with 1 gig of RAM but I'm running it on 3GB of RAM, and it has four usb, an S-Video jack, one dial up jack, one dsl jack, a firewire jack, VGA jack, a SD memory slot, and NVIDIA GeForce 8400m G 128mb on board graphics.

It's a cut-and-run puppy for my home theater on-the-go needs, so you could go for one of their other models for HD support or serious gamer needs must be met, etc. You might have to if you want wireless ethernet capabilities. It has bluetooth, but I've never used it.

Really, the greatest thing about computer shopping in China is that you can work around things easily, such as getting that fly laptop that has fuck all RAM* by simply buying at the deal price and then having the shop flunkees soup it to the max - far below what the same thing would cost at sticker price with the amount of RAM you really want, but ended up putting in it anyway after the fact.

If you go for one of the newer, more frilly models you can still upgrade ram and the hard drive without fucking up the works and still do the same thing.

* a far too common practice, here in China
"Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be an individual."
Haruki Murakami

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Raoul F. Duke

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #19 on: February 18, 2009, 09:18:26 AM »
I concur...
Rather than looking at specific brands, with help from Nolefan and others I made a list of exactly what I wanted, then presented that to computer shops and asked for a quote. The system I got was a real screamer...and I got it at a great price! bfbfbfbfbf
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we're building the corrupt, incompetent, baijiu-swilling buttheads of tomorrow!" (Raoul F. Duke)

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Foscolo

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #20 on: February 18, 2009, 09:47:54 PM »
If you decide to go the Dell route (and I've been reasonably satisfied with one conking-out exception), it can be much better to order from their Business section. You don't have to be a business, the prices are straightforward rather than an endless carousel of so-called offers and fake discounts, and the computers are shipped without a lot of trial versions of applications you don't want cluttering up the hard drive.

I'm on my fourth Dell laptop, thrash them, and although one died after a few months (and was replaced under warranty), two are still in heavy-duty service with family members not needing up-to-date specs.
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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #21 on: February 19, 2009, 02:04:05 AM »
Teh Intertubes, some website thereof, sey:

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
2Gb DDR2 (533-667 Mhz) RAM
120GB 5400rpm HDD
DVD/CD-RW drive (external)
NVIDIA (GeForce 800) or ATI (Mobility Radeon) graphics card
14"-17" screen (with anti-glare coating)
Built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet
3 (or more) USB 2.0 ports
Integrated sound

Any comments?  Suggestions?  Comparisons?


All of that would outperform my current desktop (except I'm used to a 16" monitor).

Grunt!  That's what I prefer in a computer: grunt!  I don't do any specially grunt-intensive things on the 'poo, just the normal, everyday WinXP-based web surfing and word processing, but I like the idea that I don't wait for the computer to finish some operation, it waits for me to choose something and then goes "Grunt!' and it's done.  And I do like graphics stuff.  Also I get bursts of enthusiasm for different software sometimes, and work my way through products until I find something that works well, so I like a computer that can handle that kind of thing too.

I took a look at a Thinkpad SL400 today.  Could get it for maybe 5000.  Not sure it has grunt.  It looks little.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

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Spaghetti

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #22 on: February 19, 2009, 02:20:21 AM »
Teh Intertubes, some website thereof, sey:

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
2Gb DDR2 (533-667 Mhz) RAM
120GB 5400rpm HDD
DVD/CD-RW drive (external)
NVIDIA (GeForce 800) or ATI (Mobility Radeon) graphics card
14"-17" screen (with anti-glare coating)
Built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet
3 (or more) USB 2.0 ports
Integrated sound

Any comments?  Suggestions?  Comparisons?



Judging by what you want: those specs will suit your needs.

Want a bigger screen? Hanns-G* 28 inch 1080P LCD monitor - 1900RMB for home use will make up for that. Small screen on the fly, big screen when you're in the crib. A hard disk running 7200rpm would be ideal, but that can be added later. If it's a Hitachi hard disk, I am actually impressed at the 5400rpm drives they have. I own maybe half a dozen of them, use them externally and none have shit the bed.

The Lenovo desktop I'm using is Intel Duo Core and I notice the benefits of it when doing heavy multitasking. I prefer AMD chipsets, but I won't deny that I haven't been disappointed by Intel Duo Core chipsets. I am partial to NVIDIA graphics cards, but I am not a gamer. The heavy stuff I do with computers is video related, not game or heavy design based.

I think the specs are good for what you want, though. If you download a lot of movies, investing in external hard drives are worth it.
"Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be an individual."
Haruki Murakami

Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #23 on: February 19, 2009, 03:44:22 AM »
Ooooo, now that I didn't think of.

Naive question: say you get yourself a regular 14" screen laptop and a monster LCD monitor, say 22"-28", for regular computing uses, like web surfing or typing reports, what does it look like?  Will something that'll look good on the 14" look chunky on a monster mons?  Do you need to choose higher screen resolutions and "compromise" system performance?

Currently I have an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 card set to 1024x768x32, and that works fine for the ancient Philips 10754 monitor I suffer. 

(I think I remember it used to look fine on the 19" LCD BENQ I had too, and I wish I still had it, curse the moving company and my own foolhardy packing practices!)
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Spaghetti

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #24 on: February 19, 2009, 03:52:24 AM »
Ooooo, now that I didn't think of.

Naive question: say you get yourself a regular 14" screen laptop and a monster LCD monitor, say 22"-28", for regular computing uses, like web surfing or typing reports, what does it look like?  Will something that'll look good on the 14" look chunky on a monster mons?  Do you need to choose higher screen resolutions and "compromise" system performance?

It all depends on the source material. For example, poorly encoded videos will have their faults amplified by the large resolution. It's like blowing up a photograph. If the photo was hi-res, then a blow-up will suffer less degradation, however, some of the videos downloaded might already have a high resolution and you will seemingly lose nothing on the larger screen. It's all about the original source of the image.

My Acer and the NVIDIA graphics card drivers allow me to choose how I set up the dual-monitor situation. I could do an extended desktop, or have identical displays on the laptop and external monitor, or it offers me the choice to keep the laptop screen as-is and to readjust resolution on the other screen to fully exploit its 1080P resolution.
"Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be an individual."
Haruki Murakami

Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #25 on: February 19, 2009, 08:04:46 AM »
Well, turds!

there I was, all set to put my grubby mitts on a Lenonvo Thinkpad SL400 (and maybe a bigger LCD monitor for fun), only I discovered there are (at least) two flavours, the one with the 1.8GHz Intel Dual 2 Core and the one with the 2.26 GHz Dual 2 Core, and...

if you go by http://product.it168.com/ pricing, it looks like the 1.8GHz variety in China costs about what the 2.26GHz one should cost in the US if US dollars exchanged directly for RMB.  Both about 5000RMB.

That don't seem right.

And http://product.it168.com is showing the 2.26GHz variety for 8999RMB.

And both of them have integrated graphics, not separate cards.

So, screw that, I guess. 

Buyer research is a pain in the ass.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

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Lotus Eater

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #26 on: February 19, 2009, 11:46:34 AM »
Just walk around the electronics market and bargain!

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Spaghetti

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #27 on: February 19, 2009, 05:52:46 PM »
Just walk around the electronics market and bargain!


Yup, and maybe walk away from a Lenovo notebook. Asus, Acer, MSI: good reps too, and you can probably do better.
"Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be an individual."
Haruki Murakami

Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #28 on: February 19, 2009, 06:03:28 PM »
Did some of that yesterday.  Gotta love a fast-talking salesman who just got woken up by the arm-touching girl assistant.

I shall return to the fray today or tomorrow.  Because it turns out http://product.it168.com/ has wildly varying pricing, and buying location, for these machines, and some of them look like the right price.  To wit:

SL400, 2Ghz+GeForce 9300M @ 6500 yuan
SL400, 2Ghz+GeForce 9300M @ 5500 yuan.
SL500, 2GHz+GeForce 9300M @ 7100 yuan.
SL500, 2GHz+GeForce 9300M @ 5700 yuan.

Bargaining... not my strong point... I prefer research, getting to know the variables, and then just buy the sucker.

I shall go see the guy again tomorrow perhaps.


Today... hmmm... really?  Acer, ASUS and MSI?  I'll take a look.

The SL400 Thinkpad gets a nice looking review.
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Spaghetti

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Re: Recommend a laptop
« Reply #29 on: February 19, 2009, 06:09:23 PM »
You seem hellbent on a Lenovo notebook. Caveat emptor.
"Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be an individual."
Haruki Murakami