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neelpatel09
03-09-2009, 11:19 PM
1) What is your budget?

$1000 (preferably far under.) Lemme know if I'm way off base on price, and tell me what I should expect to pay for these specs.

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

Irrelevant. Price is a bigger issue. Smaller is better.

3) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

Prefer high quality components, but understand that most bargains are going to be POS Dell/HP/etc.

4) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?

No heavy gaming. Heavy graphics design and multitasking.

5) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?

Will be moving around but don't mind being confined to wall outlets. Prefer enough battery life to watch a movie. But need processor/graphics juice over battery life.

6) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?

Not really. Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2. Counter-strike: Source. Maybe Oblivion, if this summer is really boring. Willing to sacrifice eye-candy on all of these, as long as they run fluidly. No maxing Crysis or anything.

7) How many hours of battery life do you need?

1 minimum (while running things). Prefer 3.

8) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?

No.

9) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Vista. But would prefer no OS, as I'm going to install my own license regardless.

Screen Specifics

1) Would you prefer standard or widescreen?

Indifferent.

2) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?


c. UXGA - 1600x1200 - Very small text and graphics icons, you can fit lots of stuff on the screen.

Could settle for SXGA, but really enjoy the 1600x1200 on my ThinkPad T41p right now. And would need the real estate for Photoshop/Dreamweaver.

Widescreen

f. WUXGA - 1920x1200; Wider viewing version of UXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.

3) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?

Indifferent. Glossy, if its a cheap add-on.

Build Quality and Design

1) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

Nope.

2) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?

Should be up-to-date for 2 years, and survive for 4.

Notebook Components

1) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 200GB?

Minimum 100GB. Plan on using externals for any heavy duty stuff. Would be nice to have SSD.

2) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive?

DVDRW. Nothing more.




Prefer fast Intel dualcore (2.26 GHZ and higher), and would like 512MB dedicated video card. I don't mind expanding RAM myself later, but would prefer DDR3.

Budget gaming laptop? If SSD and DDR3 are unfeasible, I wouldn't mind DDR2 and a 7200 RPM SATA.

How long before this under $1000? Is it feasible for something like to be snagged at $700 or $800? If these specs are too high, where can I compromise and still accomplish what I want to do. Needs to be able to run Windows 7 well, multitasking with several processor/memory intensive apps simultaneously (Photoshop+Flash+Dreamweaver+iTunes+Web-browsers,etc.) Needs to run Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 (whenever that does come out..)

Pretty much looking for most bang for my buck.

Sorry if this is asking a bit much, and thanks in advance.

damnyou
03-10-2009, 07:20 AM
How about configuring the HP dv6t series

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=Performance+and+entertainment&series_name=dv6t_series

there is a coupon u can use on HP

NB9812

BeeEss
03-10-2009, 01:43 PM
you could go for thisa netbook if u wanna save some moolah and if ur ok with buying an external dvd drive...at 350 bucks seems like a great deal, few hours left, specs taken from wiki

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?threadid=1234791

Specifications
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft Windows XP
Display: 10-inch LED-backlit widescreen LCD (1024x600)
Intel CPU: Intel Atom N280
Wireless Data Network: WLAN: 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth V2.0
Memory: 1GB DDR-2 (memory size is upgradable to 2GB)
Hybrid Storage: 160GB HDD + 10GB Eee Online Storage **Eee Storage service is complimentary for the first 18 months. Please register account information for 6 months extension (depends on country)
Camera: 1.3 megapixels
Audio: Build-in stereo speakers, high-definition audio CODEC, Digital Array Microphones
Storage Cards: 4-in-1 MMC, SD(SDHC), memory stick and MS-PRO flash card slot
Input/Output: 1 x VGA port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor), 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x LAN RJ-45, 2 x audio jacks: headphone & mic-in
Battery: Up to 9.5 hours*, 8700mAh *Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.
Dimensions: 10.47 (W) x 7.53 (D) x 1.12-1.50 (H) inches
Weight: 3.20 lbs
Color: Blue

neelpatel09
03-10-2009, 04:44 PM
Thanks for the quick replies!

For $838.87 shipped, I can configure a dv6t.

* Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
* – Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz)
* – FREE Upgrade to 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* – 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
* – 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS
* – 16.0" diagonal High Definition HP Brightview Display (1366x768)
* – LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
* – Webcam Only
* – Wireless-G Card with Bluetooth
* – No TV Tuner w/remote control
* – HP Color Matching Keyboard
* – High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
* – No Modem
* – Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
* – HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Estimated build date: March 18, 2009


And for a bit more, I can juice up that processor. However, I need UXGA. The 768 vertical bars is not going to cut it. The coupon took 200 off, and I'll toy around with a few different HP configurations. Is the 512 MB NVidia card worth the $200 over the Intel 4500MHD (presumably shared video mem?) I have always preferred ATI. My 128MB Radeon Mobility still chugs along pretty well.

The netbook isn't really what I was looking for. Are the Atom procs as bad as they sound? *remembers trying to get XP to run comfortably on Celerons*

damnyou
03-10-2009, 05:02 PM
Dell has XPS M1530 lined up tomorrow as part of 10days of deals

check that also

rayzor
03-11-2009, 08:26 AM
you could go for thisa netbook if u wanna save some moolah and if ur ok with buying an external dvd drive...at 350 bucks seems like a great deal, few hours left, specs taken from wiki


He wants to do graphics editing. Netbooks is a definite no.

neelpatel09
03-11-2009, 06:02 PM
The Dell 10 Days of Deals XPS M1530 is a bit different than the 1530 I tried to config yesterday. The Processor is the 2.4 GHz Dual with 3 MB cache. Everything else looked fine, except the video card was only 256 MB GeForce 8600M GT. Will this card do everything I need? The HP comes with the 9200 but has a crummy display.

The Dell offered the HD 1920x1200 display. I could get everything I wanted for $1200ish. I found a 25% coupon but it didn't stack with instant savings. So... I guess I'm waiting for a similar deal with a better video card for a few hundred dollars cheaper.

I'll scope out the rest of the 10 days of deals and post my findings.