Looking to buy and save

[db44]

I intend to buy a new laptop by the end of the day. I'm getting a CD burner/DVD-ROM combo drive, and I obviously want to spend as little as possible.

So here's my question: With the following specs, do you think I can survive and have a decent picture?

2.8G Pentium 4

384M RAM/memory

32M videocard.

If I had to upgrade, I'd rather upgrade the videocard instead of the memory, over price issues, but do you think I can have a decent, free-flowing picture with the parameters above?

[Mike]

What do you mean by decent picture? You mean, as far as playing DVDs and just general computer usage? Unless you're running the latest 3D games and high performance graphic applications, the specs you listed should be more than enough to handle what you're looking for. I guess the first question would be: what are you gonna use the laptop for? And do you need a wireless card? (you can always add one later if it's not integrated with the laptop)

Last week, I picked up a HP Pavilion ze4610us notebook from Best Buy for $849 after rebates. I'm an AMD fan and the Pavilion has a Athlon 2500+ processor. It comes stock with 256MB of RAM, but I bought an additional 512MB RAM and upgraded it myself. Then I bought a Linksys wireless card to use with my wireless home network (as well as other "hotspots" while on the go). I'm pretty happy with it for the price, and it even plays some of the latest games at an acceptable level. DVD playback and general usage is flawless.

Videocard specs are probably not much of an issue to you unless you plan on running 3D games, powering an external monitor, or professional design. You're gonna want at least 256MB of RAM, and most laptops are easily upgradeable with more RAM (256MB can be had for about $50).

What other features are important to you? XGA or SXGA? Screen size (standard or widescreen)? S-video? Battery life? WinXP Home or Pro?

Best Buy carries some eMachines that are inexpensive yet loaded with features. A lot of them come with Celerons, which aren't bad, but a Pentium or Athlon would give better performance. You'll want to get a notebook with a "mobile" processor if you can, since these CPUs are designed with power limitations in mind to maximize battery life.

[db44]

The laptop will be used primarily for audio purposes actually: Internet broadcasting and recording. Obviously, I'm not all that concerned video for that.

I do however plan to use the DVD to watch movies, when travelling.

The most gaming I intend to do with this computer is probably the usual Hearts/Minesweeper kinda stuff. At most I might put some of my low-res games on the computer, like the "Close Combat" series.

I'm looking at a Dell 5100, as I have a credit account with them already. It's just XGA and comes with the CDR/RW/DVD-ROM drive and 384 MB. I'm getting a 94 WHr Lithium Ion 12-Cell Battery to go with the 96/12 cell that comes with the computer (Two bays or if they are both in the computer at once, I'm not sure). I'm going with the standard Win XP Home for an OS and will get the Corel suite of Wordperfect/Quatro 11 instead of the Microsoft Office (11 is compatible with Word et. al). I acutally grew up on Word Perfect, and use it on my current laptop, so I'm happy with that.

The price, with a few other options and getting the 32 MB is about $1250.

Thanks for your help, Mike.

[Mike]

A couple sites with reviews for that notebook:

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Laptops-Dell_Inspiron_5100_Series_Notebook_Computer/display_~reviews

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Dell_Inspiron_5100/4505-3122_16-20893580.html

Sounds like a good deal.