Is this PC worth it.

[Potatochobit]

next laptop my family is getting is also a MAC

bought a HP desktop last summer about a thousand dollars and it has been a fine computer. but I also have no clue about their laptops.

1500 can get u a nice laptop. you can always upgrade memory later. unless u plan to use photoshop, illustartor, CAD, etc. you dont need 1 GB of memory right off the bat.

IMPORTANT if you plan to play video games, your graphics card CANNOT be replaced in most all circumstances. you are stuck with what you get. this was a big issue for me when deciding.

[Snyper64]

Nearly everything worked fine with the default install with the exception of the wireless and the built-in card reader. HP uses Broadcom for their wireless cards but they will not release the internal specs for their cards(IE: Broadcome is not Linux friendly at the moment). If you are running a 32 bit Ubuntu than you could easily get the card working using NDISwrapper which just uses the Windows driver and makes it compatible with Linux. Unfortunately for me though I run 64bit so I have to go using the Linux made bcm43xx driver with fwcutter to get it to work which even as we speak is still not working right.

If your laptop has a Texas Instruments card reader in it could be as simple as adding a few lines to a file or downloading a patch and double clicking it to having to add the necessary information into you kernal(this is the harder method) and recompiling it. It just depends on what model of their card you get with your laptop, I for instance got unlucky and got the harder of the 2 choices.


Evaky, one more question, how often are you going to be running your laptop on battery, and would a larger sized laptop bother you?

[evaky]

the laptop needs to run on battery for AT LEAST 2 hours cause some of my course modules last for 2 hours. erm....i'm not sure abt the size but it needs to be light as i'll have to bring it along to school everyday.
Btw, I don't unedrstand abt the graphic card/linux..... part. i won't be playing games. just playing anime files.

TSE

[Snyper64]

Well here are a couple options and my thought on each one, these are all HP for the moment but I will reply with a post when I check out the Acers.

THIS dv2000z series may be your best bet for good battery life and size. I would recommend getting the 12 cell battery and 2 gigs of RAM with this model. I went ahead and customized this laptop for you to get an idea of a price and with a AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-56(1.8GHz/1MB) processor, 2 gigs of RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium, Webcam, 80gig 5400RPM SATA HD, and a dual layer DVD burner it came out to $958.99. There was an option for an extra 12 battery with charger for $130 more but you can probably buy that later on if the battery isn't lasting through your classes(IE: if you end up taking 2 two hour classes back to back).

PROS: Lightweight(starting at 5.41lbs), Optional webcam, Optional tv tuner card(I would recommend a tv tuner card for a dorm room for 2 reasons: Free OTA television even when the broadcast flag kicks in since it has a digital tuner built in. 2: Recording shows while out of your room is nice also but mostly because you can use you computer as your TV and save on space on your desk), SPDIF(probably fiber) output can be handy to output to a surround sound system or a higher quality stereo system.

CONS: Graphics card shares your system memory(that's why I recommend getting 2 gigs of memory especially if you go the Vista route), 14.1" screen is kind of small so more than one person watching using it could be a little rough but it is high def though.

Linux support for this laptop is pretty good, most of your items will work out of the box(so to speak) with the exception of your wireless card and webcam(if you go this route) but these are fairly easily fixable. Some people have complained of some noise/popping sounds from the sound card when running Ubuntu but that is easily fixed with using the Alsa driver exclusively.


THIS dv6000 series has everything that the dv2000 has but it also has a 15.4" Bright view display that has a better picture and contrast ratio than the 14.1" screen that the dv2000 has. This model also offers a better video card the 256MB GeForce Go 7200 that has 64 Megs of VRAM and shares 192megs system memory(that you can turn off so you will definitely see a difference in performance between this pc and the dv2000). I customized this laptop with the same specs as the previous laptop with the exception of the video card in which I selected the 7200 and the 15.4" display and the price came out to $1,041.99. When you are looking at hardware and performance wise this is the better deal of the 2 but it does have a few cons as you will see below.

PROS: Bigger better display, Better graphics card that won't slow down your performance.

CONS: size and weight(this will wiegh a little more and will definitely be bulkier than its mobile counter-part), Battery life will be a little less but it will definitely last for more than 2 hours with a 12 cell battery.

As far as Linux goes with this laptop it is probably the most Ubuntu compatible laptop HP makes, everything but the wireless works after installation and that is fairly easily fixed.

As I have said above I would recommend getting a TV tuner card but instead of getting the built in card I would get THIS external card that is both cheaper and a better deal than the internal card that HP offers. This card is also Linux compatible and believe it or not is said to work even better under Linux than Windows especially under MythTV.

As I said before I will look into the Asus pcs later on today but right now I have some errands I need to run.

Hope this helps.

[evaky]

thanks for all the replies. this end of the month, there will be a IT fair. so i'll wait for it.

[Snyper64]

Oh yea! I almost forgot I looked at the Asus notebooks and if you want one that has the same specs or equivalent specs you are looking at spending close to 2 grand(their Ferrari models) to get something as good as the HP laptops.

[takumi111]

Out of the four you listed, I'd choose the Fujitsu LifeBook S7110 (fits under your budget, damn light, much longer battery life than the Acer).

You mentioned your budget is $1,500 - $1,700 .. is that in SGD? Other than the ones you suggested, I'd get something like an Asus A8F, LG R400, or an Acer AS5580. These are all running on Core2Duo chips .. why Core2Duo? Compared to AMD's Turion X2, they run cooler and longer. Well, unless you get a Macbook Core2Duo .. in such a tight notebook casing, the thing heats up like mad (I would know, I have one).

If you're needing a memory upgrade .. laptop memory is insanely cheap now. I bought 2 x 1GB DDR2-667 for $130CAD taxes in.

[Snyper64]

Personally I have found that the Turion x2 has a little better performance over the Core2Duo(yes I have used both of them). As long as you have the power now software installed it should use about the same amount of power as the Core2 would. There may be a little bit of a time and power difference between the 2(I'm sure you can probably find a couple of charts if you Google it).

[Maceart]

I recommend Toshiba satellite. I have one, and it's worked like a champ (only gripe is that the keyboard only has one ctrl key, but whatever.)