Looking for a laptop

[Boozy]

I'm looking to replace my desktop with a laptop, and I'd like advice on what sort of brands I should be looking at, and how much I'll be looking to spend.

Here's what I need to do:

1) Access CS.com at the speed of light....I am very impatient and can only wait a millisecond for the forum to load. I also stream videos and movies online.

2) I'm not really a gamer...but I love Sid Meier's Civilizations, and would like to be able to play the most recent edition. If it matters, I don't play games online.

3) E-mail, iTunes, uploading photos, etc.

What do you guys think I need? Do you need more info?
Thanks!

[Shabo]

In order to play that game, you are going to want to get a laptop that has 1.8 ghz processor or better. I recommend finding a laptop with a Core 2 Duo (NOT Centrino!) as this will give you better processing power. Most laptops come with a 128 mb vid card (or better), so that shouldn't give you any issues there. I would recommend at least 1 gb of ram, more if you are going to have Vista on this laptop. Since this is a fairly new version of the game, I would think that Vista won't work with this game yet, so you might want to go with XP anyway.

As far as brands... I really have no severe hatred of any brands except for Acer. That is one machine that I would never buy. Yes, the prices are good, but the quality is such a hit or miss thing that you have a pretty good chance of not getting a good laptop, and their support sucks. So. Whichever brand you decide to go with, make sure that you aren't getting the lowest end model that they have. Really cheap laptops tend to have refurbished parts, and that's not really something you want in a brand new laptop. In addition, the more money you put into the computer, the longer you have before it goes obsolete. Make sure you know what your options are in case you want to upgrade later.

You are going to hear horror stories and happy stories about each brand. Just remember that no computer is immune to failure. Someone can spend thousands of dollars on a laptop and have it die the next day, and their neighbor could spend a few hundred on a laptop and have it live for years. It all depends on care and, well, luck. So keep that in mind when you hear about what brand you should or shouldn't buy.

You shouldn't need to buy a "Gaming" laptop unless you want super nice graphics with no lag with that game you want to play. A regular, higher end model should serve your needs just fine. Keep in mind that if you want to use the wireless that it will be slightly slower than using a wired connection, but the benefit is being able to move anywhere within the range without dragging a cord around, and if you get the "G" standard compatible card or "N" standard, you shouldn't notice too much of a difference. Keep in mind that this will also require a wireless router, which will run you upwards of $80 for a decent new one... unless prices have dropped. I don't use wireless at my place, so I don't really pay attention to that stuff.

I think that's everything for now. If I think of anything else, I'll edit this post. And please ask questions if you need clarification or if you find a computer that you are thinking about!

[volatile]

In order to play that game, you are going to want to get a laptop that has 1.8 ghz processor or better. I recommend finding a laptop with a Core 2 Duo (NOT Centrino!) as this will give you better processing power.

Centrino isn't a type of processor. It is a "platform". It's a set of minimum requirements for Processor, chipset, and some other stuff in the design of a laptop that gives it the Centrino label. The new "Santa Rose" platform is the fourth generation of Centrino. What you meant was to not get Pentium M.

[Shabo]

Centrino isn't a type of processor. It is a "platform". It's a set of minimum requirements for Processor, chipset, and some other stuff in the design of a laptop that gives it the Centrino label. The new "Santa Rose" platform is the fourth generation of Centrino. What you meant was to not get Pentium M.

Right you are. Just make sure you get a Core 2 Duo. This does not appear to be offered with the Pentium M brand since the highest processors they offer are Core Duo.

I'm an AMD fan myself. Go underdog! With AMD processors, you will not get the same processor speed *technically*. It's a little bit more complicated than just looking at the processor speed.

[Boozy]

I would recommend at least 1 gb of ram, more if you are going to have Vista on this laptop. Since this is a fairly new version of the game, I would think that Vista won't work with this game yet, so you might want to go with XP anyway.

Will I have the choice of XP or Vista? I thought that everything had Vista already installed now. I like XP and would like to stick with it for now if I could.

Keep in mind that if you want to use the wireless that it will be slightly slower than using a wired connection, but the benefit is being able to move anywhere within the range without dragging a cord around, and if you get the "G" standard compatible card or "N" standard, you shouldn't notice too much of a difference.

We have a wireless G router. Is N faster? What is the difference? My husband uses his laptop at home, and his connection is a bit slow for my liking.

Thanks for all your help, by the way!

[LostMyMind]

Wireless will always seem slower than direct cable connection. But you can always have a network cable to do a direct connection when you're at a table or something.

Now days, most laptops aren't really laptop anymore. You can't really sit with them on your lap (some laptops get really really hot). So most companies call them notebooks, but it's still laptop to me.

Look around, you'll find laptops with XP. I do believe Dell decided to re-offer XP with their laptops. As far as brand go, almost every brand has their "crap" models and their "perfect" models. You have to check the model reputation. Personally, I'm a fan of toshiba. They tend to have less "crap" than others.

The brand that has the more "crap" than "good" are Acer, compaq, hp. I always pimp cyberpowerpc (add .com to visit them). However, I've only gotten desktop from them, so I can't really say if their laptops are better or worst.

Price wise you're looking at $1,000 to $2,000. Depending on the components of the laptop. If it's a multi-media laptop with bells and whistles, you're going to be breaking the bank. The most important part of any laptop is the video card, the processor. You can always add memory. But memory is easily added, so check to see if it's cheaper to buy more memory and add it or to let the factory add it. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy the 512MB laptop and add a 1G than to buy a 1G laptop.

Btw you can get Core 2 Duo on a centrino platform (hard to find any intel laptop that isn't centrino platform)

[Shabo]

Will I have the choice of XP or Vista? I thought that everything had Vista already installed now. I like XP and would like to stick with it for now if I could.

We have a wireless G router. Is N faster? What is the difference? My husband uses his laptop at home, and his connection is a bit slow for my liking.

Thanks for all your help, by the way!

Most companies still offer a choice between XP and Vista. Dell wasn't for a while, but people complained, so they brought the choice back. Vista is pretty, but still overrated IMO, so if you are comfortable with XP, stick with it.

Wireless N will be faster when it is officially released, which according to Wikipedia is in 2008. This late in the year, make sure that your wireless card supports version "draft n" so if you choose to upgrade your router, you can have access to the new technology. The difference between the two is that N standard will have a greater range and faster speed. They are still finalizing the standard, but if you want to wait for the standard to be released, it wouldn't be a bad thing either.

Some other things you want to look out for is customer reviews. If you are having a hard time deciding between brands or models, look for professional reviews or customer reviews. Remember to take them all with a grain of salt though, since most of the time they are on opinion rather than actual benchmarked tests (professional reviews excluded).

Also put consideration into whether or not you are going to be traveling with the laptop. If you are, you might want to consider getting an ultra-lightweight laptop for travel. If you want to watch movies with your laptop and don't care about weight, a bigger screen would be the option for you.

Some optional accessories you might want to look into are a docking station, usually around $100. If you are going to replace your desktop, you might need the docking station to get all of the ports that you will need. Laptops have significantly less ports for printers, mice, etc. If you don't really care about that, then a USB hub isn't a bad idea to give yourself some extra ports to plug USB cameras, mice, microphones, headsets, etc. into. I would highly recommend getting a USB mouse as the trackpad will not be optimal for gaming. You could also get a wireless mouse, but then you have to worry about batteries. The difference there is really only preference as wireless mice and keyboards have really come down in price.

Also, if you are going to be doing a lot of traveling, an extra battery will be very nice to have. Batteries come in a few sizes. Basically, the bigger they are, the longer they can keep the laptop running. 4-cell will give you probably 3 hours brand new with nothing much running, and as you increase power consumption by actually using the computer, your battery life will drop. Estimated time left on that is always calculated by the amount of current usage vs. juice left in battery. However, additional batteries are expensive, so if you don't feel like spending the extra money, it's no biggie. Keep in mind that laptop batteries, like any rechargeable battery, will not last forever. They have a limited number of recharges, and each time you recharge it, the battery life will be diminished slightly. Also, depending on whether you keep the laptop plugged in all the time, you should take the battery out. Not using it and constantly charging it can wear the battery down faster.

One last accessory (this one I strongly recommend, especially if you are going to be gaming!) is a laptop cooling pad. I saw one somewhere that had USB ports in it too, so that would kill two birds with one stone. Hardware doesn't like to be too hot, and laptops aren't really well known for air circulation in their tiny little frames, so by giving it some extra help, you can keep your laptop alive a little (sometimes a lot) longer.

If you do choose to buy accessories, don't get them through the company that you are buying the laptop from unless they offer some sort of bundle deal. Chances are, if you go to froogle and type in what you are looking for, you can find it much cheaper elsewhere. Make sure you research all of your options before you buy anything, and do some price comparing. However, if you need or want special software, like MS Office, you are usually best off getting that through the company you buy the computer from. They spend a certain amount of money to get a license that they can use on all of their machines, so it costs them far less per machine, and they pass that saving on to you.

Price wise you're looking at $1,000 to $2,000. Depending on the components of the laptop. If it's a multi-media laptop with bells and whistles, you're going to be breaking the bank. The most important part of any laptop is the video card, the processor. You can always add memory. But memory is easily added, so check to see if it's cheaper to buy more memory and add it or to let the factory add it. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy the 512MB laptop and add a 1G than to buy a 1G laptop.

I second LMM. I wouldn't spend any less than $1000 on your new laptop. For you, the most important thing is going to be the processor. You are going to want to upgrade the video card if they allow it, but most of them are only upgradeable if you get a gaming laptop (at least from what I've seen). Also, you would probably need to order the machine straight from Gateway/Dell/Lenovo/*insert brand name here* in order to get customizable options, which means you need to wait for the machine to come through the mail. They usually ship really fast. But yes, the memory thing might be cheaper to upgrade outside of the company. They tend to be a little steep on their prices.

[volatile]

I, personally, recommend IBM/Lenovo. We use them at my company and I absolutely love the T60 series. The construction is great and it is designed to be durable. It isn't exactly ruggedized, but it is designed to better handle business life.

[Shabo]

I also am a huge fan of my IBM/Lenovo tablet pc. I got it off of ebay, and when it arrived, the screen wasn't working, but luckily for me, IBM transferred the warranty to me (too bad car companies don't do that!) and had it fixed for me within the week! I am a fan for life now.

[Dreamstalker]

I've had fairly good luck with HP (surprising, I know) recently; lightweight, nice sized screen, doesn't get too hot. I would tend to avoid Dell; the one Dell laptop I had was prone to a severe overheating issue that Dell knew/knows about yet did nothing. Their thermal management is crap anyway.

[Der Cute]

Celeron processors are shite IMO. It's like a V-6 engine with only 3 valves running.

I'll use a P4 anyday I'm old I know.

If you want FAST, you also have to look at the connection speeds - NETWORK.
Make sure the lappy has 10/100/1000 nic connection (most are 100mb/sec or more). Make sure it has 802.11 b/g wireless (b's slower, but popular, g's faster and popular, but not everywhere has it.) 802.11 b/g/n would be great.

RAM's important, along w/ the cache sizes on the processor ..... and the Front side bus speeds... no less than 800mhz.

What you could do...is go find a puter you kinda like and post the specs out here for us to critique.

Remember too: onboard video will share memory w/ the RAM. Unless you get a separate video card w/its own memory, 1 GB RAM will be depleted by 128 or 256 MB for video - depending on board.

What's the use for this machine? What is your goal for it?
Do you want a hotrod, or a work horse?

Cutenoob

[Shabo]

Celeron processors are shite IMO. It's like a V-6 engine with only 3 valves running.

That's the processor I was thinking of! Dang! Don't bother with Celeron. They are good for power management, but that's about it. They really are total crap.

As I've said with brands, you will get good and bad reviews about every single brand out there.

I'll use a P4 anyday I'm old I know.

P4? Why bother when there is Core 2 Duo for a reasonable price?

[Boozy]

Just wanted to follow up and let everyone know how much I appreciate the advice.

I am currently looking at a Toshiba, but its about $300 more than I was planning on, so I may need to wait a few more months.

I'll post the specs before I buy to see what you all think.

Thanks again!