THE Laptop Thread: Configs, deals and questions.

[devarshi84]

I would suggest against going with the centrino processor.

reasons

1. the first reason is very simple. Intel has been indulging in bad practices to keep off competition. No wonder Amd's share was stuck at less than 1/4th for such a long time.

2. centrino is more expensive than turion. All a centrino includes is a pentium M with a wireless ability.

3. Centrino misses the SSE3 multimedia extensions.

4. Gaming is all the forte of AMD and intel doesnt even come close.

5. Some specific turion notebooks are lightweight the the sonoma centrino notebooks.

6. Turion MT versions need less power hence run cooler and give more battery life.

7. TUrions are 64-bit OS capable that is the new OS requirement. centrinos wont be able to support it.

8. Turions have 1600mhz FSB and onboard integrated memory controller that helps in battery life and less heat.

Turions are better than centrinos for now.

[Steeroid]

Hi Guys

Just picked up a Dell Inspiron 700M with a Centrino 2.1 Ghz processor, 512 mb of RAM (am upgrading to 1 gb), 80 gb HDD, DVD +/- writer, built-in dual band wireless, bluetooth, blah blah blah. The only crib is the OS - XP HOME edition on a laptop with these specs really sucks.

I wanted to go in for the Sony S48 GP, but at about Dhs1,700 less this was too good a deal to resist. I'll miss the sleek Sony - this one's shiny silver case looks decidedly downmarket after that black beauty. The only consolation is that it will go with the Safari's colour

Got to start setting it up now...I can allocate 20GB for the Linux partition now!

[Rtech]

What's the real difference between XP Home and Professional?

[devarshi84]

xp plus added security and advanced options in various applications and loads of SH*t = XP professional. Some good laptops I have seen

acer ferrari 4000
dell xps 170 with 7800gtx
compaq R4000 with amd athlon 4000(proud owner of one)
Toshiba qosmio media center notebook

steeroid I would say its better you got xp home. professional is not worth the extra bucks. Reformat your hardrive to remove any preinstalled dell content and you will find your system to be considerably faster, especially in booting time.

congrats on your purchase.

[navin]

Originally Posted by Rtech

What's the real difference between XP Home and Professional?

XP home is derived from Windows 98/98SE and XP Pro is derived from Windows NT/2000. Hence many networking features are better implemented in XP Pro.

[satish_appasani]

XP Pro comes with IIS (Internet Information server) aka web server whereas XP Home doesn't. If you are planning to use you laptop for building websites, IIS is must and so XP Pro is must

[cnu]

Originally Posted by navin

XP home is derived from Windows 98/98SE and XP Pro is derived from Windows NT/2000.

This is not true.. Both Win XP Home and Pro are the result of combination of 98 & NT kernels and taking the best of both.

XP Pro has the following in addition to what XP Home has:

* Includes extended support for security between multiple users on the same machine.
* Better support for peer-to-peer networking, plus support for joining a "Windows NT domain."
* The backup utlity is installed by default.
* The Professional edition includes the following components not found in the Home edition:
o Administrative Tools (in the Start Menu and Control Panel)
o Automated System Recovery (ASR)
o Boot Configuration Manager
o DriverQuery
o Group Policy Refresh Utility
o Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on
o NTFS Encryption Utilitiy
o Offline Files and Folders
o OpenFiles
o Performance Log Manager
o Remote Desktop
o Scheduled Tasks Console
o Security Template Utility
o Taskkill
o Tasklist
o Telnet Administrator
* Provides support for multi-processor systems (2 or 4 CPUs), Dynamic Disks, Fax.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...choosing2.mspx

[Rtech]

So is Pro worth double of Home? I've got a quote for Rs.3,400 for Home and Rs.6000 for Pro. This is for my work desktop which I am upgrading. I am not going to be building any websites or such. Just regular office stuff.

I have XP Pro which came preinstalled on my laptop, but couldn't for the life of me figure out any differences between Pro & home.

[cnu]

Rtech,

If you are planning to do any of the following in your office, then go for Pro.

1) Create an office network and manage centrally.
2) Share resources (like print servers etc) on the network to multiple users
3) Provide user based security selectively to the resources (files/folders) on the network
4) If you have a multi-processor system.
5) Want to share desktops and do remote access on the network
6) If you want to hook up to a network where all other PCs are running Pro.

But for normal office work without any networking hassles, Home is just fine.

You might like to check this thread on the same topic:
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0....sageID=1164981

[Sahil]

If anyone in the US wants to buy a Dell laptop, do let me know i can hook u up with some promo discount coupons. Depending on the day, you can get anywhr from 15 to 50% off if your lucky! The deals on dells are unmatched.If you pay a little more and opt for 3 years or more 'At home service' warranty then its also valid in India.
Tho if you ask me right now the smartest looking laptops are the Sony Vaios namely the FJ and FS series are sleek has hell. Sony laptops had reliablity issues a few years back but that all seems sorted out now, they are very stable machines.
Here are the links to the new Vaio laptops:
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...ries_notebooks
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...Dept=computers

[devarshi84]

well here are the best deals you will find for US.

www.deals2buy.com

networking is the best asset of win xp but for a common man using 1 computer xp home works good.

I bought the xp professional at a student discount but I am still maintaining that xp home is better.



btw why buy xp home or professional now????????????????

Windows vista, windows media center, xp proffesional 64 are all out and they trample the older OS easily.

[Dippy]

Guys

I'm looking to pick up a laptop by the end of January. I really dont need the high end stuff but some of the things I'm looking for are Good performance, ease of use DVD combo with CD writer(DVD writer if possible) wireless technology bluetooth if possible(not necessary)

My main use would be for writing my articles transferring pictures immediately and cutting CDs or DVDs. I'm not looking to work on graphics really since I have my desktop for the same

Budget for me is around 40 to 45 ks

Please suggest me some names

Help would be appreciated

[tsk1979]

Buying from India or abroad?
In any case stay away from Dell/HP etc., After their 1 year warranty expires they become white elephants.

AMD based laptops(Semprom) are good buys and if you source it from states, good performance models cost 550$. In india they cost about 40K.

ACER http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_...terid=13468421 is one such laptop.

Search at sites like geek.com, etc., and look out for AMD based laptops.

If you are not too stuck up with the x86 arch, I suggest go for an apple. At around 50K you will get an amazing laptop, but then its OS-X based and people with windows expirience will need a learning curve

If you want to stick to x86 and windows, I suggest you stretch your budget and go for AMD64bit. ITs a worthwile investment and with winxp 64bit around the corner, it will give you the most bang for your buck

As for your DVD writer requirement, none is available below $1000.
http://www.pcmag.com/products/?actio...wadvancedquery
The link above will help you narrow your search

[Dippy]

I would be looking to buy from India itself. Dell is out anyways.

Any suggestions with my said budget and features?

[tsk1979]

Well check out the ACER and HP compaq AMD based ones. I am not aware of exact prices, but these two brands are most value for money. No DVD Writer below 55000. So you have to settle for DVD Read and CD Read-Write.
I suggest go to a showroom, check out the prices and models available, and then post it here. Based on that I can advise you which one to pick