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General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 12:53:16 PM

Title: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 12:53:16 PM

What should I look for when buying a new laptop?

What I want, is around 320 GB storage, and a good wireless connection. That should be doable for cheap, right?

Could you guys help me out by giving pointers?

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 12:59:52 PM

I need a laptop to store the 100GB of content for my Zune.
Besides that I want to download and watch movies on it.

That's about it.

Around 250GB should be enough. Vista is probably going to take up a large amount, right?

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Van Cruncheon on December 23, 2008, 01:01:25 PM

vista takes up maybe 10 gigs, tops

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 01:06:07 PM

Ok, the 160GB models should be good enough.

Can the laptop make a difference in picking up the wireless signal, or should I just get a more powerful wireless router?


Oh yeah, it's probably going to be between Packard Bell, Asus and Acer, which one of those has a good/bad name?

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Van Cruncheon on December 23, 2008, 01:08:44 PM

most embedded wireless chipsets are largely the same. i prefer the intel wireless pro agn, but the broadcom chipsets aren't too bad aside from the dumb connection manager they want to install. range depends on the protocol -- 802.11n has the best range, but if you don't have an n router, it's obviously useless. most laptop embedded wireless chipsets support 802.11 a/b/g/n.

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 01:14:02 PM

Ah, the "100GB EXTRA" thing for dumb people sounds like me...

About the 802.11 thing, does n mean it goes up to n and also includes a through g?

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 01:14:50 PM

And what about the brandnames, which ones are preferable?

I was planning to spend € 500,- but I could easily spend double...

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Van Cruncheon on December 23, 2008, 01:16:55 PM

Quote from: Rebiak on December 23, 2008, 01:14:02 PM

Ah, the "100GB EXTRA" thing for dumb people sounds like me...

About the 802.11 thing, does n mean it goes up to n and also includes a through g?

in my example, yes.

if you can do double, get this. it's a fuck awesome and reliable little gaming laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220461

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 01:20:58 PM

It basically comes down to video card, right?

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Van Cruncheon on December 23, 2008, 01:23:08 PM

yup, and the 9650GT + 1 GB will give you good performance for most games -- it's roughly performance equivalent to a PC dekstop 8600GT

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 01:24:30 PM

So, when I'm not planning on playing games, what do I look for? Not much right, just storage and software?

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Van Cruncheon on December 23, 2008, 01:25:01 PM

yup, pretty much

Title: Re: Low end laptop
Post by: Reb on December 23, 2008, 01:28:32 PM

Man, that takes all the fun out of the buying process. ;)

Thanks for the info.