Please recommend budget laptop - I like Dell Studio 15, thoughts?

[laesperanzapaz]

it's for my mom.  she doesnt know shit about tech, and is not willing to stand to configure anything.   She hates headaches, and she hates technology. DOn't ask.


- must be budget laptop.  less than $700 or whatever. 500 bucks or less is great.  Cheap!
- must have windows xp, if possible.  Vista is really really unwanted, but if no choice I'll take it.  I know XP is being extended for low end laptops, however, so XP IS A MUSt! 
- this laptop will be desktop replacement.  therefore, Battery efficiency is not important.  Will not be hauling it around alot.
- mostly surfing internet, watching movies(sophisticated media controls not wanted).  No games, so Intel GMA is OK.  I believe X3100 is the latest one?  It's not that important, but i'm curious
- low resolution: at least 600 vertical.  800 if possible.  Widescreen if possible. [16:9 or 16:10]
- Dual core not necessary but would like it! At least 1.5 Ghz by Core Duo mobile standard.  Not so familiar with Athlon mobile CPUs.
- HDD: must be mechanical; no solid state. 60GB-ish is wanted, at least. [which is why EEE PC is unacceptable]
- listen to this song:

Remember, the most high tech thing going on is watching stardard definition [not HD] soap operas and movies, and browse normal webpages with moderate amounts of flashy stuff/advertisement going on.  Computer should handle this trouble-free.


PS: I prefer good warrantee [whatever good means in the laptop world], I am in Canada, and please recommend a good internet shop from which to buy this.  THanks.

[TVC15]

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1330?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Also, what do you have against Solid State Drives?

[Powerslave]

You can get one for 300-400 euros max with those requirements.

[MrAngryFace]

Solid state in the eeepc is fuckin tiny isnt it? Any decent sized solid state drive is in expensive laptops

[TVC15]

Solid state in the eeepc is fuckin tiny isnt it? Any decent sized solid state drive is in expensive laptops

Last I checked you can get up to 32 gig solid state drives (not in eee pcs, but in dells), but yeah, I'm not sure how cheap that would be.

Just checked.  They have 64 gig now, for 600 bucks.  Just last year it was 800-900 for 32 gigs.

[Van Cruncheon]

my $500 ipod touch has a 32gb one innit

[MrAngryFace]

Solid state in the eeepc is fuckin tiny isnt it? Any decent sized solid state drive is in expensive laptops

Last I checked you can get up to 32 gig solid state drives (not in eee pcs, but in dells), but yeah, I'm not sure how cheap that would be.

Just checked.  They have 64 gig now, for 600 bucks.  Just last year it was 800-900 for 32 gigs.

I dunno if price is his reasoning tho, we should wait for his reply I spose

[Van Cruncheon]

i just realized that i carry about $1000 bucks worth of electronics on my person most of the time, stashed in the pockets of my hoodies

$500 ipod, $300 blackberry, $200 psp w/ 8gb memory stick



i am sure tvc doubles that with his 40 different cameras and 20 different ipods

[laesperanzapaz]

Price and Size is the reason I skip SSD.  At least 60GB [i.e. more the better]

Thanks for the aid, TVC, however, the link you gave me [M1330] is 900 bucks, and has features [media controls, fingerprint recognition, etc] that I dont need.

Thanks alot for help, I appreciate it guys


ALSO: I wish to buy online, and I am in Canada.  Newegg =

[TVC15]

i just realized that i carry about $1000 bucks worth of electronics on my person most of the time, stashed in the pockets of my hoodies

$500 ipod, $300 blackberry, $200 psp w/ 8gb memory stick

I usually have my Cybershot (~350), my cell phone (~400), my iPod (what, 300-400), and now my GPS (~600).  I also usually have my laptop with me, which was like 2700 after I sufficiently pimped it.

[MrAngryFace]

I have DS/PSP/Nano/CellPhone

[TVC15]

Price and Size is the reason I skip SSD.  At least 60GB [i.e. more the better]

Thanks for the aid, TVC, however, the link you gave me [M1330] is 900 bucks, and has features [media controls, fingerprint recognition, etc] that I dont need.

Thanks alot for help, I appreciate it guys


ALSO: I wish to buy online, and I am in Canada.  Newegg =

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/inspnnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs

I was just pointing you to the best Dell model.  They make em cheaper, too.  You are kind of fucked in regards to XP.  I believe they stopped shipping with it recently.

[laesperanzapaz]

Price and Size is the reason I skip SSD.  At least 60GB [i.e. more the better]

Thanks for the aid, TVC, however, the link you gave me [M1330] is 900 bucks, and has features [media controls, fingerprint recognition, etc] that I dont need.

Thanks alot for help, I appreciate it guys


ALSO: I wish to buy online, and I am in Canada.  Newegg =

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/inspnnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs

I was just pointing you to the best Dell model.  They make em cheaper, too.  You are kind of fucked in regards to XP.  I believe they stopped shipping with it recently.

1. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  but MS said they will extend XP for the low end laptops!!!  You know, all those competitors to EEE PC!

2.  WHy do you recommend dell so much? WHat makes them better than others?  Also, 1. I wish good reliability in the laptop and, 2. if push comes to shove....a good warrantee

[Van Cruncheon]

because the dell xps1330 was voted the best laptop last year by most magazines, over even the macbooks and macbook pros?

check out the low-end hp models, too -- you can get a good rig for $600ish. vista is easy to use and will run great even on a current low-end laptop.

[TVC15]

Price and Size is the reason I skip SSD.  At least 60GB [i.e. more the better]

Thanks for the aid, TVC, however, the link you gave me [M1330] is 900 bucks, and has features [media controls, fingerprint recognition, etc] that I dont need.

Thanks alot for help, I appreciate it guys


ALSO: I wish to buy online, and I am in Canada.  Newegg =

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/inspnnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs

I was just pointing you to the best Dell model.  They make em cheaper, too.  You are kind of fucked in regards to XP.  I believe they stopped shipping with it recently.

1. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  but MS said they will extend XP for the low end laptops!!!  You know, all those competitors to EEE PC!

I don't know the details, but I just did a quick look, and it appears you can't get the Dells with XP.

2.  WHy do you recommend dell so much? WHat makes them better than others?  Also, 1. I wish good reliability in the laptop and, 2. if push comes to shove....a good warrantee

Dell's laptops are pretty cheap and still very quality.  I'd probably recommend them even if price weren't an issue.  After Dell I would go with H-P, but they don't offer many cheap options, aside from this:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=From+price&v1=Under+%24500&series_name=CQ50Z_series&a1=From+price&v1=Under+%24500

which has an AMD processor and weighs 7 pounds (also vista only).  AMD's never been the king in regards to mobile processors.  

Also, if you are stuck with Vista, I'd recommend paying the extra 50 for a dual core processor and/or bumping the ram to 2 gigs.

Dell and H-P also might have refurbished sections on their sites, too.

[TVC15]

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&lob=INSP&MODEL_DESC=Inspiron%201525&s=dfh&dgc=IM&cid=30425&lid=682028

There's refurbished inspirons.  The refurbished XPSes are still a  bit high.

[laesperanzapaz]

hey how is the Celeron 550 CPU at 2Ghz?  What would be the equivalent in Core 2 Duo terms?

[TVC15]

A Celeron 550 is single core and a C2D is dual core.  According to wiki, it's a Celeron M processor, meaning it's based on the Pentium M line.  The C2D line is, in the simplest possible terms, 2 Pentium M cores.  So that's probably the rough equivalent to one core of a C2D.  Just because the C2D has 2 cores doesn't mean it's twice as fast or anything, but I would still recommend a processor upgrade to dual core.  It is a substantial perf increase and it's a fairly cheap upgrade.

[laesperanzapaz]

RIght now I'm looking at the Inspiron 1525 that TVC linked to.  It looks great, only $500, VIsta Basic [sigh...I guess I'll take it. It has nothing to do with fanboyism, I just have to mind the low specs and any UAC stupidity, or instability.  Grrr]

In any case, I am very attracted to the Inspiron 1525, I just wondering if I should bump the CPU from Intel® Celeron® 550 (2.0GHz, 533Mhz, 1M L2 Cache) to either Intel® Pentium® Dual Core T2390 (1.86GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache) [50 bucks more] , or Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5750 (2.00GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache) [100 bucks more]

Wow, I didnt know the Pentium M were nearly identical to a single Core from the much vaunted C2D.

[TVC15]

T2390 is a Core (the immediate precursor to the C2D).  That should be fine.

Also, Dell's Vista drivers are fine, so I wouldn't worry about Vista instability.  You can also turn UAC off, so no worries there.

You'll have to read on their site (it's been a while), but I believe the Dells come with a 1 year service warranty, and at any time during that year you can extend it, so if you don't want to spend the warranty cheese now, you can do it in a few months.  Again, I'd read what their site says, because I'm sure policies like that change often.  And of course I recommend a warranty, as I do on all portable electronics.

[laesperanzapaz]

Muchas gracias, TVC.  One last thing: Home Vista, or Premium.

Now I know HOme and Ultimate are both condemned, but what does Premium bring except the cosmetic pizzazzzzzzzzzz?  I gotta watch my system specs, after all.

edit: ok I just checked.  Apparently, Home doesn't have Windows media center?  ooooookay.  That's semi-deal breaker. 

[MrAngryFace]

I dont really recommend Home edition to anyone

[TVC15]

Yeah, Home Premium.  I even keep Home Premium on my laptop (it's what it came with).  Premium has media center.  Ultimate doesn't really have anything additional you would use (it's just the business stuff, basically).

[AdmiralViscen]

Radio Shack has a Compaq on sale for $500 after a $100 rebate. 2 gigs of ram, dual core AMD processor, it's groovy

[MrAngryFace]

Is it that silver widescreen one? Thats a good one.

[Powerslave]

update your ram

[etiolate]

I've been looking at Dells and Toshibas, but I am not sure how good Toshiba laptops are. I'm looking around 800 with a graphics card.

[laesperanzapaz]

Radio Shack has a Compaq on sale for $500 after a $100 rebate. 2 gigs of ram, dual core AMD processor, it's groovy

apparently, radio shack would rather stay in dumb texas from which it was seeded, and avoid the great nation of CANADA altogether

dumb texas company

[Flannel Boy]

Radio Shack has a Compaq on sale for $500 after a $100 rebate. 2 gigs of ram, dual core AMD processor, it's groovy

apparently, radio shack would rather stay in dumb texas from which it was seeded, and avoid the great nation of CANADA altogether

dumb texas company

There used to be many Radio Shack stores in Canada (How did you never see them?). But a few years ago Circuit City bought them all and renamed them "The Source by Circuit City."

[laesperanzapaz]

http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?reconfigure=true&cart=MySavedItems&id=28e2fac4-98bd-416e-8dbc-3dbf2351bd89&ecomm=ecomm.dell.com&c=ca&l=en&cs=cadhs1

I like this one very much, Del Studio 15. Any thoughts?  I decided to go for a much better than low-end laptop.  Basically, 2.1 Ghz C2D, 2 GB RAM, Intel GMA x3100, 160 GB HDD, Vista PREMIUM, and MS Works all for......$850

IS MS Works include MS word?  If not, any free alternatives [for school type use] that you recommend?

thanks alot guys


btw: the CPU is actually 2.16 Ghz C2D....667 Mhz FSB with 2 MB cache.   This sound good?  Is the FSB limiting? or the cache?

also: is "1 year return to depot service' same as a 1 yr warrantee?

[TVC15]

I've been looking at Dells and Toshibas, but I am not sure how good Toshiba laptops are. I'm looking around 800 with a graphics card.

I haven't looked into in more than a year, but the last time I checked, Compaq/HP was cheaping out on the feel of their laptop casings.

[MrAngryFace]

http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?reconfigure=true&cart=MySavedItems&id=28e2fac4-98bd-416e-8dbc-3dbf2351bd89&ecomm=ecomm.dell.com&c=ca&l=en&cs=cadhs1

I like this one very much, Del Studio 15. Any thoughts?  I decided to go for a much better than low-end laptop.  Basically, 2.1 Ghz C2D, 2 GB RAM, Intel GMA x3100, 160 GB HDD, Vista PREMIUM, and MS Works all for......$850

IS MS Works include MS word?  If not, any free alternatives [for school type use] that you recommend?

thanks alot guys


btw: the CPU is actually 2.16 Ghz C2D....667 Mhz FSB with 2 MB cache.   This sound good?  Is the FSB limiting? or the cache?

also: is "1 year return to depot service' same as a 1 yr warrantee?

Works does not include WORD, sadly.

http://www.microsoft.com/products/works/default.mspx