Deciding on a Laptop to get

My parents finally gave in to my begging and have decided to buy me a laptop. They said I had 800$ to spend on one and I'm having a hard time deciding. I'm going to be using it for surfing the internet, a little bit of gaming, picture editing, and web design.

I really have no clue what to get.

Hewlett Packard makes some nice laptops. Get one with an Athlon 64 in it.

Last edited by Greg M. on Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:09 am; edited 1 time in total

Don't get your hope up for any 3D gamming in an $800 laptop.

If you had $1200, then you could do some average gaming... maybe.

But... (searching for laptops)

Dell (add a faster CPU or switch up to the 60GB drive) ($200 instant savings)

Well thats the best I could find in about 10 min of searching :(. Not to happy with that.

I'm not doing hardcore gaming but like maybe a little guild wars on lowest settings.

I'm probably getting this laptop upgraded with Athlon 64, 128mb ATI Radeon, and 512mb of RAM.

$849

I'll have to pay the extra myself.

Sorry I forgot to put that in.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...=computer_store

Yep, looks like a good deal.

An AMD 64 Mobile may not be the best choice because of higher heat output and power intake. A Pentium M runs at 21W, which provides amazing battery life. Notbooks that use them also tend to be lighter since the Pentuim M can easily be cooled. Performance is also really good. The Dothan core is roughly equivelent to the AMD64 in performance. Therefore, a 2.2ghz Pentium M is roughly equal to a 2.2ghz AMD64 Mobile.

Last edited by Glen on Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:45 am; edited 1 time in total

So what should I go with then?

I just re-read your OP, and unless you get some sort of insane coupon or other deal, there's no way on earth you're going to get a new machine thats actually worth it for $800, thats certain. Does it really have to be new?

It doesn't have to but this is mostly for surfing the internet and for me to do web design.

I think I'm just going to go with the Dell 6000 and upgrade the hard drive.

I'd look into business grade last-generation laptops (Banias Pentium M) from a reputable manufacturer. Conversely, off-lease 2 gen old top end laptops will satisfy your graphics needs as well.

Last edited by Nitrous on Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:33 pm; edited 1 time in total

First off, what is the reason you need the laptop. If you need the mobile capabilities, then yes, a laptop is necessary. But otherwise, you can get a desktop PC for the same price with very good specs. :rolleyes: :D :P