Question:
Help narrowing choices & general questions
Hello all. I’ve been lurking about for a few months now, and this forum has been immensely helpful. Anyway, I’m looking to purchase my first laptop. I’ve always built my own computer systems in the past, and am comfortable installing hardware and so on if it comes to it.
I’m a landscape architect and spend a great deal of time with CAD applications, as well as digital imaging (photoshop/illustrator). On top of that I’d like to stay up to speed with current games. I intend to replace my desktop with this laptop and take the laptop everywhere with me, so portability & durability are big concerns.
Basically, I need help selecting from 14.1”/15.4” notebooks with Core Duo / Core 2 Duo and an ATI x16000 or NVIDIA 7600. I’d like 2gb of memory and preferably a 7200rpm hard drive.
My budget is $1400-1700. Current top choices include:
Asus Z96j
Asus A8Jm
Asus F3Jm
Compal HGL 30
Compal HEL80
HP 8430
Are there any others I should look at? Comments on these systems or others would be greatly appreciated. Especially important is the quality of the screen and build/durability. I’m leaning more towards a 15.4” monitor provided it has a higher resolution (1680 x 1050).
I have a few general & specific notebook questions as well:
1) How possible is it to replace the CPU on these notebooks? Can any notebook using a Core Duo be upgraded to a Core “2” Duo later?
2) Any particular issues with installing winXP on these? I have a copy and would rather not pay to have it installed.
3) Some resellers offer corsair memory specifically over a generic brand? Does this make much of a difference? Ram timings don’t seem to be a big issue in notebooks as far as I can tell.
4) Do the seagate/hitachi 7200 rpm HD have any drop protection built in if I get the HD through the reseller.
5) Do people find the weight difference between 14.1” and 15.3” substantial. At most it would be around 1.5 lbs heavier.
Thank you, and please let me know what you think.
Answer:
Re: Help narrowing choices & general questions
1) the asus z96j, the Compal HGL 30 Compal HEL80, should all be pretty easy since it are whitebox models(correct me if i'm wrong) which means there part of the interchangebility(that's probably mispelled) program from intel.
2) Once again the afore mentioned three choices will be best since they usually come without windows xp. The others come in general with windows xp, (take it or leaf it), but you could theoretically always install your own copy, since most of the times the necessary drivers can be downloaded from there website.
3) I don't speak from experience but some people believe that ram from any other then the big companies (corsair, kingston, etc.) is bad and could even damage your notebook.
So if the price difference isn't to big why not chose corsair?
4)I don't think so. The drop protection is mostly a few soft rubber hinges(or something like that) in the hard drive bay, this is made by the manufacturer)
5) I have a thinkpad r60 with a 15 inch screen it's 6,5 lb. And i must say i don't have any problem carrying it around, but well i haven't been used to anything else.
On a side note, something you might consider is a thinkpad t60P with flexview. It has got a firegl v5200(equivalent to the x1600) which is optimesed for things like cad. Furthermore it's got the flexview screen(the best matte screen around). And it has a hard drive protected from shocks and drops.
Answer:
Re: Help narrowing choices & general questions
Thank you for the thinkpad suggestion, although it may be getting out of my price range. Its nice but would likely be over $2000 all said and done.
I have another question too regarding glossy screens. I've seen some films you can put over glossy screens to reduce glare, maybe without muddleing up the image too much. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Answer:
Re: Help narrowing choices & general questions
If you do not like glare, why not get a matte screen?