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View Full Version : Computer professionals assistance please



Pumba
7th December 2009, 18:37
Ok you dont have to be a profesional but just have a few clues, and rumor has it one or two that fit the discription lurk around here.

Looking at a laptop with the following specs -

PROCESSOR : Mobile Intel Core 2 Duo T5870 Processor, 2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache
MEMORY : 4GB(2 x 2 GB) DDR2 800
MEM SLOTS : 2 (both slots used)
CHIPSET : Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset
STORAGE : 250 GB 5400rpm 2.5 inch SATA hard disk, DVD SuperMulti Dual / Double Layer
DISPLAY : 15.6 inch Widescreen TFT Active Matrix XGA 200NIT CSV
RESOLUTION : 1366 x 768; CAMERA : Integrated Web Camera
COMM : V.92 data + fax modem, Integrated 10/100Mbps TX Ethernet, Integrated Intel 802.11 a/g/n
GRAPHICS : Intel Graphics Media Accelerator GM45
AUDIO : Intel High Definition Audio Sound, Stereo Speakers
PORTS : RGB, 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone & microphone port, Integrated microphone
SLOTS : Bridge media Reader/Writer slot (SD, MMC, Mem Stick/Pro),
OS : Microsoft Windows 7 32/64bit Business (OEM) with Windows XP Professional media downgrade
BATTERY : 6 cell Lithium-Ion battery (up to 3 hours)
KEYBOARD : A4 Windows Vista numeric keyboard and Wide TouchPad pointing device, 4 Buttons and Power on button

Comes with a bag and a few other bits an pieces at $1220.00.

Is it a good deal? Can you see anything that is missing from the specs that may be a good idea? Computer would manly be used for general computer work, internet browsing, some games ocasionally, and maybe some basic AutoCAD type software.

Any opinions welcomed, this area is not really my speacility and I get confused by all the jargon, and abreviations associated with hardware.

SMOKEU
7th December 2009, 18:40
Have a look on Trademe and compare the specs and prices. You would want a better GPU if you are planning on playing any modern graphically intense games.

Ronin
7th December 2009, 18:44
Not a bad deal. What Brand?

The only real downside could be the screen resolution. I think that's a proper 16:9 screen which means that when your not watching your pron the lack of screen hight means you will be scrolling more. The CPU is what I would call bottom of the range now but should be fine.

Gaming could be a stretch.

Pumba
7th December 2009, 18:56
What Brand?

Toshiba

10ch

Pete.Viking
7th December 2009, 19:20
Few important questions to be asking, firstly why a laptop? If you need it go for it but if its not really necessary you'll get alot better value for money in a desktop (Its harder to engineer laptop parts).
Also what games are you into? retro games you'll be sweet but anything in the last couple of years you'll probably be out of luck.
Also might be worth knowing what CAD programs you're looking into.

Personally I run a 1.67ghz dual core with 1.5g ram (I not impressed with it but got it for free) if I was to upgrade wouldn't buy something with a processor with only 2.0ghz dual. You can't upgrade it later so fairly important. I would suggest buying an Apple MacBook if you're buying a laptop, everyone hates Windows so theres plenty of viruses but theres virtually none for Macs, plus all Windows operating systems are inefficient and have stupid features so they generally use alot more resources running in the background. Although they cost a bit upfront MacBooks tend to last well and outperform equivalent PCs.

Squiggles
7th December 2009, 20:33
What about a MacBook, some mint deals on at the moment

*runs*

ManDownUnder
7th December 2009, 20:38
What about a MacBook, some mint deals on at the moment

*runs*

Great if you're into fishing... and run out of sinkers...

*I'm with Squiggles*

Pumba
7th December 2009, 20:44
Well I can tell you right now I wont be buying a Mac, never used one and not really interested in going down that particular path. Looking at the laptop cause I hate being trapped in the little cubby hole that I call an office, and like the idea of being able to ge ton the net while sitting in front of Sky TV, or out on the deck in the sun.

Games wise, will only be pretty basic stuff, just fired found my old comand and conqour red alert disk and have fired that up on my current computer when I got bored a couple of weeks ago.

CAD wise, nothing spectacular there either. I run Autodesk AutoCAD 2004 on my current machine and it has lower specs (I think) so I cant see it getting any worse.

General feeling I am getting is that its OK but the graphics card is really not there and really I should be going with the biggest hard drive I can get

huff3r
7th December 2009, 20:59
I would definitely want a better graphics card, especially if you intend to enable all the features in Windows7, as some are quite graphics intensive... as for hard-drives, i manage with an 80gb, all my music etc is on my 500gb external cos most the time when i want music i'll use my ipod, or my stereo (my external is right beside my stereo :D)

So realistically, unless you have lots of big files, theres no real need for a massive HDD

Slyer
7th December 2009, 21:12
You need to tell us what your general computer work entails.
I mean are we talking about 3d gaming or casual gaming?
Standard or high definition pornography?

Delerium
7th December 2009, 21:13
Short answer, yes it is a good deal. as said, the only concern is the graphics card if your doing mild gaming and win 7. Mine has similar specs, but an adi grahics card and bigger hard drive, and a few other changes. (different model toshiba that is a bit bigger physically) I paid nearlly 3 grand for a laptop that is:
4gb ram
500Gb HDD
2.5Ghz dual core cpu
adi radeaon GPU
4x USB.

I bought neary 2 years ago now.

On a side note, anybody know where I can buy another battery?

SMOKEU
7th December 2009, 22:37
Fuck Macs. Windows XP Pro rules.

gatch
7th December 2009, 23:07
Fuck windows 7, fuck vista. In its ass.

Fuck microsoft for "upgrading" from xp, fuck microsoft for making something that could be so much better, so unstable and full of holes !

Sorry, I don't know much about lap tops, good luck.

bogan
7th December 2009, 23:17
went through the laptop searching/buying stage a few months ago, cheap+nz+games wont work. I got a mate to buy me one from the US, asus g51 summat or other, GT260M 2.0GHz dual core, goes hard on the latest games, but that was just under 2k nzd by the time it got back here, a similar product in nz would be at least 4k, all the less than 2k laptops here look like they'd be shithouse for gaming, prolly browse and play movies alright though.

oh, and by the way, windows 7 rocks!

*heads off in same direction as MDU and squigles, at pace*

gammaguy
8th December 2009, 00:15
i got a laptop with a blu ray drive.

since DVD is now on the way out,its a good idea to future proof your new laptop and get this feature,especially if you plan on doing any movie watching on it,as the discs themselves are getting cheaper and will replace DVD in a few years

Juzz976
8th December 2009, 06:48
Just my opinion, If your gonna go down the Laptop path which I never recommend to anyone unless they have a real need to.

- Toshibas are good most brands are - stay away from HP / Compac
- Always buy new - you get a Warrenty
- Factor in your budget that it'll be obsolete hardware in 3 years, dead 5-6 years. don't expect to get much if you do sell it used and you may own the problem of whoever buys it.
- The specs you listed are more than fine <--- yes I said it, blow me
- I would want onboard TV out - Just me tho.
- check pricespy.co.nz for pricing.

Delerium
8th December 2009, 07:23
i got a laptop with a blu ray drive.

since DVD is now on the way out,its a good idea to future proof your new laptop and get this feature,especially if you plan on doing any movie watching on it,as the discs themselves are getting cheaper and will replace DVD in a few years
Are you sure about that? It hasnt seemed to have made inroads on the market yet. I think dvd willbe around for quite some time.

Juzz976
8th December 2009, 07:35
I think bluray is about to be superceeded soon anyways, bit of a flop really IMHO.
That may be down to the cost that makes them an optional extra, some people are affected by this so called recession, alot of people have only just moved to DVD and changing again is understandably frustrating for them.

Gremlin
8th December 2009, 21:32
- Toshibas are good most brands are - stay away from HP / Compac
- Always buy new - you get a Warrenty
HP/Compaq is fine as long as you stay away from the consumer range. The business range is perfectly for normal use. I should know... I support plenty of them.

As for warranty... how long is it? I would recommend getting a 3 year warranty.

As for whether the specs are suitable, gaming and 3d drawing are basically the biggest demands, and very much "how long is a piece of string". Otherwise, the specs you have are just fine.

Juzz976
8th December 2009, 21:47
HP/Compaq is fine as long as you stay away from the consumer range. The business range is perfectly for normal use. I should know... I support plenty of them.


Yeh I realise they do actualy work, I just make sure all my friends and family know if they get one, they can forget about me touching it when it throws a wobbly.
Its not really about hardware reliability but we wont get into that, I've pretty much worn out my 'well I told you not to get one of those, if ya listened to me I might be inclined to have a look at your problem' speech.

Pete.Viking
8th December 2009, 21:57
Just my opinion, If your gonna go down the Laptop path which I never recommend to anyone unless they have a real need to.

- Toshibas are good most brands are - stay away from HP / Compac
- Always buy new - you get a Warrenty
- Factor in your budget that it'll be obsolete hardware in 3 years, dead 5-6 years. don't expect to get much if you do sell it used and you may own the problem of whoever buys it.

- check pricespy.co.nz for pricing.

Have to agree here although wouldn't say the specs are more than fine but I expect alot for my money. As far as what you want to do I'd say its pretty good, as long as you continue to be entertained by red alert etc, it should do everything else happily. A good intergrated graphics card is normally fine for just about everything, so I wouldn't worry to much. I'd ignore the previous comments about the harddrive 250gb is more than big enough the speed the harddrive runs at is of far more concern.


HP/Compaq is fine as long as you stay away from the consumer range. The business range is perfectly for normal use. I should know... I support plenty of them.


I beg to differ, I was given a HP laptop from a relative who's a computer techie, bloody hopeless and has never run properly for the specs its got.

scracha
8th December 2009, 22:07
I like toshies. L500's are pretty good at the moment. If you're in metro area get the 3 year factory warranty. If you're outside city then mibby look at HP as they do onsite warranty for not a lot of peso's. Remember your antivirus, MS Office and a nice little 2.5" backup drive

Juzz976
8th December 2009, 22:22
Also another note to bear in mind, laptops are not called laptops by their manufacturers so much anymore.

Not certain but it might have to do with the fact that the air vents on the bottom get blocked by your legs and they slow down from heat build up.

Gremlin
8th December 2009, 22:56
I beg to differ, I was given a HP laptop from a relative who's a computer techie, bloody hopeless and has never run properly for the specs its got.
As I pointed out to my boss a while ago, manufacturers have a lot to answer for, when it comes to complaining about windows being slow etc. I visited a small client, just a home set up, but long time friends. They bought an HP consumer range, with Vista, with 1GB of ram (didn't ask us). That stat alone is enough to make you laugh. Now chuck on Norton Anti-virus, gadgets, browser add-ons and a 6 month old machine is brought to its knees. Yes, windows is a resource hog, but putting it on shit hardware...

All the manufacturers (or perhaps the shops) care about is selling hardware for a margin... cutting off their nose to spite their face. I'm still specc'ing Windows XP, minimum of 2GB of ram, and try to keep reasonable control of stuff installed on the machines. Come the end of 3 years, they're still productive.

Back to manufacturers. I don't get the bottom of the line business HP, more mid range. Even techies have bosses who have budgets. :yes: Toshiba as well launches some bad models. I do get a bit of a hard on for the Lenovo X and Txxxs series :love:

I'm currently on a Toshiba Portege M600, upgraded to 3GB of memory, tis a good laptop, but about $2500 worth.

merlin
8th December 2009, 23:34
In my humble opinion....

If you are going to be doing any work other than surfing the web, writing emails and office documents, don't go the laptop way. Get a workstation.

You need the power for Autocad stuff and games. You should be looking for a quad core with at least 4 gigs of 1066ddr2 memory. ddr3 is still quite expensive. The graphics card is super important and should have at least 256 onboard memory.

Storage is not so important you can always upgrade that for quite cheap or get a external drive.

With a desktop workstation you always have the option of adding more drives inside the case later.

Over time, and while working on it for a few hours, you'll find the format of the keyboard and the size of the screen limiting and sometimes a bit of a cramp on the old digits...

Build your own from parts, it's really easy and much cheaper in the long run

I always buy the best I can possibly afford.

Do your research on all the parts. It's really worth it.

Good Luck!

PS. I didn't bother reading everyones posts, so please forgive me if I have repeated anything

merlin
8th December 2009, 23:35
Feel free to PM me if you ever want any help

Gremlin
9th December 2009, 00:03
You need the power for Autocad stuff and games. You should be looking for a quad core with at least 4 gigs of 1066ddr2 memory. ddr3 is still quite expensive. The graphics card is super important and should have at least 256 onboard memory.
Not trying to nit pick, but for the likes of Solidworks 08 onwards, at the very least (and speaking from experience) and dealing with larger drawings, a 256MB graphics card is not going to cut it.

Re memory, bear in mind that mostly, ddr2 and ddr3 memory requires different hardware, so its not an easy upgrade. Any more than 4GB of memory will also require the x64 version of windows, then you start having the joys of drivers, especially for things like printers.

Slyer
9th December 2009, 00:47
1066ddr2 memory
Why 1066 memory?
To be honest the clock. timing etc etc specs for system memory are far less important than picking the right chipset, cpu and gpu.
The bad chipset can break an otherwise meaty system. Avoid VIA chipsets like the plague...

Juzz976
9th December 2009, 01:32
Ok and back to OP.

cpu <- very capable
ram <- double what 99% of population needs
hdd <- can always get an external
graphics <- perfectly fine

so do you need to spend another $1000 to save a few moments here an there.
upto you and how much you value your time x how much time you'll be using laptop.

Lets not talk this up, we're not building a super-laptop here and no one really cares about IT geeks and the specs of their porn browsers.
I've never seen even on a triple core with 4GB ram it use even half cpu or ram running several apps + autoCAD 2007.

In the trade I work in we don't try selling our clients crap they don't need.
Seriously you can get a good laptop for $1200.
but FFS get a new one, and make sure it aint an HP/Compac.

Brian d marge
9th December 2009, 03:54
Not trying to nit pick, but for the likes of Solidworks 08 onwards, at the very least (and speaking from experience) and dealing with larger drawings, a 256MB graphics card is not going to cut it.

Re memory, bear in mind that mostly, ddr2 and ddr3 memory requires different hardware, so its not an easy upgrade. Any more than 4GB of memory will also require the x64 version of windows, then you start having the joys of drivers, especially for things like printers.

Yup I would agree with that

I use CGI a lot and 3d cad as well as FEA ,,, I have a dual core 2g , 8gig of ram and 1.5 terra of hd

I can kill this machine real easy ,one part in solid view rotated ,,,

I dont know about computers , but I suspect the graphic card

Stephen

Acad for simple 2d you should be fine with what u said

k14
9th December 2009, 05:54
That laptop is fine, you don't need super duper graphics for windows 7. I have a 4 year old dell with a Centrino 1.6ghz, 2gb ram and intel integrated graphics and have been running windows 7 since april and it kicks arse. I upgraded it from xp when my old hdd died and it is a lot faster performance wise, and yes I have all the eye candy turned on.

For $1200 you can't go wrong, so long as 2gb+ ram and 160gb+ hdd you will be fine. Buy it, it will work fine. Yes in 6 months you will be able to get something better for cheaper, but that is the nature of the beast. Mine is still going strong (it's a Dell) after 4 years of pretty much every day use. Hinges are a little wobbly but apart from that it is mint! May look at upgrading next year sometime but won't be spending more than $1500.

Juzz976
9th December 2009, 05:59
That laptop is fine, you don't need super duper graphics for windows 7.....

Hrmmm, thats some sound advice. Bling!

merlin
9th December 2009, 09:17
Not trying to nit pick...a 256MB graphics card is not going to cut it.

Re memory, bear in mind that mostly, ddr2 and ddr3 memory requires different hardware, so its not an easy upgrade. Any more than 4GB of memory will also require the x64 version of windows, then you start having the joys of drivers, especially for things like printers.

No worries Gremlin, I'll just clarify what I said.

"At least 256MB" - means no less than. I was suggesting a stand alone pci-e card as the graphics 'card' in the proposed laptop was integrated.
(Also, I believe that Pumba isn't going hard out pro on the cad stuff, so 256MB card might be enough)

I'd go ddr2 because it's much cheaper than ddr3. (no intention of upgrading to ddr3)
If you want more than 3gig on a 32 bit system you need to edit the boot ini with the /3G tag....but I'd be running 64 bit anyway, as 32 bit system will only allow for a maximum of 4gigs of ram.

merlin
9th December 2009, 09:26
Why 1066 memory?
To be honest the clock. timing etc etc specs for system memory are far less important than picking the right chipset, cpu and gpu.
The bad chipset can break an otherwise meaty system. Avoid VIA chipsets like the plague...

Everything is linked dude...it's just a matter of balancing the components so that there isn't a bottle neck.

(The faster the ram the faster the cpu will be able to dump the big bites of information it's taking off the task)

Pumba
9th December 2009, 20:05
Cheers guys all the input is apreciated, and most of it is in pretty plain english.