Buying a laptop for UNi Created 16 years ago2007-08-06 15:46:00 UTC by the Arcan

The things I selected (excluding the single-option items like the video card) were:

CPU

• Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6420 2.13 GHz 1066FSB 4M: $205

• Arctic Silver 5 (CPU purchase required): $3

RAM

• Arctic Silver 5 (CPU purchase required): $3

Hard Drive

• 120GB 5400rpm S-ATA: $55

Internal Wireless Card

• Intel? PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/b/g: $38

Operating System

• Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit DVD: $139

Installation

• Hardware and Windows Software Install (Operationg System Purchase Required) [Free]

All that came out to just $1,494, and if you already have a Windows XP install disc, you could just use that, like a sensible person would.

And here's a well written and thorough review of it, if you'd like to read that.

thanks alot srry, ill check it out as soon as my net gets somewhat stable again. as to the portability point i dont know how much ill be moving it around during the semester (would be nice to write essays under a tree somewhere though =]) but since im an overseas student i dont have anywhere where i could store a whole desktop while im not in the UK after the semesters end and i return home to whereever my parents are. =

Oops, looks like I pasted the wrong thing into the RAM field. I meant to put the 2GB DDR-2 $78 one in there.

I see now why you need a laptop. They're certainly nice to have, and this one I mentioned should be pretty portable, although its battery life is a bit limited.

Bit limited? If you didn't use that desktop CPU, one could get up to 6 hours with web browsing/ word proccessing. I can see this laptop having a 30 minute battery life.

Dave, the master computer technician, giving his all-powerful opinion.

Bow down to the "master computer technician" bitch.

You don't know shit. I mean, if this thing gets one hour of battery life, how could the C90 get only 30 minutes? Stop exaggerating all the time, you're making me sick with this storm of misinformation.

Enough lithium is inside those batteries to build a bomb

The 6 cell battery reportedly gets 1-2 hours run time. So yeah, that's not much at all, but it sounds like it's mostly going to be plugged in at your desk, or otherwise used for very generic stuff when unplugged. That's more than what my extremely dated IBM laptop gets, and I find that perfectly adequate.

If you do need more battery life though, you may be able to buy another bigger battery (8 or 12 cell maybe? I don't know what Asus offers.)

i checked out the C90S but im not really big on buying expensive stuff from lesser known sites also due to customer support. I agree it looks nice, but does anyone have any idea why major retailers dont sell it like you said? i also couldnt find it =

Desktop hardware in laptops isn't a big seller.

At the moment i'm leaning more to the Asus F3SV-X1, however i'm not sure about the memory issue. Are the memory cards for the F3SV-A1, F3SV-B1, F3SV-X1 the same? Meaning, could i possibly buy memory cards for the -A1 and stick them in the X1?

Laptop memory is generally swappable. Just make sure it's the right type, speed, and sometimes, form factor. I believe the current standard is DDR2-667 SODIMMs.

?. could you please explain that again?

Desktop use memory pieces called "DIMMs." They're a bit too big for laptops though, so smaller, more power efficient "SODIMMs" are used. Laptops with Core 2 Duo CPUs all use DDR2 type memory. That laptop uses memory with a speed of 667MHz, so yeah. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231116

ah, ok thanks alot. is there a specefic model that the card has to be or can any DDR2 SO-DIMM memory stick fit?

It should work fine.

so i could buy this and it should work?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231116

Good luck playing Oblivion with an 8600M GS.

Also, that RAM package isn't exactly what I'd call cost effective. You already have one 1GB DIMM in there, so you'd only need to add another GB to make it 2GB. That one you've linked to is two DIMMs. Just get a single 1GB DIMM and install it next to the one it already has. It'd be barbaric to replace it with another DIMM that's the exact same thing.

i thought mixing memory brands was bad? you see i don't know what kind of memory the X1 has =

I thought 1GB laptops were 2x512MB. Mixing memory brands is fine arcan.

Oblivion is not happy on any laptop. Until they introduce the 9800GT mobiles, one'll have to settle with low settings (you know, the overbright walls).

Yeah, but a 8600m GT would handle it and other new games a lot better anyway.

I don't see why it would have 2x512MB sticks though. That's so 2003.

Dual-channel-ness?

No... I doubt it. In this day and age, on any laptop that still uses only 1GB of memory, they're gonna use one stick. It's expected that it'll be upgraded.

btw can someone explain the intel core 2 duo processor as opposed to the single core? does the duo mean that the CPU Hz is doubled or simply that it can divide processes making them run faster?

It supposed to be #2, but software has to be written specifically for 2 cores to get this benefit. Right now, Core 2 Duos seem faster because they're incredibly efficient per GHz.

Very roughly:
Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz = Athlon X2 3GHz = Pentium 4 5GHz

The current performance benefit is when you run virus scans, print, encode stuff, etc. because you can still doing something else with the other core.

Its all about multithreading - different parts of code can be run by each core efficiently to result in the task running quicker. Until recently (about 2 years), generally 1 core ran better as programmers didn't implement the capable in their programs to make use of more cores. Nowadays 2 cores is a definate improvement over 1 as nearly everyone makes use of their capability.

The speed stated for these chips is the speed of each core, so yes - technically dual-core stating 2.4ghz clock speed is 4.8. However, don't expect performance to match this. You wouldn't get twice the performance of a single core 2.4ghz.

Also, you needn't worry about power comsumption and heat as the new generation of dual cores, specially the C2Ds are extremely efficient and run cool.

Basically, it would be hard to avoid a dual-core in a desktop / laptop nowadays, no matter what you pay.... and if you had the option, don't even think about settling for one core - you will regret it.

I've still got a "single-core" Pentium 4 clocked at 2.66GHz here. It chokes on 720p though

That's nice, Dave.

so if one buys a 2.0Ghz duo core one could run games that have a minimum requirement of 2.4 on a single core? Or would the effect be nullified since both of them have to be running pretty high to cater the needs?

A game that asks for 2.4GHz (HL2 Recommended I assume), is asking in terms of single core speed like a Pentium 4. A 2GHz C2D will be more than enough.

I have 2.2 duel core on this thing, and Lost Coast (i believe) asked me for a 2.4 but it ran fantastically.