Will This Notebook Serve My Needs?

[crabstix]

Hi I saw this laptop in Big C today and wrote down the specs.

Compaq V3443AU

Microprocessor 1.80 GHz AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-56

Microprocessor Cache 512 KB + 512 KB Level 2 cache

Memory 1024 MB (2 x 512 MB)

Memory Max Supports up to 4GB DDR2 (Dual Channel Memory Support)

Video Graphics NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6150

Video Memory Up to 287 MB

Hard Drive 160 GB (5400 rpm)

Multimedia Drive Super Multi 8X DVD±RW with Double Layer Support

Display 14.1” WXGA High Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800)

Fax/Modem High speed 56K modem

Network Card Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN

Wireless Connectivity 802.11 b/g WLAN

The seller told me that it was special promotion selling for 20,000 excl VAT. She also said that the speed of the AMD processor was the equivalent to the core duo ones they have in the same store. Having very limited knowledge on laptops I decided to do a google search to read the reviews and comments of users. Unfortunately I couldnt find anything written in English. Only Thai. I assume that this model was released to be sold only in the Thai market. There was no sign on the promotion sticker saying it came with vista (although other laptops did), so I assume it comes with XP. Anyway, I want my laptop for mainly

surfing, doing powerpoint presentations, sound editing using software such as Sony's Soundforge and burning dvd's. I will also use if for converting movie files and audio files. Will this spec suit my needs or should I pay more to get something better?

[nikster]

pretty hard to beat for the price

the processor is OK but battery life will suffer. so my only objection would be if battery life is important for you - this laptop might only last 2 hours. 1GB RAM is OK for win XP, but you need more if it comes with Vista.

you are probably aware that you need all the processing power you can get for converting movie files... but if you get something significantly faster like a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo it will cost at least twice as much.

Edited September 23, 2007 by nikster

[crabstix]

pretty hard to beat for the price

the processor is OK but battery life will suffer. so my only objection would be if battery life is important for you - this laptop might only last 2 hours. 1GB RAM is OK for win XP, but you need more if it comes with Vista.

you are probably aware that you need all the processing power you can get for converting movie files... but if you get something significantly faster like a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo it will cost at least twice as much.

Thanks. That's really useful info.

Is the battery life short just because AMD is more power hungry than intel's core duo processors?