Buying A Laptop Soon, I Could Use Some Help

[Dancali]

I've come to the conclusion that a "desktop replacement" type laptop would suit me well.

These are the things I need:

-equivalent to slightly better than a 2.8c pentium 4

-512 mb or greater mem (any more tha 512 looks really expensive)

-30 gb or greater hard drive

-ports to plug in an external monitor, mouse, keyboard, hard drive (needs firewire?)

-needs usb 2.0

-cd burner or dvd burner, or both

-windows xp pro; full office suite; photoshop

Things not so important:

weight, energy efficiency, etc. as I won't be in transit with it too much. It'll mostly just be at one point for an extended period.

I'll be going to Pantip soon for my first trip to investigate pricing and options. If anybody could give me a pre-trip briefing on what to expect I'd appreciate it.

Also, it's possible that it would be smart to fly to Singapore and buy it there. Another option would be to order it over the internet to my family in America and have them fedex it to me here. But I'm hoping I'll be able to find some reasonably priced computers here.

Thanks for any help.

[Firefoxx]

I think that you should buy it here. Any discount you would get in Singapore wouldn't be all that much, and unless you get a warranty that provide service in Thailand, you might have problems later. However, Thailand doesn't carry some models (the 17" Vaio, for example).

You have two choices, AMD or Intel. With Intel, you'll get the Centrino (which refers to the mainboard, the PentiumM, and wireless networking), which has speeds comparable to the desktops and a large cache and good battery life. I have no clue on AMD, but there is a 64 bit option available.

If weight is not a problem, you can get a big screen, up to 17", for a hefty price tag. The more expensive models of some companies (Sony, Fujitsu) have a different screen which some people (like me) prefer since they give better viewing angle and a brighter, more colorful image at the cost of more reflections. The screen is high on the list of what to look at since you can't replace it. Desktop replacements will have most of what you listed as standard, but remember that the price will not be cheap, probably about 2-3 times more than a comparable desktop, depending on the model and brand. 256MB of added memory usually costs around 2,000+ baht, and if your laptop already costs upwards of 80k, I think you should consider an upgrade to 1GB. In laptops, the harddisk runs at only 4,200rpm (or in rare cases, 5,400rpm) and are very slow compared to desktops. Therefore, the amount of ram you have will be a big factor in determining your system's overall speed.

Strange that you would want a laptop if you're not going to travel often.

[autonomous_unit]

...The screen is high on the list of what to look at since you can't replace it.  Desktop replacements will have most of what you listed as standard, but remember that the price will not be cheap, probably about 2-3 times more than a comparable desktop, depending on the model and brand. ...

Strange that you would want a laptop if you're not going to travel often.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd second everything said above (including the parts I cut out ). I would add that I've used a lot of laptops with heavy travel in my previous work and saw what many coworkers were using under similar conditions. I've found that there are few solid choices. If you're looking for the laptop lifestyle, you will be picking it up, setting it down, occasionally bumping it, and constantly opening and closing the lid. These actions cause most of the wear and tear that separates good from bad. Even with minimally padded bags, I never damaged one specifically from travel by bicycle, car, or airplane. They just continually got scuffed and slowly "loosened up". If you really won't be operating it as a laptop, there is no point in paying the premium versus buying a nice middle of the road desktop machine and a great big LCD panel with DVI connectors.

If you really want a laptop, I can only recommend spending what it takes to get an IBM thinkpad. They are very well built, so you have a good chance of using it until it is obsolete and you wear the lettering off the keys, rather than having parts break off until the screen stops working! The T4x series is great, with a Pentium M, an optional 1400x1050 screen, and still thin and light enough to carry around a bit. I had one before at work with that screen, a 50 GB drive, 1 GB RAM, a 1.6 GHz processor, built-in 802.11 a/b/g and bluetooth, and built-in DVD-ROM and CD+/-RW drive. As I recall, it sold for around $3200 US in that form.

[Dancali]

I think that you should buy it here.  Any discount you would get in Singapore wouldn't be all that much, and unless you get a warranty that provide service in Thailand, you might have problems later.  However, Thailand doesn't carry some models (the 17" Vaio, for example).

You have two choices, AMD or Intel.  With Intel, you'll get the Centrino (which refers to the mainboard, the PentiumM, and wireless networking), which has speeds comparable to the desktops and a large cache and good battery life.  I have no clue on AMD, but there is a 64 bit option available.

If weight is not a problem, you can get a big screen, up to 17", for a hefty price tag.  The more expensive models of some companies (Sony, Fujitsu) have a different screen which some people (like me) prefer since they give better viewing angle and a brighter, more colorful image at the cost of more reflections.  The screen is high on the list of what to look at since you can't replace it.  Desktop replacements will have most of what you listed as standard, but remember that the price will not be cheap, probably about 2-3 times more than a comparable desktop, depending on the model and brand.  256MB of added memory usually costs around 2,000+ baht, and if your laptop already costs upwards of 80k, I think you should consider an upgrade to 1GB.  In laptops, the harddisk runs at only 4,200rpm (or in rare cases, 5,400rpm) and are very slow compared to desktops.  Therefore, the amount of ram you have will be a big factor in determining your system's overall speed.

Strange that you would want a laptop if you're not going to travel often.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the detailed information firefoxx, especially the info about the slow hard drives. I didn't realize the hard drive performance was so lagging. I actually got myself a raptor 10,000 rpm sata drive since my main work can be database intensive. This right here might just be enough to rule out the fun option of getting myself a laptop.

I really didn't plan on going up to over 80K on the computer as for that kind of money I could probably figure out a way to work around with what I have already. I thought I configured a decent system on the US dell site for less than $1300 but I might have not been getting all that I thought I was.

A big screen is nice but really not a high priority for me. I could do almost as well with no screen at all since the vast majority of my use would be plugged into a nice external monitor.

"Strange that you would want a laptop if you're not going to travel often."

I think a laptop would be ideal for my situation but I'm still not sure. My work requires my working with my computer all the time and my particular configuration, data, and programs are not easy for me to pack up and move to a new computer. The problem is that I am on my computer in Thailand for about 10 months in a year, my computer in America for 1 month, and then I have a smattering of business trips to random places to fill in the rest of the time. One could hardly be more dependent on his computer than I. The transition from Thailand to America and back is quite difficult with my current setup of no laptop. Then I'm severely limited in any travel since I really can't be away from my computer for more than 2-3 days.

[chingy_]

look for acer they have some good spec worth the money

[Dancali]

I'd second everything said above (including the parts I cut out  ).  I would add that I've used a lot of laptops with heavy travel in my previous work and saw what many coworkers were using under similar conditions. I've found that there are few solid choices. If you're looking for the laptop lifestyle, you will be picking it up, setting it down, occasionally bumping it, and constantly opening and closing the lid. These actions cause most of the wear and tear that separates good from bad. Even with minimally padded bags, I never damaged one specifically from travel by bicycle, car, or airplane.  They just continually got scuffed and slowly "loosened up". If you really won't be operating it as a laptop, there is no point in paying the premium versus buying a nice middle of the road desktop machine and a great big LCD panel with DVI connectors.

If you really want a laptop, I can only recommend spending what it takes to get an IBM thinkpad. They are very well built, so you have a good chance of using it until it is obsolete and you wear the lettering off the keys, rather than having parts break off until the screen stops working! The T4x series is great, with a Pentium M, an optional 1400x1050 screen, and still thin and light enough to carry around a bit.  I had one before at work with that screen, a 50 GB drive, 1 GB RAM, a 1.6 GHz processor, built-in 802.11 a/b/g and bluetooth, and built-in DVD-ROM and CD+/-RW drive.  As I recall, it sold for around $3200 US in that form.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the info autonomous. It sounds like you have a lot of experience with laptops. The T4x series ibm sounds great, though I'll have to hope the prices have come down a bit.

My situation was clarified somewhat in my response to firefoxx's post so I won't go into it too much again here.

I won't be using my laptop at a new coffee shop each day checking my email so in that sense I won't be travelling with it a lot. But my computer is the key to my business and I can't be away from it for very long but I do have to be away for up to a month at a time from my main base in Thailand. At $1,300 I'd be willing to get the laptop and work from that, but at $3,000 I could probably figure out a way to live with my situation. I'll see what the situation is at Pantip.

[Firefoxx]

Hmm, then for 10 months you would have to put up with the limitations of a laptop, and then have the advantages of a laptop for two. Not to mention the hefty premium you're paying.

How about this: Buy a middling laptop (a decent Centrino will put you back around 45k) and use the rest for your desktop. That way you will be able to have a laptop ready (and setup properly, perhaps synced via LAN with your desktop) for when you do travel and still have a great desktop for use most of the time.

[Dancali]

This laptop sounds just about perfect for me:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/n...20278652,00.htm

It's the acer aspire 1700. It's big, heavy, and packed with good computer parts. It would possibly be a marginal upgrade from my current system and it was priced at $3,000 AUD in September of 2003. Perhaps it could be found in my price range nowadays.

Of course, my odds of my finding this system are probably nil in Thailand. But it at least shows something that might fit my needs quite well.

I checked out the Acer Thailand site and there's nothing about this model there.

[Sunny Valentine]

I bought a Dell Latitude D800 this spring in Europe for around 2000 € or 100000 Bt.

It has a 1,7 Pentium M, Wireless Network (A,B and G Systems, so you can use it anywhere, in my home in Pattaya I have a G Wireless Transmitter), rather fast 80 GB Harddisk, 1 M of Memory (originally came with 1 512 chip, so I bought another one for around 2500 Bt in Pantip recently, works fine) , DVD Burner (all DVD Burners burn CDs too!), Firewire (although USB 2.0 would also work with external Harddisks, Firewire is in reality faster, so this might be something to consider ...) and a huge 17 Inch screen with a 1920 x 1200 Resolution. Some on't like this high res screens, so make sure you see or bette rwork with one before you buy one. It is great as you can have lots of windows next to each other, but the size of the letters is small (but exceptionally sharp!)

It is on the heavier Side (3,3 Kilogram), but it runs 3 - 4 Hours with one Battery.

As far as I know the Latitude Series is available from Dell Thailand too, so it might be worth checking out.

Sunny

[bkk_mike]

This laptop sounds just about perfect for me:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/n...20278652,00.htm

It's the acer aspire 1700.  It's big, heavy, and packed with good computer parts. It would possibly be a marginal upgrade from my current system and it was priced at $3,000 AUD in September of 2003.  Perhaps it could be found in my price range nowadays. 

Of course, my odds of my finding this system are probably nil in Thailand.  But it at least shows something that might fit my needs quite well.

I checked out the Acer Thailand site and there's nothing about this model there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A 15lb laptop - you'll have to make sure it's in a very light case, or you don't take anything else in your hand luggage. (10kg limit).

As for notebook hard drive speeds - I agree, most are 4200 or 5400 rpm, but you could possibly upgrade to a 7200 rpm device (Hitachi/IBM make one that I know of)

[autonomous_unit]

...

How about this: Buy a middling laptop (a decent Centrino will put you back around 45k) and use the rest for your desktop.  That way you will be able to have a laptop ready (and setup properly, perhaps synced via LAN with your desktop) for when you do travel and still have a great desktop for use most of the time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can second this too. I would go further and say that you should be conservative in your budgeting and consider the low-end laptop to have a 1-2 year lifetime at most.

Dancali, my experience is that it can take several wrong moves with laptops before you learn what your requirements are. I was lucky enough to be able to do most of this on my employers' dime. My only truly negative experience was with a Dell Inspiron which seemed downright flimsy to hold and use. Plastic parts actually broke off around the screen hinge after a year or so, and the screen eventually lost about 10% along one edge, turning into psychedelic vertical pinstripes. I saw other people in meetings with HPs, Acers, Dells, etc. who periodically had disk crashes, displays that wouldn't work in the middle of a trip, etc.

The rest of my experience was with finding the right size/performance trade-off for the kind of user I was. I swore by small notebooks when I made frequent short trips. I spent almost 2 years with a little Sony VIAO z505 that was very thin and light at the time (about 3 lbs). I used a few IBM X2x series notebooks that were very similar. Light weight makes it easier to carry and easier to protect.

The downside to small laptops, for me, was their XGA screen resolution. As I started using them more exclusively, I moved to the larger T4x series to get 1400x1050 resolution and I tolerated the extra weight (~5 lbs vs 3 lbs).

My most comfortable working environment, however, was a nice extensible deskside workstation and a 21" Dell LCD flat panel running at 1600x1200 over DVI and with "LCD cleartype" font rendering enabled. I think the premium is worth it for the eyes and I would skimp on processor speed to get there. Of course, I was one of those guys who in college used a $3000 21" CRT with a low-range PC and drove a 20 year old, $1700 car.

[nogutsnoapplepie]

http://www.frok.co.th

[Dancali]

I just got back from a lengthy trip to Pantip and I think I found a good deal for me.

I found a laptop shop that will upgrade the hard drive to the Hitachi 7200 rpm 60 gb for 3,000 baht if I buy the laptop from them. The hard drive by itself normally goes for about 8,500 around Pantip. To my surprise, this hard drive is readily available at many shops.

I'm quite enamored with the Acer TravelMate 4501WLMi:

61,000, including vat. 64,000 with the 7200 rpm hard drive installed

1.5 Centrino with 2 mb l2 cache

512 ddr-ram

dvd rw

15.4" wxga tft lcd

ati radeon 9700 64 mb

3 usb 2.0 ports, firewire, card reader, integreated wireless b/g

2.95 kg, 5 hr battery life

I am trying to figure out if the Acer Aspire 1683wlmi is better for me, here are the only differences I can tell, same price:

1.7 centrino

256 ddr-ram (I'll have to buy another 256 stick, or perhaps 512 mb)

windows xp-home instead of xp-pro

I don't mind paying for an extra memory stick to get the 1.7 cpu upgrade, but is it worth it to not have xp pro and some of its related features (e.g., restore, extra security which is useful for a potentially lost/stolen laptop)?

[chingy_]

just bought an Acer at the IT fair (convention) last week

TravelMate 3205XMi

M 2.0 Centrino

1024 DDR-RAM

80GB HDD

WXGA super clear

weight 2.1kg

wireless etc.....

regular price 99,900b

got it for 90,000b, 9k knock off

[Sunny Valentine]

I just got back from a lengthy trip to Pantip and I think I found a good deal for me.

I found a laptop shop that will upgrade the hard drive to the Hitachi 7200 rpm 60 gb for 3,000 baht if I buy the laptop from them.  The hard drive by itself normally goes for about 8,500 around Pantip.  To my surprise, this hard drive is readily available at many shops.

I'm quite enamored with the Acer TravelMate 4501WLMi:

61,000, including vat.  64,000 with the 7200 rpm hard drive installed

1.5 Centrino with 2 mb l2 cache

512 ddr-ram

dvd rw

15.4" wxga tft lcd

ati radeon 9700 64 mb

3 usb 2.0 ports, firewire, card reader, integreated wireless b/g

2.95 kg, 5 hr battery life

I am trying to figure out if the Acer Aspire 1683wlmi is better for me, here are the only differences I can tell, same price:

1.7 centrino

256 ddr-ram (I'll have to buy another 256 stick, or perhaps 512 mb)

windows xp-home instead of xp-pro

I don't mind paying for an extra memory stick to get the 1.7 cpu upgrade, but is it worth it to not have xp pro and some of its related features (e.g., restore, extra security which is useful for a potentially lost/stolen laptop)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds ok for the price. How does the overall system (Keyboard, case, screen) feel for you?

XP Pro costs 100 Bt next door, I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Sunny

[udon]

Worth a look ?

http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/ne...eases/pr_110804

good luck.

[Dancali]

I just got back from a lengthy trip to Pantip and I think I found a good deal for me.

I found a laptop shop that will upgrade the hard drive to the Hitachi 7200 rpm 60 gb for 3,000 baht if I buy the laptop from them.  The hard drive by itself normally goes for about 8,500 around Pantip.  To my surprise, this hard drive is readily available at many shops.

I'm quite enamored with the Acer TravelMate 4501WLMi:

61,000, including vat.  64,000 with the 7200 rpm hard drive installed

1.5 Centrino with 2 mb l2 cache

512 ddr-ram

dvd rw

15.4" wxga tft lcd

ati radeon 9700 64 mb

3 usb 2.0 ports, firewire, card reader, integreated wireless b/g

2.95 kg, 5 hr battery life

I am trying to figure out if the Acer Aspire 1683wlmi is better for me, here are the only differences I can tell, same price:

1.7 centrino

256 ddr-ram (I'll have to buy another 256 stick, or perhaps 512 mb)

windows xp-home instead of xp-pro

I don't mind paying for an extra memory stick to get the 1.7 cpu upgrade, but is it worth it to not have xp pro and some of its related features (e.g., restore, extra security which is useful for a potentially lost/stolen laptop)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds ok for the price. How does the overall system (Keyboard, case, screen) feel for you?

XP Pro costs 100 Bt next door, I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Sunny

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They look about the same, have the same size monitor, and are both labeled as 2.95 kg. The m 1.5 system has a curved keyboard which I'd prefer, but that's not a dealbreaker.

XP Pro is better than XP Home, but I think that a real XP Home is better than a bootleg XP Pro since you can be sure of good software and easy access to updates.

I think that I won't miss out on much if I get xp home instead of xp pro, though I remember the system restore feature being very useful about a year ago when I installed the top-end soundblaster sound card and it gave me system problems.

Anybody have any strong opionions one way or another about the extra cash required for xp pro?

[bluebear]

Just to add a couple of points - last year I went throught the whole laptop - desktop quandry.

Although I dont really move a lot I went for the laptop for the very simple reason of I could bring it into work if I needed to and use the schools network to download programs etc at Mgb/sec rather than b/sec which I sometimes get through my dial up.

Also space - It fits away into small cupboards or a suitcase if you want to keep it out of site for any reason.

Anyway - I got an Acer and its proved to be very good. No problems at all on it. And ACer have a WORLDWIDE warranty so if yu can get it cheaper in Singapore do so. They have an ACER repair shop in Pantip, so you dont need to go too far if it goes wrong.

IBM quality? Err I have seen how they are built so....... Nah. Not with the premium you have to pay.

[JML]

I also did the Laptop search here in Thailand about 5 or 6 months ago. I ended up buying an Asus, a choice I was not 100% confident in, but now I am 100% happy about. It fits my needs perfectly (with a good 2 year international warranty for when I go to China or back to the States). I am not sure it will fit your needs, but let me give you some thoughts:

1) Laptops are cheaper in the US, especially for the features you get. But if you are going to live in Thailand for most of your time, buy it here so the warranty fits better.

2a) XP Pro is not for you, unless you want to network to other computers. I had XP before, and really, there were no tangable advantages for someone sitting at home 90% of the time as a single user.

2b) You do want the real XP home copy, not the fake. I can give you loads of reasons ... one of which many of the copies are designed for another computer brand (i.e. they have been OEM'd out to, say, compaq, and then you put the copy on your Acer ... for 99% there is no issue, but I had problems with my Asus until I bought a real copy ... and all problems mysteriously dissapeared ... personal experiance, unfortunately I cannot tell you what the difference really was). Plus it is nice to have all updates without thinking too much about it.

3) The Acer is a great choice. If you want to spend more money, get the IBM or the Toshiba ... but I would skip the Sony's. I know a few people with Acers, and there have been no problems.

4) If you are going to be planted about 10 months of the year, don't worry about the keyboard size or the monitor. You can get a cheap keyboard and monitor that will be better than any laptop keyboard. However, for what you are looking for, I am sure that you will get a good sized monitor and keyboard. However, you should try typing a few paragraphs to make sure that you do like it at least a little. You are paying 50,000 baht++, be happy.

5) If you are going to use the computer on your desktop most of the time, you don't need to worry about the Centrino. It has the integrated WiFi which is very nice, but its other advantages mostly have to do with battery life (chipset uses less power). If you are looking for more in the way of processing speed, you can get a more powerful processor. Of course, if you don't get the Centrino, you will curse me when you want to connect to a hotspot, or when your laptop only has 2.5 hours of life.

Just some thoughts.

[astral]

I think that you should buy it here.  Any discount you would get in Singapore wouldn't be all that much, and unless you get a warranty that provide service in Thailand, you might have problems later.  However, Thailand doesn't carry some models (the 17" Vaio, for example).

You have two choices, AMD or Intel.  With Intel, you'll get the Centrino (which refers to the mainboard, the PentiumM, and wireless networking), which has speeds comparable to the desktops and a large cache and good battery life.  I have no clue on AMD, but there is a 64 bit option available.

If weight is not a problem, you can get a big screen, up to 17", for a hefty price tag.  The more expensive models of some companies (Sony, Fujitsu) have a different screen which some people (like me) prefer since they give better viewing angle and a brighter, more colorful image at the cost of more reflections.  The screen is high on the list of what to look at since you can't replace it.  Desktop replacements will have most of what you listed as standard, but remember that the price will not be cheap, probably about 2-3 times more than a comparable desktop, depending on the model and brand.  256MB of added memory usually costs around 2,000+ baht, and if your laptop already costs upwards of 80k, I think you should consider an upgrade to 1GB.  In laptops, the harddisk runs at only 4,200rpm (or in rare cases, 5,400rpm) and are very slow compared to desktops.  Therefore, the amount of ram you have will be a big factor in determining your system's overall speed.

Strange that you would want a laptop if you're not going to travel often.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The most important things with notebook computer are weight and battery life.

If you are handling processor intensive applications with video editing you will be better off

with a desk top machine, which will allow you a faster processor, more disks more memory. They also offer more opportunity for future expansion.

Judging from recent adverts in the press notebooks have generally levelled out with

processors around 1.5Mz, compared to the desktop heights of +3Ghz.

A 60 or 80Mb disk is usual and I would suggest 512Mb of memory.

Features like internal modem, wifi and lan are more or less standard these days.

An internal dvd writer is also worth looking for to back up data.

[Dancali]

I appreciate all the input.

Well, I'm getting close to making the purchase, but I still am not feeling confident about which notebook I should get.

The 1.7 M system (7200 rpm hd, 768 mb ram, 64 mb radeon) is reasonably priced around 67,000 baht. But after doing research of various benchmarks, it's clear this would be a step down from my current 2.8c p4 setup. The 2.0 M (7200 rpm hard drive, 1 gb ram, 128 mb radeon) appears to perform roughly equivalent to my current setup but these systems are in the range of 100,000 baht.

Besides the general portability issues associated with getting a standard Pentium 4 laptop system, the heat issue looks to be serious considering this is hot Thailand. I don't want to have to keep my office a refrigerator just so my laptop doesn't burn up an component. A pentium 4 pc with plenty of fans and space can get hot enough as it is.

I could get the 1.7 M, save 30,000+ baht, and have a reasonable laptop and hope that it could replace my desktop (I could probably get used to it). My main power-use is somewhat intensive database manipulation. If it's just too frustrating to move down from my current system, I will just have to stick with two computers. I dread when I setup the 1.7 M and perform my first database filter.

Or, I could go all out and get the 2.0 system, and almost surely be able to replace my current computer which would be much more convenient than trying to work with two computers.

I'm leaning heavily towards going the 1.7 M route and pocketing the difference.

[Dancali]

Well, here I am thinking out loud again. I doubt anybody's interested but it helps me clarify for myself .

I plan on taking off to Pantip to get myself the 1.7 centrino system with the extra ram and fast hard drive added.

Surprisingly, it appears that the 1.7 m is actually as fast as the fastest pentium 4's in the main category relevant to me: business applications. The business winstone 2004 tests show the centrino at least keeping up with and even beating the top end P4's. Here is a link to one study at anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2129 .

This would completely rule out my choosing a pentium 4 based notebook since the only benefit would be a slightly cheaper price at the expense of less portability and much more heat (possibly too much for Thailand).

Of course, this doesn't mean that a centrino laptop will beat a standard p4 desktop, since the desktop has the advantage of dealing with better memory and a faster hard drive. So in order to get closer to desktop performance I might try for the 2.0 centrino. But I think the practical difference for me would mostly be unnoticable. If the price difference were only about 5,000 more (such as on Dell.com where you can upgrade a notebook from a 1.7 to a 2.0 for $129) I'd consider it, but we're talking a $500-$800 difference from the options I've seen available here in Thailand.

[chingy_]

even centrino M 2.0 still can't come close to desktop P4,

desktop is there for a reason and there's no laptop in the market today can compare to to a desktop at the same range

[Dancali]

I was hoping to get a laptop at least as good as my current 2.8c desktop. Looking only at business winstone 2004 numbers, it looks like the 2.0 would fit the bill. But for $800 less, the 1.7 looks to be about the same as a good 2.4c desktop setup. I think that should be good enough for me, and I could always upgrade again next year with all the money I'm saving here.

Who knows, with the 700mb+ ram I'm getting, some things might be smoother in the 1.7 system since my current desktop only has 512mb ram and my commit charge is over 700 almost all the time. I think there's a problem somewhere because when I simply start windows with nothing opened I'm already at over 500 or 600 mb used up. It makes little sense to me because when I add up all the processes it comes out to way less than what the commit charge is showing.

Anyway, I'm off to Pantip today and hopefully I'll be coming back with a laptop.

I'll post a little review. Thanks for all the input.

[Dancali]

Well, I finally have myself a laptop. Here's a little review

I ended up with an IBM Thinkpad R51:

1.8 centrino

512 ram

7200 rpm 60 gb hd

32 mb radeon graphics card

xp pro

dvd rw

2.95 kg

72,000 baht

I was set to get the acer 1.7ghz system but it was sold out. The 1.8 IBM is about 8,000 baht more expensive but it had the benefit of a faster cpu, xp pro, and being IBM. Plus it was available.

I won't be flying through Doom 3 anytime with this computer, but the 32 mb card serves the function of limiting my gaming. Kind of like the drug addict who moves to the boonies to try to avoid the old drug scene in the city. For the better part of 2004, I spent 2-4 hours a day wasting time on games and ever since I destroyed and uninstalled them 2 months ago I have been much more productive .

The first thinkpad they opened for me out of the box had one little black dead pixel, barely noticable. But I didn't like this so they opened up a new boxed laptop which I inspected and it was fine.

We had to switch to the 7200 rpm hard drive so backing up and restoring everything took about 6 hours of hanging around Panthip. But now it looks to be working perfectly.

In terms of performance compared to my 2.8c system, it seems, if anything, quicker with most operations. The only place where it's clearly a bit slower is with opening programs due to my crazy fast 10,000 rpm sata hard drive. But for pushing through my big inefficient database program (my main "power-use") it seems snappier than my desktop. I had always thought the hard drive was the limiting factor in this program, but now it looks like it really is mostly cpu intensive.

The dvd drive is a bit problematic. It reads all cds just fine, except for my true adsl modem install cd. When it tries to read this, it just has ugly clicks. This true cd works in my desktop. I hope this problem is limited only to this one cd. If it's more widespread, I think IBM will replace the drive within a day or two.

All in all, I'm very pleased with this system.

Thanks for the help in this laptop purchase.