Which Laptop Should I Buy?

[ranvirshokar]

I have decided to buy a new laptop. My last laptop (bought in Bangkok) was an HP Pavillion bought for 44,000 THB, used it for two years without a any problem. but unfortunately i lost it in a taxi, now i have checked few laptops in market and now im very confused about which laptop shall i buy. I will normally use the laptop for internet browsing watching movies online, n a little bit of photo editing and will mostly use it in home only.

My budget is in the 25,000 - 30,000 THB. Even i dnt know which proccessor, which brand n what specifications will be good in this price. so it all gets a little confusing for me. One thing i have decided on my own is that i will go for less than 14 inch screen but not the small netbooks.

All comments and opinions are welcome. Please HELP.

Thank you in advance.

Sunny

[ungcas]

I have decided to buy a new laptop. My last laptop (bought in Bangkok) was an HP Pavillion bought for 44,000 THB, used it for two years without a any problem. but unfortunately i lost it in a taxi, now i have checked few laptops in market and now im very confused about which laptop shall i buy. I will normally use the laptop for internet browsing watching movies online, n a little bit of photo editing and will mostly use it in home only.

My budget is in the 25,000 - 30,000 THB. Even i dnt know which proccessor, which brand n what specifications will be good in this price. so it all gets a little confusing for me. One thing i have decided on my own is that i will go for less than 14 inch screen but not the small netbooks.

All comments and opinions are welcome. Please HELP.

Thank you in advance.

Sunny

Being in Thailand, we dont' have as many choices as North America. Personally, I am a fan of Asus. They build quality and reliable products.

But, more importantly I think you should get something with a Core 2 Duo processor and 2 Gigs of ram or more.. I would just go out and take a look at what appeals to you.

What kind of photo editing do you want to do? Are u sure you want to go less than 14"?

Edited March 1, 2009 by ungcas

[ranvirshokar]

Being in Thailand, we dont' have as many choices as North America. Personally, I am a fan of Asus. They build quality and reliable products.

But, more importantly I think you should get something with a Core 2 Duo processor and 2 Gigs of ram or more.. I would just go out and take a look at what appeals to you.

What kind of photo editing do you want to do? Are u sure you want to go less than 14"?

Thank you for you reply. No serious pdoto editing. just simple things for time pass. IF i can get a good deal in 14" or if you think that 14" is a better option than i dnt mind going for it.

I am also thinking of getting an Asus. Just today i checked ASUS F6 or F8(cnt remem exact model) ,Its core 2duo 2.0 1066 FSB P7350. Intel mobile GM45 express chipset, intel wifi link 5100, 13.3 inch monitor , weight 1.9kgs 3gb ram , 250 Hard disc. but the price is 33,900 THB. (my budget is not over 30,000THB) so can u suggest some other laptop.

Regards.

Sunny

[robertthegreat]

Don't forget a big chain for when in taxi's. Years ago 12/13" screens were cheap and now 15" are the cheapest, Sony do some nice smaller screen models,But above your price range. Depends what your doing some of the 10" netbooks are very good i have an Asus Eeepc 1000H for when traveling about superb machine doe's ever thing my 15" Toshiba will do, Except no disk drive check the specs out it might be good enough for you. You can buy a slim USB external DVD/CD drive For little money.

But its your money your choice.

[livinthailandos]

you didn't mention what exactly you plan to do with your labtop, I'll assume you'll might be running vista, xp

Should you get vista ( make sure you do at least 2 GB of ram )

XP no problem regarding ram minimum 512 mb Ram

Specs to be looking out for since its a labtop

Do you need a webcam with your labtop

look for a labtop that has a good battery life

Hard Drive or SSD, for now I would stick with a regular hard drive

USB ports 2 or more would be good

DVD / CD drive always comes in handy unless you like porting a external one around

Weight plays a hand in it 2

Screen size averages are 13 inch to 15 in i've seen

Brands, go with trusted ones, sony, acer, ( hp & compaq never used and never forgot all the bad reviews i saw from earlier ) the os on the labtop don't matter since I just put linux on them anyway

Audio also a very important issue, don't seem like any labtop makers put an descent audio speakers

check out places like powerbuy / IT Mall if you can

netbooks are ok but if you decide to get one get a MSI. MSI has ones that do 11 inches or more in screen size and the keyboards aren't to bad read some descent reviews

[webfact]

Go for Acer.

Buy a an extended warranty for 3 years and relax...

[ranvirshokar]

What is the diff between a regular hard drive and SSD ?

[robertthegreat]

SSD is a solid state drive no moving parts, Similar to a USB data stick but used now has a main drive in laptops supposed to be quicker, But not a lot of difference to a regular plate hard drives. SSD more stable no moving parts.

[torrenova]

I went through this a few months back so I'll chuck my two penneth in. I'm no expert and also got confused and found it nigh on impossible to get a feel for the quality / performance / price comparison. There seemed far too many variables.

Processor should be Core 2 Duo, not Dual Core. The chip number (like 7350) seems marginally important for most folks but at the top end, you gain very little for quite a hike in price. Apart from speed, there are a couple of levels where the cache increases. Something like 7500 and 8500 but research to check the exact point.

RAM is a big issue. You can get 4gb but there are issues apparently with it only being able to utilise 3.?gb. I don't know why.

Size is an issue. As I would not be moving mine very often I wanted a bigger screen. Going smaller seems to be the trend but I don't need it to fit in my pocket. Personally, I'd stay big.

As for maker, I found Dell cheap. Acer seemed to have the best warranty but some of their stuff is shoddy. I considered Toshiba as they felt well made and had some good specs and speakers.

Overall I came to the conclusion that my requirements, internet, Excel, Access, VBA, downloading and viewing movies, photo stuff etc. was not really going to be tasking the machines too much and I could look in the low to mid range and find something viable.

The problem I then got was trying to justify spending this money for that or substituting X for Y. It was not easy to buy lower spec than you could have bought but equally hard to justify the extra expense. IN the end I thought of the cash and chose something which could do the job but which was cheap. I'd have liked better but could easily have spent another 20k (or 50k !) and I just couldn't justify it.

[webfact]

What is the diff between a regular hard drive and SSD ?

The storage capacity! If you need your machine for other task than surfing or reading emails go for a HDD at least 160 GB. You will not regret that decision.

Edited March 3, 2009 by webfact

[BigSnake]

Check out Acers, mine is four years old still no problem 512 MB, 80 GB HDD, web cam 530 processor What ever you do by all mean check around there are lot of good buys out there these days.

[ungcas]

I'm not a big Acer fan but their prices are fairly decent. At your budget, you might be able to get a HP. I passed by HH International the other day and saw one for under 30K and it actually looked pretty stylish.

I tried a cut and paste off their website but it didn't turn up properly. But you can try it yourself at http://www.hwhinter.com/price.php

Once there you need to check the "notebook box" then go to the bottom of the table there are 2 blinking buttons. click on the left one and it should bring up the list.

Go in person and take i look though.

Edited March 3, 2009 by ungcas

[ungcas]

[Wolfie]

Buy mine!!! (see classifieds for details) - its an Asus G50v - very nice machine indeed

[Norrad]

RAM is a big issue. You can get 4gb but there are issues apparently with it only being able to utilise 3.?gb. I don't know why.

3 gigs is the limit for a 32 bit operating system. If you go with Vista 64 bit then you can utilize as much RAM as you can cram in your laptop. Core 2 Duo processors are 64 bit and if you buy a laptop that can handle it then I highly recommend installing a 64 bit version of Vista.

[ranvirshokar]

I went through this a few months back so I'll chuck my two penneth in. I'm no expert and also got confused and found it nigh on impossible to get a feel for the quality / performance / price comparison. There seemed far too many variables.

Processor should be Core 2 Duo, not Dual Core. The chip number (like 7350) seems marginally important for most folks but at the top end, you gain very little for quite a hike in price. Apart from speed, there are a couple of levels where the cache increases. Something like 7500 and 8500 but research to check the exact point.

RAM is a big issue. You can get 4gb but there are issues apparently with it only being able to utilise 3.?gb. I don't know why.

Size is an issue. As I would not be moving mine very often I wanted a bigger screen. Going smaller seems to be the trend but I don't need it to fit in my pocket. Personally, I'd stay big.

As for maker, I found Dell cheap. Acer seemed to have the best warranty but some of their stuff is shoddy. I considered Toshiba as they felt well made and had some good specs and speakers.

Overall I came to the conclusion that my requirements, internet, Excel, Access, VBA, downloading and viewing movies, photo stuff etc. was not really going to be tasking the machines too much and I could look in the low to mid range and find something viable.

The problem I then got was trying to justify spending this money for that or substituting X for Y. It was not easy to buy lower spec than you could have bought but equally hard to justify the extra expense. IN the end I thought of the cash and chose something which could do the job but which was cheap. I'd have liked better but could easily have spent another 20k (or 50k !) and I just couldn't justify it.

Thank you for sharing yr experience.. can u tell me which one u decided n bought?

[ranvirshokar]

Don't forget a big chain for when in taxi's. Years ago 12/13" screens were cheap and now 15" are the cheapest, Sony do some nice smaller screen models,But above your price range. Depends what your doing some of the 10" netbooks are very good i have an Asus Eeepc 1000H for when traveling about superb machine doe's ever thing my 15" Toshiba will do, Except no disk drive check the specs out it might be good enough for you. You can buy a slim USB external DVD/CD drive For little money.

But its your money your choice.

thanx for yr idea.. is it worh buying a netbook?? are'nt they too slow.? if you think its good enuff thn please suggest some model and do tell me that how much do i have to spend on getting an external DVD.?

Edited March 4, 2009 by ranvirshokar

[ranvirshokar]

Buy mine!!! (see classifieds for details) - its an Asus G50v - very nice machine indeed

I have seen the classified of your offer but i found it quite expensive for me. btw why r u selling it??

[Wolfie]

Buy mine!!! (see classifieds for details) - its an Asus G50v - very nice machine indeed

I have seen the classified of your offer but i found it quite expensive for me. btw why r u selling it??

I no longer need it, and its such a waste to let such a good machine just sit in the backpack and hardly ever get used.

[robertthegreat]

I have an Asus 1000H which i got a very good deal on i was looking at getting the Samsung NC10 there are many now on the market do an internet search on netbooks. I bought a DVD/ CD external USB player ,LG external multi DVD re writer GSA-E50N can't remember exactly how much around 2000 baht

Asus have many models just bought out a new the Eeepc 1000HE and it getting good reports 160gb hard drive 1 gb ram you can upgrade to 2 gb good for movies. If you google it you will find all the info. Use Youtube about upgrading ram and hard drives or any thing else on netbooks, You will get comparisons between different makes of netbooks . I don't find any of them slow. not worth going below 10" sceen models take a look in Pan thip or any IT place have a play with them.

[torrenova]

RAM is a big issue. You can get 4gb but there are issues apparently with it only being able to utilise 3.?gb. I don't know why.

3 gigs is the limit for a 32 bit operating system. If you go with Vista 64 bit then you can utilize as much RAM as you can cram in your laptop. Core 2 Duo processors are 64 bit and if you buy a laptop that can handle it then I highly recommend installing a 64 bit version of Vista.

My investigations revealed that there are serious issues with 64bit computers as regards to drivers and the interaction with other hardware. Not much good to have a top laptop and have to buy new printers etc. is it ?

[ungcas]

RAM is a big issue. You can get 4gb but there are issues apparently with it only being able to utilise 3.?gb. I don't know why.

3 gigs is the limit for a 32 bit operating system. If you go with Vista 64 bit then you can utilize as much RAM as you can cram in your laptop. Core 2 Duo processors are 64 bit and if you buy a laptop that can handle it then I highly recommend installing a 64 bit version of Vista.

My investigations revealed that there are serious issues with 64bit computers as regards to drivers and the interaction with other hardware. Not much good to have a top laptop and have to buy new printers etc. is it ?

This was when Vista first came out. I've been using my Gateway with Vista 64 for half a year now and have no issues. 640GB down to 80GB full of games and applications. Everything is well here.

[Wolfie]

Both my kickass desktop and my powerhouse laptop are both 64bit systems with Vista 64b and Windows7 64 bit installed - the only driver problem i have encountered is the webcam driver for my desktop on Windows 7 - which considering Windows 7 is still in Beta - its hardly a big deal.

You will find that both the 32bit and 64bit driver support for Vista (and Windows 7) is excellent.

Your investigations have are flawed my friend

[Norrad]

I've been running 64 bit Vista for about a year now. I've had no problems finding drivers for all my hardware. I might be imagining it but, after running 32 bit vista on the same machine, I find the 64 bit version to be faster and much more stable.

I had an issue with getting PHP to play nicely with IIS on Vista 64 bit, but found the option to run 32 bit software in the IIS management console. Overall I couldn't be happier with my laptop at the moment.

ps. I am using a Lenovo ThinkPad R61i, solid machine.

[Gary A]

I will never buy another high powered laptop. They can't be easily upgraded and are difficult to get repaired. A really fast desktop that is very flexible and a netbook for traveling is the way I will do it from now on. A netbook is great for the Internet and anything that takes a lot of muscle will be done on a desktop anyways. You can likely get both machines for the same cost as a high powered laptop.

[torrenova]

Both my kickass desktop and my powerhouse laptop are both 64bit systems with Vista 64b and Windows7 64 bit installed - the only driver problem i have encountered is the webcam driver for my desktop on Windows 7 - which considering Windows 7 is still in Beta - its hardly a big deal.

You will find that both the 32bit and 64bit driver support for Vista (and Windows 7) is excellent.

Your investigations have are flawed my friend

I would hazard a very well informed guess that the mainstay of my investigations on the technical side were on TV but I will admit that I did raise this question last year and I appreciate things may have either improved or worries found to be unwarranted. A bit like Y2K and all that.

Personally, as I have 2 printers, one 3 years old (though HP) and a newish Canon and some 3+ years old TOT router I was worried about not being able to use them. I raised the argument after seeing the 64bit stuff, hearing about only being able to utilise 3.2gb RAM or so and wondering why, if 64 bit is the future, are we all (or most) buying into 32 bit stuff ?

I note that you have had no problems.

As for Gary and his argument, then I would tend to agree. In the end, I found myself trying to convince myself again and again that and extra few thousand for this, and then for this, and then for that, was viable and before you knew it, you were trying to convince yourself that spending double your initial budget was justifiable.

If I need more power in Singapore, I will just buy another desktop.