Need A New, Hi-spec Lightweight Laptop In Bangkok

[Trevor]

I guess I'll only get a local 1-year guarantee but what significant faults should I check for on collection ?

Any particular brands to go for, or avoid ?

Thanks in advance.

[King Dong]

I was @ a mall the other day, there must have been about 100 places selling notebooks.. Cant remember the name of the place, im sure i've seen it mentioned here about 10'000 times though

[SMS]

I was @ a mall the other day, there must have been about 100 places selling notebooks.. Cant remember the name of the place, im sure i've seen it mentioned here about 10'000 times though

Its Panthip Plaza

[astral]

If you buy a model from an international supplier like HP you may well find you get

the standard 1 year international warranty PLUS an additional 2 years of local cover.

Check Control Panel/System to make sure you are getting the cpu, memory and disk size they quote in the blurb.

If you have plans to expand the memory later, check if the second slot, usually on the underside of the machine, is populated.

Often 1 Gb of memory means 2 x 512Mb, which means expansion is impossible without throwing away one of the existing chips.

[phazey]

If you have plans to expand the memory later, check if the second slot, usually on the underside of the machine, is populated.

Often 1 Gb of memory means 2 x 512Mb, which means expansion is impossible without throwing away one of the existing chips.

Thats how dual channel memory works - a single simm would mean a signigicant performance loss.

Anyways, get a Macbook, or if you have the wedge, a Macbook Pro.

[gcrutcher]

Hello,

I just purchased an Acer laptop with the following specs:

T2500 duo core processor

2 GB DDR2 RAM

100 GB SATA Hard Disk

15.4" WXGA Crystalbrite LCD

ATI X1400 Video Card w/512 MB HyperMemory

Slot-load DVD+r player/recorder

Bluetooth

802.11 wireless

Windows XP Service Pack 2 - it is a legitmate copy.

It is a very fast latop - great for games, software development or whatever.

Came with a 3-year local warranty, 1 year International

Purchased it at Pantio - Floor 2 at the Acer store. Including VAT, it was under

90,000 baht.

Great service, great product.

Gary

[astral]

If you have plans to expand the memory later, check if the second slot, usually on the underside of the machine, is populated.

Often 1 Gb of memory means 2 x 512Mb, which means expansion is impossible without throwing away one of the existing chips.

Thats how dual channel memory works - a single simm would mean a signigicant performance loss.

Anyways, get a Macbook, or if you have the wedge, a Macbook Pro.

I do not think that notebooks use dual channel memory.

[Moonfruit]

If you have plans to expand the memory later, check if the second slot, usually on the underside of the machine, is populated.

Often 1 Gb of memory means 2 x 512Mb, which means expansion is impossible without throwing away one of the existing chips.

Thats how dual channel memory works - a single simm would mean a signigicant performance loss.

Anyways, get a Macbook, or if you have the wedge, a Macbook Pro.

I do not think that notebooks use dual channel memory.

Apple certainly does.

I dont know about other, lower quality products!

[dave_boo]

If you have plans to expand the memory later, check if the second slot, usually on the underside of the machine, is populated.

Often 1 Gb of memory means 2 x 512Mb, which means expansion is impossible without throwing away one of the existing chips.

Thats how dual channel memory works - a single simm would mean a signigicant performance loss.

Anyways, get a Macbook, or if you have the wedge, a Macbook Pro.

I do not think that notebooks use dual channel memory.

As someone else stated, some do. Actually most do. You'll find some older models built upon XP mobile, Celeron, PIII, and Sempron that only use single channel. IIRC, some of the original P-M also only used single channel, but don't hold me to that.

[ayakiawe]

Hey I dont know much but I am not exactly happy with my Compaq and their service help in Samui anyways.....my screen and battery died way too quickly is the way I see it and I am not happy the way they treated me...

also if you are going to buy soon then read this...

see this before u do buy

http://www.smh.com.au/news/laptops--deskto...859.html?page=2

Edited August 13, 2006 by ayakiawe

[monty]

I'm seriously tempted to try out the macbook

It just seems like a decent spec'd machine, just want to find out what graphics part are inside...

Bootloader, dual boot windows/os tiger would just give me the best of two worlds, and at 54000 Baht (in Pattaya) not to outrageously priced either...

[phazey]

I'm seriously tempted to try out the macbook

It just seems like a decent spec'd machine, just want to find out what graphics part are inside...

Bootloader, dual boot windows/os tiger would just give me the best of two worlds, and at 54000 Baht (in Pattaya) not to outrageously priced either...

Macbooks have intergrated Intel 975 (iirc) video chipsets that use 64mb of system memory. Pro's have an ATI with 256Mb dedicated memory...There is some YouTube video of a macbook (non pro) playing half-life2 via windows, seems well speedy. But not all games will fair as well.

[james512]

I'm toying with the idea of getting a Macbook Pro myself. I may wait to see how much they'll be when and if they are released with the Core 2 Duo processors.

[monty]

Knowing Apple it might be a while before the core2duo comes in...

The standard coreduo is a pretty capable cpu as well though...

I'm just a bit dissapointed that the standard macbook only has the onboard/shared memory graphics set. Makes it less suitable for gaming...

With acer for example most +40000 Baht laptops already have the ATI X1300 radeon dedicated graphics, with +50000 Baht holding the X1400...

The regular macbook, with 1 gig memory and 60gb hard drive was priced at 53900 Baht in Pattaya.

Supposedly there is also a black version, 8000 Baht dearer with only difference being the color and an 80 gig harddrive...

Good move from Apple, it's pretty important in Thailand that at a glimpse can be seen that you are toting around the most expensive one

Haven't seen the pro around yet...

Edited August 14, 2006 by monty

[Firefoxx]

Actually, all current notebooks do use dual channel memory... started since the DDR days. However, you don't need to buy dual SODIMMs of the same size to use this feature. The SODIMMs are dual-channel for each panel, so two slots is four channels total. You can buy just one and it will be dual-channel.

If you get an Acer notebook, remember to register it on their website within 15 days. You get accident insurance that way, and if you ever lose or drop it within the first year, you only pay 10% to replace/repair it.

HL2 on integrated graphics? That's pushing it a bit, unless you really dumb down the graphics settings. I was having slowdowns playing HL2 on a P4 HT desktop with a mid-range ATI card.

[dekka007]

I still think the best value notebook and most bang for your buck is the ASUS A8JM.

Got them in Fortune IT Mall (Highly recommended over Pantip have stopped going to Pantip for a while now - its just a pain in the ass place)

Anyway the ASUS A8JM 60,000 baht:

Centrino DUO 1.86 (Upgrable not soldered)

14" Wide Screen (I just find 15" + Screen laptops too big to carry and use in places like starbucks etc.)

100GB Hard Drive.

512mb Mem

Graphics Card Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 512mb Dedicated Memory (On par with X1600 ATI exceeds in many benchmarks)

DVD Dual Layer Writer

2 Year Global Warranty

In my opinion its the best laptop in that price range. Can play all the latest games etc. And one of the few where they have left the Centrino in an accessable and socketable mounting. And its thin and light to carry about.

Edited August 14, 2006 by dekka007

[GoodHeart]

Knowing Apple it might be a while before the core2duo comes in...

Excuse me?! Try less than a month away....

They managed the move to Intel processors six months ahead of their own schedule. And their having moved [note past tense!] an entire platform has taken place a scant 53 weeks after the move was first announced. That's a pretty posititive transition to Intel if you ask me.

But don't take my word for it, reports of Apple taking delivery of Core 2 Duo processors in the later weeks of August , or the first week of September are coming in daily.

Compare MacBook models here: Apple Store for MacBook

[h5n1]

i really like asus hardware, they also give 2yr wty at least thats what hardware house claims. their boards rock! if i were and may buy a laptop, it would be asus. ibm are boring as hp but reliable. i dont like compaq (hp) it was a loser before hp bought them.

apple makes GREAT hardware but i dont lik ethe greedy company philosophy. it would be dead if it were not for ipod. it may be still as it has yet to report and may be DELISTED from nasdaq (phony earnings ?!?!)

asia is a pc world. buy a pc.