kylef
Gone
+1,352|6971|N. Ireland
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about switching to a laptop instead of this, what I can only call a machine, "desktop" PC. I've outlined the benefits and cons as below:

Benefits:
Portability. This is a big one for me. I've recently taken up a job that would be so much handier if I had a laptop, and I can't afford both a desktop and a laptop. The bonuses of having this and being able to simply walk to my brother's office, get a bit of work done and get out and have it all out of the way before I'm even home sounds heavenly. I've done it before for a bit and it was just so much better than waiting endlessly at a bus stop, getting home and then doing it all. Another bonus of portability is my love: Starbucks. I just *happen* to have access to my brother's totally free unlimited T-Mobile Hot Spot service details, which just so happens to be in every Starbucks on the planet.

Clutter. Or lack of. Speakers (okay I may need some eventually for even the laptop), keyboard, mouse, monitor, wheel, joystick, the main system itself, ethernet, not to mention an array of other peripherals. To have one quick unit to do it quickly, effectively, with the addition of portability, would be absolute bliss.

The not-so benefits:
Gaming. This is a big one for me, and I didn't go out of my way to go and buy a £120 Logitech G25 wheel to go and get a laptop. I do play a lot (but this may be a bad thing?) and I know sure as hell it'd be hard to give up. I could still admin and perhaps play a few games, but not much after that. rFactor would be a big miss for me. My tournaments and challenges, my wonderful wheel, it'd all be pretty devastating.

It will never be as powerful as my desktop. And I've adjusted to this level of power. Not much else to say.

Upgradability. Or lack of. Let's be realistic, I won't be able to do drastic upgrades ever. If I want new graphics, I'd need a new laptop and that wouldn't be very handy when I want to go and play the latest thriller. I know this would hurt me badly.

___________________

An aesthetically pleasing laptop will of course be a big requirement. Bulkiness, things sticking out of it etc are all just a big fat "no". The likes of the MacBook or HP Pavilion series is that they nice looking, easy to use and are both generally pretty great (my brother's have both between them). So this is what I have been looking into, primarily the Pavilion seeing as quite a few of the applications I use are Windows only, and apparently Windows on a built-for Windows machine is better than it is on a mac-built machine (for obvious reasons, I'm sure).

Happy to listen to any suggestions, anyone who has the made the move, or even just anyone with a bit of knowledge in this area. I'll probably be spending no more than £800 or so on this so I'd like it to do me for a bit! If you are looking for one for me (why thank you), my main specifications are that it is widescreen, aesthetically pleasing (contemporary and thin, no big bulky things hanging out of the side etc!) and of course, Core 2 Duo processor. 2GB of RAM is expected naturally at this price range in laptops so I'd like to hope I wouldn't even have to ask.

Thanks in advance
Kyle
FloppY_
­
+1,010|6764|Denmark aka Automotive Hell
I can't choose between the two...

I need a laptop for work and a desktop for gaming
­ Your thoughts, insights, and musings on this matter intrigue me
Freezer7Pro
I don't come here a lot anymore.
+1,447|6675|Winland

Why not get a really cheap laptop instead? I've seen 15.4" C2D-based laptops with 2GB for around 350€. If it's only for work, you could settle with some rather basic graphics circuits and stuff. Then you can play games on your desktop and do work on your laptop.
The idea of any hi-fi system is to reproduce the source material as faithfully as possible, and to deliberately add distortion to everything you hear (due to amplifier deficiencies) because it sounds 'nice' is simply not high fidelity. If that is what you want to hear then there is no problem with that, but by adding so much additional material (by way of harmonics and intermodulation) you have a tailored sound system, not a hi-fi. - Rod Elliot, ESP
TheDarkRaven
ATG's First Disciple
+263|7102|Birmingham, UK
I just bought a Samsung R60plus from Tescos for £500 (this actually was the best deal on the internet and in stores for what I wanted):-
Audio Features    Yes
Battery Life    1.5Hrs
Bluetooth    No
Built-in Webcam    No
Card Reader    2 in 1
Graphics    ATI Radeon 1250M 128MB
Graphics Shared    ATI Express 1250M
Hard Drive Size    160Gb
Hard Drive Type    SATA
Laptop Colour    Black
Memory Size    2GB
Memory Type    2x 1Gb DDR2
Number of USB Ports    3 x USB 2.0
Operating System    Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Optical Drive    DVD Dual Layer Rewriter
Output    1 x VGA, 1 x Microphone in, 1 x Headphone out, 1 x PCI Express Card Slot (54mm)
Processor    Intel Pentium Dual Core
Processor Bus    533MHz
Processor Cache    1MB
Processor Model Number    T2330
Processor Speed    1.6GHz
Product Weight    2.68Kg
Screen Size    15.4"
Screen Type    WXGA Widescreen 33.12 x 20.7cm (HxV)
Software Load    Samsung Magic Doctor, Easy SpeedUp Manager, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Cyberlink DVD Suite, Samsung Wall Paper, Samsung Screen Saver, HDD Password, Easy Display Manager, Easy Network Manager, Easy Battery Manager, Samsung Update Plus, McAfee Virus Scan, Samsung Recovery Solution II, AVStation now, Play AVStation
TV Tuner    None
Wi-Fi    802.11b/g
Wired Networking Port    Yes

Now, I know the processor may be lacking and the graphics card is integrated... but it does what I want - which is making notes, doing homework and light gaming (and comes with 3 years warranty!!!).

~~~

However, since your budget stretches a bit, may I suggest the Samsung R70?

I can't recommend Samsung enough for all their electronics (I've owned phones, cameras, televisions and this laptop of theirs - and they've all been fantastic) - you should consider them.

Hope this helps a little and you get something good for you,
All the best,
Andy

Last edited by TheDarkRaven (2007-12-15 13:26:22)

Flaming_Maniac
prince of insufficient light
+2,490|7184|67.222.138.85

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Why not get a really cheap laptop instead? I've seen 15.4" C2D-based laptops with 2GB for around 350€. If it's only for work, you could settle with some rather basic graphics circuits and stuff. Then you can play games on your desktop and do work on your laptop.
Yeah, there are some really, really basic laptops you could get for about the price of a desktop upgrade that would have all your internet and word processing needs.
TheEternalPessimist
Wibble
+412|7098|Mhz

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Why not get a really cheap laptop instead? I've seen 15.4" C2D-based laptops with 2GB for around 350€. If it's only for work, you could settle with some rather basic graphics circuits and stuff. Then you can play games on your desktop and do work on your laptop.
My vote goes with Freezer's suggestion, if you don't want it for gaming you can buy a low end cheap one that can do everything other than gaming and keep the PC.

EDIT: If you don't mind using a kerazy Linux derivative OS, ASUS Eee 701s are retardedly cheap and stupidly small (i mean REALLY tiny) and light and do anything you could ask for, they have pretty low specs but run fast due to the OS being really light on resources, comes with all sorts of open source software, Open Office, Firefox etc etc.

Only down side is there's no CD/DVD drive, it relies on SD cards for storage, but they're like £5-£10 for a 4GB one now anyway. Or you could buy a USB DVD writer obviously.

Last edited by TheEternalPessimist (2007-12-15 13:38:03)

kylef
Gone
+1,352|6971|N. Ireland

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Why not get a really cheap laptop instead? I've seen 15.4" C2D-based laptops with 2GB for around 350€. If it's only for work, you could settle with some rather basic graphics circuits and stuff. Then you can play games on your desktop and do work on your laptop.
I'd rather move onto one system for all, rather than having two different systems to be honest. If I keep this, I'll just end up upgrading it and the likes. I'll be using the laptop for home stuff a bit, but not much. Photoshop, media, web browsing, streaming, light gaming etc. I appreciate the suggestion though.

Last edited by kylef (2007-12-15 13:48:48)

xGj
Official lame Crysis fanboy.
+84|6849|Netherlands tbh
If the laptop would be for photoshop.. I'd say thats demanding so atleast get a good C2D and 2GB RAM in your lappy. Thats based on what you stated in your last post, because my actual opinion is exactly what Freezer said.
Jackabo
Member
+127|7036|Dublin, Ireland
Ye but think about this, You've give4n up your desktop which you obvioulsy have put a lot of work into and your laptop either gets robbed or you drop it or gets exposed to rain.

Desktops > Laptops
kylef
Gone
+1,352|6971|N. Ireland
Would like to here more input on this...thanks!
djphetal
Go Ducks.
+346|6813|Oregon
I have a laptop that I use for everything. I run CoD4 just fine. Haven't tried Crysis.
But yeah, so far, I've had nothing that's stressed it out too much, and it's about a year old now.
TheEternalPessimist
Wibble
+412|7098|Mhz

xGj wrote:

If the laptop would be for photoshop.. I'd say thats demanding so atleast get a good C2D and 2GB RAM in your lappy. Thats based on what you stated in your last post, because my actual opinion is exactly what Freezer said.
I run CS3 on a 1.4Ghz Duron with 256MB SD RAM at work, it really isn't demanding lol. Well, I used to, got me an upgrade to a shiny C2D now.

Last edited by TheEternalPessimist (2007-12-16 12:06:55)

xGj
Official lame Crysis fanboy.
+84|6849|Netherlands tbh

TheEternalPessimist wrote:

xGj wrote:

If the laptop would be for photoshop.. I'd say thats demanding so atleast get a good C2D and 2GB RAM in your lappy. Thats based on what you stated in your last post, because my actual opinion is exactly what Freezer said.
I run CS3 on a 1.4Ghz Duron with 256MB SD RAM at work, it really isn't demanding lol. Well, I used to, got me an upgrade to a shiny C2D now.
Well depends on what you do in photoshop. Little sigs are not demanding but I imagine rendering large posters (wtf is that word in english)/ big work and multiple projects open requires a bit more power.
TheEternalPessimist
Wibble
+412|7098|Mhz

If it's going to be huge/mass produced it'd probably get done in Illustrator, I've done a 9x3 metre 300dpi canvas in PS on that old duron though (CS1 at the time).
VicktorVauhn
Member
+319|6870|Southern California

xGj wrote:

If the laptop would be for photoshop.. I'd say thats demanding so atleast get a good C2D and 2GB RAM in your lappy. Thats based on what you stated in your last post, because my actual opinion is exactly what Freezer said.
meh, I got a1.6ghz c2d with 2 gig of ram running vista and it runs photoshop CS2 fine.


Kyle, rFactor isn't TOO demanding. I can throw it on the laptop and see how it runs on a crap machine if you want....I know LFS is a little less demanding and it runs @ 100fps so you wouldn't need to drop a ton to get a laptop that can keep you racing.
De_Jappe
Triarii
+432|7005|Belgium

Can't you get a laptop from your work? I know you said you rather have one system, but in that case you have both advantages and can spend money on a decent gaming rig.

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