Personal Dilemma. Upgrade? or Laptop?

Thanatos.

Thanatos.

Gawd
Joined
Jun 24, 2005
Messages
744
Ok here is my dilemma ive been looking into getting a laptop. It would be great to bring on trips use when i go home and for when i go to college (just working now saving up, might be able to afford it if i stopped buying gadgets and computers :p ) but i dont want to spend alot on it so i found a Dell Vostro laptop specs are as follows.

Vostro 1500
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 1.6GHz
Vista Home Basic (Id install XP SP2 promply)
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD DL Burner
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
and the rest of the standard stuff 5.1 audio, wireless ect.

Pretty decent specs especially for $750 (before shipping and maybe taxes?)
Now the dilemma for $100 dollars more i could upgrade my rig (first in the sig) to the following

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz
ASUS P5W DH DELUXE
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 800Mhz
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS Superclocked 320MB

Now the upgrade to the PC is going to happen its just a matter of time (my plan is sometime in the next 4 months)

What do you guys suggest i do?
 
Only you can really choose but I would go for the desktop.
 
The specs of that laptop should only cost you around $650. Look around for better deals. Check fatwallet.com, hardforum|hotdeals, gotapex.com, slickdeals.net, bensbargains.net, techbargains.com, etc.

The motherboard in your desktop upgrade is overpriced. Just go for a cheaper board that can OC better than that old crossfire board. The Abit IP35-E or Gigabyte P35-DS3L are good options, but if you want a bit more features, the P35-DS3R, Asus P5K-E, or Abit IP35 Pro are all better choices, imo, than the P5W DH Dlx.
 
How long till you go to college? If you've still got a year or two I'd go with the desktop.
 
I say laptop. I can't imagine going to college without my laptop near me. Then again the laptop does interfere somewhat with my studies sometimes.
 
enginurd said:
The specs of that laptop should only cost you around $650. Look around for better deals. Check fatwallet.com, hardforum|hotdeals, gotapex.com, slickdeals.net, bensbargains.net, techbargains.com, etc.

The motherboard in your desktop upgrade is overpriced. Just go for a cheaper board that can OC better than that old crossfire board. The Abit IP35-E or Gigabyte P35-DS3L are good options, but if you want a bit more features, the P35-DS3R, Asus P5K-E, or Abit IP35 Pro are all better choices, imo, than the P5W DH Dlx.
Click to expand...

Ive been checking Dealnews and slickdeals and the [H]otdeals there are some cheaper but none that have a C2D and a 8000 series vid card most are celerons with built in and im not feeling that. I wanted it to do decent at gaming so i could lan with it too.

I went with this mobo because it had 3 PCI slots and Two IDE ports which is a must for me. Most of the boards i looked at didnt. But i will look into those boards you mentioned.

As far as the college thing im living in the college town now i planned going last year but didnt make enough to afford it but now im full time at my job and got a raise so i can save up enough pretty quickly. I wont be going this semester but hopefully next semester.
 
If you're going to college it all depends how far and what your trip to class is like.

Commuting back and forth to college or flying to school = laptop

Walking across campus and driving to school = desktop

Reason being that if you have a short commute to class, odds are the PCs in the labs will suffice in a pinch and you can always remote desktop into your home PC from within the campus network.

I type at 90+ words/minute and I couldn't take notes in college on a laptop for a few reasons:
Diagrams and short handed notes are much easier to create on paper
If I had anything in class to distract me (solitaire etc) I would NOT pay attention in class
Professors sometimes get pissed when you aren't looking at them during a lecture
Laptops get stolen
Good laptop = short battery life
The noise of typing really angers some people, especially old school professors
Big laptops don't fit on desks
Upgrading, nuff said

If you really want a laptop, get one off of craigslist for ~$100 that you can drag back and forth to class. Odds are after the first semester, you won't bother bringing it to class anymore and if you love it, you're only out $100 and you've got a sweet desktop in your room that is much better.

In the days of floppy's, laptops were a necessity, now they're just large portable USB drives as far as I'm concerned. I use two at work, but that's only because they were issued to me.

If you still want all the functionality of a laptop get a Pocket PC, I loved mine in college.
 
Thanatos. said:
Ive been checking Dealnews and slickdeals and the [H]otdeals there are some cheaper but none that have a C2D and a 8000 series vid card most are celerons with built in and im not feeling that. I wanted it to do decent at gaming so i could lan with it too.

I went with this mobo because it had 3 PCI slots and Two IDE ports which is a must for me. Most of the boards i looked at didnt. But i will look into those boards you mentioned.
Click to expand...

Well you can buy a IDE PCI Add on card for about $15 to $20 and it will usually provide 2 IDE ports.

Anyway, I think that laptop is good deal-ish.
 
I'd use the add-on card Danny mentioned. In fact, I'm using one right now. A cheaper board with 2 onboard IDE controllers that can OC better than the P5W DH is the MSI P6N SLI-FI. Theres a huge thread on it in the mobo subforum, so check it out.

I missed the 8600M when I first read your post, so that makes it a much better deal, lol.

Oh, and get financial aid... its easier than a full-time job. I just had fin.aid, a part time on-campus job, and a bunch of roommates, to help keep the rent low, lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top