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Random laptop ranting...

K

KINgGh0sT

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 11, 2001
Messages
1,076
Okay, I've been trying to find the laptop I want and have been searching desperatly for three weeks now to come up with nothing but crap... I did however find the laptop I want it's just that for some unknown reason Gateway refuses to sell this laptop in Canada....

This is what I want!

Centrino Laptop
512 megs of ram
60 Gig Harddrive
17" WXGA TFT Active Matrix
Cd burner/dvd combo
Wireless (given)
ATI Radeon X700 64MB Graphics (or something similar!)

Is this too much to ask for, and not cost 2000 CDN dollars? Honestly, this is only 1200 dollars USD, thats 1500 CDN roughly!

Someone help me find a laptop please!
 
shoman24v said:
Dell 9300
Click to expand...
X700 isn't available on the 9300.

Closest thing I could find from Dell at least is the D810 Latitude. It just has X600 Graphics, but 128MB memory. It's $1800 Canadian, though that's converting a US price to CAD.
 
who cares about the x700 the 9300 can have the 6800go.

He also said something similar to the X700.
 
Like I was looking at the X300 but I can't find many reviews for it, so I assume it's not great, I'm not a power gamer by any means, I play the odd game but would like the option. Does the X300 suck completely or will it work decently?
 
KINgGh0sT said:
Like I was looking at the X300 but I can't find many reviews for it, so I assume it's not great, I'm not a power gamer by any means, I play the odd game but would like the option. Does the X300 suck completely or will it work decently?
Click to expand...
I have an X300 64mb for my xps 2. I can run the battery for abotu 4:45 with it. It scores about 1200 in 3dmark05 OVERCLOCKED. It plays games.... I highly recommend you get the 128mb X300 as it has pratically double the performacnce of the 64mb version.

With the 128mb card you should be able to play games fine..
 
X300 is a bit better than old 9700 Moblie cards, B/C they have higher clock speeds and a bit better cores. Have you looked into acers that have the 6600go's. Look around. I haste to break it to you, a 17WXGA/or WUXGA screens will only come on premium laptops. Look for 15.4 Widescren and you should find something in your buget.
 
yah, the x300 would be fine for your needs. i had the desktop PCIe version with 128mb of ram, and it could play bf2 on low settings at low resolution, so looks like your fine.
 
Accept the fact that PC gaming on a laptop is an exercise in futility and that the rudimentary CAD work you do for Professor Johnson's class works just as well on Intel Extreme as it does on a 6800go and just get yourself a 9300 or X-series Thinkpad.
 
Vengance_01 said:
X300 is a bit better than old 9700 Moblie cards, B/C they have higher clock speeds and a bit better cores. Have you looked into acers that have the 6600go's. Look around. I haste to break it to you, a 17WXGA/or WUXGA screens will only come on premium laptops. Look for 15.4 Widescren and you should find something in your buget.
Click to expand...


Acer back in the day was terrible, I wouldn't use one if it was given to me, I've never ever liked them, are they better now?
 
KINgGh0sT said:
Acer back in the day was terrible, I wouldn't use one if it was given to me, I've never ever liked them, are they better now?
Click to expand...

Much better! I work at a retail store and they have been all we sold for three years now. In that time I have had three come back. Two were bad HDs which acer shipped me no questions asked, cross ship at that. The third was blantantly dropped, and they still repaired it. I have one myself, and couldn't be happier with it.

 
Asus Z70v Refresh should be out soon enough and it will feature an X700. I have a V6V (basically a Z70v in a lighter, much sexier chassis) and they are solid machines. My Mom also has an Asus A6ne which is a lower end machine but still packed with Widescreen, DVD-R, etc and build quality is amazing across the board.
 
Pick one of the Gateway models you already found, find someone you trust either here on the Forums or else a friend in the States, and just have it shipped to them. You said it's about 1500CDN, so it'll still only be about an extra $100 (with insurance) to ship across the border from there- far below 2000CDN!

*I hate Gateway myself, although I hope their merger with eMachines brought about some improvements.
 
Acers are definitely a good buy. They seem to be damn cheap, and I have had one for 3 years with no problems. They also have a huge range of laptops, so it shouldn't be hard finding something you like.
 
mavalpha said:
Pick one of the Gateway models you already found, find someone you trust either here on the Forums or else a friend in the States, and just have it shipped to them. You said it's about 1500CDN, so it'll still only be about an extra $100 (with insurance) to ship across the border from there- far below 2000CDN!

*I hate Gateway myself, although I hope their merger with eMachines brought about some improvements.
Click to expand...

I have a friend I can trust but they do not have a credit card I can use since it must be an american based card, also there's bs about exporting a laptop out of the states, something about FCC regulations or some crap.
 
KINgGh0sT said:
I have a friend I can trust but they do not have a credit card I can use since it must be an american based card, also there's bs about exporting a laptop out of the states, something about FCC regulations or some crap.
Click to expand...

Bad question but why couldn't you add you friends house to your credit card as an alternate shipping address then just bill it to yours? When you friend gets it either drive to his house(if he and you are close to the line) or have him reship it?
 
Outside the US, compaqs and HP's have a decent presence...your beloved dell though is too costly and not very competitive. I hear all too often the phrase 9300. Why not look outside the DELL product line and familiarized yourselves with other manufacturers. I have owned a majority of the American manufacturers at somepoint and never had anything good to say. Dell is only good because they will finance almost anyone. So if you wish finance, they are attractive. Though, little do some know, that you can buy pre-built laptops from places like wal-mart online with financing.

I researched my laptop (ferrari 4005) for about 1 year. Looking at all that was available on the market. I waited for the Turion chip to come out because I don't like Intel's marketing schemes. They all too often don't put very decent hardware together. Anyone that tolerates their "Extreme Graphics" chips is a much more forgiving soul than I.

Acer controls, or more accurately "Dominates" the market outside the united states. They had some issues early on with motherboard manufacturers and the same with makers of hard drives. These two issues were resolved when they began using more notable brands for their motherboards and drives. The Acer Ferrari has a Seagate drive in it as well as an ATI chipset. Many of their laptops use the ATI 200P chipset if they use the Turion processors.

For what the original poster was discussing, I think the Acer Travelmate 4400 fits his menu. It has a X700 with 64 mb dedicated memory, ATI chipset, Turion processor, 512 mb of DDR, dvd burner...but why listen to me? listen to this guy here .

I recommend buying any Acer from Zipzoomfly When they shipped mine to me it was packed in another box with air bags and popcorn. They didn't just ship me the laptop in its regular box for the world to see what I was buying.

As for why I would not get a centrino based laptop...64 bit is coming whether some think it is a fad or not. With all the new software coming that will support 64 bit, I can't see why you would buy a laptop without that functionality. Since you cannot upgrade much on the laptops, it would make sense to be "Future ready." Some of the other important things to note are who acer uses for parts. If you do the research, you will find out there are some very good companies vending them parts.

The next thing to pay attention to is "Bang for the buck" Acer's laptops are thin and light in most cases while maintaining performance and functionality. While this Turion might not be a barn burner for battery life, I am pretty impressed that I have a AMD 64 that gets something over 3 hours of life while typing surfing. I am using a program called RMclock to control the stepping, but beyond that it is very nice. Weight for me was an issue. I had to have a laptop that wasn't very heavy, the Travelmate 4400 weighs about that same as my Ferrari around 6 pounds.

I will say that DELL does make some "Decent" things, but I would by no means call them the best out there. They make what they think the consumer wants then allow you to configure within a range. Problem is, once you configure what it is you wanted to start with...you should have bought a ACER. I configured both the beloved 9300 and XPS 2 to the specs that I would have tolerated. I am not going to spend 3000 for a laptop when I could have bought this Ferrari for $2100 SHIPPED OVERNIGHT!

So, after my little rant and information. I am a proud owner of ACER products and I think that the company has the right mindset. They had some flaws to begin with, but they have made strides to correct them and improve thier product. Anyone that has been burned by a acer in the past needs to read the message boards and notice no one is flaming them. If they had such a bad rep...you'd be reading about it. not many people come to post good things, they are only motivated to post when they want attention to a problem they are having. so look for those flames and make your decision.

By the specs you listed there are two laptops I would recommend.

Travelmate 4400 or the HP "Lance armstrong" laptop.
Both of these laptops are inexpensive and feature lots of power, while the lance armstrong laptop doesn't have the video you are looking for, you cannot deny the price!
 
I also decided that I really liked Acer when you read their fine print. There is very limited "JUNK" thrown into the install. There is nothing about any internet provider like AOL, it came without any productivity software (I own office and didn't want to unload the works or word package to load on my full version premium.)

So this too me was value in in itself. After configuring laptops for the last year, I hated that there were certian choices that you HAD to have. :mad:
 
Thanks guys for all your help, this is why I heart hardforum :)

Anyways was wondering, am I stupid if I don't get an extended warrenty?


ALso I think I found my laptop...


Z71V Base System ASUS Z71A Base System
CPU Intel Pentium M Mobile Sonoma Dothan CPU 1.73 GHz 2MB 740 FSB 533
Memory 2048MB (2GB) DDR2 533 Laptop SO DIMM Memory (1024x2)
Hard Drive Fujitsu 60GB 5400rpm 8MB Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD RW 8x Dual Layer, CD-RW, DVD/CD drive for Z71 Series
Free Asus Original Laptop Carrying Case
Warranty 1 Year Parts & 1 Year Labor Warranty


(Canadian Dollars) Priced At: $1,560.00
 
I don't think you are crazy at all, but if they cover the monitor replacement...they can be worth every penny!
 
Make your config has the go 6600, they also ship a z71a version of that laptop with GMA900
 
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