Smackre

im looking into buying a laptop. Yet i dont have alot of $ to go with...i realy like buying sumtin i knows gonna work or i can take it back cuz it dont ). I was looken to spend around 600$. Yet i dont want something realy slow. Id like to be able to play games but dont half to cuz i play them on my desktop.

let me know what you guys think i need. I looked at hp/dell/ibm/other computer websites and here is the best one i found so far.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...true&tab=specs

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Intel® Pentium® M Processor 730 (1.60 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen XGA+ Display
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800

charliex

link doesn't work as you'd expect it too, with things like that better to post the model etc too.

Smackre

dam let me look it up again hehe...sorry about that

Smackre

i beleive its the ze4000 series notebook
easiest way to get to it is probly just search for it.

Smackre

some reason search wont find that one. If you go to hp.com--->Home & Home Office---->notebooks or table pc--->HP Pavilion notebooks--> then its the last one...for 699.0

Smackre

still waiting on some suggestions. I realy dont wanna pay 700$ if someone can find me one cheaper.

sailor

Unfortunately, laptops are inherently expensive. Unless you really need one, you would probably be better served waiting until you can afford a better one.

That laptop should serve you fine for your standard internet fare, office work, etc, but dont plan on doing anything very strenuous with it. I dont know anything about the reliability or quality of HP notebooks--I personally prefer IBM laptops, and have used them and toshibas almost exclusively for about 7 years now.

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tingy

i recommend the ibook. You can find a 500MHZ one for around 500-600 dollars on ebay. They are very nice i have one myself. OS X is great!!!

Lasereth

For that price, you won't be able to play games very well on the laptop. It's cheaper to stick to gaming on your desktop like you said. For all other purposes besides gaming, the $699 one will be perfect. Hell, with a 1.8 GHz Athlon XP-M, the only thing holding back gaming would be the videocard. I'd still leave the gaming to a desktop though.

For a new laptop at $700 with good customer support, Dell, HP, IMB, etc. are the way to go. I'd make sure to get a new one though. To answer your question, yes, I'd buy that ZE4000 if I wanted to spend $700 on a laptop. Just don't expect to do much other than programs, Internet, school-work, etc.

-Lasereth

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charliex

i have a ze5185 and its 'ok' i say in quotes, since the video card sucks chrome off a tailpipe. its a good business style laptop, works with a lot of older games, or topdown style games.

if its the same card, or lesser i'd skip it, if it were for games.

checkout the hp forums you'll see us all bitching and whining about how bad the graphics are even during dvd playback

i'd hold off on an ibook at the moment, theres a new one coming out shortly, that will push down the price , i just returned my 700mhz ibook coz it had intermittent problems, some people have been complaining about common problems with them, i liked it while it worked though.

also ebay is a bad place imho for apple laptops, people frequently spend way over what the retail is on closeouts and such, i've seen g3 base ibooks selling for over the price of a g4 ibook recently. i bought my 700mhz g3 ibook for $519 from frys with a $69 2 year extended warranty. people are really unwilling to price them appropriately since they paid so much for them in the first place, and a lot of people are willing to overpay

Smackre

this laptop is mainly going to be for business. I spend alot of time on customer calls. And usualy i just half to jot the stuff down and then come back to work and draw it. My next question is this laptop good enough to run autocad. Autocad realy dont take muchto run. Autocad2004 im talken about. the only thing it needs is a little bit of video for rending and stuff. i think it will be a good investment for my business adventures. Also nice for travels )

Smackre

i dont know why i asked it would run autocad. that is a stupid question. One of my computers at work is runing autocad2004 nicely. And its a 500mhz with 64 ram and crapie video. this laptop should have no problem.

tritium

BestBuy usually has good deals on open box laptops. You could check out newegg.com or the compusa auctions. Sometimes Circuit City has open box, but not so many ... not sure why.

I have a Toshiba (s301) laptop that is very nice. Its a little on the heavy side, but because this thing is unbreakable.

Watch out for getting an el-cheapo laptop since the LCD screens usually suck -- particullary important since you're thinking about using AutoCAD with it. BTW, the 802.11b integrated cards usually have poor signal, so don't let that be a decision maker. Get an external PCMCIA 802.11b to take care of networking.

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tritium

You could build a mini-ITX computer and put it in a lunch box or something to cart back and forth to work ... that might be cheaper and a little bit better than a laptop. You could get a PCI graphics card then...

Downside is you'd need a monitor at home and at work to use with the system.

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charliex

well my ze5185 should handle autocad ok, its texturing where the problems lie in speed, and if its shaded or wireframe then no problems

Smackre

i wouldnt look very profeshional if i walked into a business with a lunch box of a computer ).

MexicanOnABike

get an alienware laptop! you can now upgrade them so you'll be playing halflife2 at work and halflife 3 for a while!

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charliex

http://www.outpost,com (frys) has a seeminlgy good deal on the front page for 1099 for a celery..

ps if your internal 802.11b card isn't outperforming your pcmcia wireless card you either got ripped off or somethings wrong, internal cards ought to have a large antenna running around the display.

tritium

In all of the Dell's, Gateway's and Toshiba's* that I've ripped apart for one reason or another, I've never seen an antennae rapped around the screen or any lead going that direction. Strange...

*all the one's that supposedly had 802.11b or a or g...

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