Posted September 30, 200519 yr I've just got a query about laptops. I've been looking at getting one for about a month now, instead of upgrading my desktop it seems more economical to just downsize. Looking in the $1300 range I managed to come up with a couple brands that I thought stood out, Toshiba and Apple. first let me give some specs as to what I want at the very least: Pentium 1.6 GHz processor 1GB DDr333 64MB geForce go6600 (or the radeon equivalent, I'm not too picky) 15" screen Dual Format burner (DVD-RW+-/CD-RW) the Toshiba Tecra A5 is currently on Newegg.com for $1199 with something close to that. Browsing around CNET I found the Toshiba Satellite M series (45-55) which I found to be very good looking, and not too much more than the A5 ($1300-$1400 if I recall correctly) From the Apple site I found an Apple certified refurbished g4 15" powerbook for $1600, which is really one heck of a deal considering how much I REALLY like the aesthetics of the apple notebooks. Also on Apple.com They have the 14" iBooks for a reasonable $1300, and again, I like this option a whole lot. As for usage, I don't see myself playing anything newer than Counter Strike: Source except maybe Day of Defeat: Source, but even those aren't necessary since I'll be at school again and trying to graduate. Half Life 1 mods should keep me reasonably entertained in my free time before bed. So really besides powerpoints, some graphic/webpage design, forum browsing, folding@home, I don't think it will see too much stress. If any of you has any experience with any of these models, or if you can suggest something similair, but of another brand or what have you, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks in Advance. -theNino
September 30, 200519 yr http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/product2.cfm?ProductType=3880&SubType=V Browse around the site, they have pretty sollid products with good prices. If you are hell bent on a Pentium M then there you go, but you might want to think about Athlon 64 series, at least consider them.
October 1, 200519 yr Author do the 64's get the same battery life? I really don't want to have to carry an adapter all the time either =/ I went to Best Buy today to see the Toshiba's and look them over, I really like the M55, it's only a 14 inch screen which looks a lot smaller than the 15, but I can get over that pretty easily I guess. It says it uses a Centrino 750, but it wasn't 750 MHz, I assume it's the 1.73GHz because it was $1500, and it had a 100GB hard drive too instead of the 60GB I figured for $1300. Anyway I more or less wanted to sell my car right there and get the notebook I liked it so much =/
