First time laptop buyer seeking advice

Dylanj123

New Member
Hey all this is my first post so please be nice with replies lol.
I am looking at buying myself a laptop computer as I love the thought of sitting on my bed being able to watch movies and play games.
Being only a 14 year with my first job i am looking to spend my money on something that i will truly love and keep for hopefully many years into the future.
My price range is AU$2000-$2500 which using an online converter is about US$1500-$1850 or £850-£1050.
Now if you would like to know what it will be used for the primary reasons are DVD watching, DVD buring (for the whole family), Internet browsing, Music and Movie downloading and Online and sometimes Offline gaming (My current favourite is World of Warcraft.
I was also hoping to hook it up to the families' desktop computer's 1500 kb/s broadband connection.
I personally was hoping for 1Gb of RAM and 100Gb (could do with 80Gb) HDD and for my gaming needs a graphics card not sharing the system RAM.
Now i know that that is a hard task for my price range but after a few weeks of looking i have found a computer that matches all my above requirments (i think) it is {Acer Aspire 1644WLMi - S Centrino® Performance Model} with a price tag of AU$1999 but I know that with your guys computering knowlegde you can match or better that somewhere.
As I was hoping to have a TV card on it but it doesn't need to come with the laptop and could be purchased seperatly.
Also I'm guessing that it would get very hot inside so whould there be space to place an extra cooling fan?
And abou batteries, the specs on the Acer above says two hours of battery life and if i recall correctly that is using a 6-cell battery, so how much would it cost to upgrade or buy another battery that is 12-cell in hope of more battery time.
And finally with the Soccer World Cup coming up would there be a way of downloading the games to watch in my spare time if i miss them on the tele and is there a way of downloading games from England, I support Newcastle United and they aren't aired over here so I rarly get to see them, is there a place on the net to get them?

Thank you for reading this long post but any advice would be appreciated,

Regards Dylan

Ps. I will probally not be buying until my birthday which is in april, so if you knnow of any laptops matching (or beating) those specs coming out in the next few months there referance would also be appreciated
 
The only thing I can think of is the Asus A7Vc (in North America it's the Z83V). It's a customizeable unit with built in TV tuner. Carbon Fiber chassis, 17" screen with an ATI x700 video card. There's also the A5 with a 15.4" screen.
 
Thanks for that, I went on the ASUS AU site at couldnt see the price of the RAM or the HDD lol if you had this imformation i would be extreamlly greatful
Dylan
Ps i loved the 17" screen :D
 
Damn, I live in the country lol. The closest is 100Km's away and with a couple of minutes looking on google I'm guessing doesn't have a website either, but i might be able to have allok down there next week.
*wispers* please don't be working lol
Thanks for the help
Dylan
 
I'm sure you'll like it. Haven't had a complaint yet. If you look at may avatar, that's the Asus flag ship multimedia system, the W2V. It's more of a premium with subwoofer for that one, but the Z83V is more of a budget version, 4 speakers and customizeable too. Excellent screens- you'll see an even spread of light and colors.
 
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Well i just rang up the closest stockest acording to that site and the 17" has only 512Mb RAM no TV tuner and is AU$3000 but the 15.4" sounded more what i wanted with 1Gb RAM TV tuner and about AU$2500 so says the man I spoke to so... And also they both had 80Gb HDD's but thinking about it i do like the 15.4" model more then my original choice of the Acer and I think it comes with a inbuildt webcam and a remote aswell, please do correct me if I'm wrong and these are different models though
Dylan
 
Well that was great suggestion but I am not buying for another two months so all other suggestions are welcome. I would like to be able to compare all laptops that are in that range
Dylan
 
Yes, things change every 3 months or so. If you're not planning on buying until April, I'd start looking about a month or two before. It's strange that the people you called up only has set models, these are configurable units that should be configured to your liking. Have you tried looking at other resellers?
 
No, I'm not really sure what a reseller is. And like i said before I do live in the city 300Km's from Melbourne (Second biggest city in Australia) so in my town of about 10,000 we have one small computer shop that has Acer's mainly on display but he said he doesn't sell second hand laptops because to many things can go wrong with them and they are really expensive to repair. But the town that I go to school in that is 30Km's away has a computer shop that specialises in ASUS i think so i might drop back in there in a few weeks.
Ans what to you think would be likely to change in three months on that model?
Dylan

Edit: Sorry they specialise in LEC not ASUS, again damn lol
 
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Dylanj123 said:
No, I'm not really sure what a reseller is...
Oh, I should've word it differently, resellers doesnt really sell second hand products, they just buy from the supplier and resell to the end users. So basically a dealer, seller or whatever. As for change in 3 months, that's the usual in terms of technology. Cars come out once a year, computer products come out very often. So things may change by the time you want to buy. Either the hardware that's out or your preferences.
 
Well giving it a google I found a FAQ about ASUS that explained everything lol.
I was wondering if there are any Australian sites you know of that would let me customize it online so I can gt a price?
Dylan
Ps. You have been very helpful
 
Well the link I posted earlier are the list of some of the resellers in Australia, but if you call them, you can ask if they've got a website (I'm sure they do). You can probably work out the customizations on website to get an idea of pricing.
 
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