Looking for Tips/Resources for buying laptop

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lookinforhelp

New Member
OK so I've been looking around quite a bit over the last week and I think I'm close. I've decided I want the following:

Widescreen (15" or 15.4")
DVD Burner
512MB RAM (expandable to AT LEAST 1GB, preferably 2GB)
802.11g
AMD Athlon 64 (may still go w/ P4 though)
Decent video card

A feature that I just learned about recently that would be a really-nice-to-have is where you don't need to completely start up Windows to play DVD's and music.

Based on my preferences I am seriously looking at the HP zv5000z series notebook. It seems to have everything I want (minus the playing DVD's/Music w/o booting Windows) for a reasonable price. After configuring I was at $1499.

I'm here to run this by a knowledgeable crowd. Keeping in mind my budget of ~$1500ish do you think the zv5000z series is a good buy? Any suggestions?

Also would the 64MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 4 440 video card be considered "decent." I'm not a serious gamer and if I REALLY want to get into the latest most demanding games I can upgrade my desktop computer. I just want the laptop to be able to handle a good portion of games.

Thanks again for any help!
 
K

krypto_dog

New Member
I'm glad I saw this thread. I actually registered here just because I'm shopping for a laptop but I'm really not sure about some stuff. My needs are similar to the other poster; I'm not really a big gamer, but it would be fun to be able to run some games.

OK, so here's a big question: has anyone had any experience with refurbished or reconditioned laptops? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Here's one that I kind of like that fits my budget:
http://clearanceclub.com/cgi-bin/quelle_showroom.cgi?sku=2034

This one's actually new, but I don't know anything about these guys? Anyone have any advice or knowledge about some of these online dealers?

K.
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
A feature that I just learned about recently that would be a really-nice-to-have is where you don't need to completely start up Windows to play DVD's and music.
Click to expand...
But certainly nothing to pay an addtion hundred bucks for.

Also would the 64MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 4 440 video card be considered "decent." I'm not a serious gamer and if I REALLY want to get into the latest most demanding games I can upgrade my desktop computer. I just want the laptop to be able to handle a good portion of games.
Click to expand...
I'd consider the video unit to be decent BUT decent does not mean that it will play a good portion of games :)

The notebook you've got specd there is a nice buy for that price indeedy :)
 
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