need help choosing please

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di$TOrTed

New Member
Ok, i'm brand new to these forums so i'm sorry if i'm doing anything against the rules in this thread, i read them and I don't think I am but sorry anyway.

Alright, lately i've been considering buying myself a laptop so I don't have to share a computer with the rest of the family anymore and i'll probably use it in college once i graduate next year. However, I don't have that much money because I spent it all on paintball equipment. I have a basic knowledge of hardware and software, but I'm not a genious, so I have a few questions.

What's better? HP notebooks or Dell?

Nvidia or Radeon cards? Whats the difference? I heard NVidia performs better but Radeons output better graphics, this true?

I'm looking to keep costs down, under $600 if possible, but still be able to do what i want. Basically, i need to be able to do my school work, program in C++ and Java, watch DVDs, instant message, browse internet or course, it must have a good wi-fi internet connection or whatever that wireless thing is, and I play Counter-strike 1.6 a lot. I would like to be able to run CS:Source too but I don't know if I could afford a computer to run it decently. I know 1.6 doesn't take big requirements though but it must be able to run 1.6 smooth as I plan to get into CAL play and stuff once I get more time on my hands. Also, what is best, Intel or AMD processors? I heard AMD was best for gaming so those are what I have been looking at.

I know a lot of this stuff, but there is a lot I'm not sure of and don't understand fully so I would just like some input from you all that know what you're talking about. I've shopped around some, but I really don't know what to get. Here are a few I was looking at:

Dell Inspiron 1501
AMD Sempron 3500+ (1.8GHz)
Vista Basic
ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 256mb integrated memory
512mb DDR2 RAM
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
$550

HP Pavilion dv6000z
Vista Basic
AMD Sempron 3500+
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
512mb DDR2 RAM
802.11b/g WLAN <--- thats the wireless thing i'm assuming
$580

I know both of these are similar, but what are the differences? Which is better?

I also added some options to the HP and here's what i've come up with, does this seem good:

HP Pavilion dv6000z
AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-50(1.6GHz/512KB)
Vista Basic
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200
1GB RAM
802.11b/g WLAN
$790

I also found

Dell Inspiron 1501
AMD Turion 64 MK-36 (2.0GHz)
Vista Basic
ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 256mb integrated memory
1GB DDR2 RAM
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
$780

I know that those are much better, but i'm not sure if I can afford one of those though as its $240 or so more.......

Another thing, my dad's desktop that I'm on now has broadband internet and a wireless router. If I hook up to the wireless internet from the notebook, will I get broadband speed on the laptop or will it be slower? Do the wireless cards on the notebooks I looked at seem adequete for high speed internet connections and multiplayer gaming?

Also, on a dual-core processor, if it's 1.6Ghz, does that make the total speed 3.2ghz because there is 2 processors? Or how does that work? I've heard different things about that.

Thanks you all very much for taking the time to read my long post and answer.
 
holdenssx

holdenssx

New Member
di$TOrTed said:
If I hook up to the wireless internet from the notebook, will I get broadband speed on the laptop or will it be slower? Do the wireless cards on the notebooks I looked at seem adequete for high speed internet connections and multiplayer gaming?
Click to expand...

Yes, you will get broadband speed with wireless ( I am on wireless right now getting 5.5mbits/sec download speed). The cards on the notebooks will work for broadband speeds. I saw one of the notebooks only supported g, while the other supported b and g. This could be a problem because you may not be able to connect to a B router with a G card (although most routers are G these days) and doing wireless multiplayer gaming is a headache waiting to happen.
hope this helps
 
CPTMuller

CPTMuller

New Member
I doubt very much that either of those will run CS:S with much proficiency, and would estimate 850$+ for anything capable of it for Cal league gaming

shoot for an e1505 with Core 2 Duo and the ATI Radeon x1400 with 1 gigabyte of ram. Any of the wireless cards should do (Ask your dad if it is a Wireless G router, if not then you will either need a card with wireless B and G or an upgraded router) although wireless b is signifigantly slower.

Wireless internet should be enough for gaming, for cal you might want to use a landline.

And for dual core it does not add up, for most games of that caliber it will not utalize both cores, however if you run programs in the background you will find that it is much faster to run dual core than it is otherwise.

For your price range I would highly reccomend checking Craigslist and local areas for sales on desktop parts., because that is what will be closest to your budget while still maintaining performance adequate for CS:S and or CAL gaming.

Until you can invest 850-900 it is hard to expect gaming performance, however it will do everything else you want.

Feel free to ask more questions as I am sure I missed stuff you want to know =)
 
CPTMuller

CPTMuller

New Member
Oh and also, I wouldn;t go as far as to say that AMD is better for gaming, for your budget it is possible but unlikely, go for something with dual core. Also in response to HoldenSSX, wireless gaming is prettymuch hassle-free if you have a decent enough router/wireless card, I raided in wow played BF2 and CS:S all ine on wireless. My 1gb of ram bottlenecks my gaming more than wireless did.
 
The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
What's better? HP notebooks or Dell?
Click to expand...
Eh, some of their laptops are fine, others are horrible. I can't really say which brand is better. My suggestion would be to simply do some reasearch on the models and see how other people like them, and any problems they have.

Nvidia or Radeon cards? Whats the difference? I heard NVidia performs better but Radeons output better graphics, this true?
Click to expand...
In all honestly, I doubt you'll see any visual difference between the two. I rarely notice any difference in quality when using the two brands, or even others. As for performace, I suppose for the most part a compariable card is better from Nvida. The x1600 is a good bit slower than the 7600 series. But of course, not all ATI cards are slower than Nvidia :p

...and I play Counter-strike 1.6 a lot. I would like to be able to run CS:Source too but I don't know if I could afford a computer to run it decently.
Click to expand...
I'd seriously invest a little more money if you want to play games on it. I don't know too much about the cards, but both are bottom of the barrel cards. Only slightly better(if any) than your bare Intel integrated crap :p

I heard AMD was best for gaming so those are what I have been looking at.
Click to expand...
More past news. Intel is much faster now-of-days, but that's more for the desktop market. I haven't researched the latest mobile processors recently, but Intel has always had a slight edge with them. Personally I'd go with an Intel, but a higher end model. Not some Celeron, or whatever their lowest ones are now.

Another thing, my dad's desktop that I'm on now has broadband internet and a wireless router. If I hook up to the wireless internet from the notebook, will I get broadband speed on the laptop or will it be slower?
Click to expand...
Of course you'll get broadband speeds! Why wouldn't you? ;) As long as you're getting a good strong signal, your wireless network should run at least 11Mb/s. A typical broadband modem doesn't even go faster than 10MB/s, so of course you'll be matching the speed of the internet. Now there are other factors that could mess up your connection... Noise, distance, etc. As you get farther away, your signal strength and speed decrease.

Also, on a dual-core processor, if it's 1.6Ghz, does that make the total speed 3.2ghz because there is 2 processors?
Click to expand...
Totally false. Dual core is like having two processors. However, this does NOT double your speed. It simply "shares the load" between the cores.
 
D

di$TOrTed

New Member
The_Other_One said:
I'd seriously invest a little more money if you want to play games on it. I don't know too much about the cards, but both are bottom of the barrel cards. Only slightly better(if any) than your bare Intel integrated crap :p
Click to expand...

Are you sure none of those $560 range computers I listed would work decent for CS 1.6? It's an 8 year old game........ the original requirements are like 333mhz processor and 32mb video memory. Are you sure I couldn't run it smooth?

Also, out of the 2 cheaper laptops I listed, which would be best? I don't think I will have the money for the others but I will save and see how it goes.

If I were to save up a long time and get something really good, how does this sound:

Alienware Area-51 m5550
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5500 1.66GHz
Vista Basic
1GB RAM
265MB NVidia GeForce Go 7600
Internal Intel PRO Wireless 3945 a/b/g Mini-Card
$1300 :(

That seems a little expensive.... could I get better for cheaper? I know i'm probably paying a lot for the alienware name, but will it still perform better than something else?
 
CPTMuller

CPTMuller

New Member
Sorry! Misinterperted. 1.6 would play somewhat smoothly.
As far as better for the price I would reccomend a Dell inspiron e1505:
there are multiple coupons available depending on what you can spend 300$ off a 999$+ laptop (best bet) or 500$ off a 1499$+ laptop
for about 700:
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5200 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife™ edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm edit
HARD DRIVE 120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™

1003$-300=703$ and IMHO about the best deal at your budget.

Check the local craigslist listings anything with a Go7400/6600(0r better) Mobility Radeon x1400/x600 (or better) Will work just fine.
 
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di$TOrTed

New Member
What are these coupons you speak of? Are these through dell? Where would I get them?

And all that craigslist stuff is used right.... unless i'm looking at the wrong stuff. I want to buy new.

and btw thank you all for helping me noone has bashed me or called me a noob or anything even though I know I am... thanks
 
cryption

cryption

New Member
copied from www.powernotebooks.com

Virtually none of the "Name" brands manufacture their own laptops, with the about the only exception being Asus.

Instead they buy their laptops from what is called an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM). These ODMs sell their computers to several different OEMs (like DELL, Toshiba, Lenovo (formerly IBM), HP, Compaq, Sager, PowerPro, Sony and many others) who then install the Hard Drive (usually a Seagate, Fujitsu, Hitachi or Toshiba), an Intel or AMD Processor, and System Memory. They then put their label on it and market it.

For example:

An ODM named Clevo makes the Sager NP9890 and the Alienware Area-51 m7700, the Voodoo Envy u:703, the Hypersonic Aviator EX7, the Falcon Northwest FragBook DR 6800, and they are all the same computer (although Sager usually has the more advanced and exotic technology).

Of course the Sager models have a much sweeter price tag!

An ODM named Compal makes some of the DELL, Hewlett Packard and Compaq line of laptops, among others, as well as the PowerPro L 8:15 (Built on Compal HEL80).

ASUS, famous worldwide for their top quality motherboards and other components makes their own laptops and call them their "Ensemble" line. They also sell their "Built-on-ASUS" line to many different OEMs including PowerNotebooks.com. These models are the PowerNotebooks.com PowerPro A 2:24 (Built on ASUS 96J), the Crown R 6:22 (Built on ASUS Z92Km), the PowerPro P 2:14 (Built on ASUS Z62F), and the Crown C 3:15 (Built on ASUS Z33Ae).

The Dell Latitude and the Sony Vaio are made by Quanta, who also makes many of the IBM laptops, and the now-discontinued PowerPro C 3:16, and the new PowerPro G 3:14 (Built on Quanta SW1). Quanta is well known as one of the best and highest quality laptop ODM in the world.

Other ODM names are Mitac, FIC, AOpen, and Uniwill, among others. Not exactly what you would call "Name" brands, and yet it is their laptops that end up with the "Name" brands on them.

Well, you get the idea.

Some call this the "Dirty little secret of the Laptop Industry".


I have gotten laptops from www.discountlaptops.com and www.powernotebooks.com

however if you are looking at one of the big name brands, I would for sure get an HP over a Dell. Simply because they have better technical support, and the construction and their laptops seems more sturdy. The computer repair shop I work at, literally 70% of all the computers we get in for repairs are Dell. Many are hardware failures, laptops included. They just use cheaper hardware then say HP does. That's why I bought an HP .... it's that Asus motherboard and Kingston ram.
 
CPTMuller

CPTMuller

New Member
cryption said:
copied from www.powernotebooks.com
however if you are looking at one of the big name brands, I would for sure get an HP over a Dell. Simply because they have better technical support, and the construction and their laptops seems more sturdy. The computer repair shop I work at, literally 70% of all the computers we get in for repairs are Dell. Many are hardware failures, laptops included. They just use cheaper hardware then say HP does. That's why I bought an HP .... it's that Asus motherboard and Kingston ram.
Click to expand...
I COMPLETELY disagree. I own a Dell e1705, which admitedly has given me issues. Dell has sent me a new wireless card, replaced the mobo and ram, and is currently about to replace my entire unit due to some unthinkable part malfunctioning. As for build quality a friend with the same model has been destroying his day by day (not intentionally ofcourse). And it has held strong. He literally tosses his backpack around with the laptop inside.... But to each their own.
 
CPTMuller

CPTMuller

New Member
That is not a very powerful card look for something with a 7700 or 7900GS or X1700(or better dont know much about Mobility Radeon cards.
 
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