Need thoughts. Laptops to choose from for me

C

chanchan05

New Member
Basically I'm trying to decide on buying a laptop. As I live in the Philippines, I am stuck with either HP or Sony as they are the only ones with actual company service centers here. Buying any other brand would force me to go to third party service providers who could not guarantee me anything IMO. I have a budget of more or less 60k PhP, and from that, either I get an HP with a good proc but poor graphics chip, ot get the Sony with the weaker proc but better graphics chip. Here are my choices available here in my country (Phils) (Prices in PhP). Which do you think is best? Use will be mainly for internet surfing, light gaming (mostly offline RPG or strategy like Plants vs Zombies, SIM City 4, Diablo II, Starcraft, Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, maybe diablo III once its out..^_^) when time permits or stressed out, and school work (med school starting june, so mostly typing, and picture related software). Also, I would wish to have the best combination of power, capabilities and ligh-weight.

HP Pavilion dv3-2107
price: 58,990
Intel Core2Duo P7550 2.26Ghz, 3mb L2 cache, 1066mhz FSB
2GB Memory
320Gb SATA HDD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (shared)
2.13kg

HP Pavilion dv3-2008tu
Price: 56,950
Intel Core2Duo P8600 2.4Ghz 3mb L2 cache 1066mhz FSB
2gb memory
250gb SATA HDD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (shared)
2.25kg

HP Pavilion dv3-2016tx
Price : 61,950
Intel Core2Duo P8600 2.4Ghz 3mb L2 cache 1066mhz FSB
2gb memory
320gb SATA HDD
Nvidia GeForce G 105M
2.25kg

Sony Vaio VPCCW13EG
Price: 53,000
Intel Core2Duo T6600 2.2Ghz 2mb L2 cache 800mhz FSB
2Gb Memory
250Gb SATA HDD
Nvidia GeForce G210M
2.4kg

Obviously the last two are best, but I am not sure If I'm getting my value for my money on the third one, which is why I put the first two in. A concern here in choosing is that the first two HP units offer me a free upgrade to 4Gb RAM, which basically eliminates much of the price differential between the two brands. I would have liked the Sony, except that its the heaviest of the four, not to mention the slowest proc, however, its proc is also cooler by up to 20 degrees celsius running temperature. With that in mind, it is likely to hold up more to intense usage. My old HP broke down on me due to overheating+nvidia defect+2007 HP design flaw of small fan and vents. I've checked the newer units out and they have like 300% bigger vents than the old design and fans that are twice as big, so i reckon heating wouldnt be too much of a drag.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I really wouldnt mind if I play the games in the lower settings since they'll be mostly for de-stressing during free time. I could also watch movies then so I would not be playing always.
 
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I just got a DV7-3085dx with a corei7 quad--if its available in the phillipines, you should be able to it for under the 60,000 PHP u mentioned, assuming my conversions are accurate,.

1250-1300 Canada Dollars...55,000-60,000 Phillipine Pesos
 
No, its not listed in the philippine site for HP. We only got up to dv6 here, last time i checked. The size is also a concern. Much as I'd like as large a screen as possible, I'd like to keep my unit under 2.5kilos, roughly 5lbs.
 
I have known 4 people with vaios and all have problems that are common with them. Unless you plan on buying a tv, don't go with sony.
 
chanchan05 said:
No, its not listed in the philippine site for HP. We only got up to dv6 here, last time i checked. The size is also a concern. Much as I'd like as large a screen as possible, I'd like to keep my unit under 2.5kilos, roughly 5lbs.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, mine is 7.7 lbs with a 17" screen.
 
Flaring Afro said:
I have known 4 people with vaios and all have problems that are common with them. Unless you plan on buying a tv, don't go with sony.
Click to expand...
No way? I mean squaretrade's analysyis was that HP were the worst product for hardware malfunctions, with over 25% rating, while sony was only with like 18% (the best were ASUS and TOSHIBA with 16%). What sort of problems are these anyway?
 
Problems with audio and stuff. They'd commonly loose audio and need a restart for it to work - reinstalling the driver does nothing its just a common problem with the model(s). I think one of them had a video issue too I couldn't fix. Just seems like they aren't tested too well before production. Maybe they might hold up ok but they have some problems from the start since sony seems to have less experience with computers.

I'm not saying i'm a big fan of hp though...
 
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