Possibly going to buy a new laptop, but need help!

J

jljhlhl

New Member
Ok right now I have an IBM Thinkpad T30, and its got a P4-M @ 1.9GHz, 256MB RAM, 20 GB Harddrive and just a crap Mobile ATI 16MB gfx in it.

I'm looking at the Dell Vostro 1500's, and this is what Im looking at:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, SP2, English
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
No Webcam Option
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
80G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive, without Roxio Creator
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
High Definition Audio 2.0

Comes to $699.99 + 6% GST, free shipping.

Is it worth the upgrade? I can still sell my current laptop for $250-$350 on eBay.

Canadian dollars by the way.

Let me know if you think its worth the upgrade. :)
 
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS [add $100 or $4/month1]
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT [add $150 or $5/month1]

Also have those options. I wont be doing much gaming on the system though, so I dont know if it would be worth it. I am on a budget. ;)
 
jljhlhl said:
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS [add $100 or $4/month1]
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT [add $150 or $5/month1]

Also have those options. I wont be doing much gaming on the system though, so I dont know if it would be worth it. I am on a budget. ;)
Click to expand...

go for the 8600gt if possible.
 
jljhlhl said:
Ok right now I have an IBM Thinkpad T30, and its got a P4-M @ 1.9GHz, 256MB RAM, 20 GB Harddrive and just a crap Mobile ATI 16MB gfx in it.

I'm looking at the Dell Vostro 1500's, and this is what Im looking at:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, SP2, English
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
No Webcam Option
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
80G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive, without Roxio Creator
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
High Definition Audio 2.0

Comes to $699.99 + 6% GST, free shipping.

Is it worth the upgrade? I can still sell my current laptop for $250-$350 on eBay.

Canadian dollars by the way.

Let me know if you think its worth the upgrade. :)
Click to expand...

to sell your laptop, check out cashforlaptops.com. they have an estimator that helped me out when i sold my laptop. you might even consider selling it to them.
 
Is the 8600 needed though? I dont play too many games...the main one I play on my desktop is Counterstrike:Source. Would this laptop handle it? Better than my current desktop setup (in sig)?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm not up on the new processors, video cards, etc. :P

As for cashforlaptops, thanks for the url, but they only offered $130 for it, when they're selling for $300 give or take on ebay, so I'd probably just list it for that much on ebay if I do decide to get this laptop. :p

I've heard mixed reviews on Dell...some say they're crap, some say they're good...whats your opinion? The build looks decent for the dollar...in my opinion. :P
 
jljhlhl said:
Any more help in deciding would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

if youre not planning to game, then the 8400 will be fine, but if your budget allows it, i would highly recommend it, considering future GPU taxing processes. as for dell vs other, ill let you deside...here is a link to the HP vs Dell thread i posted
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the link.

I think due to the price concerns and what you get, I'll have to stick with the Dell. :P

To make my decision though, I have this one last question.

With the laptop specs I'm looking at getting (Posted above), if I add the 8600 V-card to it, will it outperform my current desktop (HP in siggy)?

If it will, I'll probably sell my desktop AND old laptop, and then get a nice laptop. Final thoughts. :P

I think the laptop with the C2D + 8600 should outperform my AMD 64 3300+ and ATI AIW 9600, but I'm not sure. Just need a yes or no answer and then I'll make my decision.

Thanks a ton!
 
It will definately play games better than your desktop.

Off topic - Cashforlaptops offered me $185 for my piece of crap PII Fujitsu notebook!
 
I figured so. Awesome. :D

Last question. xD Whats a docking station do? Ill be connecting my laptop to my 19" monitor usually...should I buy a docking station?
 
jljhlhl said:
I figured so. Awesome. :D

Last question. xD Whats a docking station do? Ill be connecting my laptop to my 19" monitor usually...should I buy a docking station?
Click to expand...

You don't have to get one. Pretty much you put your laptop onto it and it acts as a port replicator. Back in the day they were very popular because laptops didn't have many ports on them. But now a days a laptop will come with all the ports you need. Depending on which one you have, some let you plug internal drives in and such.

Oh, and I have a T30 that I bought off ebay a couple years ago for around $500, and it recently broke, guess what? Because I got the squaretrade extended warranty, they are going to reimburse me the original price I paid since it would cost too much to fix!
 
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