Need HELP in buying Laptop

[ScarecrowDR]

Hi there I need help in decideding on buying a laptop..
It must have DVI for Digital Photography Projection.
I found 2 but one do not give you any CDRs with Drivers or anything else. He says to Back it up with Ghost or simular. It has 2Mb cache...Second un has All CDRs needed n more but only got 256KBt cache...Here are the specks of both.
Number 1
AMD Mobile Turion 64x2 TL58
SATA HDD 160 GB ( 5400 RPM)
15.4" (WXGA) Colour Shine
ATI Mobility Radeon X1250
DVD Super Multi Double Layer
2048 Mb DDR2 667 (1024 x2)
Video Camera built-in (1.3 million pixels)
In-Built Bluetooth
Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor & Cache Memory AMD Mobile Turion 64x2 TL58

Operation System Microsoft® Windows® Vista Home Premium

Main Memory 2048 ( 2 x 1024) Mb DDR2 667

Display 15.4" WXGA (1280*800)

Video Graphics & Memory
AMD M690G

Hard Drive 2.5" 9.5 mm IDE HDD with Ultra DMA100 supported
SATA 160 GB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
DVD Super Multi

Card Reader SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO

Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN 10/100/1000 Base T
IEEE 802.11a/b/g
Built-in Bluetooth® V2.0+EDR

Video Camera 1.3 Million Pixels

LED Status Indicator Power-on/Suspend
Battery Charging/Full/Low
Wireless Indicator
Bluetooth Indicator
Capital Lock
Number Lock
Scroll Lock
Storage Device Access

Interface 4 x USB 2.0 Ports
1 x IEEE 1394 port
1 x Headphone-out Jack
1 x Microphone-in Jack
1 x RJ11 Modem Jack for Phone Line
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN Insert
1 x DVI-D
1 x S-video/TV-out (NTSC/PAL) Port

Hot Keys Instant launch Keys:
4 buttons: Power4 Gear +, Email, Internet, Touchpad Lock
Function Keys:
Fn+F1 Suspend switch
Fn+F2 Wireless (Bluetooth) switch
Fn+F5 Brightness down
Fn+F6 Brightness up
Fn+F7 LCD on/off
Fn+F8 LCD/CRT switch display
Fn+F10 Volume on/mute
Fn+F11 Volume down
Fn+F12 Volume up

Audio Built-in High Definition audio compliant audio chip

Battery Pack & Life 6 cells 53.28 Wh

Dimension W 365mm, H 40mm, D 269mm

Weight 2.75 Kg


Security BIOS Booting / HDD User Password Protection and security lock
Kensington lock hole

Supplied Accessories
Multimedia Software ASUSDVD XP 6.0
Power Director V3.0 DE
Medi@Show V2.0 SE

Special Features Built-in high resolution webcam for wire-free video communication
ASUS Splendid Video Intelligence technology
Stay connected with Wireless Freedom
Easier and Faster Digital Data Transmission

Package Contents Users Manual
Modem Lead
S-Video to Composite Lead
Power Lead
Power Adapter
Battery
Recovery DVD
Nero
Drivers and Utilities CD

Warranty & e-support 2-year limited global hardware warranty
1-year battery pack warranty

Number 2
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Santa-Rosa (T5250 - 1.5 GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB)
Screen 15.4" (Crystalbrite WXGA Acer TFT LCD)
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
RAM HIGH (2048MB 2GB)
Hard Drive 120GB
Optical Drive DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics Dedicated (ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X2400 XT with up to 1024 MB of HyperMemory)
Wireless LAN Wireless (802.11b/g Wireless)
Network Card 10/100/1000 Gigabit Fast Ethernet
Integrated Webcam Yes (CrystalEye Webcam)
Card Reader 5-in-1 card reader (SD//MS/MS-Pro/MMC/xD-Picture card™)
USB Ports 3x USB 2.0 ports
Speakers Intergrated Stereo Speakers
Modem 56.6K Modem
VGA Port 1 External VGA Port
Kensington Lock Kensington lock slot
Charge Time 2.0 Hours
ExpressCard ExpressCard™/54 slot
Firewire IEEE 1394 port
DVI Port DVI-D port with HDMI support
infrared Fast infrared (FIR) port
S Video OUT S-video/TV-out (NTSC/PAL) port
Battery Life 2-3 Hours (This Specific Model 2.5-hours)
Weight 2-3 Kg (This Model 2.82 Kg)
Warranty 12 Months Acer RTB Warranty (Customer to Return To Acer)

SORRY for Huge Reading..
Which un do you reckon is the Best...OR if you know of BETTER with DVI under£500, Please do Tell...MUST have DVI...
THANKS.

 

[digicol]

Flipping heck mate, I gave up after reading half way down laptop 1. I really do not need to know how to make key shortcuts etc.

And why the big text? It is more difficult for you to make large text in BBCCode than it is to leave it as normal, and also more difficult for us to read, so why do it?

Just give us the specs of each laptop under normal conditions and you may get some response.

Cheers.

 

[digicol]

Right decided to have a quick look over for you, and I am guessing that number 1 has 256k cache, and number 2 (being a core 2), they do not do 256k cache so this must have the 2mb cache, correct?

Anyway you do not tell us how much tou are spending on each, but to tell you the truth the seond one is the better laptop, it has DX10 graphics, better processor etc. So basically it is an all around better performer.

I assume both have DVI out but you will have to check that out for yourself if that is a key factor. Will take you 2 seconds to check it out.

But all in all, laptop 2 is a better laptop component wise, as for build quality between the two I have no idea as I am not a laptop person.

 

[Dazza]

I concur with Digicol, Lappy 2 looks much better. And it looks like it's an Acer, which I've found to be pretty decent on the whole. (Bought a few over the years for mates etc, after they've asked for advice, and I have one myself and for the money, its a decent unit.)

What make is Lappy 1?

 

[ScarecrowDR]

thank you both--it is appreciated.....yes number 1 is 256kbt n 2 is 2mb cache...both have dvi...first un is an asus 2nd un is an acer...2nd un has no cdr with drivers or os, but i can get around that...unless you say otherwise...drivers are on acer site....
price for first un is £467.65p free postage....2nd un acer is £487.87p +£10 p&p for upto 2 day delivery, thats about £497.87p

i also favour the second un at moment

 

[digicol]

Yeah go with the second one mate.

Not sure on the price though, 500 notes seems a lot. Have you shopped around? Or been over to HUKD and had a look at their Dell deals. (Delievery times can be a pain though).

I am not sure about the card either, it is decent for a laptop but not sure if it's adding to the price, also not sure how much dedicated ram it has, first time I have come across a laptop with DX10 graphics. Also is it an onboard chip or seperate?

I am never keep up to date with laptops but I know with a low end card (which that is in all honesty) you can get dual core laptops with 2gb ram for less than 350 notes.

Maybe worth you doing a little window shopping for a better price?

 

[ScarecrowDR]

i know nowt about Laptops..If it was a Tower n build yourself, there be No Probs.
I am not sure what you mean by onboard chip----it don't say.----Dedicated Graphics because it's got DVI..I need DVI for Digital Photo Projection..Not many out there at this price n below with 2GB memory..Some Great VGA Laptops for less price and with 17" screen n lots more Spec...BUT---VGA no good to me on its own I'm afraid.
Found an ASUS F5V-AP567P 1.73GHz Core Duo T2250 1GB DDR2 memory, vista business £446.49p..But only 1GB DDR2..@ scan.co.uk
Hotukd not got much in what I need at this moment in time...Dell do not give you Full specks of Lappy n NO dvi.

 

[digicol]

To be honest I am the same as you, I could build any desktop as I am up to date to the minute with components and such, but laptops I have never had much experience.

But what I do know is the second laptop is a lot better than the first one.

So just go for it mate, or if you fancied the one you found latest with 1gb of RAM, buy that as ram is only about 13 quid per gb at loads of online stores, so the choice is yours mate.

And when I say dedicted graphics, I mean a seperate card in the laptop with it's own onboard ram to handle all the graphics. As the ones you have mentioned use a lot of system ram.

For example the second laptop says "up to 1gb of hypermemory", this means that it will have maybe 128mb of it's own GDDR ram, but you can alter the amount of ram it uses (up to 1gb) but this then takes the ram from your system and uses it to process the graphics, which in reality is pants mate, and a total waste of time. System ram is no good for grpahics at the best of times, but when it is pulling that much from your system your losing a lot of ram for your computer to work with. (Obviously you can turn this hypermemory thing off which is what I would recommend, so it just uses it's own graphics ram and leaves your system alone to do it's own stuff).

But for the price, it seems ok, and after all it is DX10.

 

[ScarecrowDR]

THANKS digicol---I did not know that HyperMemory did that...Thanks.
Seeing as it says Dedicated, I'm surprised it does what you say....So must remember to switch it off if I buy.....Been reading a bit about this Card. For Gamers it's not so good, but for photographers like me, it's very good.
Not quite made up my mind yet on this lappy, but looks the best in my price range as its got DVI.
gOT all weekend to make a desicion..
THANKS.

 

[witchy]

Regarding the ACER having no backup discs...

When the system is booting up press CTRL and F10, this should take you into a D2D Recovery console which will make a complete factory default copy of the OS and all the drivers.

You need to make sure D2D is enabled in the BIOS 1st.

 

[thommohawk]

feck acer, if owt goes wrong there feckers for taking it back for repair. i had sorry i have one and after a few months the power supply internal board went and they fecked me off, my advice dont bother with them, it cost me 50 quid and i had to search for months to find the part and get it from canada,


i repaired it myself but it took months as said to find the part as acer are feckers for releasing them.


dont get me wrong i love the laptop and am using it right now but if you rely on aftersales or repairs id seek another brand, acer suck there products dont (when they work)


let me go over it again, the acer stuff is good the only reason i would not buy is aftersales or repairs, they suck and you end up talking to a yank who couldnt care less.

if you get one and it never breaks down you'll be laughing and love it, mines the acer aspire 5050 with vista and ive upgraded the ram as standard its slow with vista, now it flys and it looks great.

 

[doc_gibson]

oh my goodness dont get ACER!!! no way. the machines are good, but as stated, after sales service is excceptionally bad. i splashed out, and got the advantage warranty, so apparently that meant turnaround in 5 working days!! 6 weeks, i was without a machine, as they couldn't find parts, then they couldn't find a replacement, then they sent me a monitor by accident as apparently it had a similar model # to my laptop.

then they tried giving me a new laptop with inferior specs, and i had to moan and moan, and eventually got my full refund on the retail price i paid but never the refund on the warranty - twats. i of course immediately took my money elsewhere! you may cringe i know but i got a dell xps m1710, cost me a few, but with next working day accidental damage, they turn up anywhere in europe with a replacement machine if it cant be fixed. so....get an acer if you dare!

 

[thommohawk]

see im not the only one with a bad word about acer, as i said and the poster above the actual products are good but if anything does go wrong (which can happen to any brand) you will find it a pain in the arse to get fixed, when mine come to the end of its life i wont but another, ive still got a fujitsu seimens aswell and the only prob i ever had with that was a hd failure i replaced it and its still going strong.

i prefer to use the acer as its newer and looks nicer on the eye.

another thing with acer the hd is split, mines got a 60 gig hd in it and its split into two as standard a c drive and d drive, i would reformat and have it all on one drive c: but i have too much stuff on it and i cant be arsed reloading it all.

 

[ScarecrowDR]

OK Thanks Guys n Galls-------I bought the ASUS F3U instead....Got All CDRs as well...
Looks Good, works Good at moment....Vista Home Premium is on it....Have Uninstalled Nortons and it's a bit faster..LOL---Will try for a Month n if I don 't like, XP Pro will be installed to a spare HDD n incerted in lappy.
Gota Uninstall Office 2007 now as it's only a 90 day trial....Got my own to install anyway..Have also stoped one or two progys from starting up at startup n am reading about the other Rubbish before doing anything..
Trying to find out which un to use....Power4Gear - Entertainment OR Battery Saving OR High Performance..
Am i correct in saying that to use High Performance when conected to Power & Battery Saveing when out n about..BUT which timeings do U use in each of em...Any Ideas!! Default or your own ??
Not connected to internet yet as I gota either find or buy another Ethernet Lead...Got two PCs connected through Router at moment, so this Lappy should be OK..
We have Wireless in Lappy, so would it be a good idea to buy a wireless Router or is there a wireless gadget I can install to this Router..It's a Sweex...
That's enouigh for now I think...LOL

P.S--Mines like yours, it is split C: & D: with another with 6Gb on it..I take it, that's the Image.