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buyin the old man a laptop

post #1 of 14
10/5/08 at 9:39am
Thread Starter 
My pops talked to his firm and they are picking up the tab on a new laptop for him to replace the 3+ year old Compaq Presario notebook hes been using. I'm quite happy about this as the Compaq will become mine. This will most likely turn into a stripped-down Linux/XP box that I will use in my school course.

He will be doing some traveling with this laptop so thickness and battery life are important to him, as is a larger screen size (the Compaq was 14" screen IIRC) as he does a lot of typing on it. The notebook must also have a wireless-N adapter to sync up nicely with the D-Link DIR655 router I just bought for the house.

Here's are the two I've found that fit in his price range (~$1300):

Sony VIAO FW160DH - $1300:
16.4" screen
P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4GB RAM
250GB HDD
wireless-N compatible
2 - 4 hours battery life
1.5" max thickness
(Radeon M 3470 w/ 256MB VRAM)

ASUS M50VM-A1 - $1340:
15.4" screen
P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
wireless-N compatible
?? battery life
1.7" max thickness
(9600M GPU w/ 1GB VRAM which is total overkill and will only negatively affect battery life)

The only aspect of the GPU I'm concerned about is power consumption. He will never game with this and battery life is important here.

I am personally really drawn to the Sony. The design is beautiful and I think white notebooks look great, plus the screen has that extra inch which will be easier on the old guys' eyes when hes typing...

Anyway, that's the class of notebook my dad will be looking for. If anyone has personal experience with either of the two listed above or can recommend any other product, please do share!

Keep in mind that good battery life, >14" screen, at least 3GB RAM and wireless-N are all necessities. Honestly, any HDD size larger than 100GB will be fine as most of his files are documents.

Thanks for the input!
Edited by MCBrown.CA - 10/5/08 at 9:47am
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post #2 of 14
10/5/08 at 9:57am
Get the second one. You can always change the battery and it'd last a pretty long time.
Also the extra HD space is a nice bonus.
But, since you said that you don't care about the hd space, then get sony. I trust it more xD.
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post #3 of 14
10/5/08 at 10:06am
Most definitely neither, the only laptop that should ever be considered for business use would be IBM Thinkpads or Dell Latitudes.

IBM thinkpad T400:

2.4 ghz P8600
14.1 inch LED display
3 gb DDR3
80gb hard drive
Intel 5300 wireless
9 cell battery
3 year warranty

~$1,296

Battery life: +9 hours.
Edited by trueg50 - 10/5/08 at 10:09am
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post #4 of 14
10/5/08 at 10:12am
[QUOTE=MCBrown.CA;4663499]
Here's are the two I've found that fit in his price range (~$1300):

Sony VIAO FW160DH - $1300:
16.4" screen
P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4GB RAM
250GB HDD
wireless-N compatible
2 - 4 hours battery life
1.5" max thickness
(Radeon M 3470 w/ 256MB VRAM)

ASUS M50VM-A1 - $1340:
15.4" screen
P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
wireless-N compatible
?? battery life
1.7" max thickness
(9600M GPU w/ 1GB VRAM which is total overkill and will only negatively affect battery life)

The only aspect of the GPU I'm concerned about is power consumption. He will never game with this and battery life is important here.
QUOTE]

But in three years it might be yours
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post #5 of 14
10/5/08 at 10:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCBrown.CA View Post
"Here's are the two I've found that fit in his price range (~$1300):

Sony VIAO FW160DH - $1300:
16.4" screen
P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4GB RAM
250GB HDD
wireless-N compatible
2 - 4 hours battery life
1.5" max thickness
(Radeon M 3470 w/ 256MB VRAM)

ASUS M50VM-A1 - $1340:
15.4" screen
P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
wireless-N compatible
?? battery life
1.7" max thickness
(9600M GPU w/ 1GB VRAM which is total overkill and will only negatively affect battery life)

The only aspect of the GPU I'm concerned about is power consumption. He will never game with this and battery life is important here."


But in three years it might be yours
haha well played! its possible but not very likely...

I took a look at the Thinkpads and I spec'ed one out pretty nicely for the price but availability in Canada is going to be tough I think, even with Newegg.ca finally going online!

I'm still looking... and I still like the Sony.
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post #6 of 14
10/5/08 at 10:32am
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218012528210

Edit, sorry, didn't see you're in canada.
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post #7 of 14
10/5/08 at 11:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCBrown.CA View Post
haha well played! its possible but not very likely...

I took a look at the Thinkpads and I spec'ed one out pretty nicely for the price but availability in Canada is going to be tough I think, even with Newegg.ca finally going online!

I'm still looking... and I still like the Sony.
You just buy it off lenovo's site, they should be able to ship to you.
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post #8 of 14
10/5/08 at 11:18am
Thread Starter 
shipping and all their lenovo support bs adds a lot to the price...

I did find this: lenovo ideapad - ~$1050
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post #9 of 14
10/5/08 at 12:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MCBrown.CA View Post
shipping and all their lenovo support bs adds a lot to the price...

I did find this: lenovo ideapad - ~$1050
Yes, but you are buying a business laptop, making that support essential.

Also, I would not recommend that for a second.

He is going to be lugging it around, meaning size, weight and battery life really matter, and that laptop is probably too big and heavy, not to mention it is consumer oriented.

business laptop = lots of battery, integrated graphics (unless it is for a workstation for an engineer), ~14" screen, and either jet black, or a non-shiney grey.

Have you looked at Dell's Latitude line?

The E6400 or D630 would be an excellent choice. They have the nice 3 year warranty built in, and are a little cheaper than the thinkpads.

If he really wants the extra weight, the D830, and E6500 are also quite good laptops.
Edited by trueg50 - 10/5/08 at 12:22pm
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post #10 of 14
10/5/08 at 1:27pm
Go to dell.com and up in the search bar at the top right type refurb hit enter then choose laptops. I just got my mom one (a studio 15) it may not be my Gateway P-7811FX. But it has a wifi 5100 wireless N plenty of ram a good size hard drive (5400 rpm you can get 7200 rpm if you want). and a top of the line ATI mobility card. It is low rez 1280 but it's fine for her. Also you can choose what you want it to have on it in the drop down search window. It is also fully warrantee covered with DELL, they stand by there Warranted equipment better than most. Especially on a refurb being full stock coverage. Also it was under a grand with a wireless N router I setup for her about 800 dollars. Guarantee you it's faster than the OLD desktop she was using and it's mobile which is what she wanted.
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