chromedome77

Guys,

I'm after a laptop to replace my home desktop. It'll be used for video/photo editing, a few games and maybe 3D CAD. I want to spend about 1k and I was thinking of these:

Buy HP PAVILION DV9574 | Premier collection laptop - Specification | Comet

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1554 Notebook CCN:GBR-110112-003 From Laptops Direct

Any opinions or alternatives welcome.

Bodgit

I have just bought one of these. Spec'd it up to about £1k.
2 Gig Ram
Biometric Reader
Wireless n etc..

The display on it is amazing.


Dell XPS M1330 Product Details

chromedome77

Looks good but a 13" screen would be a pain in the @rse for CAD. What do you think to the hardware spec of the two I linked to?

Bodgit

They are certainly looking like good machines, I would go for the HP one but thats personal choice. Here is a link for the hp one for 899.99

HP PAVILION DV9574 HP Pavilion Media Center dv9574ea Windows Vista Home Premium, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, 400GB hard drive and a 17" widescreen display. from Laskys

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

Depending on what your budget is then i would go for one of these.

Vaio : AR Series : United Kingdom

chromedome77

Cheers fellas,

The Sony's are nice but a bit pricy. For the extra money they cost doesn't seem like the spec is that much better than the HP and FSC that I mentioned.

Am I correct in thinking that if the processor model is T7X00 where the X is an odd number it's the santa rosa chipset?

How do the graphics cards stack up?

staffs Mike

get a great spec on these for not a lot of dough

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

gazza-uk

If your using it for CAD I wouldent go for a "consumer" notbook.

I would pay extra and get something like a Fujitsu-Siemens Celsius

CELSIUS H - Product catalog - Fujitsu Siemens Computers

swiss scooby

It really depends on what you want to use your laptop for. Do you really need it for CAD applications. If yes, you should go for a certified mobile workstation which is hard to find in the consumer segment and more available in business/commercial models. The size of the screen is the next choice to make. Basically all newer notebooks are widescreens, i.e. 14.1", 15.4" or 17". I would only go for the 17" version if you very seldom carry it around. They can be pretty heavy and use more power than the smaller units. Maybe an individual TFT Monitor (in addition to the smaller notebook) might be the perfect solution. Next, newer models feature a SIM slot with which you can access the broadband mobile network wherever you are (gone is the search for hotspots). You will have much better quality on the notebook than with a regular mobile phone because the antenna is placed around the notebooks screen-frame (much bigger in size than mobile phone). This could be a very interesting factor eventhough the prices are still pretty high to use G3, etc. If you plan to use your notebook as a media center, then go for a consumer (i.e. HP Pavillion) product otherwise I suggest to go for a business model. They usually have longer lifecycles (spareparts availability) and are built stronger (magnesium chassis, spill resistant, etc.). As you can imagine, consumer models look fancy and trendy, business models usually don't. With Vista you can downgrade to XP for free and upgrade at a later date if needed. If you run vista I suggest to go for 2GB Memory. In addition to this info, I suggest getting a fast Harddisk (maybe more important than its size), Optical Drive DVD-RW +/-. Maybe a dockingstation comes in handy (more connectivity and easy to use). I suppose that's about it. Ah yes, go for an HP-Notebook because I work for them and you get what you pay for. Cheers, Daniel