Thanks Celegorm/Muz, really appreciate the help.
The only thing that puts me off the Vaio AR is the battery life, which is around 90minutes. The new FW series seems better, though i've seen one and think the case is a little weak (probably to make the weight lower).
I'm not really into Macs, i like the look of them and stuff but i find them a pain to use as all our computers at home are windows it doesn't seem like a wise choice. Dell XPS is pretty neat, i'm looking into those at the moment.
Can someone explain screen types to me? All this 'WUXGA' and stuff is pretty confusing, as is processor types 'T8300' doesn't mean much to me to be honest, makes it hard to know what's actually best when looking at laptops.
Thanks again
i agree macs arent for everybody i was just making sure you had rules the possibility out as the products themselves are pretty decent quality
ok well WUXGA is the resoloution
laptop screen usually go from
WXGA which is 1280X800
WXGA+ which is 1440X900
WUXGA which is 1920x1200
obviously the higher the resoloution the more detail the screen can display
higher resoloutions will be especially good when working with thingws like photoshop or any of the design programs you might require for architecture ,
As for the processors well
at the moment they will probably either be either a Merom-2Mcore or a Penryn-3M core ,
anything with
the first 2 will most likely be Merom-2M
intel core 2 duo T5XXX goes from about 1.6ghz to 2ghz and they all have 2MB L2 cache most have 667mhz bus speed
intel core 2 duo T7100 and T7250 goes from about 1.8ghz to 2ghz and they all have 2MB L2 cache most have 800mhz bus speed
The last one will be a Penryn-3M
intel core 2 duo T8XXX are either 2.1 or 2.4ghz they both have 3mb L2 cache and 800MHZ bus speed they are however 45 nm which allows them to run a lot cooler than all the others and use less battery
There are exceptions such as
Core 2 Duo T7350 whcih is a penryn 3M core which runs at 2ghz with 3mb l2 cache 800mhz bus speed but is 45nm which as i said above allows for cooler running and better battery life
There is also the older Merom cores with model numbers T7
Core 2 Duo T7200
Core 2 Duo T7300
Core 2 Duo T7400
Core 2 Duo T7500
Core 2 Duo T7600
Core 2 Duo T7700
Core 2 Duo T7800
which go from 2.0 to 2.6ghz and have 4mb l2 cache however i dont think these will be in any newer laptops you buy as the merom core was replaced by merom 2m if they however the specs are , 4mb L2 cache , and bus speeds range from 667 to 800mhz depending on model
There is also the older Merom cores with model numbers T5
Core 2 Duo T5200
Core 2 Duo T5500
Core 2 Duo T5600
which go from 1.5 to 1.8 ghz , have a 667mhz bus except the first one which has a 533mhz bus and 2mb l2 cache each
some of the model numbers to mix with the new merom 2m core however the chips are different
For instance teh T5500 old merom was 1.6ghz however the merom 2M equivilant is 1.83ghz so if in doubt check it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors#Dual-Core_Mobile_processors
