Need your suggestions on a new laptop.

[superman22x]

I'd just wait til Vista comes out, or get the cheapest OS you can now and than upgrade to windows Vista.
About the CPUs, I thought the centrino duo is the cheap version of the core duo just like the celeron 4 is the cheap version of the pentium 4. And the core 2 duo is the newer version like the pentium D is to the pentium 4. So for intel your best CPU will be the core 2 duo.
AMD, no clue, lol.

Hope I helped.

 

[mfrostbutter]

Centrino is not a processor, it refers to a system with an Intel chipset, wireless card and processor, having the three together (as they're designed to work together) increases effiency and prolongs battery life. So if you were to get a Dell with a core 2 duo and the Dell wireless card it would come with the core 2 duo sticker on it, however if you opt for the Intel Pro Wireless you would then have the trio of Intel hardware to make it cenTRIno duo. Either way you'll still have the Core 2 Duo processor. I hope that make sense

I have a Dell Latitude D820 with 2 gigs of Ram the core 2 duo 2.0GHz processor and I do alot of flash and photoshop (CS2) and this thing doesn't miss a beat, the only drawback of the latitude and inspiron line is the video card options you have, you can choose the hypermemory ATI chip or the turbo cache Nvidia chip, both of these use some system memory. For instance I have the Nvidia 120M 512MB video card, it's in fact a 256MB card as that is the phyiscal amount of memory that is on the card itself, the other 256 comes from system memory when it's needed. The best mobile video cards on the market are the GeForce GO 7 series which you can get in the XPS series they all have dedicated video memory.

 

[browserjoe]

hmmm i personally would go with hp. i really hate dell and even if you do get a dell, you will end up paying way more than you should.

 

[mfrostbutter]

hmmm i personally would go with hp. i really hate dell and even if you do get a dell, you will end up paying way more than you should.

I beg to differ, I got my 820 with a 2GHz core2dou, intel wireless, 80GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, 9 cell battery 2 gigs of PC2-5300 667MHz Ram, DL DVD burner and the Nvidia 120M 512MB card with the upgraded WXGA+ display and bluetooth with 3 year warranty,complete care accidental damage coverage and gold tech support for less than 1600 USD with tax and shipping, you just gotta catch a good coupon or special, they run them all the time

And I was a Best Buy Tech for a number of years and have had to deal with HP's tech support and they are TERRIBLE

 

[Brian_Fenner]

I'd just wait til Vista comes out, or get the cheapest OS you can now and than upgrade to windows Vista.

Why?

Most laptops now come with an automatic free upgrade to the appropriate version of Vista when it becomes available.
You can get your laptop now and still get Vista for "free" when it's available.

 

[Webhead]

OK, thanks for your help everyone.

I think I'll go with ether:
Sony
HP
Toshiba

Dpending on what offers ome up an if they are good ones, I don't think I'll be in a rush to get Vista ether, maybe when I do get Vista I'll daul-boot so I can still use XP If I need to.

So what do you think of these specs I'm considering

Daul core processor (haven't decided which one yet, but It will probably be from Intel as they have the fastest ones at the moment, I will try and get a core 2 duo).

2gb Ram

atleast 100gb hard drive

a graphics card with dedicated memory (I'll try to get one with 256mb)

Plus all the usual stuff like wireless, DVD burner etc.

I'll be using it for Web Design and Graphics design, I willl be using it for my main design needs as my curent computer cannot run the latest power hungry software.

By the way could you tell me what Windows XP Media Center 2005 is like, as I've never used it. A question that comes to my mind is having seen it in a few screen shots do you have a start menu and desktop in that OS?

 

[Brian_Fenner]

OK, thanks for your help everyone.

I think I'll go with ether:
Sony
HP
Toshiba

Dpending on what offers ome up an if they are good ones, I don't think I'll be in a rush to get Vista ether, maybe when I do get Vista I'll daul-boot so I can still use XP If I need to.

So what do you think of these specs I'm considering

Daul core processor (haven't decided which one yet, but It will probably be from Intel as they have the fastest ones at the moment, I will try and get a core 2 duo).

2gb Ram

atleast 100gb hard drive

a graphics card with dedicated memory (I'll try to get one with 256mb)

Plus all the usual stuff like wireless, DVD burner etc.

I'll be using it for Web Design and Graphics design, I willl be using it for my main design needs as my curent computer cannot run the latest power hungry software.

By the way could you tell me what Windows XP Media Center 2005 is like, as I've never used it. A question that comes to my mind is having seen it in a few screen shots do you have a start menu and desktop in that OS?

Same as XP ..........just has the Media Center application.
I use it mainly to record movies and TV shows..........works great.

 

[browserjoe]

I beg to differ, I got my 820 with a 2GHz core2dou, intel wireless, 80GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, 9 cell battery 2 gigs of PC2-5300 667MHz Ram, DL DVD burner and the Nvidia 120M 512MB card with the upgraded WXGA+ display and bluetooth with 3 year warranty,complete care accidental damage coverage and gold tech support for less than 1600 USD with tax and shipping, you just gotta catch a good coupon or special, they run them all the time

And I was a Best Buy Tech for a number of years and have had to deal with HP's tech support and they are TERRIBLE

w/e