ATTN: Computer people I need help.

[almostclueless]

Bear in mind if you dont want microshaft to FORCE you to buy more memory just to run vista, you CAN still buy computers with XP on them from places like dell.


That's my gameplan when my current lappy dies.

 

[Kona]

ASUS - never heard of it! And I have been around computers since Tandy had its own OS.

Go with a name brand, easier to upgrade, get repaired and usually more reliable.

They only make about 25% of all motherboards worldwide!!! Well maybe not quite that much but they are huge and have been for a long time, the Asus P3BF motherboard ( Intel BX440 chipset ) was rated the best motherboard for the PentiumII for 2 years !

Looks like a good notebook, same as rest, ad another GB of ram for 2GB total.

 

[kunar]

you dont need to buy microsoft office either. go download open office for free and thank me later

 

[4x4RangerGuy]

That's my problem, more of a desktop person myself. Just getting to the point where a laptop will show it's worth. Heck like yourself I built the desktop I currently have, but did so over a number of years. Not everything is up to date in it but it gets me by. the specs on it are as follows:

Windows XP
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz w/HT (not sure of the family but it's no dual core)
2gb DDR2 ram
2x 250gb SATA HDD
Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT
Sound Blaster X-fi Xtreme Audio
Mad Dog Sure power 550W
1 OEM Dell CD-RW Drive (PC died leading to this one)
1 OEM Dell DVD Drive (same as above)
1 AOpen DVD-RW Drive

Nice! Not bad for a couple of years gone by at all...

My specs:

Windows Vista
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 5200+ 2.61 GHz
2gb of RAM
1 250gb SATA HDD
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra, 768MB of VRAM, dual SLI
On board 7.1 surround sound
550w power supply
1 Sony DVDR/DVDRW drive

I love it. I can run multiple instances of WoW, plus other programs and it doesn't skip a beat, even with Vista.

 

[JoshT]

you dont need to buy microsoft office either. go download open office for free and thank me later

Thanks I'll check that out. I knew they had stuff of the sort that would work with pre-Vista versions of windows, but since I got my current version of office for free I hadn't bothered with it. I didn't think they would have them out for Vista yet.

 

[almostclueless]

Openoffice works great, even on my 98 machine.......good stuff.

 

[ranger1999xlt]

Get a Mac!

 

[JoshT]

Yeah folks, please no more get a mac suggestions, I'm not going to get a mac. If I wanted a mac I'd be shopping for one. Not saying that there's anything wrong with a mac I just don't want one.

 

[camma83]

A lot of people said what i was thinking, Asus makes a great machine, and for running vista you will need more ram like everyone else already stated..IMO if i were you, just spend an extra 100 and get ASUS A7 Series A7K-A1 , it already has 2gigs of mem better video card(means you can hook it up to an hdmi on a tv), and it has the bigger screen, nothing worse than a small screen to look at for hrs on end...

 

[JoshT]

Yes I understand it needs more ram and as I have stated I can put an extra 2 gigs no problem plus and in it for ~30 bucks. Better video card is a matter of opinion. IMO ATI is no good, I've had bad experiences with three ATI cards whereas I've had nothing but good experiences with NVidia cards (4 to be exact). I don't have any use for an HDMI hookup as I've got no HD-TVs, and won't be getting one anytime soon. I really don't want a bigger screen, or even a bigger notebook for that matter. If I need a bigger screen I'll just wait to do what ever till I get home, that is if I ever get away from this 15" CRT monitor that I've been using for the past 5-6 (If i do it'll be a 19 or 20 inch with the DVI input which the laptop also has.) I'm not really looking for a desktop replacement here which is essentially what a 17" laptop is.

I will say that if that laptop had a NVidia card for the same price I would be tempted, but it doesn't.

 

[camma83]

I also like Nvidia cards, if you looking for just a dicent laptop to dink with their are a lot for under that price, but it sounds like you know what your talking about and have your mind made up Well here is somethin a little much but you can look anyways http://www.alienware.com/Product_Pages/notebook_all_default.aspx Happy shopping

 

[JoshT]

Yeah I look at those all the time. If I could I would, but since I can't...

I know there are others for less but they aren't really up to the specs I was wanting. It's really hard for me to explain what I'm going to use it for, really you'd have to see the kind of stuff I do with my computers to understand. Let's just say the usage is extremely varied. I am also the type that get's it stuck in his head what he wants, and will usually settle for an upgrade but won't take a downgrade. Sure I'd like more but I can't see paying 14-15 hundred for it when it isn't going to be my "primary" unit.

Like you said I've pretty much made up my mind, thanks to all of the input I've recieved. The only flaw I really heard was to little ram which is easily cured. I'll get this one and the if I hit a big jackpot when I'm out there in Vegas who knows what I'll do. I might just give this one to my sister buy a maxed out Alienware Desktop and matching Laptop (which I just priced to be ~$21,000 so it'd have to be a huge jackpot).

 

[almostclueless]

For 1500 you should be able to get something with the true core2 duo (not to be confused with the somewhat slower dual core), 2 gigs ram, and a nvidia video card (I'm not big on ati either)

 

[JoshT]

For 1500 you should be able to get something with the true core2 duo (not to be confused with the somewhat slower dual core), 2 gigs ram, and a nvidia video card (I'm not big on ati either)

Clueless I'm not jumping on you per say, but to everybody who is still saying get 2 gigs or look for this spec or the other. Have you even looked at the specs of the laptop I posted?

The only things people have said to get that haven't been in the specs have been for 2GB of ram, MAC, or ATI graphics card. It has a Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz processor, Bluetooth, NVidia Dedicated graphics card with it's own 256 Mb of memory. Sure it's only got 1GB of ram but I can easily add to that myself, for less than 50 bucks. The only thing I'll get by paying an extra 4-500 is a slightly better graphics card, and it isn't worth it to me. I spend that4-5 hundred on my desktop for a new processor (something like a 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo) and motherboard, and I'll have a desktop that will blow any laptop I'd buy out of the water.

Don't mean to sound ungrateful for what you put in, it's just that it's starting to sound like a broken record. You say look for this and it's got it (bluetooth, processor, video card), you said look for that and I can install it cheaply(ram), you said look for the other and I don't want that (mac, ati graphics card, screen size).

So for under 1100 dollars I'm going to have a Laptop with the following general specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz
3GHz DDR2 Ram
NVidia GeForce 8600M GS W/256MB video memory
160GB HDD
15.4" screen
Bluetooth
802.11 a/b/g wireless
and a free Targus 15.4" notebook backpack.

 

[Charley38]

ASUS - never heard of it! And I have been around computers since Tandy had its own OS.

ASUS is a top brand in motherboards, etc. You must not be a nerd.

CR