Desktop replacement laptop for $800 or less

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trumpet_king

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Jul 22, 2009
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Alright, so I'm in the market for buying a new laptop after my 4.5 year old Dell Latitude D810 screen finally went out.


1_What is your budget? $500-$800 (not including tax or shipping)

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15''-19'' I don't care how big and heavy it gets.

3_What screen resolution do you want?
Doesn't matter to much. More than 1280x800 would be nice.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement. I will be using this on my lap quite often though. I dont' care if it is bulkly or heavy. Only real probelm with a desktop replacement is heat.

5_How much battery life do you need?
minimal. I will be plugging it in 90% of the time.

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Yes I will want to play games. I want to be able to play upcoming games like Diablo III and StarCraft II. I currently place games that are more CPU intensive rather than graphics intensive. I will play games at Low & Medium settings.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
I will be surfing the web, programming, and watching movies on this laptop.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
Not too important. I would like 250+ but don't mind if I end up with a 120. Extra capacity is normally cheap.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
I like newegg, but I'm searching for a deal so any site will do.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3-4 years. Ya I keep my laptops around. Like I said my dell is almost 5 years old.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.

Ideally this laptop would not burn the c**p out of my legs when I use it on my lap.
Oh, there is a good chance I'll wipe the drive and install 32bit XP on the system. It just depends though.


12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

No preference. I'm sure you guys can make some suggestions with what brands to go with.

13_What country do you live in?
USA


Just from what I looked at today, here are some laptops I've looked at.

TOSHIBA Satellite A505-S6969 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6500(2.10GHz) 16" 4GB Memory DDR2 800 250GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Retail

TOSHIBA Satellite P305-S8909 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6400(2.00GHz) 17.0" Wide XGA+ 4GB Memory DDR2 800 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Retail

Acer Aspire AS8730G-6681 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6500(2.10GHz) 18.4" 4GB Memory DDR2 667 250GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT - Retail

Acer Aspire AS6920-6898 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T5900(2.20GHz) 16" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR2 667 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS - Retail
 

Charlie46227

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Dec 27, 2005
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I just bought HP G70-460US 17" at Office Depot for $500 after rebates. It came with 3 gig running 32 bit, but it qualifies for Win7. Don't know if it quite meets your needs (I'm no expert), but I think worth looking at especially for the price.
 

trumpet_king

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Jul 22, 2009
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I've done a little more looking around and have adjusted my price range a bit. I am willing to spend up to $1,000 if the improvment is worth it. Right now the biggest contenders are...

Acer Aspire AS5739G-6132 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6500(2.10GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 250GB HDD DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M - Retail
- Good reviews
- Excellent Price ($750)
- Overall good specs but a little worried about the processor speed since I do a lot of multi-tasking, programming, and processor intensive gaming.
-Comes with DDR3 memory which is confusing since I don't think the memory will really provide much benifit with the CPU FBS of 800MHz.

ASUS F50 Series F50Sf-A1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz) 16" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 220M - Retail
-Good reviews
-Descent Price ($1000)
-Better processor
-Better FBS than ACER
-ASUS warranty

SONY VAIO FW Series VGN-FW463J/B NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz) 16.4" 4GB Memory DDR2 800 320GB HDD 7200rpm Dual layer DVD Burner ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Retail
-Good reviews
-Descent Price($950)
-Better FBS than ACER
-Better resolution 1600x900
-Is a sony laptop (good or bad, I'll let you decide).

So basically, I'm trying to descide is it worth spending the extra money for a better processor. If it is, should I go with ASUS with warranty and confidence of it's quality, or the Sony with slightly better specs, but less confidence in the quality?
 
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