advice for first laptop

**TRICKPLAYER** · August 20th, 2005, 12:43 PM

Help, I want a laptop, mainly for holidays, or watching dvd's and tv via usb adapter, I am tempted by an acer, see link, it has a sis graphics chip, which I have always been wary of, would this be up to the task?

the model is : Acer Aspire 5002LM AMD Turion 64 ML30 1.6GHz/1MB 512MB 60GB DVD-Dual 15" LAN XPH

Mfr #: LX.A5105.057

http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page9...&crc=648674330

**TechZ** · August 20th, 2005, 01:52 PM

With laptops its mostly opinions your going to be hearing, as not everyone has the same experience.

If youre looking for quality, I doubt anyone will argue as to Toshiba and IBM being the leaders.

As for a good balance of quality and price, I'd say HP/Sager/Averatec are in that category.

If you are a mobile user, i.e. someone who moves around a bit and needs a good battery life, the Intel PentiumM (aka Centrino) and AMD Turion64 are good choices.

Since you mentioned watching TV and Movies, look for a notebook with a widescreen aspect ratio (e.g. 15.4" screen, 16:9)

Unless you plan on gaming, an integrated video card would do you just fine, but it wont stand a chance with any of the newer games, and plenty of models offer dedicated video.

**DaveW** · September 2nd, 2005, 08:40 PM

Bought an HP ZD8060US a few months ago for this myself.

Prices have dropped considerably since then. Just understand this is considered a "desktop" replacement with a 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4, is right at 10lbs with a 17" screen, Dual TV Tuners, 100GB HD, and the battery will last an hour or so. I am also dual booting WinXP and Linux Fedora Core 4 on it and have bumped RAM up to 1.2GB.
This thing smokes but its like running a big block V-8 on the dragstrip.

Not bad for a 2K+ laptop.

**NooNoo** · September 8th, 2005, 05:46 AM

I have an Acer... but I wouldn't use the sis graphics, I got a nice centrino with the Radeon 9000 chip... Centrino is good for battery life.

**confus-ed** · September 8th, 2005, 06:02 AM

Originally Posted by TRICKPLAYER

Help, I want a laptop, mainly for holidays, or watching dvd's and tv via usb adapter..

If it's got a dvd in it, then its up to that job

, as you don't need anything particularly fancy in graphics terms for what you are asking for. (I'd still be wary of anything though that uses 'shared memory' as a part of an onboard chipset)

Btw your link won't resolve for me

.

**Platypus** · September 8th, 2005, 07:16 AM

Well I just took the plunge and found good value on a Compaq M2217AP

Haven't had time to do anything with it yet except up the memory to 512M & charge the battery.

They had been selling just under AU$1100 plus $100 cashback, Harvey Norman stores put them out at $944 last week, then the cashback pays for the memory upgrade.

**confus-ed** · September 8th, 2005, 07:45 AM

btw for connecting to free digital tv services in the uk, these are very neat :-

DVB-T USB Stick

Just bought me one

.. about £60 direct from them I think, but a bit cheaper other places if you look

**NooNoo** · September 9th, 2005, 04:47 AM

Now that is very nifty!

But the attenna don't look up to much... does it accept a feed from an external aerial? How about hooking up a vcr in line with it?

**confus-ed** · September 9th, 2005, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

But the attenna don't look up to much... does it accept a feed from an external aerial? ..

They are surprisingly good !(bought mine based on somebody else's recommendation & I was equally sceptical

- it really depends on how good the digital signal is round & about, I've got mine working most places, that have digital coverage, even some that supposedly don't! - a bit of balancing in an appropriate place helps with this & so I carry a 3m usb extender cable too to give me more flexibility where I place it) .. the 'round connectors' visable in the picture are for coax cables (so any TV ariel ought to 'just fit'), but its only capable of dealing with digitised signals, so forget about connecting up your vcr, that's analogue ..

**3fingersalute** · September 9th, 2005, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by confus-ed

btw for connecting to free digital tv services in the uk, these are very neat :-

DVB-T USB Stick

Just bought me one

.. about £60 direct from them I think, but a bit cheaper other places if you look

We don't have much around here in the way of free tv feeds, but that looks cool!

**NooNoo** · September 9th, 2005, 05:40 AM

Might get one for my lappy... but I have a 40 foot mast here to pull in freeview stuff and then its choppy... so maybe one of those things that go on the wish list

**PacoL250** · September 17th, 2005, 03:01 AM

Originally Posted by TechZ

With laptops its mostly opinions your going to be hearing, as not everyone has the same experience.

If youre looking for quality, I doubt anyone will argue as to Toshiba and IBM being the leaders.

As for a good balance of quality and price, I'd say HP/Sager/Averatec are in that category.

If you are a mobile user, i.e. someone who moves around a bit and needs a good battery life, the Intel PentiumM (aka Centrino) and AMD Turion64 are good choices.

Since you mentioned watching TV and Movies, look for a notebook with a widescreen aspect ratio (e.g. 15.4" screen, 16:9)

Unless you plan on gaming, an integrated video card would do you just fine, but it wont stand a chance with any of the newer games, and plenty of models offer dedicated video.

I agree with everything you said here, except the HP bit. I've had bad experiences with HP laptops (e.g. my friend's laptop hard drive just died as I was using the thing about 4 months ago...man did that scare the crap out of me). HP and Compaq just don't "jive" with me and I've pretty much steered clear of anything HP unless it's a printer, scanner, or multi-function device (and to a small degree their cameras); they just seem to use the crappiest hardware possible in their computers. They have gotten better as of late though.

I would suggest Dell for the random awesome deals they throw out there and for the fact that in my experience, their higher-end screens for their laptops are really freakin' nice. Dells are literally you get what you pay for; the low-end models are cheap and they work great for a while, but then I go back to my HP/Compaq example; they use some of the crappiest hardware options available (esp. their desktops).

I had an Inspiron 8200 for about 3.5 years (I just sold it to my friend and I actually threw in a DVD+/-R/W writer in there about 5 months before I sold it) and I left the sucker on all the time without any major issues (downloading "stuff"

). I just recently picked up their Inspiron XPS Gen 2 off of eBay and besides the fact that it's a beast, it's really nice. I also picked up an Inspiron 6000 for my uncle also and that is also very nice and it may fit the bill for what you want to do.

Personally, I'd go for a Dell, Toshiba, IBM (pricey but really slick), or Sager (in that order). What's your price range? That might help us narrow stuff down quite a bit.

**Mags** · October 13th, 2005, 01:01 PM

I wish I'd read this thread before ordering a new el cheapo laptop as a standby ... it's got SiSM760GX Graphics and is a Acer Aspire 3003LC, too late, committed to buy it now!

But have been Googling, til blue in the face, but didn't look here !

**TechZ** · October 13th, 2005, 01:51 PM

We use Acers at the university, and so far none of them have had any hardware related issues. Theyre not bad laptops..

Take care of it and it should serve you well