Getting my first notebook...?
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Tue, 31st Aug 2010 22:52    Post subject: Getting my first notebook...?
Anywho, I've been looking around a bit since I have no clue as what could be a good notebook to buy. But I've found a HP Pavilion dv6-3060eo which seems to be quite good for it's price, however I might be completely wrong. This will cost me approximately 1000€ and I have no idea if that's worth it. I really need a laptop which has a good CPU (basically the higher frequency the better) and lots or memory (4GB or more), I need it for school cause we're going to be using it alot for VMware and such.

Any recommendations which have a similar CPU/RAM/GFX but at a lower price/better product overall?


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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 16:06    Post subject:
Gee guys, one at a time, please... Cool Face

Anywho, since nobody can help me out I searched some more on my own and found that Asus has better shit than HP.

Now what I've always wondered about was how much worse will this laptop be than my stationary computer.


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Gomp




Posts: 626
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 16:58    Post subject:
There are some good Asus laptops out there, but the performance for laptop vs stationary is huge.
You cant get the pure power and speed from ur laptop atleast at that price then you would from a stationary

Anyways, ive had two HP dv-6 and i wasnt happy with the first one but the second one was alot better. Running on the second year now, but dont imagine that you can play high end games on them without spending a billion euros for the components along with the brand.
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 17:18    Post subject:
Nono, I wasn't planning on using it for games (well, maybe Jagged Alliance 2 but that's it). My main concern is overall power.

How long does the lappy go on it's battery without a recharge (the Dv6)?
I actually just bought one (HP Pavilion dv6-3065) today and I'll be picking it up tomorrow.
What sucks balls is that I can't really find any reviews on it at all, so I'm kind of stabbing in the dark with this purchase and I really hate doing that.


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Mortibus




Posts: 18053
Location: .NL
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 17:41    Post subject:
core i3,5,7 mobile is a joke, simple dc is more than enough, unless u crazy enough to use it for gaming which will deliver crappy performance anyway
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8ball




Posts: 587

PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 18:51    Post subject:
get a netbook instead of a notebook
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garus
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PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 19:00    Post subject:
snip


Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:29; edited 1 time in total
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 19:14    Post subject:
garus wrote:
8ball wrote:
get a netbook instead of a notebook


He said he needs it for VMware etc. Hence lot of RAM Wink


Well, I'm guessing it's going to be used more than just VMware but the teacher wasn't specific with what we're going to be using it. He just gave two pointers of what the lappy should have, good CPU and lots of memory.
Since I have NO IDEA what VMware needs for hardware to be able to run I just went after the teachers recommendations. Razz


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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 19:26    Post subject:
Meh, so I actually checked out what's needed to set up a virtual machine and yay, don't need real hardware. So I either misunderstood or heard wrongly what the teachers said about VMware, but the emphesis still was on CPU and RAM.


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TSR69
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PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 19:28    Post subject:
Depends quite a bit on what kind of OS and apps you are going to run with VMware.


Formerly known as iconized
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Werelds
Special Little Man



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Location: 0100111001001100
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 19:48    Post subject:
Prefetian wrote:
Meh, so I actually checked out what's needed to set up a virtual machine and yay, don't need real hardware. So I either misunderstood or heard wrongly what the teachers said about VMware, but the emphesis still was on CPU and RAM.

An i5-430M or similar is what you want. What Mortibus says is not true, the mobile i5's do much better clock for clock than older Core 2's, and they are friendlier on battery life. You can basically spend the same amount of money for a slightly lower clocked i5, and get better battery life out of it - do look up reviews on any CPU you're considering though, because not *all* of them do better than their predecessors in battery life.

What are you studying?

VMWare does require a lot of resources, but if you're allowed to use other virtual machines, Virtualbox is much friendlier. You also have to consider the O/S you'll be installing onto the virtual machine; Linux distro's don't require half the power Windows will.

I have an MSI X-Slim 340 myself, which comes with a single core CPU (Core 2 Solo SU3500), and I have absolutely no problems running Debian and Ubuntu with Gnome or KDE. I do use Virtualbox rather than VMWare though Smile
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 20:08    Post subject:
Thanks for the tip about Virtualbox, pwerelds. ^_^
I have no clue about virtual machines at all, I guess I ahve some reading to do beforehand so that I know what the crap I'm doing before we get to that part. Very Happy
I'm studying a very broad and semi-basic 2 year program about IT and networking in general.
Also, I read your thread which you did on hardware and I wanna say that it's pretty awesome. Very Happy


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Werelds
Special Little Man



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PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 20:46    Post subject:
Thanks!

Anyway, doesn't sound like you really need a massive amount of power. What kind of desktop do you have now? I'd suggest just installing Virtualbox and having a look. On my E8400 with 4GB of RAM I've had 2 instances of Debian and one of WinXP running and I could seamlessly switch between them and my desktop so Smile
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 20:55    Post subject:
Ohh, I've got a decent enough stationary but they said we should get a lappy cause we'd be using them there most of the time. If not for that I wouldn't even have dreamt of buying one at this point since I'd spend money on my current stationary instead.

I've got a Phenom II x4 940BE @ 3,5GHz, 4GB PC-6400, A couple of WD sata2 drivers and a 285GTX. So that machine wouldn't have been a problem but I had to buy a mobile one. Crying or Very sad


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Werelds
Special Little Man



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PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 21:25    Post subject:
Downclock that CPU to like 2.5 Ghz and give it a go with Virtualbox or even VMWare Smile

You'll see that it's fine, it's really not that bad, although you will notice a steep rise in requirements for VMWare. I'd suggest checking your favourite retailer, pick out a few models and then quickly look up some reviews so you can see their true battery life. Any dual core will be plenty, and most laptops come with 4 GB of RAM anyway these days so Smile

Edit: most important factor for me in a laptop is battery life btw, if that wasn't obvious yet Razz
Performance wise there's only a few categories in laptops really, it's all very close. It's only the very top models that are meant for gaming where you see some serious differences.

For a normal notebook, if you can get around 3-4 hours with some internet usage that's pretty damn good nowadays, means it'll probably last around 90-120 minutes when running some virtual machines and stuff Smile
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 21:31    Post subject:
Ohh, I've already ordered one...I wrote that like a couple posts back. :S
And there were zero review I could find of that one that I ordered (HP Pavilion dv6-3065). Sad Crying or Very sad


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Werelds
Special Little Man



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PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 21:49    Post subject:
Oh my bad, completely missed that. It's more than fast enough anyway, just not sure about its battery life. It's only a 6-cell battery, so you'll probably get about 2-3 hours with some basic hump trol..erm internet browsing
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PumpAction
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PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 22:17    Post subject:
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Wed, 1st Sep 2010 22:36    Post subject:
Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated. Very Happy


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SpykeZ




Posts: 23710

PostPosted: Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 00:06    Post subject:
lenovo makes best laptops, hands down. I made tainted get one for gaming and he loves it


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Devi-Lee




Posts: 659
Location: Slovenia
PostPosted: Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 01:09    Post subject:
SpykeZ wrote:
lenovo makes best laptops, hands down. I made tainted get one for gaming and he loves it


Second that. Love my X201.
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Mr.Tinkles




Posts: 12378
Location: Reino de Suecia
PostPosted: Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 01:19    Post subject:
SpykeZ wrote:
lenovo makes best laptops, hands down. I made tainted get one for gaming and he loves it


Hmm, I've taken a look at some of them and compared them to other manufacturers. You seem to get less power for more money, is the quality better or something?

The HP I chose is around 2000SEK (260USD) cheaper yet has equivalent or better specs, which I just don't understand, what makes Lenovo better?


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SpykeZ




Posts: 23710

PostPosted: Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 01:28    Post subject:
the build quality alone makes you feel like you paid for what you got. The keyboards are some of the best ever made for laptops, the encasing is nice and solid, i dunno if they're still doing it but they were building a magnesium alloy skeleton into the computer around the R60 adn T60 laptops to give it extra protection when it falls. Hard drive monitoring system so when you drop it the laptop parks the heads on the HD so it doesn't fuck it up.

They're a bit pricey yes, but compared to the build quality, no other laptop manu has SHIT on them, especially HP. I bought mine used and I've dropped it off my bed cause my dog pushing it etc and the thing is still rock solid.

If you can order from the states or something, they have an outlet store

http://outlet.lenovo.com/

pretty good discount on laptops


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Werelds
Special Little Man



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PostPosted: Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 09:55    Post subject:
Prefetian wrote:
Hmm, I've taken a look at some of them and compared them to other manufacturers. You seem to get less power for more money, is the quality better or something?

The HP I chose is around 2000SEK (260USD) cheaper yet has equivalent or better specs, which I just don't understand, what makes Lenovo better?

"Seem" is the keyword there. With laptops, the differences aren't as big as on a desktop, because there are large parts that are more or less identical.

To give you an idea of just how solid they are: I have a Thinkpad T42 (which was one of the last ones fully supported by IBM directly, came out a few months before Lenovo took over the consume division). Up until July 2009, there hadn't been a single problem with it; unfortunately, on my flight to the UK the screen somehow got damaged even though I had it completely wrapped and protected. Other than the screen though, it still works perfectly, I even gave it to my brother and sister-in-law for a while when their desktop broke down. I'm on the lookout for a second hand screen, because it still is a very solid machine (Pentium M @ 1.6 GHz, Radeon 9600 <3).

During one of my first courses at uni back then (got this thing through a uni programme, so everyone had one there), there was a guy who had his laptop on his table, and was sleeping himself. Basically someone scared him shitless, he woke up knocking his laptop off - making it drop 1.5 meters straight down. Picked it up, turned it on, still worked fine. One of the corners was chipped obviously, but nothing got seriously damaged.

Try that with an HP, ASUS or Acer Very Happy

And like our squirrel says, they've got a few mechanisms that help protect hardware; hard drives lock when they detect fast movement or shocks, the hinges are of a magnesium alloy making them ridiculously hard to break. Not sure if Spykez has ever opened one up, but the keyboard in my T42 also covers the motherboard properly, so no dirt or anything can slip between the keys; still not every brand does that nowadays.

I got my current X340 for free from my boss, but if I had to buy one, Lenovo would be the first and last place I'd look for one.


That's not to say HP and such don't make good laptops - they're quite fine for the most part. But it's these little things that make Lenovo stand out so much more.
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deelix
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Location: Norway
PostPosted: Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 09:58    Post subject:
iv got i5 in my laptop and it pwns. Idles around 45-50c
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SpykeZ




Posts: 23710

PostPosted: Fri, 3rd Sep 2010 04:53    Post subject:
pwerelds wrote:


That's not to say HP and such don't make good laptops - they're quite fine for the most part. But it's these little things that make Lenovo stand out so much more.


ya like a hard as fuck shell, I could break someones face with my R60 lol. I dunno about the older models before the R/T60 but they built in canals for fluids that if you spill shit on your keyboard it'll go into little canals that direct it away from crucial hardware and out holes on the bottom/side of the laptop so you have less of a mess to try and clean out.

You drop a lenovo it'll scuff and maybye chip a piece of plastic off. HP, Acer, Asus, Toshiba will shatter.

As for the alloy pwerelds, I wasn't talking about hinges being allow, I meant they literaly made a roll cage for the things.

Heres a link on it

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hands-on/lenovo-t61-thinkpads-magnesium-rollcage--wolverines-bones-258878.php





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Werelds
Special Little Man



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PostPosted: Fri, 3rd Sep 2010 09:40    Post subject:
Lol I hadn't seen that yet, impressive shit Very Happy

These things are not pretty, but god they're solid.
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SpykeZ




Posts: 23710

PostPosted: Fri, 3rd Sep 2010 22:49    Post subject:
pwerelds wrote:
Lol I hadn't seen that yet, impressive shit Very Happy

These things are not pretty, but god they're solid.


yet!? lmao that shit came out back on the R-T60 series laptops! or was it 61....either way haha


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