OT: In need of a notebook

Ragnarok-X · #1 September 19th, 2007, 01:41 PM

Hey there,

im in need of a notebook. I only need it to use word/access/office or databases in general. I addition, i want to be able to read ebooks on it. Maybe a bit of winamp and video-watching as well. Should use XP.

Into what kind of system should i invest, primary CPU and RAM-wise ?

Leternel · #2 September 19th, 2007, 03:31 PM

For fixed datas such as texts, databases and others, and for music (winamp) you only need something like 1GHz and 500MB of RAM.

But for video watching, I really don't know what CPU. You will probabl need 1GB of RAM to limit visual lag.

Fyron · #3 September 19th, 2007, 03:38 PM

1 GB ram is overkill for video playback. CPU is a more limiting factor. Really, it depends on what kind of video. DVDs/DVD rips? HD movie rips?

Ragnarok-X · #4 September 19th, 2007, 04:20 PM

Im thinking about watching dvd`s (so i need a dvd-drive) and mpg/avi stuff, probably more mpg/avi though.

Romulus68 · #5 September 19th, 2007, 04:48 PM

www.sagernotebooks.com
Series Notebooks NP2070, NP7250 and NP6650 all under $999.

AgentZero · #6 September 19th, 2007, 08:19 PM

I too am interested in this subject, since I'm looking to get a laptop for notetaking. Writing out 20 pages of notes in 2hrs by hand is just painful.

I'm looking for something with reasonable specs, because I don't want to spend 10 minutes waiting for the OS & Word to load. I'm not too bothered about the OS, XP is fine, Vista is fine... although I would like to get something maybe running Linux, since that should help with the nice & speedy aspect of it.

Fyron · #7 September 20th, 2007, 12:47 AM

XP and Vista are nice and speedy on modern to semi-modern laptops (esp. with core 2 duo or centrino duo processors). Mostly, just stay away from AMD processors; they are generally slower and more power-hungry. They tend to round out the bottom-end of laptop product lines.

Dell sells laptops pre-loaded with Ubuntu now:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/s...=19&l=en&s=dhs

dogscoff · #8 September 20th, 2007, 05:45 AM

I would second Fyron's recommendation: Go with a Dell. They were shipping some crap a few years back and skimping on customer service, but I've heard they have fixed all that now. Modern Dells are good machines at a decent price, and they are usually Linux-friendly.

I've heard good things about Lenovo as well, they are supposed to be pretty hard to break compared to most other laptops, which is a good thing. Also pretty well supported by Linux.

Avoid Sony. Overpriced, underspecced, flimsy. I have one, and it is falling to bits. Admittedly it *is* still working after 5 or 6 years, but for what I paid I would expect better.

Looking at what you intend to use it for, you don't need particularly high specs. You could easily get away with a second-hand machine or a refurb, might save you some �$�.

Also, if you're using it for ebooks and if you plan on travelling with it, maybe consider a small, lightweight machine ratehr than one of these hulking great 17-inch desktop-replacements. My boss has a tiny little dell tablet PC with a flippy-round-and-fold-back-down-over-the-keyboard touchscreen. You can use it as a dainty little laptop, or hold it in one hand and use it as a tablet with a stylus. It's great, and ideal for working or reading on a plane or in a car. Power consumption is good too, which means longer battery life. You'd pay a premium for one of those thogh, and I have no idea how it would run under anything other than the factory-installed OS.

Romulus68 · #9 September 20th, 2007, 01:17 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...tra-Mobile-PCs

Baron Munchausen · #10 September 20th, 2007, 08:49 PM

Quote:

AgentZero said:
I too am interested in this subject, since I'm looking to get a laptop for notetaking. Writing out 20 pages of notes in 2hrs by hand is just painful.

I'm looking for something with reasonable specs, because I don't want to spend 10 minutes waiting for the OS & Word to load. I'm not too bothered about the OS, XP is fine, Vista is fine... although I would like to get something maybe running Linux, since that should help with the nice & speedy aspect of it.

Just going for "Linux" doesn't guarantee 'speedy' anymore.

The most popular desktop environments, KDE and Gnome, are every bit as machine-clogging as Windows these days. But that's because they are loaded with fancy features, like Windows. A distro that offers XFCE as an option would be a good start for 'speedy' on older hardware. (Fedora has this as an option, for example.) You could also go with some of the specialized distros designed to be as small and fast as possible, like Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux.