Help Alex buy a laptop part 2. Processor differences? T2250, T5200 and T5500?

[Mark]

1GB RAM is enough for everyday stuff. I've used 1GB for the last four years and it's been fine. Only now am I speccing 2GB. If it's a contest between faster CPU and more RAM for similar price, I'd get the faster CPU, every time. So long as the RAM is upgradeable (some of the thin & light laptops aren't), then it's an easy choice.

Discrete graphics is worth it if you game a lot. 9cell battery is worth it if you travel a lot and want extra battery life.

The rest is up to you.

[Mark]

I'd still avoid Phillips. Now I'm going back a long time (10 years), but we had some of their business 'server' hardware, and compared to similar hardware from other manufacturers (and I'm talking 10-15 other manufacturers as there were lots back then) it had to be the slowest, worst designed, tackiest, pile of steaming cow **** I used. No exceptions - though Siemens also put up a valient fight for that dubious honour.

As a result, if anyone says they want a Phillips computer, I'll spend all the time I have to convince them out of it. Kitten, you've been warned.

[LeperousDust]

Yeah kitten if you want awesome, i've spent a fair time comparing the market this dell is the beast of the 12" notebooks, esp for the price! Graphics processor and ram is up to you, depending on what you need/want.... Which is where i fall

I *think* i'll get the £800 Go7400 1gig 2ghz T7200 because its something special i think. It really has everything! RAM is upgradable afaik but the 1gb version will be full so i'll have to sell some ram to upgrade it... Still small price to pay for an awesome notebook

Now im actually going out (i was getting ready before, when i come back i'll commit, promise (yeah right ) Kitten i'll be getting it next week and using it a fair amount and actually travelling 4+ hours a fair bit by train over the next coming month or two, so i can give you a very good review too. Anyways gotta toodle, im in an uber rush, byyye!

[Mark]

You'll need that 9cell battery to do that (though of course you can buy a spare later)

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Mark

I'd still avoid Phillips. Now I'm going back a long time (10 years), but we had some of their business 'server' hardware, and compared to similar hardware from other manufacturers (and I'm talking 10-15 other manufacturers as there were lots back then) it had to be the slowest, worst designed, tackiest, pile of steaming cow **** I used. No exceptions - though Siemens also put up a valient fight for that dubious honour.

As a result, if anyone says they want a Phillips computer, I'll spend all the time I have to convince them out of it. Kitten, you've been warned.

10 years is a long time to hold a grudge dude.

If Alex had asked for the same advice 3-4 years ago, I'd have told him to steer clear of Dell as, at the time, they were cheap plasticky and unreliable. Now, if anyone asks my advice on laptops, I automatically look to Dell first.

Do you have recent experience of Phillips laptops or are you slating them purely on bad experiences with Phillips server hardware from 10 years ago?
If you're going to advise people against a particular brand it may be more helpful to tell them why to avoid them rather than just saying "don't buy one"

Back on topic.

The discrete graphics will certainly be helpful with 1Gb RAM. The onboard version uses up to 256Mb of the system RAM, so running graphics intensive applications/games will reduce your available RAM by up to 1/4.
And I agree with Mark, for long periods of use, the 9 cell battery will be a must.

Of course, having a 512Mb GeForce Go 7900 card and 2Gb of RAM is lots of fun with a 17" screen at 1920x1200

Stan

[Daz]

To throw a slight curve ball - what's the rpm of the hard drive in those laptops? Best check they're at least 5400rpm. Though tbh even they do my **** in.

/strokes 7200rpm disk in laptop.

[Feek]

If you're going Vista (which you've listed) you'll want the 2Gb RAM. Vista loves RAM and uses as much as you chuck at it. I've got a spreadsheet open, MSN, media player and firefox with 20 tabs and am chewing about 1.2Gb of RAM with the system using the rest of my physical memory as a cache.

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Daz

To throw a slight curve ball - what's the rpm of the hard drive in those laptops? Best check they're at least 5400rpm. Though tbh even they do my **** in.

/strokes 7200rpm disk in laptop.

AFAIK, the minimum Dell use are 5400 rpm as standard with 7200 rpm available as an upgrade option.

Also, good point Feek. I've heard that Vista loves RAM - although I don't have personal experience as yet.

Stan

[Daz]

Fwiw the Vista laptop I'm using now has 1GB of RAM and it's good as gold

[Stan_Lite]

Originally Posted by Feek

If you're going Vista (which you've listed) you'll want the 2Gb RAM. Vista loves RAM and uses as much as you chuck at it. I've got a spreadsheet open, MSN, media player and firefox with 20 tabs and am chewing about 1.2Gb of RAM with the system using the rest of my physical memory as a cache.

Jeez that is a lot. I just checked this rig and I'm only using about 750Mb running the Windows SMP Folding client, Firefox with 8 tabs open and MSN.

Stan