New Laptop

[Igloo]

(I dont know if this is the right place)

But i am looking for a new laptop,

Something with a 17" wide screen display,
512mb ram,
semi decent graphics controller (ati 1200? or something)
Processor should be 2ghz +

100gb (or as close, more is better)

This is to enable me to have a high powered machine with me when i visit suppliers now that my older laptop is struggling.

Any brand i am looking at, obviously nothing too expensive.

Under ?1000 would be nice, can go up to ?1200 though.

Thank You.

Igloo

[Chandler]

Whatever you decide on, ensure that it comes with a decent warranty.  I personally wouldn't go for any less than 3 years.

Do you need to spend that much though?

Unless you want to play games on it I wouldn't be overly concerned about the graphics chip - all of the current chipsets are reasonable, but if I were to go for one I'd pick either Intel GMA900 (e.g. Intel i915 chipset) or ATI Xpress 200.  I don't like the idea of a high-end graphics chipset in a laptop, not only is there more heat but also reduced battery life.  Plus while it may be great for gaming now, you won't be able to upgrade it in a couple of years time.

One thing to bear in mind is quality of drivers.  ATI and Intel are good at providing driver updates.  SiS are not, and appear to cut themselves off from us consumers.

If you need the best battery life, then look at Pentium M based notebooks, but the Celeron-M can be had for less (and don't worry about the lowish 1.4GHz and 1.5GHz speeds).  It is a smaller cache version of the Pentium-M and with less advanced power management.

Definately get at least 512MB RAM.  Anything less will definately disappoint you in a Windows XP notebook.

Do you really need 100GB?  I'm not fond of having too much stuff on a laptop hard-drive.  It's kind of carrying your eggs in one basket, and more literally with a notebook than a desktop system.  Get a DVD-RW equipped system and you can burn anything to disc.

The version of Windows XP you pick may be important.  Do you need to be able to join a domain somewhere, e.g. at the office?  If so, get XP Professional.  If not, save some money by getting XP Home or XP MCE2005.

One thing that annoys me about most modern laptops is the awful silver paint.  I would rather have a black laptop than one with fancy looking silver paint that in 6 months time will look dreadful.

[Igloo]

I understand what your saying Chandler.

But i think the ability to game on it from time to time would be nice,

Do you have any suggestions for a laptop, with around 4 hours battery life, quite high processing speeds (looking at your suggestions - 1.5 - 2ghz?) 512mb ram, and a ati radeon 200 graphics chip?

Thanks,

Igloo

[Chandler]

Personally, if I were to buy another laptop, I'd go with Hi-Grade again as I've found their warranty service to be good.  Everything was done at their expense - they collect the machine, repair it, and return it.

You can play around with the configurations on the Hi-Grade site to get a system to suit you.  1) Pick one with your desired graphics chipset.  2) Click Customize It and pick how much memory/hard drive space you want.

The Hi-Grade Notino D7000 looks nice:
- Intel Core Duo T2300
- nVidia GeForce Go 7400
- 1GB RAM
- 80GB hard drive
- Windows XP Home
- DVD-RW
- 2 year warranty with accidental damage
Total:  ? 985.83

Or how about the Ultinote G6000S-2000
- Mobile Pentium-M 760 - 2.0GHz
- ATI Mobility Radeon X700 256MB
- TV tuner
- 1GB RAM
- 80GB hard drive
- Windows XP MCE2005
- DVD-RW
- 2 year warranty with accidental damage
Total:  ? 985.83