Notebook processor dilemma..(computer guys needed)

J

JaCkaL829

it was my first time...
Hello,



I know a little about computers, but I'm not up-to date on the best products or 'best bang for your buck'. Anyway my brother goes to Hawaii for school in a month, and we need to get him a notebook ASAP. I'm looking to order it in the next day or two. We want to get it sooner so he has time to familiarize with it and so that I can load up some programs on it. He really doesn't mind what he has, so my mom put me in charge of finding a reasonable notebook that should last him a while. I looked at Dells and wasn't too impressed with them or the prices. I'm pretty set on getting him a HP Pavilion dv6000 series. I even looked at Compaqs and they weren't that much cheaper. Anyway the one I built him seems fine, I'm just unsure of which processor to get. The cheaper one goes for $580 and has the Intel(R) Celeron(R) M Processor 520 (1.6 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB) processor. My friend though it was a pretty bad processor, but I'd rather ask you guys since he seems to 'talk out of his ***' often. I can spend an extra $20 and get downgraded a HD 80gb vs 120gb(on previous) for the AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-53 (1.7 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache) or I can add an additional $30 and get the AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-56 (1.8 GHz, 512KB+512KB L2 Cache)



I'm just curious to see what you guys think I should do. I'm pretty set on getting an HP I like the S-Video feature a lot as my brother downloads older emulator systems and can hook it up to a TV. I don't want to spend extra money if I really don't need it. My brother is going to use it for basic computing at school; microsoft office, internet, music, no crazy multi-processes or anything, nothing to hard core, as he will be in Hawaii



Let me know what you guys think I should do as far as processors go.



Also I'm wondering if anyone has any experience getting a operating system downgrade? Most newer notebooks have the basic version of Vista, I'm wondering if I call HP and ask them to load it up with XP if that's possible? From what I understand Vista is a bit of a memory hog, and for my brother who isn't the most computer savy guy, he really wouldn't benefit from Vista, since XP seems to be more then fine.



Thanks in Advance!
 
While I'm a Mac guy, I would probably probably upgrade to one of the AMD processors. I think that the way apps and operating systems are going, you'll want a dual-core chip. I believe that the Celerons are single-core (though I could be mistaken). Regardless of your processor, I would get as much RAM as you can afford. I believe that you need at least 1GB to use all of the features of Vista and Office 2007.
 
AMD's are hotter and faster... the Celeron would make for a lighter and cooler running laptop, but I'm not sure the Celeron would do for Vista, as I have a Core2 Duo (Celeron's big brother) with 2gb of ram on my laptop... and vista chugs along at a modest pace.



See if you can get the Celeron and XP... Vista is double the resources for a few minor advantages.
 
themightytimmah said:
AMD's are hotter and faster... the Celeron would make for a lighter and cooler running laptop, but I'm not sure the Celeron would do for Vista, as I have a Core2 Duo (Celeron's big brother) with 2gb of ram on my laptop... and vista chugs along at a modest pace.



See if you can get the Celeron and XP... Vista is double the resources for a few minor advantages.
Click to expand...



+1





For a laptop, if all I could afford in my budget was a Celeron, I'd pick that over an AMD processor. While in a desktop it might not make a difference to most people, in a laptop you want the processor to run as cool as possible for a few reasons. First, it'll be more comfortable when you use it on your lap. On an older AMD powered laptop I had, after awhile I could not use it on my lap anymore unless I wanted to be burned. Second, a hotter running processor consumes more power, which means less battery life.



Another thing you might want to consider is to get the basic amount of ram, and order from a third party like newegg, crucial, etc. Not only will it cost you a lot less than to upgrade from the manufacturer, but you will also be able to leave your options open in the future. On a laptop, you have 2 slots for memory. Often times if you get lets say 512 mb of RAM, what they will do instead of giving you one stick of 512, they'll put it 2 sticks of 256 mb. So when it comes time to upgrade your RAM, you'll have to remove one stick anyway.



I'd rather put that money towards a bigger hard drive or a better screen, than paying the manufacturer for more RAM.
 
themightytimmah said:
AMD's are hotter and faster... the Celeron would make for a lighter and cooler running laptop, but I'm not sure the Celeron would do for Vista, as I have a Core2 Duo (Celeron's big brother) with 2gb of ram on my laptop... and vista chugs along at a modest pace.



See if you can get the Celeron and XP... Vista is double the resources for a few minor advantages.
Click to expand...



HP won't let me downgrade to XP, or else I'd do it in hearbeat. My brother and I aren't to computer savy so XP is fine. I think I'm going to go to a new MicroCenter that opened up and see what I can do. HP won't ship till the end of the month and I'm still paying tax, so I'd rather go to a brick-n-mortar store.
 
Not a big fan of Vista here either but most likely the laptops at that level will not run the advanced features like of Vista anyway. If they won't let you have XP I would just get Vista Basic. You will probably be OK with Vista as long as you feed it the RAM it needs. You didn't mention in your post how much RAM these machines come with but I would consider 1Gb the minimum.



Keep in mind that just because a machine has the Vista logo on it that does not mean it will run every feature of Vista.



Have you checked into Educational pricing for your brother? You might be able to get more machine for the same price if you talk to educational sales and tell them the machine is for a student getting ready to go to school. It is worth a few minutes to check out...
 
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