Joe:
Yes, good specs on the laptop, and when thinking about a desktop, consider
this:
After dealing with certain HP's, Compaqs, and E Machines, my recommendation
would be to build a PC with all of the things you want, and none of the
things you don't! Many of the big name manufacturers use components that
will fit only the application.... ie: power supplies that are designed only
for the specific case (HP) and can only be replaced by exact replacements
from HP, and are very much inflated. If you build your own, power supplies,
drives, memory, and many other items are all standardized and quite
inexpensive, not to mention that when purchasing M$ supported hardware, the
WXP OS price drops considerably, and is not bundled with tons of other
programs that you don't want or never use, or gives you trial length demo's
of antivirus software and so on. I built one for my daughter, here are the
damages:
Case w/ 350W power supply, and two front USB 2.0 ports, $49.00 **US
Dollars** (replacement power supply is around $35.00)
Mobo, Elitegroup ECS K7SOM+1.0 with AMD Duron 1200 processor (soldered in
place) {making the processor non replacable} oh, well.... cheap... $90.00
www.ecsusa.com
JustLink CD-RW with Nero $40.00
Seagate 40gb hdd $40.00
3.5" floppy drive $10.00
Windows XP Home w/Service Pack 1 $120.00
Memory... supports up to 1gb of either PC133 SDRAM or many different types
of DDR memory (check with www.crucial.com on this board, you will be
surprised!) In my case, PC2100 256meg $46.99 (can't have too much memory)
Monitors.... Too many to recommend one in specific... I found a used 17" KDS
Visual Sensation for $20.00
As you can see, not a bad price, and could be even better if you know
someone that will sell you these parts with a low or no mark up. And, there
are so many other mobo's out there that come with or without processors, and
at very reasonable prices, that the sky is the limit. I selected the ECS
board only because of the features like onboard video, sound and LAN, not
adding these components individally appealed to me.
Hope that gives you some direction.... Good luck in what ever decision you
make!
Dean Kiley
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Pearson" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [PCBUILD] Would you change this laptop spec?
> Hi all ... I'm in the market for a new PC but I haven't followed what's
good
> much this year. Any thoughts on whether the following is a good spec would
> be appreciated.
>
> I would be satisfied with a desktop/tower system for most of my needs (and
> if I only have a laptop I will use a fullsize keyboard and display when at
> home = office). But I know that I need a laptop sometimes for business.
For
> the price of a high-spec Dell or Compaq I could get a low-spec laptop AND
a
> more powerful desktop system ... and this seems quite attractive. So with
> that in mind, I'm looking for a laptop that can do basic MS Office, email
> and browsing.
>
> I've got this quote: AOpen 1846A
> Intel Celeron 1.8GHz
> ATI display chipset 32MB DDR
> 20GB hard drive
> 128MB DDR266 mem
> CD-ROM
> 14" SXGA+ LCD
> XP Home
> Price ZAR5999 (I'm not specifically asking about the value for money
though)
>
> I would certainly go for 40GB if it was to be my only system, but I'm sure
> 20 is fine given the above. Likewise I would probably want XP Pro, but are
> there any major limitations with Home assuming I want to network it with
> another system running Pro?
>
> I wonder if 256M memory would be safer?
> Should I go for an integrated DVD writer or CDRW?
>
> Thanks - Joe
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