Computer Talk/Experts Please

Howd'y Cruiser,
Just a little information that you might want to know, Mr Bill Gates has his new windows operating software on the market Vista if you run this software your computer will need a minimum of 1 gig ram, try and get a lappy that has xp as is operating system.
In relation to the AMD processor i believe it uses more power and gets hotter than the Intel varieties.
If i wanted a good computer but not over the top i would by a Toshiba, Intel duel core 2Ghz and a 4 MB cache, 1 gig of ram and running XP.
And try and get a 5 year warranty should cost about $200

Hope this helps
Stephen

Hi Cruiser, Adding on to what Stephen said I would currently stick with XP, but make sure the laptop you buy runs XP. If you buy a Vista machine it may not be able to run your copy of XP, as some come with onboard hardware that only have Vista drivers..

I agree also that the Toshi is probably the go, for a new one at present. Just make sure it has everything you need.

Have fun with that mate just did it to my PC just went and brought some big 8 gig thum drives $85 each. And a few hours later running super fast.

Cheers Stephen

The AMD Athlon core due is an affordable alternative to the Intel Core 2 duo, the Turion is a tad pricier but designed for lower power usage. In my opinion the AMD's are every bit as good as the Intel chips

I have Vista on my new HP lappy and its teething problems are annoying but its passable

Whatever it is make sure the processor is mobile like pentium m or centrino or similar. Mate bought an acer few years ago and it runs a regular processor that turns the machine into a room heater. Laptop means portable and battery (otherwise u would would be buying a desktop) and a battery management system is critical.

Owen

I currently use an Acer Aspire 3620.

Gets used everday (almost 12months old now) and the only thing I have done is add extra memory.

It is probably worth talking to a couple of local computer places (If you have them). Some laptops are easier to upgrade/replace things like hard drives in than others (and also the part $$$)

Prior to this I had a compaq for 2 years and had no issues with them either.

Both are used about 6 days a week plus most nights.

I'd agree too with try and stick with XP system. And look for one with wireless networking built in to, saves carrying a card and you ca check email etc at special places (including Some Macca's). You can often find a wireless "private" network that is not secured to log in and check your mail whilst travelling too.

Both of these laptops have been bought for aroun $1000 on special

Thanks all.
I might keep this one and have it upgraded.

I asked a young geek friend of my daughter who uses a Sony Valero (spelling) but they were about $4,200 for the specs he advised me to get, he said DELL would build what I needed at about ½ the price.

Initially when I got it, it run slow, so the operating system, XP Media Player, which I understand is XP professional with Media Player intergrated, was reinstalled without some of the Dell software that was slowing it down, it runs soooo fast now.

I ended up with Intel Core Duo 2 Central Processing Unit, T7200 @ 2.00GHz with 2GB 533 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, Intel 945 chipset, Intel media graphics accelerator 950, Bluetooth, WiFi, usb wireless mouse so I can play games at a distance when camped, DVD+/-RW Dual layer drive, 1680 x 1050 pixel sxga + tft 15.4inch widescreen, integrated stereo sound and McAfee, can watch TV on it and send emails in the bush too.
I thought it was good value @ $2,220 with a photo printer/copier included, and yeah I have no real idea what the above numbers really mean, I copied it from the system, cause it won’t run on 12v lol, will run off it's own battery and runs or recharges from the inverter without hassles.

Hint…
Look at 2gig Ram with a super fast Intell processor and for the best quality screen you can afford, the more screen pixels available will make pictures, tv & dvd's look so realistic compared to the usual 1200 x 900 pixel screens on some budget price units.

Transfering windows Using your Xp cd on a new machine is no problem, just following the on screen instructions, the free call takes all of 5 mins!

Intel Core 2 Duo ~8300MB/s @ 2.67GHz
is fastest, as can be read in the following tests.

AMD Athlon X2 / Opteron DC ~2950MB/s @ 2.6GHz ~98ns @ 2.6GHz The integrated memory controller and SRI/Crossbar interface allows it very low inter-core latency however, the lack of shared L2 caches means the inter-core bandwidth cannot match. However, passing data between threads is faster than a comparative SMP system.

AMD Phenom X4 (Barcelona) n/a n/a With a shared L3 cache, inter-core bandwidth for small/medium transfers will be high with low latency while larger transfers will still benefit from the built-in memory controllers. However, raw memory bandwidth will not outperform current 2-way Quad FX / Dual-Core Opteron systems.

Intel Core Duo ~4000MB/s @ 1.67GHz ~160ns @ 1.67GHz The first design with shared L2 cache, the results are very good though the L2 cache is smaller and the bandwidth lower than newer Core 2 processors.

Intel Core 2 Duo ~8300MB/s @ 2.67GHz ~90ns @ 2.67GHz You can clearly see its dual core performance is exemplary due to its large, shared L2 cache. Except the very largest combination, all others just use the shared L2 cache and don't need to touch main memory. Passing data between threads is extremely fast, latency is very low, with almost no penalty unlike traditional SMP systems!

Intel Pentium D ~700MB/s @ 2.67GHz ~265ns @ 2.67GHz The first dual-core design with 2 processor dies on 1 package. Transfering data between threads through the shared FSB to/from main memory is very slow, completly dependent on memory bandwidth. Large L2 caches do not help here except to buffer any common data that does not change thus freeing the FSB for other transfers. This is how traditional SMP systems behaved so it is not worse than a dual CPU but not better either.

Mainey...