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Thread ID: 40671 2003-12-14 10:24:00 best value laptop for under $2500 new or second hand? petemit (1134) Press F1
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200410 2003-12-14 10:24:00 hi im going to buy my wife a laptop for xmas and wondered weather any of your readers knew of any good deals at present

it will be used for wordprocessing mainly ,conecting to the net ,and handling and editing photos no hard core gaming or really heavy use

i would like better than a 2.00 celeron (do i really need better?)
at least 256 meg ram
maybe a video card ?im not sure ill need one
20 to 40 meg of hard drive ramm should be fine
a dvd + a cdwriter
a floppydisk drive
a modem and network card
firewire or usb ports prefer usb2
not sure if i need a 15 inch screen or if 14 is oka what about number of pixels type of screen ect
a s port so we could conect dvd to tv(i presume this is possible)
ive allready got winx profesional and other software at home which i can use but will take software if it comes with it

id like to buy a cheap 2 mp camera (say samsung ??) for around the $300 mark and would like camera and lap top not to exceed $2500

any ideas re specs or good makes to buy would be appreciated also if anyone has bought second hand and had any bad experiances or if you have one for sale feel free to email me re the specs
i live in hamilton
thanks in anticipation peter
petemit (1134)
200411 2003-12-14 12:17:00 Look at the Noel Leeming deals on HPQ (HP-Compaq) HP ZE4520 laptops, there is one that is bundled with a digital camera
$2472.75.

This would do everything you want, more RAM can be added later.

Video card - with all laptops the video is what its manufactured with. Generally you cant upgrade or change it, as it's soldered onto the motherboard.
Apart from RAM and HDD, you cant really upgrade anything on a laptop.

I have a similar model (2.2 GHz celeron) and it has S-Video out, and I think this will too, just not mentioned. Also it will have a FDD. They are pathetic with the advertising, leaving out most of the important bits.

Go and have a look.

Mobile Intel Celeron processor 2.4 GHz
256 MB DDR RAM (shared)
30 GB Hard Drive
24X DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
15.0" XGA TFT Display
ATI Mobility Radeon, AGP 4x and 3D Architecture, 64MB DDR Integrated Video Memory
X2 USB 1.1
X1 IEEE 1394 port (firewire)
Port Replicator Connector
56K Modem
10/100 network on board
LiIon Battery
Windows XP Home Edition
Corel Productivity Pack which includes; WordPerfect V10, Quattro Pro V10, and Britannica On-line.
Norton Anti-Virus (90 day)
godfather (25)
200412 2003-12-14 18:36:00 They also had some Athlon based Laptops for a bit more still under $2500. Didn't take much notice of the specs tho sorry. Phar (2152)
200413 2003-12-14 18:50:00 here's (www.noelleeming.co.nz) the link... Trev O (452)
200414 2003-12-14 18:51:00 (for Noelleeming that link is) Trev O (452)
200415 2003-12-14 23:09:00 thanks guys ive just been told that celeron proccesors are better than athalon in laptop as they run cooler is this true and do they run at the same speed

thanks peter
petemit (1134)
200416 2003-12-14 23:41:00 In my experience Celerons run cooler than Athlons, yes.
I have seen an Athlon laptop where the fan ran continuously, and the air coming out would burn, after several hours use. Mt Celeron runs the fan less than 10% of the time, and its only "warm"


Just make sure ang CPU is a mobile CPU, as some laptops in that price range use desktop CPU's, which run well, but heat transfer gets a problem in a laptop.
There have been cases of men having valuable assetts burnt by long periods of laptop use while "in the lap".

The laptops being suggested are not the lightest weight, and if its life is going to be travelling, in and out of airplanes, pay a lot more and get a lighter (slower) one.

If for "convenience" use they are fine however.
godfather (25)
200417 2003-12-14 23:42:00 As for speed, they should "speed step" to reduce the clock speed when it's not needed, to conserve battery and heat. godfather (25)
200418 2003-12-15 01:17:00 They may run cooler but the performence of any celeron chip is lacking a couple years behind...well,Everything else on the market.

Rumour is that celeron chips will soon be rated by the cold plate of custerd method.

As in,would you prefer this celeron chip or a cold plate of custerd?
metla (154)
200419 2003-12-15 11:44:00 mmmm custard ;)

A celeron chip in a laptop is ideal, unless you're planning on using that laptop for gaming, 3d rendering, etc. Laptops are primarily used for Word/Excel type usage which a celeron can do easily.
-=JM=- (16)
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