Hi,

I know I am a bit late, but well so be it. Classes are about to start again and I need a new notebook. I hope some of you guys can help me to find me a nice and decent notebook.

Purposes:
I will use the notebook mainly for coding (since I am in an IT class), but I will also have to run some rendering software and other software like Photoshop or GIMP.
Furthermore it would be nice to run a game and/or watch a movie every now and then. Not really necessarily, but would be nice. I do have a pretty decent desktop at home, but a game or a movie every now and then would be nice just to fill those gaps between classes and for those times I am not staying at home.
Since I will have to travel quite a distance every day, including weekends, I prefer a lightweight notebook and it should be able to run quite some time on the battery alone.
Oh and off course I need a wireless connection in case someone is going to strip it down all the way
So I will be using this notebook quite a lot and I don’t think I could get away with a really cheap one.

Another question I got is:
What operating system would you recommend me? I know you can use a Unix based system and probably a Mac all the way down university, but I also know that they are going to run some software most suitable for Windows versions or you will have to cope with some incompatibility issues.
So if you recommend me an operating system should I get a 32 or a 64 bit version? This probably depends on the notebook off course.
And if you recommend me a Windows version which flavor should I get? Should I get a 32 or a 64 bit version and would you recommend me Home Basic/Home Premium/Business/Ultimate in the case of Windows Vista?

My budget is round and about:
1050 Euro
or 850 Pounds
or 1550 Dollars
I think a margin of ten percent extra or so is acceptable, but not favored.

I hope someone is able to help me out on this one.
Thanks in advance.

Can't you get a pc through your school?

I'm gonna get a notebook from school, I have to pay 950 euros (it's about 100 euros software included).. Store value is about 1700 euros.

No they don’t offer notebooks anymore. They did a few years back though. The thing is computers in general drop in price (massively) when they become older, so those students that bought a notebook in the early days did have to pay more, which was a kind of unfair. Or some were able to buy the exact same notebook for less in a store.

Also the university got questions about their money flow. If they keep their price at the same level for let’s say a whole year and the overall value drops in stores what happens to the difference in price they receive?

Another thing that caused some troubles was repairs. Students would have to ask school to repair their notebook and that caused some troubles.
I hope my story is clear if not I will try to reformulate my story.

You can buy an awful lot of laptop for £860.

Just got mine for £699 - 4GB RAM, 2Ghz Dual Core, nVidia 9500 graphics, 360GB Hard Drive, blu-ray player, 18.4" HD Screen, 5.1 Surround sound.

(Although the first one I got was broken)

good website I found (tho I didnt get it from there) is www.laptopsdirect.co.uk (not sure bout international deliveries tho)

Ok, at the moment I got a notebook in mind, which I probably like to buy. The thing is though I have to choose an operating system.

I got the following options:
None at all (i.e. *unix based, since I don’t own a spare Windows license)
Windows XP: Home/Pro
Windows Vista 32bit: Home basic/Home premium/Business/Ultimate
Windows Vista 64bit: Home premium/Business/Ultimate

Now the problem is I am totally confused, because of those 32bit vs. 64bit story’s, myths, facts and lies. One says you will get a (noticeable) performance drop using a 64bit operating system, while one other tells you to go with a 64bit OS as soon as you got more than 3 or 4 GB of RAM. Even others tell you to go with a 64bit OS if you got a dual or quad core CPU.
So in general do you gain or lose performance and what would be my best bet regarding the specs below?
I also got told that 64bit is mainly designed for research. So why do they actually sell them to the John Doe’s then?
I hope someone can shed some light on this and give me a better understanding about this situation and it would be nice if you could tell me a bit more about the future and not only about the present.

Some specs:
CPU: Intel Core2Duo T9400 2,53 GHz 6MB Cache
Chipset: Intel Cantiga PM45 1066MHz FSB + ICH9M
RAM: 4Gb DDR2-800MHz
Graphics card: NVIDIA 9600M GT 512 Mb

If you need more information about the setup, please let me know.

Ps. I do know about integers, doubles, characters, longs, pointers and things.

64-bit is the best bet unlss you have some wierd sort of app that no-one else uses that wont work on 32-bit

Regarding 4GB of ram on a 32-bit system, I will share my personal experience with you.

I tried this, cause I saw rumours everywhere about it, and I decided to give it a go. I bought 4x1GB of those OCZ reaper DDR2 1150 sticks. I put all 4 in and booted. The BIOS recognized all of it, 4096 MB of RAM it said. Windows recognized only 3.25 GB of RAM. Everything seemed fine for a while, but after a couple of hours it gave me blue screens. I rebooted, and more blue screens. Every time the thing causing the blue screen was different, I never saw the same thing twice. That's when I had enough and took out one of the sticks. I now have 3GB of ram in my system. BIOS and Windows both recognize 3GB of RAM. I have no more blue screens since then, in fact my system works perfectly with 3GB. And, BIOS still makes them work in dual-channel mode. Hope this helps. I'm gonna upgrade to WinXP x64 soon to take advantage of my extra stick, but I'm just too lazy at the moment...

Quote from Dunmer :

One says you will get a (noticeable) performance drop using a 64bit operating system

you wont

Quote :

while one other tells you to go with a 64bit OS as soon as you got more than 3 or 4 GB of RAM.

theres some truth in that
1) on 32 bit you wont be able to use more than 2 gigs for programs (3 gig if you set the /3gb bootup option but with a 512mb graphics card that will leave you with just 512mb of available kernel space)
2) it will be impossible for your pc to access any ram larger than 4gb minus gpu-ram (an other integrated rams but the gpu is the only noteworthy one)

Quote :

Even others tell you to go with a 64bit OS if you got a dual or quad core CPU.

thats nonsense

Quote :

So in general do you gain or lose performance and what would be my best bet regarding the specs below?

64 becuase of the 4gb of ram... although personally i wouldnt use vista64 and take xp64 instead

Hijack mode:
The notebook I ordered from school, I was wondering if it's any good. Price should be right, but I was wondering about the system itself. It cost me 950 euros (810 for the laptop itself + 140 mandatory software).

It's good enough to play LFS, but don't expect to play Crysis on it. Price is fine too.