Hi everyone,
My first post (been lurking for a few weeks).
Anyway, I will add a detailed background post in the future but for now I have a PC question.
My current PC is not cutting it (can barely handle pokertracker and you can forget about gametime+!!)

The top of the line Dell laptop is out of my price range right now but the Dell 6000 is not.
Right now I am looking at one that is 1.6GHZ,1MB memory and 80 GB hard drive.
I am comfortable with the memory and hard drive but was worried whether or not the 1.6GZ is good enough?

I know I could save some going to lesser brand but brand is somewhat important to me so I am thinking Dell as they have a lot of great deals.

If anyone could provide some advice regarding the 1.6GZ (good/bad) that would be great!!

Thanks!

Read or search this (anything goes) forum. You will find some great advise on lap tops.

Thanks Kowboy!

I will check out it. I am close to pulling the trigger on the Dell 6000, 1.6,1Mb,80GB and would welcome any and all suggestions.

I don't know if the Dell 6000 is a desktop or laptop so... yeah.

If you're going with a laptop, dell is probably a good bet. If you're going for a desktop though, I would seriously consider either making your own if you have the time, or getting one built buy someone else (alieneware or something like that). Dell is pretty over-priced for desktops considering how simple it would be to just buy all the parts and put it together... and definately cheaper. Laptops are a lot harder to build by yourself though, so I'd go with a dell or something.

I have a pretty good topic about this somewhere down the forum.. I think you can just search for topics by me

If that is a 1.6GHz pentium-M, then it will be plenty fast.
These chips are comperable to a 2.0GHz AthonXP.
They slow down automatically to conserve batterylife,
but this can be controlled in the BIOS to make them run at full speed
some/most/all of the time.
In the tweaking world of overclockers, people are taking these mobile chips, and making desktop PCs out of them,
They put a Pentium-4 to shame. They do more work per clock-cycle, and run cooler.

If that is the celeron processor, pay the extra money to get the 600M model.
the celeron is crippled like a duron/sempron chip.
This has been shown to me by a friend of mine to impair performance using PT and GT+.
They cripple the chip by not including as much L1/L2 cache.

Sorry if that is too much tech jargon, but it is better to be informed and not understand it, than to stumble along in the dark.

The university I work for only buys Dell, so they cannot be that bad.

thanks low dough!!

bring on the tech stuff, I will take what I can get (ie 1.6GHz pentium-M = good)

Oh, d'uh, the topic says laptop. I feel dumb.

Cardman - what is your price range? The reason I ask is because I've been scoping out what is basically a damn-near perfect system for my needs: it's light-ish (5.5lbs), plenty of performance for most everyday needs (it's not gonna do realtime video-editing or 3D modeling... ), has a fast hard drive (7200rpm drive - most people don't realize how important your drive speed is in terms of perceptible performance), and has a decent battery life (~3-3.5 hrs, from what I've read).

It's the Toshiba Tecra M3, and you can custom order one from here:



I guess I mention it because it has my three most important needs:

#1 - light
#2 - 7200 rpm drive
#3 - relatively long battery life

I couldn't find anything from Dell, Alienware, or anywhere else, really, that offered all three with a reasonable price (~$2k).

Of course, if $2k is out of your range, you're gonna have to sacrifice one of those three items from that list - assuming, of course, you have the same needs as I do

FWIW, money has been just barely tight enough for me recently that I have decided to hold off on buying this particular laptop. But if I had the money right now, I'd do it. It beats the pants off of my 8 lb Vaio with its ~1 hr of battery life. Which is why I rely on my desktop computer for most of my home computing needs...

As far as Dell vs. non-Dell ... well, I would only consider buying a Dell notebook. Their desktops suck - I'd much rather build my own PC with components I bought myself, fine thank you. This, mostly because Dell absolutely refuses to sell AMD products, and, quite frankly, I think AMD offers a far better solution than Intel most desktop applications, at least where price-to-performance is concerned. (Most benchmarks will show that AMD performance is at-worst equal with Intel.)

Anyway. That's my $0.02. I hope I'm not gonna start a flame war here..

I know I'm hijacking, but... my ancient toshiba (I wanna say from 97-98) gets over 5 hours of battery life. At least it did... until I... lost the baterry....

First, thanks all for all of your help!

I finally did it! After a solid month of May I will replacing my molding hunk of crap HP!

I pulled the trigger on a Dell 6000 laptop. I did a ton of research and between the minimum specs. I was looking for, the upgraded monitor, and my wife needing the dual drive DVD burner, I went all out.

I could have skimped here or there and spent 1100ish but nope, I pulled the trigger on an absolute beast of a machine thru ebay. It has the 1.6 pentium M, 2MB memory (are you kidding?), 80 GB hard drive, the top on the line monitor offered, dual drive DVD burner, and the upgraded 9 cell battery (6 hours so I am told)! it totaled 1500 after shipping.

I can't wiat for it to show up next week!

NOW I NEED MORE HELP!. I have comcast broadband at the house. Can someone guide me thru steps needed for the wireless internet:
recommend router?
do it myself or call a Geek squad?
and lastly as far as security, can someone recommend software and spyware protection?

THanks everyone again, and once I am up and running I plan on leaning on some of you for more important topics like POKER!!! which could use some assistance (as I refuse to be satisfied although I am in the midst of a hot streak!)