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New laptop advice plz. Buying tonight. Links provided.

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DragonTattooz

Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Yeah, nothing like waiting until the last minute. Going to Hawaii on Tuesday and want a new lappy to take w/ me. Probably the biggest challenge it will face is playing WoW.

Small budget- $800ish. Going to Wal-Mart since they are open late. No time tomorrow and I live in a small town in Northern Cali anyway, i.e. no Fry's, Best Buy, etc.

Here's what I'm looking at-

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12526886

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11090775&findingMethod=rr

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11331593&findingMethod=rr

I like the price on this one, but just not sure how it compares to the others. Willing to spend the additional money if it's worth it for the more expensive ones.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11319357&findingMethod=rr

Geez. I guess most of these are site-to-store. I wonder If I could pick it up at a store on Maui? I need to run an errand, then I'll see if anybody has responded.

Oh, and I'm also open to suggestions.

Thanks!
 
OK. Scratch that. I went to the store and bought this-
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12960906

Is this one worth $100 more? If so, I'm going back tomorrow and trading the Dell for it. I don't see it on this ad, but it has the 64-bit version of Windows 7, whereas the Dell Just has Windows 7 Home Premium.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12347230

I have no first hand knowledge of AMD mobile chips but have read they use a little more juice and put out a little more heat than comparable Intel models. Also a little slower at the same clock speed.

With that said, the ATI 4650 video card in the HP will run rings around the GMA 4500 in the Dell for gaming.
 
I have no first hand knowledge of AMD mobile chips but have read they use a little more juice and put out a little more heat than comparable Intel models. Also a little slower at the same clock speed.

With that said, the ATI 4650 video card in the HP will run rings around the GMA 4500 in the Dell for gaming.

Thanks for the response.:)

Probably the biggest reason why I bought the Dell/Intel over the HP/AMD was the power consumption. The Dell's tag said 8+ hours (or was it 12+??) and the HP said 3. To me, that says the Intel is far more efficient than the AMD, if nothing else. And, with a $100 lower price I went ahead with the Dell, even though I think the HP is probably an overall better computer. Somebody please feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. I do have 15 days to exchange it.
 
Most likely the reason it has a longer battery life is not the efficiency of the system, but the size of the battery. The battery info itself is not on the tags usually, just the battery life. With the same size battery you might see a difference of about 1 hour or so in battery life between different CPUs. Definitely not 5-9.

edit: OK. I should look at product specs before I comment I guess. The Dell does have a 9-cell compared to the HP's 8-Cell. The giant difference in power comsumption is going to be from the graphics card, which the Dell does not have. The HP also has a faster 7,200 RPM HD, and a Blue-Ray disc drive. All of those factors are going to effect battery life a lot. Not really a fair comparison between the 2 as far as that goes. Very different systems.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the response.:)

Probably the biggest reason why I bought the Dell/Intel over the HP/AMD was the power consumption. The Dell's tag said 8+ hours (or was it 12+??) and the HP said 3. To me, that says the Intel is far more efficient than the AMD, if nothing else. And, with a $100 lower price I went ahead with the Dell, even though I think the HP is probably an overall better computer. Somebody please feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. I do have 15 days to exchange it.

There is no way the Dell gets 8 hours on battery, that is surely exaggerated. I would imagine it should do 4 hours, maybe a little more using the wireless, browsing the net. The AMD system wont do nearly as well, probably 2.5 hours or so due to the discrete graphics and the processor is less efficient.

EDIT: and as gibletzor pointed out, the difference between the 8 cell and 9 cell battery.
 
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