Laptop Advice

Bacchus

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a new laptop and have a few questions.

Is the P-M any good? When I look at laptops with P4 3Hz and then the P-M 1.7Ghz ones, I can't see how buying the P-M with the slower clock speed is better.

What make of laptop are the better ones to go for. I'm looking for a good spec machine (Fast Processor, 512Mb Ram, 60Gb Harddrive, 64Mb Graphics card and some nice features) and it's hard to find a quality laptop.
I'v looked at Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo range but it's let down by poor screen resolutions (1024*740 max) and it doesn't have Mobile Processor (which I'v heard are better but don't really know).
I'd love to get a Toshiba but they only offer 32MB Graphics Cards.
Dell are too expensive (going by their website)
Other brands like Advent, Acer, Mesh etc. seem like good laptops but I'v heard nothing about them.

Final Question, where are the best places to buy laptops.
Dabs.co.uk seem decent enough.
Jaguarcompsys.ie have a poor range of laptops.
Can retail stores compete with online prices at all (I'm in Galway mind you, so trips to Dublin are few and far between)

Vorrtexx

well the desktop P4 chips in the laptops are better for gaming and high demanding applications. however, they are also very demanding on the battery, so you only get about 2hrs max on these machines.
The Centrino chip, is mobile designed chip, which can execute the intructions in a more optimized way, also giving good performance. I hear it's very good with applications, but is slightly slower in the game department compared to the P4 desktop chips in laptops. However, battery life is a Plus with these chips, giving you 4 - 5 hrs out of the battery.

The Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D7830 seemed to have the specs you were describing, but it's using a Desktop processor. but I did see another one on their website now which has a Centrino chip in it. I think it only had an onboard gfx card though, and 40gig HDD.

and I agree, Dell are far too expensive compared to others.

www.elara.ie sell laptops in this country, they have a very large catalogue so u should take a look.

I've heard Advent aren't too good, I could be wrong though.
Acer are supposed to be fairly respectable.
Mesh I don't know about but the Medion/Microstar laptops are supposed to be reliable too.

CyberGhost

link

here's a list of power "affordable" laptops that i made, it's not finished yet

Bacchus

Thanks for explaining the P4/PM processor differences. I think I'll go for a P4 laptop - I'm looking for more of a desktop replacement laptop than anything.
The F-S Amilo D7830 is one I'v been considering buying but it only has 1024*768 max resolution.
The F-S Amilo D8830 seems better but I can only find it on the net with DVD+R/+RW. Is there anywhere that lets you configure and buy that laptop. I'd go for it if I could get a combo drive instead.

CyberGhost: Where did you get the prices for the Dell 5150, F-S Amilo D 8830 and the MultiVision Arcus 5070. They look like good offers.
Are MultiVision reliable, I'v never heard much about them.
Oh the Gericom, never heard of them before but Radeon 9600 128MB and at that price!!!! What's the catch?

CyberGhost

www.dell.ie
www.multivision.co.uk
www.nicepc.co.uk