HP LAptop (DV2166EU)

civic

Hi,

I am looking at buying the following laptop :

HP DV2166EU
€1099.99

Spec :

AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52 Processor 1.60GHz
1600 MHz Hyper Transport
512KB Cache
1024 MB RAM
120 GB Hard Drive
Dual Layer DVD ReWriter MultiDrive
14.1" Widescreen Brightview Display
Microsoft Windows Media Center
128MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 Graphics
1 year FREE warranty

Want a fairly light machine and the screen size of 14.1" should be sufficient.
Compared to other machines this one appears to be the best spec for the money. You can get similar machines but they are shared graphics or integrated (been told to avoid this..)

Would ye have any opinions on this machine. Is the 512KB Cache ok?

Appreciate your opinions...

Tom Dunne

civic wrote:

Appreciate your opinions...

Seems a bit over priced - where did you see it (Harvery Norman's/Dixons would be my guess )?

civic wrote:

You can get similar machines but they are shared graphics or integrated (been told to avoid this..)

Why have you been told to avoid this? What will you be doing with the laptop? If it's for basic e-mail, word processing, music, then integrated graphics are fine (and cheaper).

civic wrote:

Is the 512KB Cache ok?

Don't get too hung up on things like this. Yes, it is perfectly fine.

Hobbes

tom dunne wrote:

Why have you been told to avoid this? What will you be doing with the laptop? If it's for basic e-mail, word processing, music, then integrated graphics are fine (and cheaper).

In general stay away from SMG unless your looking for a really cheap machine and plan never to play any games or do anything that requires graphics.

TerrorFirmer

you do realise the Go6150 is also integrated, right?

Although I wouldn't agree with the 'stay away from Integrated' talk entirely - even if you plan playing some games, the Go6150 and Radeon Xpress 1150 are relatively ok, the X1150 being the best in the market so far. Even the GMA has its place in games if you know what you want.

Go6150 or X1150 won't run latest games mind, but they do both run the likes of Battlefield 2, Half Life 2, and others without any problems.

The only thing I would say is to avoid the Intel GMA900/950/3000 even if you plan playing some light games, as although they work with some, they are not only hit and miss but give totally inconsistant framerates in most games, and cannot actually render others currently, including old games from 2003 downwards. Basically, totally unreliable.

For example if a game needs a 32mb card with T&L, you know that's going to work fine on the Go6150 or X1150. With the GMA however, it tells you nothing - the game might run brilliant, it might run crap, it might not run at all, regardless of the fact its a 128mb card (or 224mb if you have gma950). Such unreliability is it's huge downpoint. You never know where you stand.

The only things that do definately work are Dx8 titles, which is dipping back to 2002 era.

Although it all depends on what you want to play really. But if you want to play some games on such a budget, I'd personally go for Dells 1501 and upgrade it from the Sempron to the X2. It comes with the Radeon Xpress 1150 which is better then the Go6150 - about the same as the X300 mobility chip.

But to be honest if you're going to be spending 1k, you could easily get a machine with a dedicated card. Laptopdirects.ie had an IBM with a Go7300 for about 800 a week or two ago.