Laptop verdict

Markjf

Hi Guys,

A mate of mine is looking at a new laptop mainly for email, internet, some office work and a few older games.
He sent me this link to a Dell

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=N4XENT03&l=en&oc=N06157&rbc=N06157&s=dhs&sbc=iedhsftdppnotebook3


I am a little behind on my laptops so if anyone could have a look and see is it worth the money.

I would like to know if he would be better off going for an Intel over the AMD?

the 250MB Hypermemory graphics card, doesn't that shared memory with the system ?

Would he be better of with a 9 cell battery over the 4 cell ?



Thanks for your help
Mark

forbairt

Graphics card should be grand ...

http://ati.amd.com/technology/hypermemory.html

Battery ... well if he's going to be travelling a lot ... get the 9cell .. its probably gonna add a bit to the weight of the machine ? ... but 29 vrs 85 Whr is a big difference

I'd probably throw in the dell 2 or 3 year warranty as well ... in my experience ... things go wrong with laptops ... hard disk dies ... mother boards die .. fans go funny ... so unless he's able to do repairs himself .. or you are able to ... recommend he get a bit of an extra warranty

singloud

2GB Ram will be fine, should do the job very well for him.
Hard drive same.
Graphics card will handle older games no worries but won't handle something like Oblivion.
He would be better off with a longer battery if he intends travelling a lot etc.

Hypermemory is a fancy wording for shared memory. Meaning it uses up system memory. A dedicated card might be a good idea, but if he's playing older level games with 2GB ram he should be ok.



I'd advise against any form of extended warranty. I got a book when heading to uni about living away from home which strongly advised not to touch any extended warranties, I left the book in Ireland so I have to quote Wikipedia

groups, such as the non-profit Consumers Union, advise against purchasing extended warranties. David Butler of the Consumers Union says, "The extended warranty is definitely in the best interest of the company, but isn't often in the best interest of the consumer." He adds, "The company is much more likely to profit from the extended warranty than the consumer is." In many cases, if the item does need repairing, the cost of repairs are less than the cost of the extended warranty.

Personally, I feel happy when I think of all the money saved when not using extended warranties.

AlmightyCushion

singloud wrote:

Personally, I feel happy when I think of all the money saved when not using extended warranties.

Me too. I hope my parents some day stop getting the extended warrenty.