All laptop related queries here!!!

[premrajeev]

@sumita

WinXP OEM costs about 3500 , bt dont know what would be the cost it u choose to upgrade from home to proff.

[rohanbee]

Probably another 5-6k for sure.............

[indro]

Rohan : r u sure ?

[indro]

Here is something interesting , whoever is interested in buying in a laptop, the AMD Turion 64 chips is quite a thing in the market as more and more vendors are gradually going into making lappy's with th new chip in the market .

More Pics : )

IMG tags removed from the pics.
Edited: Sourabh

http://www.amdzone.com/pics/amd/tech...s/P1010136.JPG
http://www.amdzone.com/pics/amd/tech...s/P1010137.JPG
http://www.amdzone.com/pics/amd/tech...s/P1010212.JPG
http://www.amdzone.com/pics/amd/tech...s/P1010220.JPG
http://www.amdzone.com/pics/amd/tech...s/P1010222.JPG
http://www.amdzone.com/pics/amd/tech...s/P1010230.JPG

Enjoy !!

[super_i_man]

thanks boss for the photos, for me it was ok, the photos did not take any time at all for downloading, but i think the dial up users might have some problems in viewing them!

[premrajeev]

O'boy.......Those photos were huge......

i know many users who struggled to view them...so next time, reduce the size to a max 640 by 480...which will be decent enough ..

Thanks for the show..

[rohanbee]

Good pics!!!
but wow are they huge or what.............
my net connection was slow and it took me ages to open them,

[Sourabh]

naah seriously edit ur post

and post thumbnials or lower resolution pics

these are huge!! if a dialup or someone who has data transfer limited broadband, he wod be screwed

or just post the links

[sumitava_b]

Hey, indro..nice pics!!

Rohan, I am waiting for the review of ur new machine, inspi9300. How is it performing? must be rocking

[indro]

Aspire 3002LCi; Mobile AMD® Sempron Processor 2800+ (1.60GHz); 256MB DDR-333 RAM; 40GB 4,200RPM Hard Drive; Combo 8x24x24x24 DVD-ROM/CD-RW Drive; Integrated 3D AGP Graphics Chipset; 10/100 Network Adapter; 802.11b/g Wireless Network Adapter; 15.0" XGA Display; Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (SP2)
Price - 499$ ( Steller )

[Sourabh]

Indro,

The Aspire 3002LCi isnt available in India. Wht however is available in India is Aspire 3002 NLC which has the same features as what u mentioned except the Wi-Fi, and XP HOME SP2

The pic you have posted says travelmate, but most acer laptops except Ferrari Series and Tablet PC have the same body that goes without saying :d

[amey_dude]

Hello,
Is Acer Aspire 1681WLCI available in Mumbai ?

Also if yes whats its price ?

[plasmafire]

what is the best VFM laptop in the market, that i can get on EMI? budget arnd 40-60k

[rohanbee]

Are these loans being offered by computer companies or third party?? I didn't know that computer companies were doing this ??

[magnet]

i was reading at reviews...........according to them amd is still way behind......intel in laptop dept...there turion also doesnt provide any big adv in laptop dept...they stated that the k8 architecture of amd mad it easy to transform it into laPPY...

[super_i_man]

Please Help:

My friend has a Jaguar M270S Laptop. He needs its sound card driver, as he has lost the driver CD. Can any one tell me where can we download the audio drivers from internet. The name of the sound card may be Avance AC97, we dont know exact name.

[jugaaru]

I was trying to connect my Nokia 7610 with my laptop HP Pavilion dv4000 using bluetooth, but no luck, how do I know my laptop has is bluetooth enabled? Is there any software for it.

[rohanbee]

Does your laptop have a blue tooth device in it. Usually it is a ad on? or are you using a dongle. If you are then it should show? i have win xp and mine comes on whenever i use the dongle. Also you need your software to connect and sync it with your pc.

[jugaaru]

Thanks for the reply rohanbee, This laptop model doesn't have bluetooth in it.

[infra_red_dude]

one way to check for bluetooth is to see in the device manager.

also some thots:
if raw power is wot you are looking for (DTRs), nothing can beat the P4s! but in case of power consumptions they are the biggest suckers and the current generation of AMDs are no better. but amd is improving on the new turions. so if battery life is wot is imp for you nothing can beat the Pentium-M processors. but i'd say from my personal experience P4 beats all processors in the gaming arena. i am using my laptop for an year now and the only sore point in this laptop is the ati radeon igp345m. but nevertheless its a great laptop and still very much powerful wid its 2.8ghz Moblie P4 CPU. i'm a casual gamer anyway. but i can run NFS UG2 wid average setting @ 800x600. thats pretty decent. btw i dun intend to play doom3 on this laptop!!! if you want a DTR (desktop replacemnt) i'd suggest the following minimum config:

P4 3.0ghz upwards, 512mb ddr(2) ram, 60+ gb hdd, nvidia 6200 go upwards or ati mobility 9700 or x200 upwards. other parts depend on ur requitements (for eg a combo/dvd rw, bluetooth, screen size etc.)

that should be the minimum you should be looking for. over and above is ur choice. i must say that the ati radeon mobility 9700 is a chip wid a hell lot of potential!

one thing i wish to say is that i see absolutely no use of wi-fi presently here in india unless of corz if ur company provides it! rite now the wifi access costs are alarmingly high here and unfortunately not everywhere u find wifi hotspots. so i'd say not to go in for wifi cards if possisble. i've seen many models now that feature only the pentium-m cpu wid out the intel pro wireless card. i'd recommand that (so the model is essentially not marketted as a centrino). you anyway have a mini-pci slot and this card can be plugged in anytime. this comes in response to intel's latest addition of some feature to its 2200 series wifi cards thru a driver and software update. however the older 2100 series cards are not supported! (dun ask me how or why, you can find it out urself if you do a bit of searching on the net). thus at the end of the day the person who has the 2100 series card is a loser while a 2200 series owner is benifitted free of cost. so it pays to wait and get things when you really feel the need.

bluetooth cellphone users should definitely go in for a built in bluetooth module. that saves them a lot of hassles, as i am facing now. also make sure you have a good audio chipset onboard (dun expect a 5.1 channel soundcard but at least a faithful audio production chipset)

the new pentium-m 780 is out and it is supposed to be a killer performer. but as usual its price is very high. its not yet launched here i guess (anyway if you are adventerous enough you can pin-mod ur pentium-m!!!)

also one important thing for gaming is the native resolution of the screen. as someone pointed it out the native res and gaming res need to match. consider this: the tft lcd has a native res of 19xx X 12xx and the gpu is an ati radeon 9100igp or of the same class. then is a perfect mismatch! the screen wont show anything fullscreen clearly other than the native res and the gpu (or igp) here is not powerful enough to run the game in the lcd's native res. so one needs to be careful about this!

last but not the least is the warranty thingy! unlike desktops where warranty is not a big concern (unless of corz if you are extremely numbwit or a hardware freak who fiddles tooo much wid hardware), for a laptop this aspect is very important. since laptops are basically mobile devices they go thru lotsa hardships and are prone to go to service centers. so i'd be wise to check out the after sales support and serivce of the company. in the quest to save some money you may have to shell out much more for service afterwards in case of a bad or a very far away serivce centre! i think these are the basic points anyone should consider before buying a laptop.

[rohanbee]

Dell has the bluetooth space in its laptops , you can send dell an enquiry. i forgot to get miine installed and have ordered one from Dell(usa) for approx 1000 bucks only. i know the place where it is supposed to go at the bottom part of my machine and will do the installation myself when it arrives.

Originally Posted by infra_red_dude

one thing i wish to say is that i see absolutely no use of wi-fi presently here in india unless of corz if ur company provides it! rite now the wifi access costs are alarmingly high here and unfortunately not everywhere u find wifi hotspots.

I disagree with you completly. In laptops it is an absolute must.
You dont need to look for hot spots, at many airports and lounges and cafes abroad it is free now. Many hotels in INDIA would also provide you this for free or a very minimal charge like 150/day for unlimited surfing. SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING DUDE??

Since laptops remain with us for a longer period without upgrading then desktops do. whereas i change my desktop config every year i do not do the same for my laptop. Whatever you want to use now and maybe get later please get it when you buy the lappy and dont add it later , its a hassle and more expensive as when you strike a deal in the begining you get the best prices.

About the wifi thing it is eventually getting cheaper. I have wifi enabled both in my home and office and believe me its a pleasure. The intel centrino chip is wifi enabled so you dont pay anything extra. Its the best thing about my laptop yet..

About P4's in laptops:
They have a tendency of getting real hot and hence have not been very succesful and thats to say the same about the desktop chips with their issues of over-heating.

[sumitava_b]

Wi-Fi is a near-future thing. You would be wise to get it instead of neglecting it for a few extra bucks. Hope one day it will be dirt-cheap in india too. Already in cities, wi-fi hotspots r mushrooming everywhere. So better have it now considering its usefulness.

Rohan, how much did you shell out to enable ur home wifi enabled?

[infra_red_dude]

yeah buddy how much did u spend for ur home wifi setup? and yes, i completely agree wid you about P4 thing. ouch! it runs hhhhot! i can never keep it on my lap!

[pratikmohapatra]

I am Pratik. i am new to this forum. . i hav been reading all those valuable info that you people have been uploading. N ways i just wanted to ask all u out there about something regarding purchasing the right kind of a lappy.
Actually the confusion all started when a friend of mine purchased an IBM thinkpad. well to start with i t was a cool bargain. It costed him around 51k
but still i found it to b a bit on the slower side.
Ok my problem is quite genuine coz i hzv been using a desktop all these days. But i would still like to ask u people about what could b a better option at say 70-75k
with regards
Pratik

[sumitava_b]

Pratik, welcome to the forum.

As you might have seen in some of the posts in this thread, one has to understand what is ur requirements before suggesting one model. So first u mention ur requirement and purpose. U must have some special purpose bcoz u r going for such a high priced lappy even after having a desktop. At this price range, u will either get a massive workhorse or an ultra-portable one. Choose one first according to ur reqs.

[pratikmohapatra]

hi sumitava,
i just went through the new dell Inspiron 9300
it is good. It comes with -intel Pentium M processor 740, Intel PRO/ Wireless 2200 Network conection 802.11b/g, -Intel 915 Chipset, -256 SD DDR RAM 533MHz, -60GB HDD, -24X Combo Drive, -17" XGA+TFT (1440x900 res), -64 MB mobility radeon, -56K internal modem.

All this and more, @ Rs.78900/-
Actually i will b leavin the Desktop behind and want to move around whereever i am posted with my laptop.
However the only changes i would like to make tn the above configuration would b. I will like to add wi-fi, and in place of a combo drive , i would like to hav a DVD writer. let me tell u i am not all that crazy about gamin and all. so i will like to hav the minimum graphics support. and would prefer IBM over anything.
with regards,
Pratik

[sumitava_b]

Pratik,
I was just about to refer Inspi9300 to you as I am a big-time aficionado of Dell. But I chose to take the details from u first.

Let me tell clear some doubts/misunderstandings from your part. The First thing is that Inspi9300 does have Wi-Fi feature in it. You dont need to update it. To make ur lappie fully wireless capable, add bluetooth module if u have bluetooth-enabled mobile or r planning to buy in near-future. The second thing is about the price. The quoted price is before tax and delivery charges. If u r ordering it from kolkata, I think the VAT will be at 4% and the delivery charge will be around 1K bucks. So count those too. And the third thing is that dell india is offering free upgrade to DVD writer with dual layer capabilities. So in this area also, u need not to worry.

But above all, the point is that if u really dont need any eye-candy stuffs on screen, then why r u going for such a high-end system? 9300 is basically meant to be used for superb screen expeience. It has got 17" screen and a good graphics card, which I think will be of no use for u. Apart from that a 17" screen will be too heavy for u shoulder if u need to move with it. Instead u can go for a 15" screen with integrated GMA900 which wud be more than enough for normal work. It will save ur shoulder as well as ur pocket too. U must have guessed the model to which I am refering. Yes, I am refering to the bro of 9300, Inspiron 6000. It is available at Rs. 56900 (obviously before tax and delivery charge). Actually Dell offered two submodels under 6000 model. One is with combo dive and integrated GMA900 and other one is with DVD writer and radeon X300. The second one costs around Rs. 65K. So I think it will fit to ur reqs and budegt too.

Personally, I have Inspiron 6000 with lot many upgradations and I am very much satisfied with it.

[pratikmohapatra]

Hey Sumitava,
I got what u wanted to say but still what i would like to ask u is that what do say about the post sales service. there i feel IBM is better and specially with it's feature of online data recovery it is safer. what do u hav to say about that?
N ways thanks again 4 your suggestions.
Pratik

[sumitava_b]

Pratik, IBM and dell r both known for their good after-sale services. For Dell, I can assure u that. Their call center/helpdesk remains available and a guy will come within a day if u report anything. But nowadays nobody is quite sure about the future services for thinkpads bcoz IBM is no longer handling these issues. They have handled the hardware business to Lenovo, a chinese biggy. In fact, after the handover the business of thinkpad got down and brands like acer, HP flourished in the market. There is no doubt that at one time IBM was relishing monopoly in the indian laptop market. But the trend is falling for sure.

I believe that thinkpad is for company corporates who r always on the move and very much afraid of losing the critical data stored in their lappies. Thinkpad is very much rugged and safe with one-button (not "online", u confused me! ) data recovery options. But truely speaking for us who will use it as nothing more than a pc, are those options really useful? Especially when u r having DVD writer? U can write all ur important files in CD/DVD at any point of time, right? Till today, how many times did u need to restore ur desktop system to a previous date? Think over it.

I agree that Ibm has made their thinkpad very rugged, but at the cost of its look. For example, place one thinkpad and one inspiron model side by side. U will definitely fall in love with the inspi one. It does not have any sharp edge which generally leads to scratches there. The hinges are beautifully designed. The touchpad will be absent in most of the thinkpad. Instead they have provided a red mouse-button which is irritatingly small and slow to maneuver. Speaker sound in thinkpad is comparatively meeker.

The biggest disadvantage with Dell is that u cant touch or see ur product before ordering, something with which all indians are not habituated. They realy want to check every corner of the product which they r buying. One has to gather guts to order something so expensive without seeing them. I relied on their reputation and have no regret about it.

In the end, IBM is still one of the best brand available in India. Still people go for them. There is no harm if u go for R series of thinkpad. But before that weigh other options too.

[rajas]

Dell Inspiron are one of the beautiful laptops I have worked/used/seen. On the other hand latitude are the other segment of laptops with high reliability and toughness. Opting for Inspiron9300 is a very gud option looking at the product and after sales service.