New Laptop

[Spartacus84]

Hey,

I want to buy a laptop at a max purchase price of �700 but would like to know what to go for.

I want an entertainment laptop and have seen the following which I really liked but the lack of a duo core processor puts me off, what do people think??

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/L aptops/Entertainment+Laptops/PACKARD+BELL/SW51 -201D/225714

Are there any similar I should look at??

[vehelpfulguy]

Intel and AMD make two inexpensive CPUs for the budget market. With Intel it is the Celeron and for AMD it is the Sempron.

This is a very low-end CPU and according to the mass CPU review they did in PC Pro in December even the fastest Sempron (3600) is slower than the slowest Core Duo.

I would avoid a laptop with a Celeron or an Sempron.

[fo3nix]

What do you call an entertainment laptop? What are you thinking you may want to do with it?

If it's video stuff, audio editing, gaming, etc., then you really need a semi-powerful laptop. Otherwise, a cheaper one (even with a sempron or celeron processor) will suffice.

[vehelpfulguy]

The XP or Vista dilemma.

It is a strange time to buy a PC or laptop at the moment.

Microsoft are due to release Vista at the end of January and from then on most PCs and laptops will come with Vista pre-installed.

So for that reason there are some good end-of-life deals on machines with XP on them at the moment.

So you have the choice, buy an XP machine now or wait for Vista.

Now the PC you looked at above has Windows XP Media Center edition on it, but that is being discontinued.

All the Media Center technology is being rolled in to Vista and there will be no separate version of Windows Media Centre edition.

Microsoft have added a lot of stuff to Vista to help support the digital age as they call it, and If I were you I would wait and buy a laptop with Vista on it.

I am not saying Vista is better than XP, and I would NOT suggest people upgrade from XP to Vista.

But for anyone buying a NEW laptop or PC I would say wait for Vista.

DONT be tempted to buy a laptop with XP on it with a voucher to upgrade to Vista. YOU will have to do the upgrade, and it may go wrong, and then you will have to take it back to the shop.

Wait for a laptop with Vista pre-installed on it. You may have to pay slightly more than an XP laptop, but Vista should be good for the next 4 or 5 years.

[vehelpfulguy]

Here is a web page from Microsoft showing the media updates they have made for Vista.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features /forhome/mediacenter.mspx

[vehelpfulguy]

PC Pro magazine did a review of Core Duo notebooks in the December 2006 issue.

Although they weren't entertainment laptops, the winner was the Sony VAIO VGN-FE31H with Windows Media Centre Edition on it.

It is �804 (including VAT) but you may be able to get it cheaper if you look round.

They did say the screen was wonderful, the best of the set.

Here is a link to the reviews on line

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/146/dual-core-note books/products.html

[fo3nix]

Personally I'd advise you to go for an XP machine.

If you want to do any video type editing, then take a good look at the macbook or macbook pro from apple.

[Spartacus84]

Right guys, thanks for the advice. I've since purchased an HP Pavillion dv6152 and I'm well happy - especially at only �670.

Its got a AMD Turion X2 processor and is the bee's knees. Well chuffed. Best of all, my cousin works for MS so he's gonna sort me out with a Vista upgrade.

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