HP Compaq NX 7300 OR Dell Inspiron 6400

[morland]

Thanks for the explanation.... The vendor is a local dealer.

 

[TriplexDread]

If I were you I suggest asking the local dealer (not drugs i hope ) to supply you with the manufacturers of the cards so you can do some research first

 

[Ian]

I'd go for the X1400 personally, it is quite a bit better and worth doing if they are around the same price.

I'm basing my opinion on a google and read of a few articles, primarily this one (as I'm not clued up on laptop graphics cards) :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=19719320
http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?t=288719

The only one that seems to disagree is this one:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=200423&messageID=2151406

 

[morland]

LOL! Nope he's not a drug dealer

Ian, thanks for the reply and sharing the URLs.

Regards.

 

[morland]

Add 1GB RAM or a dedictaed graphics card (for a non-gamer)?

Hi all,

I have 2 questions and will appreciate your feedback/recommendation:

1st Question:
One of the laptops I'm considering has Intel GMA950 video; which as per my understanding can "steal" upto 256MB of RAM. Right?

The laptop comes with 1 GB of RAM. If I upgrade the RAM to 2 GB, will it have a significant impact on the overall performance of the machine and graphics (despite the "stealing").


2nd Question:
I hardly play games but suppose I want to have a dedicated graphics card on my laptop having 1GB RAM. Given this, and keeping cost as in mind, can you please recommend 3 graphics card in the order of priority.

 

[Adywebb]

Can folks bear in mind this relates to morlands' original thread HERE.

1. Yes, its an integrated card so it can use up to 256MB of system memory - therefore addition of an extra 1GB RAM would help performance significantly.

2. I know little about Laptop cards, mostly you don't get much of a choice with laptops and are stuck with whatever the manufacturer offers. Have a read of some of the articles available via googling - THIS for example.

 

[morland]

Thanks (again) Ady.

OK, I get your point: If there's another question related to my purchase, then I'll post under the original thread 'cause I have this funny feeling of getting a beating

BTW, I will soon be posting for feedback regarding Lenovo and I hope that can be posted/started as a totally new thread????

 

[Ian]

Morland, I honestly don't see what was wrong with the initial laptops you chose? Lenovo have a good name (they are the old IBM laptops).

I think you need to just pick a laptop soon or you'll forever be trying to tweak components

 

[morland]

Hi Ian,

Thank you for the sincere suggestion. To be honest, I fully agree with you and trust me that this entire drill of selecting and tweaking components is no fun. I'm sure you'll understand how such activities go...

I had almost finalized to purchase Levovo about 10 days back or so. The specs are below and the price was within my budget to an extent that I could have gone for some upgrades (RAM or HD or ??)... This was until I read some reviews (can't recall the 2 URL's) where the buyers had rated the sound quality to be extremely poor (I know that the overall sound quality of laptops is just average but they had rated the quality even below that). Secondly I also read reviews in which owners had complained about too much fan sound (to an annoying extent) and some heating issues... Because of that I had dropped the idea of going for the Lenovo.

Will appreciate your feedback in view of the background summarized above. I'll also be really grateful if you can share some URL's related to review of Lenovo. In the meanwhile I will i also try to google out some URL's.

Regards,

Morland
P.S.
The specs of the Lenovo I was considering were:
Lenovo 3000 N 100
Intel® Centrino Duo® Processor T2350 (1.86 GHz, 2MBL2)
1GB PC2-5300DDR2 SDRAM
120GB, 5400rpm Serial ATA
15.4 inch WXGA TFT True Bright
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
8X Max DVD Recordable (Dual Layer)
Bluetooth Version 2.0, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 A/B/G
Finger Print Reader
Card Reader
Modem, Ethernet
Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium
6 Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

Just FYI: Regardless of the laptop that i end up buying (hopefully in a day or so), I'll be using XP Pro.

 

[Ian]

I've merged the threads into your initial posting now - as for the Lenovo, the only URLs we would find would be via google too. If you initial research suggests that there are problems with that lenovo model then I'd be inclined to suggest it is worth skipping

 

[morland]

Ian,

I'll give a last effort and directly post asking for feedback from owners of Lenovo since they are in the best position to really give a good opinion. It's worth a shot and since I have been saving for quite a while to buy a laptop...just don't want to regret after I have bought and I also do realize that this "researching" has to end soon 'cause I myself am going crazy due to this

Regards.