Getting a Laptop

Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Personal

No, not right now, but pretty soon.. uh, actually I have no idea how soon. I’ve been deliberating over this “when to buy laptop” issue for quite a while. You see, I’m going to UK for a 1 semester “top-up” programme for my degree. Yeah, I know there might be lab facilities there, but nothing beats having your own laptop.

So since I don’t intend to take my masters there, I’ll be back in Malaysia in 3 months. When I start working, I would probably not use that laptop as much.. So if I buy the laptop right before going to UK, it’s sort of, a waste. Hence, this leads to the solution of buying the laptop sometime now. A new (and decent) computer will last a good 2 years. So I could buy one now, and it’ll be in pretty good condition for use in UK.

As for my current PC, well, it’ll probably be sent back home. Bro could use the 17″ lcd if he wants, or I could trade it with s00kwei. Bro could take the extra stick of 256 MB ram too.. Sigh, but I hope that Dad would note that I paid for the lcd and additional ram with myself. Meaning, part of the laptop’s cost goes there..

Sigh.. so should I get a laptop for my birthday? I don’t know.. probably.. but here’s the specs that I’m aiming for:

  • Core 2 Duo T7200 (2 GHz, 4 MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB). Too bad you can’t overclock mobile processors..
  • 1 x 1024 MB 533 MHz DDR RAM. Not sure the additional 60 bucks for 667 MHz is worthwhile.
  • 15.4″ WXGA (1280×800) with Truelife. Though the Ultrasharp (with 1680×1050 res) will be so sweet (and expensive)
  • 80 GB HDD. Doesn’t matter much to me.
  • Intel integrated graphics. I don’t know how much improvement the X1300 will be, but it’ll cost a good 513 bucks
  • DVD Burner. Doesn’t matter if I’ve got limited HDD space.. just burn anything extra..

Currently, those specs (Ultrasharp screen, X1300) will ballon the price of the laptop to 5k plus. A 3 year limited warranty from Dell (with international support for notebooks) will cost ’bout 400 too.. so should I get one for my birthday? Hm.. I’ll probably need time to get used to a laptop’s keypad too..

The thing that I regret now is the UPS that I bought last sem.. wonder what I’ll do with it.. it doesn’t serve much purpose now y’know.. sigh.. should have bought a DVD burner instead back then.. I wouldn’t have lost all my files..

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Permalink | October 27th, 2006

6 Responses to “Getting a Laptop”

  1. Bob the Chicken Killer Says:
    October 27th, 2006 at 8:13 pm

    dude, while dun u wait a lil bit longer n wait till microsoft launches vista?
    then ur laptop comes preprogrammed with an original vista in it.
    then u u dun need to worry about getting a pirated vista n installing it….n u r darn sure then that ur notebook would be able to run the best version of vista (heard there are a few versions for diff hardware specs, not so sure though)

  2. Jeffrey04 Says:
    October 27th, 2006 at 9:59 pm

    my experience wif HP is not bad tho… but too bad it died few months ago ;-(
    toshiba’s laptop should be ok as one of my classmate and regina is using it…
    if you are on a very tight budget u might as well get Dell lo~

    or else
    get a macbook pro la~ hehehehehe

  3. Jonathan Ng Says:
    October 27th, 2006 at 10:03 pm

    Well, for one, there aren’t any compelling reasons to use Vista. Can you tell me one? All the features Microsoft boasts are like little add-on features to XP.

    Sure enough, one can say that it runs on Win 2003 code base, more secure bla bla bla.. but I don’t see how it’s system requirements justifies it.. I think XP SP2 is secure enough for the smart user too..

    As for development work.. .NET 3.0 runs on XP too.. so why bother with Vista? Whatever memory I have should be reserved for Visual Studio, not the OS..

    Lastly, laptops with Vista will probably cost slightly more..

  4. eVi| Says:
    October 28th, 2006 at 2:02 am

    get a Mac. enuff said

  5. Jonathan Ng Says:
    October 28th, 2006 at 10:55 am

    Macs cost a bomb.. it’s a little more expensive than HP/Compaq, which is a more expensive than Dell..

  6. Regina Says:
    October 28th, 2006 at 7:44 pm

    Toshiba = quality and expensive, Sony / Fujitsu = nice design and more expensive, HP = affordable and acceptable, Acer = cheap and also acceptable, Dell = cheaper than Acer but also acceptable (depends)…

    Well, just my humble opinion. But I think you should stick to your budget. Other than that, make sure you can get spare parts easily and also get service easily. Or else, you’ll have headache…

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