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With saying getting another external USB Hard Drive. Can you boot from these???

And what is the comparison for the speed between these 2 chips??

Also the difference between TFT and XGA TFT???

Last edited by RAST at 10-Feb-2005 19:28

hmm, I run on 512 and it's OK. Not so sure a gig'd make a huuuge difference, machine's pretty stable as it is so long as I reinstall every couple of months.

Getting a decent matched pair of RAM is soo expensive, I just can't afford it!!

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

tiny - not even that is enough most of the time.

I'm happy with my system, but as soon as i've got some extra cash, i'll be getting me some more ram for this baby.

then i'll be happy.

but i love my 15.4 inch widescreen on this sucker. It's not the fastest machine in the world, but its a heck of alot more stable than my previous laptop.

But now that my husband has that one, it does pretty well, and hasn't done any surprises to him like it did with me (spontaneous shutdowns)

you really need 1/2 a gig to keep windows happy.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

I thought the minimum RAM for XP is 256???? Well I have more then that so shouldn't be a problem. Although the speed will slow it down but the difference is so much.

because your old system doesnt really have enough ram to run XP convincingly.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Yeh there is. 98 is a lot lot faster then XP. My desktop has 320mb RAM 700mghetz and 98 wizzes faster then XP. Also I have a few older games that won't run on XP. That is my main reason for wanting 98 as well.

As for the warehouse. My bosses son works there and my aunty use too as well. They are the best and have a very very good rep about.

if you're getting that athlon, don't bother with booting win98 on it unless you have programs that WILL NOT WORK with xp, there is no reason for you to keep 98 around.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

I have a Dell Inspiron P4 laptop. I would highly recommend them. It is not the newest top of the line one (its 1 year old), but that thing has speed like a mofo and power that puts my desktop to shame.
One thing you must know about AMD's processors is that the cache memory speed is about half that of a Pentium, and the speed cannot compare to a P4. If you want gaming, I would go with a P4 laptop. I have known many many people with AMD's and none of them have been happy with them, except 1 fellow, however he overclocks his processor something wicked to bring it up to speed with a p4. When you think AMD processor, think Celeron in terms of speed, Pentium is yards beyond.
Also, I would recommend looking on Ebay. We picked up our Dell for $1000 and it still has 4 years of its 5 year warranty remaining (which was easily transferable), and it saved us over 1200 dollars on buying one new. It works like new, and the seller was great. It doesnt always have to be store bought to be good.
And one more thing, When you buy one, if you buy from one of those large warehouse style computer stores (I wont name any names, if you want to know them PM me), BEWARE. Check your computer very well when you get it home. Often those large companies order the computers from the producers, and then once received, they remove all the quality parts and replace them with cheaper, less worthwhile parts. I know this happens for a fact, as it has happened to both me and my mother. They figure on people being "technological idiots" and never figuring it out until it is too late. Example: 1 computer bought said "P3 With Radeon Video Card, 800mhz, 128mb ram" and later (like 5 years later) when I took it to a computer found out it was actually a "P3 650mgz with PCI slot intergrated video at 32mb, and only 96mb ram". Example 2: My mom bought a "P3" got it home and I checked it out, it was a "Celeron" she returned it but they sure didnt wanna give her money back for their lies. Example 3: Mom bought new computer - Sony website says all Vaio computers come stock with DVD-RW/CD-R/RW Combo Drive. My moms computer only has a CDRW and a DVD player, no DVD writer. I say check everything. If it doesnt match up, take it back. And be careful what you buy, some places wont take the computer back if its broken and refund or replace it, they will only fix it for you.


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Thanks for the help.

I am going to go with No 2 - The AMD as then If I feel like playing games I can.


So with the external HDD I was only going to have WIN98 installed on it so I don;t have to dual boot the internal HDD. As well as I don;t have to select which operating system to log into.

you dont need to worry about booting from a USB HD. What you do is use 10-15g of the internal drive for your C drive, then the rest for apps and games. Use your external drive for media, music, etc. Also, you can use your external to make a ghost of windows, so when windows kills itself, formatting the internal drive and reinstalling is easy.

You should NEVER keep any data on the Windows or apps partition that isnt backed up elsewhere!

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

you *can* boot from external usb drives, but it's up to your individual computer if it can do that or not.

if you want a comparison between the 2, first is the amd laptop an athlon xp 3000+ or athlon 64 3000+?? it makes a difference, as the 64 means 64 bit, and it would be a better long-term investment for you to get it, imho. if it's a non-64 athlon, then it will be slightly faster than the pentium for the most part, since the pentium is about 1.6 and the athlon runs around 2.2-ish.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

XGA TFT is a slightly higher resolution than TFT. Apart from that, no real difference except in its max resolution capabilities (video cards play a part in that also)

I am looking at purchasing a Laptop computer. I have narrow it down to these 2 but want some advice from others who are in the know:

1: Centrino Platform Pentium M725 1.6 mobile, 512MB DDR RAM, XP Pro, 60gig Hard Drive, Dual layer DVD burner, 15inch XGA TFT, Wireless 802.11G, Onboard CCD Camera & Microphone $2200

2: AMD Athlon Mobile 3000+, 2*256MB DDR RAM, XP Pro, 60gig Hard Drive, Dual DVD Burner, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600, 15inch TFT $2033

Now I will mainly be using this for basic stuff but would like to maybe be able to play some games. Mostly for storing MP3s, surfin the net.


My thinking is the first one as it is more up to date with processor.

Thats what I have read about them too.

THat the 3000+ should be equivalent to something of 3gig or more.


I think NO 2 is the system that I will be going with I think. I would rather have a faster one then a slower one! It sucks waiting for stuff to happen!

actually, both intel and amd rate their processors slower than the number stamped on the side. although if they're telling you it's a 1.6 centrino, then they're probably pretty close to actual speed on that one. but the athlon 3000+ is really about 2.2-2.5GHz in actual cycles. they call it the 3000 to make you think you're getting a 3GHz cpu, but in reality it's like hard drives. you think you're getting 80GB, but you actually have closer to 73 or so

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

True that but I won't be able to test them as I am getting them from a guy that actually works at the warehouse.

So I am thinking the NO2 as it would be fast 3000+ which is 3GIGHtz + compared to 1.5/6 gigHtz.

An I correct at saying that?

Also what is the difference between the TFT and XGA screens??

it depends. I would have thought 1 would have better battery life, my bf's laptop, which is very similar to 2, laststa bout 1/2 hour on battery. 2 may also be heavier.

You need to consider other things too - what is the dead pixel guarantee for each laptop, for example? If you're buying from a physical shop, get a demo, play with the machines and see which one you like best. I find laptops are very individual, you may find that you hate one of those choices and can't work with its layout.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

OK then so NO 2 would be the go.


But then if not wanting to play games then would NO 1 be better suited?


Last edited by RAST at 08-Feb-2005 20:53

well, you need to check the cooling on both.

I mean if you are sure you dont want to play games, then I'd save some money and buy a few external HDD's, cos 60g is not much storage. I've just filled 250 and got another 160 on order

Tad concerned the Pentium does not mention graphics specifically. If it's integrated graphics, forget being able to play the latest games with 512m Ram, just wont happen.

Myself, I'd go with no.2 so long as the cooling was good! I'd use the saved money to buy a big USD HD and live with the fact the battery will be poo.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions