Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yolshim]

Hi, I'm looking to buy a laptop in the near future and am not really up to date as far as what's out there these days. I am looking for something small with good audio/video capabilities. I need to be able to carry it with me every day and manage audio and video.

I've looked at the small notebooks with the Atom processor but I've heard it's not very good.

Any information or leads to information would be greatly appreciated.

[bassexpander]

What exactly do you want to do with it? Edit video? Photos? How often? What's your budget?

[borisdough]

I'm interested in this thread too. I'm all ears

[sojourner1]

An employer provided laptop?



No! A nice expensive gaming laptop with all the bells and whistles. You're students will love admiring it.

[FUBAR]

My wife just bought a Toshiba A300 from Lotte.com. She looked around and seems quite happy with her purchase, though I did warn her about Toshiba's lack of A/S.

My advice, if you see a laptop that you are interested in, google the name of the computer and look for the online reviews.

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

Asus - 2 year international warranty.

they have machines that cater for nearly everything, plus a good range of 14" laptops that are a bit lighter in the arm but still capable of doing everything.

[yolshim]

Well... I need it for two things.
1. In March I am going back to school and I want to record the lectures that are in Korean.

2. In May we are having a baby and I will need to manage the video/burn dvd's to send home to my family.

I am hoping to do this with something I can carry with me everyday....

THanks in advance...

[jeni_escobar]

I've had 2 Sony Vaios in a row and love them. I just got a new one here in Seoul a month ago and am very happy with it. Toshibas would be my second choice, and Fujitsu my third. I think it makes sense to pay the extra cash and get as close to the top of the line as you can afford, so you'll be happy with it longer. The faster processer will equal less swearwords emitted by you over the years, which isn't such a bad trade-off.

A lot of it comes down to your preferences as a user... each machine has its own feel, its pros and cons. Spend a week going to Techno Mart and Sunin Plaza and spending time using different machines and see what you prefer before deciding on a make/model. Once you narrow it down to 2, maybe 3 choices, it's time to start bargaining. Keep showing up day after day with a big smile on your face and all the charm you can muster and you'll wear 'em down to your price eventually. Good luck!

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

the things you want to do you be done on pretty much any laptop these days.

if the video you record is in High Def, then you will NEED a video card in your laptop that can process it.

Also 14" screened laptop are generally lighter, even 11" or 12" are good but the screen is getting pretty small by that time.

[swigs]

If you can afford a Mac I would get that. It comes loaded with all the basic editing software that you would need; and since the OS was designed specifically for your hardware it will stay up to date longer than any PC. This is huge, because the OS was built specifically for your hardware, this gives Mac a lot of performance advantages. (plus the fact that right now there are little spyware/virus to affect your performance)

My Mac loads extremely quick compared to windows loaded with your average programs. I have my computer dual loaded with both OSX for mac and Vista, and I almost take a nap anytime I launch Vista.

If you get a Mac being in Korea, you of course would want Windows for those Korean internet occasions. You would have two options: you could virtually run it, or install it through 'boot camp' where you can dual boot. I recommend dual booting it so you can take advantage of all of your computers resources.

My Macbook is coming on three years old and it purrs like a kitten; when I bought it, it was the cheapest one that they sold. You can't really compare the hardware of a Mac to a PC because its a different quality. I feel like if I was on a PC I would have the have twice the specs to get a similar performance; IMHO. In these three years I've upgraded the RAM and HD by myself, both easy to do.

Also the new bodies of the Macs are supposed to be even sturdier. But I've been happy with the build quality of mine. Plus the search function is so much faster than windows. I feel like the second I type in the first three letters of any file it pops right up before I even finish spelling the word.

If your on the budget route I would go with the recommendation with ASUS. But seriously once you go Mac you can't really go back. I don't look forward to launching Vista to pay my bills. (Besides the fact that I'm paying my bills )

[swigs]

Oh, one other thing. There is a lot of support online for apples since so many people have the same hardware. Where in the PC world there are so many different models and makes, every month it changes rapidly.

Apple has a lot of basic tutorials to get you started with any task that you would need as well.

http://www.apple.com/ilife/

This is the basic software suite that comes preloaded with a mac. It's all your basic photo/sound/video/DVD authoring stuff.

But Macs are expensive right now in Korea because of the exchange rate, maybe it will change shortly since the rates getting better. But if I was to get a new computer it would still be a Macbook.

[bassexpander]

I would have bought a mac a long time ago, if only it would work fully with the Korean sites we use (without having to add Windows to the machine).

[yolshim]

Thanks for the input...

I am still not sure what to get.

This site has a list of the mini-laptops with specs and prices.

http://www.bb.co.kr/main/pd/pd_list.php?cid=010370050&OVRAW=%EB%85%B8%ED%8A%B8%EB%B6%81&OVKEY=%EB%85%B8%ED%8A%B8%EB%B6%81&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=13256980541&OVKWID=114454103041

I like the asus Eee pc and the dell mini but am not sure how it would compare to the inspiron 9200 (2GB/512) I have now as far as performance/speed is concerned.

How would the Atom N270 compare to my few year old pentium M 2G/512 ram machine?

Thanks again!

[A2T]

The atom processor will not do well with the managing of video.

As far as recommendations for chips, any off this list will work well for you: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, P8400, P8600. Though slightly older, the T8100 and T8300 would also work well. (note these are all 2ghz or higher C2D's released Jan 2008 or later) There are faster mobile C2D's (e.g. T9xxx or P9xxx), but you seem to be on a budget. There's actually a quite a wide range of choices, as you can see below. I'd stick to the Penryn processors so your laptop will have some lasting power.

Here is a full list of what is available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors#.22Penryn.22_.28standard-voltage.2C_45_nm.29

I saw several macbook reqs - the basic macbooks have P7350(cheaper) and P8600. The previous generation of macbooks used T8100/8300.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook#Model_specifications

You will also want to have a video card (i.e. not intel graphics). I can't offer advice about those - it gets too confusing for me to keep up with that mess.

[arvinsign]

you can never go wrong with a thinkpad