Korean Job Discussion Forums

[prairieboy]

HI,

I'm considering getting a new laptop as a desktop replacement. I was wondering if anyone had any information or suggestions for a model or brand to check out.

Recommendations would be much appreciated. I haven't quite decided whether to buy in Korea or wait until I go back to Canada for a vacation.

I do know that I'd like a widescreen laptop (15.4 to 17 inch screen) CD/DVD+-RW, at least 512Mb Ram, a 60-100Gb hard drive, processor (undecided), wireless internet and 64-128Mb dedicated video memory. I basically want not only a laptop I can play games on but something I can carry when I have to and use for watching movies at home as well as surfing the net and writing papers/documents.

What are you using? How is it working out? How much did you pay for it?

Again, I'm just looking for some suggestions so I can check out some particular models and know the good and bad about each model.

Thanks for the help.

[deessell]

I bought an HP Pavillion 3 years ago in Korea and I have had no problems with it except when I tried to fix the keyboard with a pencil. I paid about 2.5 million won. It has a big screen and all the gears. The only down side is thatn it is quite heavy.

[cubanlord]

A few tips to help you:

Remember...customize the laptop to YOUR specifications. For example, if you want a laptop for gaming, soup-up your ram, ram speed, video card, and processor.

Word processing = anything cheap
Internet = anything cheap
Hacking=same as gaming
application monger=ram....and lots of it.

Hp has been great to me for over 6 years. No problems with them. I go to their website and build my pc's to what I WANT. None of the extra crap. I personally like AMD processors. Ram.......no less than 512 PC2700 DDR. Video card....pci with it's own built in processor will do the trick. no less than 64bit. any other questions, pm or im me.

[Demophobe]

AMD 64 won't last long in the battery department. Anyways, Intel have the goods on the mobile processor. The Centrino is a fine piece of work.

The PM is a strong mobile platform and neither will be a bad choice. The difference in CPU speed was 5% between the Turion and P-M, yet memory processing will be 30%. This was why you see some tests show the Turion as faster, some the P-M.

Anything strictly core processing will show the P-M as slightly ahead, anything that processes large datasets through memory to the CPU will show the Turion as ahead. But if you look at that comparison, they run pretty close, I would look at other features, often the PM is feature rich unless you get a good sale on AMD.

Most games will not use the SSE3.....they've barely moved to SSE2, but SSE2 is mainstream now, cheap and easy and old news, so binary wise all games will be SSE2. The specifics of the game will test graphics card, memory and CPU in combination which is why one game will run better on on piece of hardware and another will run better on another piece of hardware. Assuming the same graphics, I would put the two at a tie, no edge either way as one will get an edge there, the other the edge elsewhere.

An interesting compaison here.

Dothan baby.

[Pangit]

I don't know what your price range is.

You want a desktop replacement? http://alienware.com

[Industrial Strength]

i've been using an hp zd7000 for the past year, and i am very satisfied with it. chews up everything i throw at it, and i love the wide 17inch 'brightview' screen. great for watching movies/tv as it doubles as our entertainment center here in korea.
i think the zd8000 is out now. not sure what the differences are.
the specs for mine are p4-3.3ghz, 1gb ram, 128 video, and 60gb drive.
only thing i wish i had was a larger drive, but the external solves any storage problems.
good luck!
is
ps. i bought from hp in the usa and had a fellow teacher haul it back with them during a trip. it was definitely cheaper to buy in the usa than here.

btw, you can't order online with hp as they don't accept orders from abroad. i went 10 rounds with them about that, before i succeeded placing a phone order (no ip addy to trace that way.).

[Thunndarr]

Inspirion 9300 from Dell would seem to fit the bill pretty nicely. Make sure to get a good coupon code before you order though.

[TheLeek]

Well id check out
www.enuri.com

Averatec look pretty decent for the money

TG Averatec 4200
smallish 13.3" widescreen
Petntium Centrino M740 1.7Ghz
512mb RAM (expandable to 2Gb)
80gb hard drive
DVD burner
lightish at 2kg
and in snazzy white

TG Averatec 6300
15.4" widescreen
1.7Ghz centrino
512 mb RAM (expandable to 2Gb)
80Gb hard drive
DVD burner
heavier at 2.98 kg

Both go for around 1.5 million on enuri.
But make sure you get English version of XP

Hope that helps

[cubanlord]

yeah..i haven't bought a pentium cpu yet. I would be speaking out of ignorance if I were to comment on the overall value of them. I have been using AMD since my first cpu in 1997......

I chose the amd because you get more bang for your buck....
i.e. fast processing speed for the price:

for example: amd processor at 2.4 gighrtz will price out at the pentium 1.8 or 1.9 gighrtz price.

[prairieboy]

Thanks for the advice, tips and comments about your systems, everyone.

[Pangit]

[cubanlord]

guys...becareful. Yes the ram is 512......but @ what speed? PC133? hahaahha.

Make sure you get ddr type ram and at least...AT LEAST PC2700. I know they have up at least up to 3600 outright now. 2700 will do the trick though (what a HUGE PRICE difference too).

[TheLeek]

Both Averatecs are loaded with 512mb of PC2700 333mhz DDR SDRAM

Here's a review of the 4200

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/averatec-4200-notebook.htm

Sorry I dont have review for the 6300

[Demophobe]

[rumpolestitskin]