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Posted by: -Jon- Aug 3 2009, 03:00 PM

Okay i am looking on http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat185300050003&type=category right now (link has the page im on right now) and i am looking at the Dell Laptop that it shows on the page. I am thinking these to myself right now..

Is a 320GB hardrive really good for my iTunes and productivity?

Is 5hrs and 20min a long enough battery lifespan?

Is a 3GB DDR3 Memory good?

yea.. i am sounding pretty basic humanoid..but i dont know that much about laptop specs.. can someone help me out?

I want the graphics to be good enough so that way i can watch movies without it freezing every scene..

Oh! and the laptop has to be $500 or less..

Posted by: Buttsex Aug 3 2009, 03:44 PM

First: Never buy from Best Buy. They have a history of ripping people off with computer parts.

Second: It's not all about capacity. Transfer rates, seek times, and RPM is important too.

Third: Yes, but usually with battery times that long, you sacrifice performance.

Fourth: It's not all about capacity and version. I'll take 2 gigs of DDR3 1066 over 8 gigs of DDR2 400 any day.

Posted by: Uronacid Aug 3 2009, 04:21 PM

^Agreed,

Best Buy does have a history of ripping you off. I'm especially hateful towards their "all-knowing" geek squad, but recently BestBuy has put out a few good deals.

Like butt sex said above look at the speed of the components and not just the high numbers plastered on the machine. You'll find that laptops have 5400-7200 RPM or SSD HDDs and 667-1333 Mhz Dual Channel Memory. The majority of the laptops under 1000 dollars are going to have 5400 RPM HDDs with DDR2 667 RAM.

You want to look for dedicated video. Even the worst dedicated video cards are better than the worst integrated video solutions. Integrated chips borrow system memory to make up for their lack of dedicated video memory. All of Intel's graphics chips are integrated. Any of NVidia's 8200M, 9200M GS, or 9100M graphics chips are integrated. Any of ATIs 3100, 3200, or XPress graphics chips are integrated.

Thanks,

Posted by: -Jon- Aug 4 2009, 07:05 PM

haha well i actually outsmarted a geeksquad employee before.. its was pretty damn funny.

wait so butt, 3GB of DDR3 is good?

Posted by: Buttsex Aug 4 2009, 07:15 PM

3 Gb of DDR3 is usually good. Just be sure you get 667 or higher. I always get 800 and overclock it to around 1050.

Posted by: mipadi Aug 4 2009, 07:28 PM

8GB of DDR3 is better.

Posted by: Buttsex Aug 4 2009, 07:30 PM

In most cases, yes.

Posted by: -Jon- Aug 4 2009, 10:10 PM

cool. alright well are there any tips when buying laptops? i need to know.

Posted by: Uronacid Aug 4 2009, 11:04 PM

You need to compare and contrast laptops with different parts and prices. You should start by figuring out what you would like your laptop to do.

Also,

Is a 320GB hardrive really good for my iTunes and productivity?
The average consumer doesn't use more than 160GB. How often do you see people fill up their 80GB iPod (with music)? It's pretty rare. Unless you're into pirating movies then you're probably not going to fill up anything more than 160GB.

Is a 3GB DDR3 Memory good?
Studies show that you receive barely any benefit from having more than 3GB of RAM. I would say that 3-6GB is wasting money that you could be spending on parts that would give you better bang for buck.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264-6.html


Is 5hrs and 20min a long enough battery lifespan?
That's a med-high lifespan for a laptop.