On 29 Aug 2006 17:13:00 -0700, wrote:

My daughter is bugging me for a laptop. She has some money saved and I
will help with the rest. Basically all she needs it for is high school,
word processing, uploading pictures from her camera, listening to
music, play DVD,s..There will be minimal game playing and if there are
they will probably be web based or small java applets.

Budget is about $800 excluding taxes and warranty protection plan.

$800 is probably excessive for the described uses. More
important might be to clearly define which parameters matter
most in those uses. For example, larger screen or not, and
how portable it needs to be. For a student (expecially a
girl, unless she is built like a lumberjack), carrying
around a lot of books and a laptop might be quite a load, in
the long run it might be best to get one with the smallest
screen that is large enough without undue eyestrain.




I may be wrong but I am urging her at the time of this posting to wait
a few weeks as perhaps prices of laptops will drop when Core Duo 2 hit
the shelves.....I may be wrong but I am trying to buy some more time.

I wouldn't put so much thought into Core Duo. For one, the
described tasks won't benefit much, and further, at any
point in time Intel is pricing CPUs based on performance.
Even waiting till Core Due dropped more, if you only waited
a few months more, then a few months more, etc, etc, you'd
have same situation of getting a little bit faster CPU for
the same cost.

If anything, right now you might find a better deal on the
non-core-duo laptops as they're being cleared out.




My thoughts on a notebook processor are the following (assuming 512mb
of memory to start, 80gb hard drive, 14/15 inch screen):

That's a reasonable, yet sufficiently generic target that
you can find in many models.


Core Duo 2 - Probably not affordable for us at this time.

Then don't worry about it. In the end it will probably be
the very last thing that effects the use or overall
enjoyment of the laptop.



**Core Duo-would be a good choice I think if I can find the right price
point
**Centrino Single Core-probably a good choice
**AMD Turion 64 ML-3x series seem decent (cannot afford X2 model of
AMD)

-Pentium M, Centrino-No- there is a notebook price I should not pass on
-AMD-Sempron-no
-Celeron-No

Why not Sempron or Celeron? For the price, you might get a
lot nicer notebook by going with one of these CPUs. Then
again, I still think for the described uses you'd be better
off with a $500 laptop and an extra battery, maybe upgrading
the memory to 1GB later, buy a $35 module at one of the
larger internet stores like http://www.newegg.com


Thanks for keeping me straight on this, any recommendations and if I am
sound in my judgment to wait a few weeks as stores get rid of
discontinued/obsolete equipment (as Best Buy told me)....hoping for
newer units and better prices. Of course I realize everything is
obsolete once purchased but I am not willing to wait for Santa Rosa to
come out.

Sincerely
Patty

One of the other advantages of not buying the very newest
thing out is that once you have settled on a few specific
models (or families, some models may have only slight
differences such as CPU or other plug-in parts but in
general will have the same usability or reliability issues)
you can research these models, the customer comments at
various places online (Google search for them or go to the
manufacturer's web forum if there is one).

I could make random suggestions like this one w/rebate,
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=180052
but ultimately if you're going to buy from a local store you
might as well go and fiddle with it, try the keyboard out
and see if it (and screen, etc) seems acceptable. Better
still to try out several others in-store too, then you'll
have a better idea of what seems most usable (from a human
interface perspective, nevermind the CPU in it) and can
pricematch with online 'sites selling same thing.

Some may not come with the full OEM Windows installation
disc. I'd advise getting one that has the disc, you may not
now (or later) want all the stuff the OEMs install.
Generally I only want Office (if it has it at all) and the
power management/adjustment software, so the last thing I'd
find useful is one of the quick restore CDs that installs
all the other junk that slows down the laptop (and is
sometimes buggy software too).