Toshiba or HP laptops.

[Rhor]

Greetings everybody.

I'm about to get a laptop because I dont have access to my main system since some months ago.

I have two options, and I would like to ask for your recommendations about wich one to get, if possible.

The uses, besides the tipical stuff (internet browsing, email, blah blah blah...), are going to include graphic design (so I can finally finish some designs I left behind in my main PC) on Fireworks and Photoshop, VMware jobs, maybe a couple of days of City Of Heroes, some Hulu.com HD watching, and other stuff that doesnt requiere too much computing power.

Specs I dont care too much about are Battery Life, Weight, Dimension, OS (I use XP 32 bits and I will be testing Windows 7 as well), Video or Audio outputs and RAM (both have 3 or more GB).

Specs I DO care about are CPU performace, GPU performance, Wireless Adapter and Screen Resolution.

First Option:

Toshiba Satellite A305-S6905

Specifications

Pros: (compared to the HP machine)

Core 2 Duo CPU

Wireless Draft N

Harman/Kardon speakers

Price

Cons:

Smaller Screen Size and Screen Resolution

Slower GPU

Second Option:

Hp Pavillion dv7-1245dx

Specifications

Pros: (compared to the Toshiba machine)

Bigger screen size, therefore better resolution

Somewhat better GPU

Cons:

Higher price (a difference of $70)

CPU???

Wireless adapter not being Draft N (does it matter at all??)

Now, I have some doubts, how faster Core 2 Duo is compared to AMD's Turion X2 (for those specific models, T6400 and RM-72)?

Is there going to be any rendering problems for City Of Heroes, by example, if I use Intel's lower end GPU?

Thank you in advance for all the insights you can provide, I really have to update all my software to the lastest versions, update my automated installers and more importantly, finish my folder designs.

Thank you again.

[ricktendo]

I know if you get the Toshiba you could probably enable Virtualization in the bios which will be nice for VMware

[Mr_Smartepants]

It's your money, and ultimately it's your choice.

But I would avoid anything branded Toshiba like the plague.

I've repaired 6 or 7 Toshiba notebooks with power connectors snapping off the motherboard (cold-solder joints) and other poor QA problems.

My dad's set-top DVD player blew up 2-months out of warranty.

Personally I'd go with an Intel CPU, but again, it's your choice.

[ccl0]

i'd avoid toshiba as well. i think they are also heavy on the bloat (all those 'free' aka unwanted programs taking up system resources)

i'd also avoid acer.

are you only limited to best buy?

oh and core 2 duo > amd

and i would not really list Wireless Draft N as a 'pro' b/c as far as i know the final spec still isnt out yet, but even then wireless 'g' would probably be enough for you

[Rhor]

Thank you for your responses.

I went to BestBuy to check out some other machines, and I found that, after all, a 14 inches screen laptop with 1280 * 800 of resolution was not as bad as I believed before (I was looking for machines with 15 inches screens and up only). And following your advice, I checked an Asus X83VB-X2, wich pretty much has everything I need, except for the HDD size, but that's fixable.

I was taking a look for the Toshiba models as well, but I just couldn't stare at them for more than 5 seconds...those were some ugly ass machines!!!

Its just that I have good memories from a Toshiba laptop that my Dad used to have years ago...

And since I want what John C. Dvorak calls "instant gratification", then going online to order and waiting for the damn thing to arrive it's not my thing, that's why I have to go to local retailers, and for laptops Best Buy its much better than J&R or any other stores here in NYC.

If you have any more insights, please let me know.

Thank you again.

[ccl0]

asus makes decent machines. i've no idea about what their customer support is like though. but maybe if you get it via retail then you'll handle it through the store you got it from. if you get it from best buy they might hit you up for a 'performance tuning' or something with a similar name. basically they'll take it, fiddle around with a few settings and charge you like $40 for it. sometimes they throw it in for free though

[Rhor]

Well, the first thing I'm planning to do is to wipe the HDD, create the partitions the way I like it and install my custom XP. Usually I don't care about warranties, but with a laptop I think I will have to be much more careful. Asus gives me a lot more confidence than HPs or Dells anyway.

[Guest alperkral]

Thank you very much...

[cygnus]

Very nice computer that you decided to go with. Asus makes very nice laptops, my F8Sn is great. If you had gone with the HP, you would have to deal with extremely hot temperatures. Ihara an AMD Turion x2 as well in my tablet PC, same speed too. My tablet runs extremely hot even under idle conditions. The processor sits around 50