Notebook purchase advice, please

I intend to buy a notebook computer but am uncertain as to the minimum specs
I need.

My desktop runs what I need, including games. I will use WinXP Home Ed. and
need to run some games at better frame rates than I now can.

My desktop has: Pentium 3 @ 800mhz, 256 meg ram, 32 meg GeForce video.

My idea is to find out what I need to buy to get to where I am now with my
desktop and then I'll go wild until the money runs out.

A separate issue is that if I understand correctly, I can get a wireless
card in the notebook, buy a router, and then would be able to sit in my
living room using my notebook and my dsl connection. Please correct me if
this is not correct and please feel free to offer suggestions.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Don

It might have been helpful to mention that my current os is Win98SE.

Don wrote:
> I intend to buy a notebook computer but am uncertain as to the
> minimum specs I need.
>
> My desktop runs what I need, including games. I will use WinXP Home
> Ed. and need to run some games at better frame rates than I now can.
>
> My desktop has: Pentium 3 @ 800mhz, 256 meg ram, 32 meg GeForce video.
>
> My idea is to find out what I need to buy to get to where I am now
> with my desktop and then I'll go wild until the money runs out.
>
> A separate issue is that if I understand correctly, I can get a
> wireless card in the notebook, buy a router, and then would be able
> to sit in my living room using my notebook and my dsl connection.
> Please correct me if this is not correct and please feel free to
> offer suggestions.
>
> Any advice will be appreciated.

It depends on what you need to do with it. If you'd like to be able to
play games with better framerates, I would look into a Desktop
replacement, which weigh a lot, eat batteries up quickly, but can do
anything their desktop counterparts can do. Can you give a little more
detail on what you intend to do with it? As far as wirless networking
goes, yes you can sit in your living room, in the patio, next to the
pool, on the toilet, and POSSIBLY even in your neighbors house, and surf
the internet.

--
Night_Seer

Thanks, Night_Seer.

You said:
> It depends on what you need to do with it. If you'd like to be able to
> play games with better framerates, I would look into a Desktop
> replacement, which weigh a lot, eat batteries up quickly, but can do
> anything their desktop counterparts can do. Can you give a little more
> detail on what you intend to do with it?

This computer will not replace my desktop. I want to travel with it. The
idea is to do everything with the new notebook that I can now do with my
desktop. If possible, I would like to improve the performance.

I'm figuring that I am going to get at least a 2 GHz processor. Beyond that
I don't know how much memory I really need to run Win XP to be equivalent to
256 meg of ram with Win 98SE.

Don wrote:
> Thanks, Night_Seer.
>
> You said:
>> It depends on what you need to do with it. If you'd like to be able
>> to play games with better framerates, I would look into a Desktop
>> replacement, which weigh a lot, eat batteries up quickly, but can do
>> anything their desktop counterparts can do. Can you give a little
>> more detail on what you intend to do with it?
>
> This computer will not replace my desktop. I want to travel with it.
> The idea is to do everything with the new notebook that I can now do
> with my desktop. If possible, I would like to improve the
> performance.
>
> I'm figuring that I am going to get at least a 2 GHz processor.
> Beyond that I don't know how much memory I really need to run Win XP
> to be equivalent to 256 meg of ram with Win 98SE.

Then I would suggest either like you said a 2Ghz P4 like you mentioned,
but with at the very least 512 Megs of RAM, and a decent video card.
Keep in mind the better the video card, the faster your battery will
drain. Your other choice is a Pentium M which are fast little suckers,
in the 1.6 or 1.7 Ghz range (don't worry the GHz is almost meaninless,
and you get wireless built in if you get and actual Centrino laptop).
The next thing is make sure you get a spare battery, and a charge kit
for your car or wherever you my be (airplane?). Do you want to play
newer games or are the older ones you play on your 98 PC? You can get a
little lower specs and get away with 256 megs of RAM, and get a longer
battery life if all you play are older games, but I doubt you'll sick to
older games.

--
Night_Seer

Thanks for that tidbit on the Pentium M. I have seen it advertised but
didn't know what is was.

I drive a race car. This computer will travel to the track in our motorhome
to manipulate and graph data acquisition info from the race car which, as I
understand from the software manufacturer, does not require a computer as
powerful as I am talking about here. The games are really the race driving
simulators such as Grand Prix 4 and F1 2002. What I seem to be getting from
you is that the extra overhead of XP will probably require me to go for 512
meg of ram (did anyone ever have too much ram or too much horsepower?). I
really like the idea of the Pentium M.

I always have access to 110 volts because of our generator. An extra
battery would be helpful, however.

I really appreciate your taking the time to educate me. If you think of
anything else, I like picking your brain.

Don

> Then I would suggest either like you said a 2Ghz P4 like you mentioned,
> but with at the very least 512 Megs of RAM, and a decent video card.
> Keep in mind the better the video card, the faster your battery will
> drain. Your other choice is a Pentium M which are fast little suckers,
> in the 1.6 or 1.7 Ghz range (don't worry the GHz is almost meaninless,
> and you get wireless built in if you get and actual Centrino laptop).
> The next thing is make sure you get a spare battery, and a charge kit
> for your car or wherever you my be (airplane?). Do you want to play
> newer games or are the older ones you play on your 98 PC? You can get a
> little lower specs and get away with 256 megs of RAM, and get a longer
> battery life if all you play are older games, but I doubt you'll sick to
> older games.

A friend just bought a emachines notebook. I am no fan of emachines but for
$1200 the emachine is pretty well packed.

2400xp processor, 17 inch wide screen, 60 gig hard drive, 3-2.0 usb ports
built in 805 wireless, dvd/cdrw.

I was pretty impressed, time will tell but it came with a two year
warrantee.


"Don" <> wrote in message
news:XNadncy9tJj-gozdRVn-...
> I intend to buy a notebook computer but am uncertain as to the minimum
specs
> I need.
>
> My desktop runs what I need, including games. I will use WinXP Home Ed.
and
> need to run some games at better frame rates than I now can.
>
> My desktop has: Pentium 3 @ 800mhz, 256 meg ram, 32 meg GeForce video.
>
> My idea is to find out what I need to buy to get to where I am now with my
> desktop and then I'll go wild until the money runs out.
>
> A separate issue is that if I understand correctly, I can get a wireless
> card in the notebook, buy a router, and then would be able to sit in my
> living room using my notebook and my dsl connection. Please correct me if
> this is not correct and please feel free to offer suggestions.
>
> Any advice will be appreciated.
>
>

"G Smith" <> wrote in
newsQkQb.4934$:

> A friend just bought a emachines notebook. I am no fan of emachines
> but for $1200 the emachine is pretty well packed.

eMachines is also introducing an Athlon64 notebook. A64 3000+, 512 megs of
RAM, Radeon 9600, CDRW/DVD (optional CDRW/DVD+RW), 80 gig hard drive, built
in 802.11b wireless, modem, 10/100 NIC. All for $1449.95 ($1549.95 with
DVD+RW drive).

Fantastic deals, if you ask me.

--
AIM: FrznFoodClerk
email: de_on-lag@co_cast.net (_ = m)
website: under construction
Need a technician in the south Jersey area?
email/IM for rates/services

"DeMoN LaG" <n@a> wrote in message
news:Xns9479EDC5EDEBAWobbly@216.168.3.30...
> "G Smith" <> wrote in
> newsQkQb.4934$:
>
> > A friend just bought a emachines notebook. I am no fan of emachines
> > but for $1200 the emachine is pretty well packed.
>
> eMachines is also introducing an Athlon64 notebook. A64 3000+, 512 megs
of
> RAM, Radeon 9600, CDRW/DVD (optional CDRW/DVD+RW), 80 gig hard drive,
built
> in 802.11b wireless, modem, 10/100 NIC. All for $1449.95 ($1549.95 with
> DVD+RW drive).
>
> Fantastic deals, if you ask me.
>
This is a pretty amazing price when you consider an Intel based system with
comparable performance is twice the cost.

I bought an Averatec 3150H last year because of the small size and it was
less than $800 with all the features I will ever use. It has 1600XP+
processor and it has worked flawlessly with some fairly heavy duty programs
such as P3 and Timberline, Due to the small size of the screen when I am on
the road trying to use it for cad isn't very practical, but when I get to a
monitor I can plug it into it runs cad really well. Laptops have sure came a
long way in the last couple of years, even the low end units.

Don wrote:
> Thanks for that tidbit on the Pentium M. I have seen it advertised
> but didn't know what is was.
>
> I drive a race car. This computer will travel to the track in our
> motorhome to manipulate and graph data acquisition info from the race
> car which, as I understand from the software manufacturer, does not
> require a computer as powerful as I am talking about here. The games
> are really the race driving simulators such as Grand Prix 4 and F1
> 2002. What I seem to be getting from you is that the extra overhead
> of XP will probably require me to go for 512 meg of ram (did anyone
> ever have too much ram or too much horsepower?). I really like the
> idea of the Pentium M.
>
> I always have access to 110 volts because of our generator. An extra
> battery would be helpful, however.
>
> I really appreciate your taking the time to educate me. If you think
> of anything else, I like picking your brain.
>
> Don
>
>> Then I would suggest either like you said a 2Ghz P4 like you
>> mentioned, but with at the very least 512 Megs of RAM, and a decent
>> video card. Keep in mind the better the video card, the faster your
>> battery will drain. Your other choice is a Pentium M which are fast
>> little suckers, in the 1.6 or 1.7 Ghz range (don't worry the GHz is
>> almost meaninless, and you get wireless built in if you get and
>> actual Centrino laptop). The next thing is make sure you get a spare
>> battery, and a charge kit for your car or wherever you my be
>> (airplane?). Do you want to play newer games or are the older ones
>> you play on your 98 PC? You can get a little lower specs and get
>> away with 256 megs of RAM, and get a longer battery life if all you
>> play are older games, but I doubt you'll sick to older games.

The pentium M can get expensive, and if what you say is true about
the program you are using, then a pentium 4 M could be cheaper, and good
enough for everything you want to do, from 2gHz and up, depending on
your budget. I would suggest the 512 for the overhead, especially when
running games. My recomendation as far as brands go would most
definitely be Toshiba.

--
Night_Seer