6910p pre purchase config. questions

Hi

my son who is in his 4th year of college needs a new laptop as water spilled on his. luckily I had it insured through an insurance comp that covers college kids. So Im able to get him a new notebook with the money.

Im going to get him the 6910p. He uses microsoft office primarily for school. He uses itunes and watches some video (you tube or dvd etc.). He doesn't play games, edit video, or edit pics. He might go to school overseas if so I would want him to hook up some sort of web cam.

While he wants to stay with xp I'll probably get him vista business so later I dont have to deal with the upgrade or downgrade depending how you feel about it.

Questions

1) Some of the smart buy configs have 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm hard drives. does it make a difference for his needs?

2) Some configs would work but the drive is small. because of the fall sensor etc. does it matter what drive I get. I know seagate has a built in sensor on some drives. Is HPs fall sensor technology part of the drive so you have to buy a certain one? Has anyone swithched to a drive not bought from Hp?

3) Im probably going to get one with dedicated video. some of them come with 64megs of dedicated ram and some with 128 of dedicated ram. Will this make a difference?

4) I think any and all processors will be fine.

5) 8.11 a/b/g and n some have this some just a/b/g make any difference I dont think a lot of places have "n". Also can this be changed or upgraded later?

Thank you very much. I want to buy tomorrow so any help is appreciated.

Jack S

 

A 7200RPM drive gives a noticeable performance boost in my opinion, but the newer 5400RPM are pretty decent. Unless he has a specific need, a 5400RPM drive would probably work fine and you get more space on a 5400RPM drive for the $$$.

The hard drive protection is usually located on the motherboard. The drive is irrelevant. I don't think you'll have an issue upgrading the dirve.

If he doesn't game, get the integrated graphics card. They have better battery life.

The N cards supposedly have a bit better range, but a lot will depend on the network.

If you're not mated to the 6910p, the ThinkPad T61 or R61 which have an optional webcam integrated into the LCD housing might be worth a look as well.

 

Thank you for your answers. He looked at the xps 1330 and liked it but thought the screen was too small for him and doesnt want an external monitor. He also wants something light and from what I can see the 6910 is lighter than the t61. the lenovo with the 9 cell is a little lighter than the hp with both the 6 cell and the 8 cell travel battery installed. which gives around 8 hours of use. the hp with just the 6 cell should last about 3.5 hours.

My self I have always liked the thinkpads look and the feel of the keyboard. the web cam is a plus. The HP is slightly less exp than the thinkpad. anyway both great notebooks.

 

1) The 7200rpm drive will offer faster performance at the expense of added heat to the left palm rests.
2) I have installed a WD hard disk and the accelerometer functionality is still there. The accelerometer is built into the motherboard, not the hard disk.
3) Not too much, but just get the 128MB one if the price differential is small. Dedicated graphics cards will significantly affect battery life, so if he's not playing games, get the X3100 card.
4) T7300 and above are all fine.
5) You can't get the n functionality without removing the screen and installing the additional wire required and replacing the PCI card, so it's not easy to add this functionality if its not already there.

 

with regards to number 5 if it has built in abg wireless are you saying that "n" has an additional wire?