Help Me Choose plzzzz.

I've just bought a new notebook the Presario F500 Series. It comes with a AMD Turion 64 x2 TL-56. Now the fun part..in the brochure they mention that the notebook was install with a Nvidia Geforce Go 6150 chip. But instead it was installed with a Geforce Go 6100 . They acknowledge their mistake and wan't to compensate me with 3 choices .

1) They willing to upgrade my memory to to 2gb of ram
or
2) An extended product warranty of 3 yrs (1yr + 2yrs extended warranty)
or
3) Wait till end of August to upgrade my IGP to GeForce Go 6150.

To all kind people in this forum please help me choose and why.
BTW what is the different between this two chip.

 

Depends on what you're going to be doing with it; however, the 6100 and the 6150 are pretty much the same GPU (i.e., differences will be minimal) so, if you're otherwise content with the performance of the 6100/6150, either #1 or #2 would be the better deal.

In this case, unless you really need 2GB of RAM now (which you might if you're running Vista Premium or Ultimate), I would take the extended warranty - if you need to upgrade memory in the future, it would be far cheaper than upgrading the warranty in the future (which you wouldn't be able to do in any case once the original warranty runs out).

 

Thks Shyster1, o.k now i've got 1 vote for option #1 & #2. Actually i was about to take option #3, but since you mention that between 6100 and 6150 they are preatty much the same, I will got for #2 then. It just that I thought that 6150 is more powerful in term of speed. Or izzit?

 

i'll take option 1. Since it is unlikely if the computer will broke (except if you normally don't take care of your laptop - like I did with my first laptop).

what I understand is that "50" after the model number means it's a renewal, meaning, most of the time, small difference.

 

id take the ram too in 3 years its almost time for a new laptop anyway how much ram do you have and what os are you runnng

 

I've got a call from their representative today and I ask them the price different between those 3 options.(all costs are absorb by them. Hooray for me).
1) Ram upgrade $168.00
2) An extended product warranty of 3 yrs (1yr + 2yrs extended warranty )
($200 plus)
3)GeForce Go 6150 (no idea they don't want to disclose the price )

So i thought that option #3 will be more expensive. what do you think guys?

 

Well installed with Vista Home 32Bit with 1gb or ram with other crab of software and a 120gb hdd

 

Get the RAM upgrade. The extra 1GB is going to result in immediate performance boost. The extra warranty is going to give you peace of mind if your system develops any problems but would be useless if you dont. The third option is not worth waiting for, the Geforce 6150 is exactly the same as the Geforce 6100 performance wise, the only difference being the Go6150 has better power saving features which would result in a few extra minutes on the battery, nothing worth waiting for.

 

Thks Miner for the suggestion, after considering all the reply from you guys i will have a peace of mind in choosing my option. Now the best bet is, i'm gonna take option #2 as upgrading to Crucial or Kingston 2GB ram is considerably cheap in my country which is going less then USD40. I was about to be fooled by the model of this two chips between 6100 and 6150....thinking that 6150 is far better then the 6100...but truth is both chips are the same in term of performance. Are there more suggestion/option/opinion/explanation.

 

I'd take the RAM.

 

I'd take the warranty as well since you are able to upgrade the RAM so inexpensively.

 

With such a little price difference, I would agree with everyone else that I would go with the additional RAM, unless you realistically expect to be rough on the notebook while you have it.

Basically, do a cost-benefit analysis, assuming that there is a 20% chance that you would have to make a warranty claim (which, I believe, will only cover parts, not labor). In this instance, your "cost" is the foregone RAM which, under your circumstances, has a value of $168. To make the warranty more valuable than the RAM, with a 20% risk factor (which I think is probably higher than actual risks of making warranty claims, but I like to be conservative), you would have to suffer damage covered under the warranty of at least $x * 20% = $168; $x = $168 / 20% = $840 for the warranty to be preferable to the additional RAM.

Unless I'm mistaken, $840 is more than 50% of the original cost of the notebook, which implies that you would have to suffer pretty serious damage to the notebook to make the warranty worth more than the additional RAM.

So, on that basis, I would definitely vote for the additional RAM over the extended warranty.

 

Wow what an extensive kind of analysis. Could you explain that in Java language (just kidding). Appreciate the formula thou. Anyway I done the analysis myself and decided to go with the extended warranty which cover parts and labor. (That is the replay I got from HP that is). Anyway I still got till this Wednesday before I give him a reply. Option still open and maybe I can still change my mind. Hmm Ram Vs extended warranty. Option #3 change to Geforce Go 6150 is scrap . thks to all the people who help me with my decision.

 

I would go for the RAM

 

To all the people in this forum who help me with the option which HP had given me...it's Wednesday, its time for me to give them my replay for my option...well i'll take some advice from experience laptop/notebook users in this forum. So I’ll go for the ram upgrade. Just when I said I go for the ram upgrade , they said that they had change the option #3 and that is in Oct if I agree they will replace my lappy to a new lappy which comes with a nvidia Geforce Go 7150M. Bad news is this new lappy only come with a 14" screen. I’ll ask the model or series, and they replied its V3000 series.
Should I change to the new lappy. I do play games like Farcry, Halflife. My current lappy CompaqF500 Series 15.1" widescreen, Geforce Go 6150, 1GB, 120GB HDD, Vista Home.
So here's the option update:
1) Ram Upgrade to 2GB
2) Extended warranty up to 3yrs
3) New lappy (14" screen, Geforce Go 7150M, rest spec. is the same as my lappy):confused2:

Please once again I need help from u guys

 

Wow, they're being great to you. Just one question - are you dealing with HP/Compaq directly (and if so, what department did you call?) or with the store you bought the laptop from? My f500 series has the same 6100 issue and I've gotten nowhere calling HP. Thanks.

 

The 7150M in the V3000 should give you a bit more graphics power than the Go 6150/6100. The 7150M is supposedly ~40% faster than the Go6150 but I havent seen any benchmark to back up the claim from Nvidia. The V3000 will also be lighter and the smaller screen should increase the battery life. If those are important to you then it might be worth the wait.

 

I'd take the RAM anyway. If your laptop will not brake in first year of already included warranty, then it most likely won't do that in next year or two. Memory will really make a HUGE boost straight away. Everything will go a lot faster as Vista likes memory very much! And there is no much difference between GO6150 and GO6100.

 

Thks Miner. I've got a few hours left for me to reply my option to HP. I will take your advice by taking the new lappy even though the screen is 14.1" but with Geforce Go 7150 i hope i get the performance boost.

btw: Suland that was my initial option that i gonna choose but now they offer me with a new option. A new lappy with new a spec.

 

Remember that smaller laptop will get more hotter, especially with high performance insides. They put the HDD right on the left of the touchpad and touchpad is getting very warm together with the left side.

 

Hmmm i didnt know that...well i think that is a fact, it might be a little hotter than my current laptop. but considering the option i think, now i will still take the replacement lappy . Thks Suland for the warning with smaller laptops.

Anyone here got overheating problem with smaller laptop from HP/Compaq?

 

finally i've choose the replacement laptop which they offer me. Thank you to all the people here who help me with your opinion and advices.

spec for the replacement laptop: AMD Turion 64 x2 mobile TL56, 14.1" HD Widescreen XGA display, 1 GB Ram, 120GB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M.

 

I would take the warranty. That's the most valuable upgrade you can get. You can get upgraded RAM anywhere and for cheap, and to go from a system with 6100 graphics to 6150 wouldn't be much of an upgrade (slightly higher clock and has a few extra video features).

So I go with #2, no question about it.

EDIT: Seems like the replacement specs are pretty nice.

 

yup..the spec is pretty nice ..and i just received official exchange form from them. woohooo..