choosing the right laptop (new member)

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, and I hope many of you can help me as much as possible in terms of finding the right notebook for me

First, my situation is as follows. I currently live in the Netherlands but will move to Canada on August 31st by flying through Toronto to attend Queen's university.

So please keep in mind that besides choosing the right model, I also need to choose the method of buying. (ex: 1)buy it here in holland, get the VAT sales tax back. 2)buy it in canada. 3) order from a u.s online store and have it shipped to canada)

Anyway, here we go, the main points!

(General Usage)
First things first?
-I should probably set a starting point here by saying that I'm looking into a centrino model with 1.6ghz (dothan) and 512 ram.

What will you be using the notebook mainly for? Will you be using it to play games? Will you be using it for word processing / general productivity? etc.

-I will be using it for college. E-mail, internet (wired/wireless), word, games, watching dvds, listening to music, photoshop, home recording(ex: MIDI, cakewalk etc),

Are you looking more at a very small notebook, a standard notebook, or a large desktop replacement?

-Somewhere in between a standard notebook and a large desktop replacement.

Will you be carrying the notebook around a lot or be keeping it stationary most of the time?

-I won't be carrying it around everyday, but I am neither looking into a model that is quite heavy. To put in a ratio....3:7 or 4:6 ? (carry around:stationary)

How important is battery life to you?

-not the decisive factor, but would like at least a minimum of 3 hours. (say, to watch a 3 hour dvd outside)

How long do you intend on using this laptop?
-as long as possible. 4 years for college maybe?

(Features)

Do you need lots of hard drive space?
-I'm looking into a 60 gb one. (would be nice if it's 5400 rpm to start off with)

Will you be burning DVD's or just CD's?
-I will be burning CD's. A DVD writer would be nice, but not necessary. DVD/cd-rw combo drive will do, but I will be watching dvd's from many regions, so it needs to be code-free. (i am not sure how code-free works in terms of combo drives)

Do you tend to work with a lot of applications at once?
-once in a while, yes

(Graphics & Display)

How big would you like your screen to be? Do you care if it's widescreen or not?
- 15 inches/15.4 inches. as for the widescreen, i'm not sure how it would work when it comes to using my older softwares and games. would they be stretched out, or leave blank spaces on both ends of the screen?

Are you willing to pay more for premium screens enhanced by XBRITE, Crystal View, or Bright View? (Go to the bottom of this post for an explanation)
-if it's $ 50~100 difference, why not

(If applicable) Will you be playing casual games or the latest games?
-right now, they are pretty much casual games, but i would like to see some future games running on my laptop.(ex:doom3) ofcourse, i won't be playing doom3 and farcry everyday, but I would like a "future-proof" enough GPU to feel "safe". I would also prefer the ATI Mobility Radeons with at least 64mb dedicated memory. (9600 or 9700 would be nice)

(If applicable) Will you be doing work in a 3D modeling program like 3D Studio Max or Maya?
-nope.

(Miscellaneous)

Wireless?
-802.11 b/g will do. bluetooth not necessary.

SD card slot?
-would be nice to have one.

Do you care if your notebook looks good or not?
-a little, but don't really care unless it's absolutely horrible to even look at it.

Are there particular brands you prefer or won't buy from? / Are there particular models you have already looked at?
-so far, with my own little research, I have come to a conclusion that
1)hp zt3000/compaq x1000/hp-compaq nx7000/ nc 8000 series
2)acer aspire 2012 wlmi
3)sager 3970
4)toshiba m30 satellite series

are quite within the range of what I'm looking for. here goes my analysis just to give you an idea of what i think about them.

1)having checked the specs and hearing some advices and all, it seems like zt3000=x1000=nx7000. They seem to be basically the same thing, except the nx7010 being a business model with a 3 year international warranty. Speaking of warranty, I will be using it with maximum care but it would ne nice to have some warranty, considering that I will be using this laptop not only in school, but also back home in Korea during the breaks, or other places that i might travel to. So, this option has it's brand value, and it also allows you to customize them, but I checked hp.com, and it seems like customized models can only be shipped within the U.S. So customized models are out, and I would have to look for a pre-config model, which might be a hassle. Besides that, I don't feel quite "safe" with the ATI 9200 that comes with these models. Predicting as best as I can, the most high-end games that I will be playing within the next couple of months will be Doom 3 and NBA-Live 2005 (not sure if you can call nba a high-end, would have to wait and see). as for the nc8000, it's nice, heard good things about it, has an ati 9600 pro, but the downside is that it is usually more expensive than the others i have mentioned above.

2) i never looked into acers, in fact just ignored them, but someone kindly suggested the 2012-WLMI aspire model, and after looking at it and the reviews and etc, i am having second thoughts about it. It has a good gpu (ati 9700) and etc, very cheap compared to others, but the biggest downside to this model is that it is a 1.5ghz banias. I have heard that some people who bought it from newegg.com got a 1.5 dothan shipped, but it seems like it is randomly done. Another downside would be it's name value. I am not familiar with Acer, nor it's services and warranty etc.

3) Very good specs for a reasonable price, and customizable too, but the downside is again the name value. I have only known Sager for two days, and much like the Acer, don't know how good their models work. I heard that some people call Sager a "white something company". Plus, warranty and service might be an issue.

4)Toshiba m30. I have seen this model in person, perhaps too many times, it seems like every shop here in the netherlands at least has one of them on display. looks nice, specs aren't that bad, but then again the downside is that it has an nvidia fx 5200 go, which i believe is not as good as the ati 9200 and obviously nowhere near the 9600/9700.

How much are you willing to pay for this notebook?
- would like the best value for my bucks. US $1200~1700 is fine, but considering that it's Canada,(in regards to shipping costs etc.) ~1600 is preferred.

Wow, this is one long piece of writing. I hope many of you have cleary understood my points and concerns, and hope you can give me as much input as possible, even if it's just one sentence. Again, thanks for reading, and I'll check in frequently, hope I can choose the right model and move on to the issue of "how to buy it" !


something to add to the acer section:

i heard that initially, the hard drive is configured to FAT32 and is also partitioned into three drives. I didn't like that point about the 2012-wlmi.

 

i'll paste my other post:

have a look at the CL56 from www.Mwave.com or if u want more options hypersonic PC markets this laptop as the CX5.

Mwave:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?&scriteria=NB-BA20074

Hypersonic:
http://secure.hypersonic-pc.com/scripts/custom_sys.asp?sysid=Aviator_CX5

And ASUS Newegg.com is a reseller of ASUS notebooks so is Mwave

and heres Where to buy ASUS notebooks

http://usa.asus.com/wheretobuy/WTB_Notebook.htm

and also consider FUJITSU as well

Heres FUJITSU's main site:
http://www.fujitsu.com/


And if u want power mixed with battery life try AMD Athlon 64

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?&scriteria=nb-ba20408

if u have any Questions Specificly about the Athlon 64 i can assist you or the Centrino.


Or u can consider one of HP centrino Models or there desktops replacements the Zx5000 series the battery life isnt great but its a great notebook i recommand the Brightview screen for the HP.

 

check out the Sager 3790 at www.pctorque.com also check out www.notebookforums.com for a weeks worth of information in answer to your questions.

 

the Sager 3790 is on backorder at PCtorques site.

 

Sweet, MWAVE just upgraded their athlon 64 also. They sell it under the MWAVE brand, but it is actually made by Uniwall, and the same laptop is sold under ABS as the G3 as well. The only things that I don't like about the MWAVE one is that it apparently doesn't come with a built-in wireless card, it only has 5400 rpm hard drives and you can't choose to have a better display. But the price is great at under 1500, the lowest price there is so far, besides maybe the eMachines m6811, which you can't get anywhere anymore for some reason, probably because gateway is coming out with their identical laptops. As far as the laptops, if you go for the MWAVE laptop, just get the cheapest hard drive, order a seperate Hitachik 60gb 7200 rpm drive with it for $150, and buy an external hard drive enclosure kit for $20, and use your crappy 40gb 4200rpm drive as a back-up or filesharing drive.

 

I just got my new laptop, I went ahead and got the Mwave Athlon 64 3400+, 60 gb 5400 rpm HD, 60 gb 7200 rpm HD, ATI 128mb 9700 pro, 15.4 WS 1280x800, and a HD enclosure for the 60gb 5400 rpm HD). The only thing that is wrong with it, is it has one dead pixel. Well, i am having some problem with my $12.90 HD Enclosure too, for some reason the drivers are for Windows 98 ONLY. Oh, and Windows XP Service Pack 2 made the ethernet port not work. But I'm perfectly happy without the stupid-ass security center or whatever that stupid windows firewall/anti-virus/automatic updates software is called[ !]. One of my friends got an E-Machines 6811, he has had way more problems than I have, and I got mine for the same price with a better HD and a 128mb videocard[ ]. All said and done, after shipping i paid about 1700 for a kickass desktop replacement (yes, it is faster, more powerful, and looks a hell of a lot prettier than my Athlon 2400+ 128mb geforce ti4200 100gb HD with a Dell 21" flat screen monitor, which I will try and sell for $700 and try and pay off half my laptop bill[ ]).

 

WinXP should already have drivers for your USB 2.0 HD enclosure. Just plug it in and WinXP should recognize it. That was the case when I tested out a friend's HD on one of my WinXP machines, IIRC. You'll have to partition and format the drive if that wasn't done already, see Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management.