Purchase advice please

Ok guys,

Need some purchase advice. After looking at the Ibm's for a while and comparing them to some others that I have looked into in the last week and a half. Ive decided to get the ibm r51. . Appears to be solid, Ive heard more good about support than bad. Plus i can return it no questions asked if i dont like it.

ive stated before that i will be using this laptop for office apps (word,excel, Publisher type programs, creating and using large databases, websites. So i guess i need a basic laptop.?

The two im looking at are.
R51 2883 ARU
R51 1836 H7U

the only 2 differences in these two as far as i can tell is..
1. that the ARU has the Intel Extreme Graphics2, where the H7U has a Radeon 7500.
2. price

Its d-day and i want to order. So heres the deal..

1. with the ARU i will defintly have to get extra ram which will increase my cost, but how much is enough, since if i go with this model it will be sharing with the video? 512, 768, 1gig

2. with the H7U can i get by with only 256 since im not using shared video. I heard that Winxp needs 512 of ram.

so lets assume.
ARU
1215.05
68.40 ram.. for total 512 assuming this is enough (ibm)
77.00 tax
1360.45 total
or can get 1 512 (768 total)stick of ram from crucial for 106.99 which would make this laptop
1394.94


H7U
1329.05
79.74
1408.79 total assuming you can get by with only 256 of ram

difference is $48.34


3. Also saw in a post that basically when longhorn comes out that most laptops are not going to be able to handle it, So im wondering if spending the extra dollars is a waste?


4. So what do you recommend i go with... the ARU which will need extra ram (but how much) or the H7U which i may or may not need to add extra ram to?

give me your thoughts and feelings on this..

thanks for the help

 

I would get the 1836 H7U asz it has a 40GB hard drive over the 30GB the 2883ARU has, plus the dedicated video will be much better all around. Now to answer your numbered questions.

1. If you pick the ARU (and I would not) get it setup with 512MB.
2. Yes you can always wait and see if you really need more than 256 and add it later; XP does not need 512 unless your running many applications at the same time. My Son's desktop PC is a 350MHz P2 with 192MB of ram and it runs all the office apps, web surfing and light 3D gaming and runs relatively fast.
3. What you heard about longhorn is totally bogus and false information, it is supposed to have a 3D desktop, so will need a 3D video card, but most any video chip made in the past 3 years is capable of that. Plus since longhorn is so far out in the future, if microsoft continues as it has been, the 3D desktop could be cut from the project and added to a future OS altogether.
4. Already answered that one, get the H7U.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Thanks bootleg,

Went to IBM site today and they dropped the price on the ARU model by about $47.50. I was pumped cause the last time they dropped the price the H7U got dropped also. --- No such luck --- was trying to keep my cost down.
But adding in the extra ram on the ARU makes the diff only 48.34. Not all that much unless i need to add ram to the H7U then its 100.00 more

Wonder if they will drop the price on the H7U shortly?

Value your input on the subject bootleg, but would like to hear other opinions also. So EVERYBODY chime in here...

oh almost forgot.
is the radeon 7500 considered a 3D video card.?
will I get better battery life or worse compared to the Intel Extreme2

 

If I were you I would purchase the H7U for the following reasons:
1) More hard drive space (40 vs. 30)
2) The video ram is not shared
3) You can get by with 256 mb of ram for now. My son has an IBM T42 (2379dwu)with 256 mb of ram and is not looking to increase RAM for now. He is a computer science major and compiles, surfs, and plays games all at the same time. It is easier to add RAM than to change video cards.

 

Hey guys, Thanks for the help.

Im going to get the 1836 H7U as all of you have suggested, plan on ordering monday or tuesday.
But I need some more input, and Im a little leary as the last time I bought a notebook was 9 yrs ago and I bought that from bestbuy. So this online purchase has me a little on edge with the warranty and returns policies.

As of today IBM H7U (Sunday 11/28)

1329.05 From the IBM VISA business center link
79.74 Gotta pay Tax- Free Shipping
1408.79 Total

or I was just on Newegg and they are carrying this model now and have it for

1354.00
5.99 Shipping - No Tax I guess
1359.99 Total

Diff of 48.80

Could someone here school me on the pros / cons of going with newegg vs getting it direct from Ibm.
I know that new egg states ...This item may only be returned for a replacement of the same make/model... but are my chance of getting a defective one greater with going with newegg? What about bad pixels?

I Think someone here stated here that if you order from ibm you could return no questions asked. If I have to return one to ibm vs newegg im still paying for return shipping arent I.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by RazorsEdge

 

That's tough purchase decision because I really like newegg. I ordered my son's IBM laptop from newegg and it was perfect (no dead pixels). The pros to ordering from newegg was the price and the fast shipping. I ordered on Tuesday and got the computer on Thursday while paying $5 shipping. That said, I would go with the IBM site. $48 seems a small price difference if it means getting a machine without dead pixels. I know that the industry standard allow for a half dozen or so dead pixels but I think one is too many.

Make sure you let us know what you think of your purchase.

 

Not sure if this is too late, but I see the 1836h7u for $1,259.10 on the IBM Mastercard site today.

If you already ordered from IBM, I would call and have them adjust your total to save the $70. You're still within the 30-day return period, so it shouldn't be a problem, but you never know with phone service folks, it might just depend upon which one you talk to.

 

Im going to go by ordering with IBM using the visa discount.

TmcNellie, thanks I saw that late yesterday afternoon. Got me pumped..1250.00 was about what all I really wanted to spend on a laptop so this makes it even better (glad i didnt spend the 1250 on the gateway).
New egg is 1360.00 with shipping / Ibm is 1334.66 with tax and free shipping. So it worked out better, Good thing I left town for 2 days. But they are out of stock.

Is it possible to get the same price and free shipping deal if I call in my order vs doing it on the web. Or is that special only for the web special?

Also I was wondering what exactly is the difference between a Thinkpad and a Thinkpad Express

Thanks all for the input. [ ][ ]

 

Don't know about the phone vs. web deal, but you can always call. I'll bet that if it is a web-only special, you can probably convince the rep to waive the shipping over the phone anyway to match it.

But just to let you know, when I purchased my T Series last Friday, it stated that it was out of stock and would ship in 2-4 weeks. It was at my door 5 days later. Can't say that's normal, but it may not actually be out of stock.

As for Thinkpad vs. Thinkpad Express, I think the Express models are less customizable when purchasing. I've seen this question asked before, so you could probably search the forum for some more detail.

 

NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!

Ive been notebook shopping for a couple months and finally settled on the thinkpad over 2 other choices, was all set to place an order on monday and now this.

Up for Sale.... Great, on top of everything else that has been happening this past week this just puts the frosting on the cake...

Why Me...was going to order monday. What should I do? Wait to see what happens? Start looking for something else?

I dont want a junk dell, and i dont really want to go thru bestbuy.. What else is there?

This just sucks, sucks, sucks.
Maybe if we start flooding IBM email accounts with "Dont do it" emails . - Yeah Right....

and I think its now time for notebookreview to put in a 'crying' smilie.

 

I just talked with a friend tonight at a party who is an upper level manager at IBM and talked to him about the deal. This is what he told me.
IBM has sold off several different division in the past and he assures me that if and this is still a big if as the sale is not a done deal; that if the thinkpad still has IBM's name on it and it most likely would as that's what is really being sold as any company can be in the notebook business as they are all made by just a small handfull of ODMs,that if IBM's name is on it then they retain control and approval over any design changes that would affect quality,reliability or service/support. He said that the thinkpad is the leader in corporate workplace and if the business is sold, the buyer would want to keep those customers, so any change would be very slow and that they would keep the thinkpad right where it is as the rolls royce of laptops. He also told me that IBM no longer makes their notebooks and that beginning in 2003 production was handed over to a Chinese company called "greatwall" and that went very smoothly and quality levels have ben fairly constant through the transistion. All in all after talking with him at great length over this, I feel much better about the whole deal and if it does happen I will not hesitate buying another thinkpad as long as it still says IBM on the outside..Anyway if it did'nt it would not be a thinkpad anyway. Oh well some of what I said may have bad grammer and or misspellings as it's getting late and I've had more to drink than I nornmally do at the Christmas party tonight; I jsut had to relay what information I had gathered on this subject.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill