Compal HEL80 and HGL30 Questions

I am seriously considering buying onew of these systems I just have a few questions beforehand.

• 
  Is there a lightscribe DVDR drive compatible with these notebooks?

• 
  How would you upgrade them to Core 2 Duo?

• 
  How soon would I be able to upgrade to Core 2 Duo and what kind of
  performance would I gain from upgrading?

The answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.

 

A Lightscribe drive isn't an option as far as I know when you buy it, but you can buy Lightscribe-enabled drives aftermarket and install them.

August is the release date, no telling when you would be able to buy them. If you want a Core 2 Duo, you are better off waiting a month or so. I'd expect to see them in notebooks by September.
The Core 2 Duo has a supposed 20% performance advantage over the Core Duo.

 

Thanks for the reply. Do you know where i could get a lightscribe DVDR drive and how I would install it?

 

September would be the very earliest you would see Core 2 Duo in notebooks, but then you would be paying their highest "release" pricing. You might want to consider waiting until at least the first price drop about 4 months after they are released, and better yet, wait until after Vista OS has been released and stabilized with at least Service Pack 1. You should expect that sometime in the 2nd Qtr of next year.

My best advice to you, if you need a new laptop soon, is to get the current offerings and upgrade to the Merom next year. All of the current laptops that are using the Intel 945 chipset and Yonah Core Duo processors are upgradeable to the Merom. Some will require a BIOS update, some will not.

 

You will need to Google for a LightScribe enabled DVDR drive that will work with what ever laptop you are going to buy...or, if you really need LightScribe consider getting an external one. Then you could burn straight accross using the built in DVDR drive in your laptop.

Bye the way, have you noticed that almost no laptop is offering LightScribe enabled DVDR drives anymore? The reason for that is that it really didn't turn out to be that great of a thing. The media is very expensive, and the burn time is very long.

 

You are better off just getting a plain DVDRW drive for now and waiting for Blu-Ray drives to come out. Lightscribe is pretty much useless. Waiting for 25 minutes to burn a label is an utter waste of time.

As for upgrading to Core 2 Duo, you can upgrade the Compal units now, assuming you can get a hold of a processor

 

The Lightscribe technology is more of a novelty than anything . . and you need the special media as posted to burn a cover on them. Here's media:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817292008
$12.99 for 15 DVD's? You're better off getting a label maker. The discs will look better. Lightscribe quality isn't that great to be honest ...