Putting my order in for a HEL80 from powernotebooks.com tomorrow

Hey guys, just wanted to thank everyone on the forum for the help in deciding what notebook to get and to run my final choice through here and see if anyone notices anything I missed or should change.

1 PowerPro L 8:15 ULTRA - $1,592.00
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) "Matte" LCD w/PCI-e nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 w/256MB
Intel® Core™ Duo T2400 1.83GHz Processor w/2,048k L2 On-die cache - 667MHz FSB
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
1,024MB (2 SODIMMS) CORSAIR DDR2/667 Dual Channel Memory
80GB SATA/150 Hard Drive at 5,400 RPM
Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDR Drive w/Softwares
Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g
Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell)
Windows XP Home
Full Range Auto Switching AC Adapter
NO Video Adapters for External Monitors

1 Built-in Bluetooth Wireless - $40.00

1 Majesty Carrying Case - $0.00

1 PowerPro 3-year Warranty - Next Business Day Shipping - Lifetime 24/7 - $0.00


Shipping/handling/ins: $ 35.00
Subtotal: $ 1,667.00
Tax: $ 0.00
Regular Price Total: $ 1,667.00
Cash Discount: $ 41.67
Cash Discounted Total: $ 1,625.33

 

congrats on your purchase and you will def be pleased...let us know what you think!

 

go with 1 sodimm of ram so you can get 2gb later

 

Ditto. Second that.

 

I'm not a real big gamer or anything, Will 2 gig really be necessary in the next 2-3 years?

 

if you plan on using windows vista, i heard that 2gb makes a difference..

 

Well if I didn't plan on upgrading to vista for at least a year, for that time is 2x512 not supposed to be better than 1x1024? And while were on the subject, I will have to buy a new processor to upgrade to vista, right? I was under the impression the Intel Core Duo out right now is not a 64-bit processor, so I figured that I would upgrade to a new processor, buy vista, and I can, if I need to, upgrade the ram. But, right now if the 2x512 is better I'd rather have that. I'm kind of in the dark here but that's just what I thought. Please correct me if I'm wrong

 

i think the difference between 2x512 and 1x1024 in terms of performance is negligible. i believe the 1 stick is a bit cheaper... and you are right that current processor is not 64 bit, it is 32bit. there will be a 32bit vista available, i am running the beta of that as we speak. its performance is so so on my 3ghz 1gb of ram system. if you are gonna do vista, the full benefits will be with 64bit becuase i believe that it is being designed for 64bit and then stripped for 32bit version. not sure exactly how, but i personally intend to get merom and upgrade to 64bit vista at the same time. wont be doing this for a while becuase i wanna wait until vista is released and stabilized as well as for merom to go down in price. my point is that the main advantage with going for 1 sodimm is that you will be able to upgrade ram later, probably with merom, without having to throw out any memory. furthermore, you wont be able to use faster ram anyway, 667mhz is the fastest that the FSB will be even when you upgrade to merom.

edit; i didnt realize you had the dual channel option. yea, there is advantage there for using the two sticks. im kicking myself for forgetting to get that... oh well. i'll be using 2 sticks of non-dual channel for a while. anyway, i would say go with the 2 sticks if you dont mind throwing one away when you want to upgrade later, which i really think you will want to do with vista. otherwise, get the 1 stick.

 

Okay, that makes sense, for some reason I was under the impression it was much better to have two sticks of ram than one stick even if they both did equal out to 1024. I'll call tomorrow and see if I can change that. Thanks for the info.

 

is the performance gain of dual channel ram in a centrino worth taking the extra slot?

 

yea, i mean there would be a benefit to having 2 sticks BECAUSE you have dual channel ram, but i dont know how much difference that would make in the types of things you will be doing on your laptop. websurfing, office software, etc, it definately will not. gaming and other RAM eating software will see a benefit, but with everything else that you have which is so fast, either way your system will probably handle anything you throw at it. if you get 1 stick now of dual channel, you wont have the benefit of dual channel ram until you install an identical chip in the other ram slot. then your motherboard will make use of the dual channel technology and it will be even more boosties to your system when it happens. i was suggesting 1 stick because its more cost effective for later on.

 

The performance difference between single- and dual-channel is very slim . . about 3-5% from what I am hearing. It is not worth it. Go for a single 1GB stick so you can upgrade later as posted.

 

Is there any projected price for the merom chips? Just wondering how much it's gonna cost to upgrade.

 

Perhaps consider getting the 7200 RPM hard drive for faster load times.

Since you're paying full price for your new processor and RAM, you may want to consider just getting some use out of it before upgrading. Vista and 64-bit won't be mainstream for a while. XP took years to replace 98 and Millennium.

I plan to get at least 18 months out of my current system before I even think about upgrading. Keep in mind that in the next year there's Vista, Santa Rosa, faster FSB, and DX10 coming out. My recommendation is this: live with what you have (it's very good and will last a while) until you need more and then upgrade. Otherwise in my opinion you're just throwing money into the wind chasing the newest and best technology--when it's at its highest prices too.

 

Merom will have the same price structure as the Core Duo processors have now after the first price drop after introduction. Don't worry, they won't be anymore expensive than what you are buying now.