Is this a fair deal?

well im 14 turning 15 in march ive saved up 600$ dollars canadian and i need a new laptop, as my ibm a21m pentium 3 800 died, it was my primary computer at my dads house, but i have a athlon xp 2800 at my moms, right now im using a celeron d340 2.93ghz 512 ram and old computer parts that i got for 200$$ its ok but i want another laptop so i can use it at both houses, because my brother is on the one here alot and the one in my room at my dads gets pretty slow.

ive found a toshiba m40 pro
with a celeron m 380 1.6ghz 1mb l2 cache
512 pc 2700 ram 1 slot incase i add another to make it a gig
ati radeon express 200m with 128 dedicated ram
15.4 inch
6cell battery
windows xp pro
40gb hardrive @ 5400 rpm
biult in wireles a/b/g
, now first off your gonna say go for pentium M well I would but after looking at benchmarks the celeron m and pentium m are completely the same except for a lower fsb half the cache disabled and thet speedstep unit disabled, I do not need this for battery life although I will use it on plane trips or car trips and i can probably squeeze a dvd out of it. after using a pentium 3 800 for 2 years with only 128 mb ram and being completely fine with it, I will be seeing a big improvement being the new celeron m is biult on the pentium 3 architecture and is basicaly its big brothers whos just came out of harvard

I really think this is a good deal at 799$ canadian, I also could go with a Sempron model but the 128kb l2 cache doesnt make me feel to good, kind of remind me of the celeron d im using with 256kb cache

 

That is a pretty good deal, its cheap because of the celeron...pentium M are way more expensive. Otherwise the harddrive and the screen look good. Where did you find it, if I may ask in canada?

 

Yes, i found it in canada at www.bestbuy.ca , its a online only offer , and its also directly on the toshiba website although I might buy from bestbuy because i could have some in store support

its hard to find computers in canada well laptops, because on www.hpshopping.com i configured a nice computer with a turion ml-37 512 ram and a 40gb slow hardrive for 850 but of course it only shipped to the us i mean theres no actuall wall between us it sucks they wont ship it up here.

i dont think the celeron will make the laptop suck I think it will make battery life shorter and a little worse due to only 1mb cache but as i said I have little or no need for the battery just need the computer to change houses with me and rooms

 

Yeah i hate that, and how on hpshopping.ca and hp.ca you cant configure worth sh**.

Did you try futureshop.ca ?

 

yea i tried futureshop.ca and for the same price range everything was 256 ram sempron or a lower celeron m I dunno, 400 of my dollar was from the alberta province prosperity cheque (meaning everyone in the province whos been living here since september gets 400 dollars) but as im a minor my cheque was combined with my moms, and her and my dad talked about putting it into a RSP or something basically i dont get it till im 18 which sucks so i know have about 400 dollars, and i dont think my parents want to split out 400 dollars on my birthday ill probably get 100 from my mom and something around 200 from my dad, i dunno ill have to talk to them and maby agree to do some more chores or something, if not just save up a bit longer maby get a part time job for a bit but **** that got me sad when she told me that

 

Sorry edit wasnt working for me :S

but, since i only have 400 dollars im thinking of maby getting a toshiba tecra te2000 its a pentium 3 1ghz,512 pc133ram 14 inch screen dvd 20gb hardrive and only 400 dollars canadian, its refurbished but seems like a fair deal. although ill probably hold out for a better new laptop

or a refurbished gateway celeron m laptop which has 15 inch screen only 256mb ram but I can manage on that until i can put another 512 in slower hardrive and Intel gma 900

i only play games like starcraft, diablo 2 and sometimes halo although i usualy play on xbox sometimes its nice to play a game when your not in the living room.

 

Starcraft should play O.K., but Diablo and Halo will need more GPU power to run, however.

 

Diablo will run dude, i play this fine on my s3 unichrome peice of crud in my desktop, i played it fine on my pentium 3 1ghz integrated desktop i played it fine on my pentium 3 800mhz laptop with ati rage 8mb, ittl play for sure i think halo will run although not the best, but my old video card a ati radeon 7000 with 32mb dedicated 4x agp ran it at a decent rate. and it looked decent so im pretty sure it will run although at low and a slower framerate, (hell even doom 3 demo ran on the 7000 like 1frame per minute)

 

lol @ 1 fps / minute
Starcraft would run on it easy, dont know about Diablo never played it...

 

Diablo 2 is just a game i start playing every now and then, its topview like starcraft graphics a bit better it would easily handle it though its pretty fun for like a week then get bored with it again

also might want to start to play World of Warcraft wondering if this card will handle it decently, I put a x700 pro 256 ddr3 vivo card in my desktop and im pretty sure i can run it, although any game takes forever to load on the celeron
just wondering if i can play it even at lower settings. most of the time i could use the desktop but at my moms the computer has integrated that cant run the halo demo on a athlon xp 2800 yea i read the forums, on the same type of card and som1 said the one with my dedicated ram could hit around 700 in 3dmark 05 which i dunno if thats bad or not since ive never ran the program :]

 

Personally, I'd stay as far away from the Celeron as possible; they get hot, they're not battery-friendly in the slightest, and generally just not all they are cut out to be.

The Compaq V2405CA is a good alternative to that, and the same price; the only "downside" I see in your case would be the 14" screen, seeing as how you're looking for more or less a desktop replacement. Personally though, I'd go for the Compaq, as it has the Sempron 3000+ (which, for all intents and purposes is more or less the same as a Celeron M of equivalence, except a bit more battery friendly with speed-stepping and far cooler in my experience), 512 MB, and I believe a slower hard drive - although really, you shouldn't notice that much of a difference if you're using the machine for simple tasks and old games.

The Toshiba you're talking about is a common choice for a lot of people with a low budget, but they end up not liking it - I've seen a few around campus and they're often in need of their adaptors ;P.

 

Well as ive said earlier I have not much need for battery life, and the celeron is basically the pentium m without speedstep and half of the l2cache disabled,

i dont think it will suck or be a letdown to me considering im using a celeron d at the momment and that my old laptop a pentium 3 800 with 45 mins MAX battery, (leaving the background on) suited me fine except on planes were i would get into the movie then batterys dead, If i need to watch dvds ill use my dads Hp with a pentium m ultra low voltage or something he easily gets around 4 hours doing all he does.
Ive checked out the compaq but, the differences are

slower hardrive 4200rpm
only 32mb dedicated on radeon express the rest using hypermemory
14 inch screen
and i am scared of the 128 or 256 kb l2 cache i cant remember, but the highest i have had is 512 which was in my pentium 3 laptop, and my athlon xp 2800 if som1 could post a benchmark of mobile processors I would be very very happy and if i had the money i would :buyIBM: :buyIBM: :buyIBM: :buyIBM: :buyIBM: :buyIBM: I friggen loved my thinkpad even though it was think the little pencil erasor is the only thing i can use, and these "touchpads" are gonna take awhile to get used to , when i use my dads it seems a workout to use the laptop

 

What's your budget? The Sempron will yield better performance than the Celeron due to its HyperTransport technology and has more power-saving options.

 

well my budgets screwed up now, since i recieved 400 dollars from the goverment and my mom decided to put half into a savings account meaning i only have 400$ now originally id have 600 and ask my parents to chip in other 200 for my birthday on march 23rd i dunno looks like i wont be getting this soon unless i make plans with parents about getting grades up which i already have done this year and not kept the promise so I think ill have to save up a bit longer or beg


* on toshiba site it says the standard memory is 512mb ddr2 so this should increase performance *
also the video card has 32mb dedicated the rest hypermemory so I think halo is just a little out of reach for now.

 

Well, you won't be able to get a notebook for $400 that's decent - I recommend waiting and saving up before buying.

 

Not 400$ lol, 400 for myself and probably 300max from parents, because im missing other 200 which was promised to me ;l thanks alot mom all my friends got it its gay oh well when im in college ill be like hey i got 200 darra :]

 

So, does that bring your budget up to $700 or $900?

 

Brings it around 700$ im thinking about the celeron after doing some benchmarks on my athlon xp 2800, finding with only antivirus and firewall running i get 2min 12 on superpi to 2million digits, this guys review of the laptop u mentioned had around 2 12 also( after he had 768 ram tho)

 

At the level you're using the computer, you will notice a very slight difference in performance from the Celeron to the Sempron, and zero difference in DDR and DDR2.

Don't forget taxes! If you're in Ontario, it's 15%! :x.

Anyway, I'd strongly recommend the Sempron over the Celeron; up to you, though. If you look around and maybe wait a month, you should see lower-end Pentium Ms (725s) go down to around 999/899 (there's a Turion ML-32 at BB for $999 right now, I think).

 

well c the thing is my province isnt poor <3 :] haha jk we payed of provincial tax already so just 7% tax and thats why every person in alberta received 400 dollars


** yea i can get a turion ml 30 with 1mb l2cache dvd burner 512 ram SIS MIRAGE GRAPHICS </3 and
80 gb hardrive for 919 I think it would be best if i got a part time job even to say only work like 12 hours a week and then by the time my birthday comes I will have enough for a better laptop. its asus though


** i was looking at a used ibm t42 with pentium m 740 512, 40 gig 5200rpm , ati radeon expressm graphics or w/e But my dad got mad after my old laptops screen stop working,

hahaha although i have nothing bad to say about used ibms since we checked order status it said not shipped yet so we asked them to ship it, but it was being shipped already and they send out a new laptop and when they asked for it back my dad said no and they let it go 2 laptops for one? sweet but 1 had a dead pixel, but i took the hardrive out of it and put it in the one i was using. because my windows had messed up and i didnt have the restore disc with me, and with all the screws and stuf left on my floor my dad came in one day and was angry and stepped on a screw hurt his foot then stomped the laptop to death, and the sad thing was i was using the one with the bad pixel.. then he threw it in the trash, i think using parts from it i would have been able to save at least one But i can only wonder now.

 

Lucky Albertans and your crazy Ralph Klein money management.. I wish I got $400 free .

But yeah, I'd advise saving up. If you plan on attending post-secondary, you'll probably be hugely benefitted by a portable laptop, and you may regret having spent whatever money you spend now on an un-mobile system .

 

well now im entering grade 10 next year so , even if i could afford a pentium m i might not like it very much in 3 years. and i dont want to bring it to highschool because i dont need it and noone else uses them.

so im thinking for college I will buy a new laptop, I know lots of you can live fine with word processing and stuf but yea actually I may be using it 3 years from now, im thinking the compaq with sempron and then later upgrading ram, hardrive and VERY LATER 3 years or so put a turion mt in so its still a decent performer , also Im pretty sure ill be getting a part time job at least this summer schooltimes to hectic right now and i just come home and dont want to move for hours.
then a new budget notebook wont be far out of my reach (saving up) I dont spend a lot of money because most thing i want to save up for will be expensive, and i think my 600 dollars budget is ok considering I dont get allowance or anything well i guess i dont really do much either but still it sucks

 

I just picked this machine up in the US for 449 at best buy. Toshiba satellite l25 s1216. Only difference i can see is 256 ram to your 512. First impressions, its unbearably slow with only 256 ram out of the box. First thing i did was order 2 512 sticks of corsair value ddr2 value ram from newegg. Doing that and dedicating 128 meg to the graphics card benched 3400 3d marks on 3d mark 2001se. Not great, but not bad either for a very budget laptop. After the ram upgrade, it loads up reasonably fast now, and the built in wireless lan works very well. As far as gaming, ive installed world of warcraft and its very playable on my wireless lan at this setup, even at 1024X768. So far ive played nfs unleashed, pharoah, jedi knight and warcraft and all have played very well. It did not run quake 4 though, but to be honest i didnt expect it too. I plan on installing neverwinter nights and warcraft III next. So far its been a decent little portable gaming machine. The mistake everyone makes when they trash these machines is they only look at what it wont play. There are thousands of great games in the bargain bin that will play on this machine. Most rpg's, rts games, sims, etc will play just fine on this thing. Only the new bleeding edge shooters will give it trouble. The radeon 200m is a decent little graphics chip. Its not as good as having dedicated graphics, but ill wager my celeron m 1.6 could probably run rings around a faster pentium m equipped with intel extreme graphics.


Bottom line I invested a little over 600 bucks US

$449 laptop
$90 1 gb ddr2 ram
$40 Wenger swiss army laptop case
$40 d-link 54g wireless router

For that I got a nice little budget gaming machine that met what MY expectations where. Dont go into this expecting to play half life 2 and quake 4 and you'll be happy. And frankly, dont feel too badly about that, because 90% of the laptops out there cant play those games either, and many of them cost substantially more than this one.

 

Wow - people are really getting a good haul out of these deals Yes - the Radeon X200M is a great IGP. Having owned a notebook with the X200M myself I am able to say that I was very impressed with its performance considering what it was.