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General discussion

Laptop for Photos and Music

by dglassman Jun 20, 2009 11:00AM PDT

I'm really do not have much knowledge when it comes to laptops. I'm looking to purchase one and mainly use it for internet, music, movies and photos with your occassional documents. Ultimately I'd like to keep my budget to $1000 or under. What would you recommend? There are so many manufacturers and I do not understand the lingo. Thank you so much for any recommendations or advice!

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6 Posts
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Alrighty then
by deniceels Jun 20, 2009 1:17PM PDT

Here we go:
1) STEER CLEAR from netbooks, as given your tasks, it will cause the netbook to be sluggish, thus, laptop only

2) Processor: once you have steer away from netbooks, most will serve your needs

3) Memory/RAM: WinXP - 1GB or 2GB will run ably and they have a max limit of recognising of 3.5gb
Win Vista - 3GB/4GB will be good

Although Win7 is capable of running with 1GB of it, if you have gotten 4GB, it's good

4) Harddisk/Storage - Nothing less than 160GB storage, make sure its of SATA type and NOT PATA (as it's almost phrased out)

5) Optical drive / ODD - DVD+-RW at least. Slot or tray depends on liking or if you have small-sized disc lying around

6) Screen size - Given your budget, you'll find 14" more likely to fit in, but any have a weight trade-off

7) Graphics - As a non-gamer of games like COD4, you can get by with shared memory, else, a dedicated card.

As one of the moderators will respond as well with the link which can help recommend laptop/s, here it is:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/windows-laptop-scout.aspx

Hope it helps.
Cheers

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No worries!
by CodyG [WINDOWS-TEAM] Jun 22, 2009 9:13AM PDT

These days, laptop shopping can sometimes feel way more complicated than it should. At least you've got a pretty decent idea about what you're looking for in a system, which is a great start.

A couple more questions, though: are you looking for a really portable machine (one that you'll be carrying around/travelling with all the time), or will it be more of a "move from one room of the house to another" machine? Are you going to want a pretty big screen on it?

Cheers,

Cody
Windows Outreach Team

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RE: No Worries
by dglassman Jun 22, 2009 9:25AM PDT

I'm just looking for a machine to move from one room to the other mostly. Every once in a while travelig, but not often. Mid to large size screen works for me.

I'd like to start doing more with my photos then just storing them. And the rest is self explanatory.

Thank you for your assistance!

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Here's a couple of potential ones:
by CodyG [WINDOWS-TEAM] Jun 23, 2009 3:46AM PDT

You've really got a lot of options on this, but if you're going to be doing a bit of photo editing, I'd certainly recommend that you max out the available RAM. If you aren't going to be doing a lot of professional stuff, 4GB should suit you pretty well.

I searched for some models (using http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-laptop-scout/) and there are several that I think might work for you. None of the ones I saw in your price range were super heavy
(around 5 - 6 lbs.) so you can travel with any of them without too much of a problem.

One was a Dell Studio 15, which has a 15" screen, 4GB of RAM, and is maximized for graphics. It's a pretty decent multimedia machine for the price. The pricing right now looks to be about $929.00. Another potential one might be the Sony Vaio NS290J, which is the same price, and has similar features.

Either one of these would be great for what you're looking for. Let me know if you have any questions about them!

Cheers,
Cody
Windows Outreach Team

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1000.00
by Renegade Knight Jun 24, 2009 4:37AM PDT

Apple MacBook. Nice feature set for the money. You can use bootcamp and put Windows on it. Some missing keys (if you are a keyboard user) may drive you nuts. Then again some people never used the home/end/pg up/pg down and backspace keys.

Lenovo Thinkpad T400 and T500 should come in right around there for their entry level models. You can upgrade RAM and HD and still stay below your budget.

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A powerfull machine with a great
by orlbuckeye Jun 24, 2009 7:02AM PDT
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