Buying a laptop for a friend.
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pomegranate
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You need to clarify the purpose(s) and requirements of the laptop - for example is the kid going to use it for games? If so you need to make sure it has a graphics accelerator (obviously). Need more info before we can responsibly make a recommendation.
Asus
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In that price range you'll probably see AMD Turion 64 (X2), Intel Pentium M, Celeron M, Core Duo, and Core Solo which are all fine. I wouldn't recommend a plain Athlon 64 or Pentium 4 chip, you want the mobile stuff. I'm not sure if they have Core 2 Duo's at that price range.
Have him get a notebook with at least 512MB or 1GB if he can. If you can check, find out how many slots the notebook has and how many sticks it is going to come with. Some of the cheaper notebooks may come with all the slots filled with smaller 256MB sticks instead of 1 512mb stick so in order to upgrade it at all you would have to actually replace the sticks.
If he wants to avoid games saying there are incompatibilities such as needing a higher version of DirectX or slow performance in even some of the of the games that are easy on graphics then stay away from VIA,SIS or Intel gfx. ATI or Nvidia is the way to go. Even their low end chips top Intel and SIS's easy.
Acer is good although basic. My brother is looking at getting one I think. HP/Compaq are good. Sony's are great (except for the exploding batteries). Toshiba used to be great, not sure if they still are. I have not used Dell laptops.
Have him get a notebook with at least 512MB or 1GB if he can. If you can check, find out how many slots the notebook has and how many sticks it is going to come with. Some of the cheaper notebooks may come with all the slots filled with smaller 256MB sticks instead of 1 512mb stick so in order to upgrade it at all you would have to actually replace the sticks.
If he wants to avoid games saying there are incompatibilities such as needing a higher version of DirectX or slow performance in even some of the of the games that are easy on graphics then stay away from VIA,SIS or Intel gfx. ATI or Nvidia is the way to go. Even their low end chips top Intel and SIS's easy.
Acer is good although basic. My brother is looking at getting one I think. HP/Compaq are good. Sony's are great (except for the exploding batteries). Toshiba used to be great, not sure if they still are. I have not used Dell laptops.
pomegranate
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Asus, the exploding-battery thing effected many laptop brands, not just Sony's machines. It's just that Sony supplied the batteries for many different manufacturers...
Asus
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Correct, I guess I should have clarified.
Fliko
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Sony is really damn expensive anyways.
I'd suggest HP/Compaq or Toshiba (I'd suggest Dell, but they rack up the prices when you build it custom)
You should be able to get a Core 2 Duo at that price range. I'll try looking for some (Thats the preferable processor because of its power management and its pretty damn fast)
EDIT: Another note, probably want something atleast Vista Capable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834147272 - I seem to like the idea of that laptop. The Video Card is fully Vista Capable (Full Aero Glass Support), so it should atleast perform some gaming (Hard to really game with Laptops on newer games with that price.)
Only thing I don't like about that one is how it is a 6-cell battery, and there is only 1. Then again, hard to find 2 9-cell batteries (1 for when your other one is out of power) on a laptop for under 700$
I'd suggest HP/Compaq or Toshiba (I'd suggest Dell, but they rack up the prices when you build it custom)
You should be able to get a Core 2 Duo at that price range. I'll try looking for some (Thats the preferable processor because of its power management and its pretty damn fast)
EDIT: Another note, probably want something atleast Vista Capable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834147272 - I seem to like the idea of that laptop. The Video Card is fully Vista Capable (Full Aero Glass Support), so it should atleast perform some gaming (Hard to really game with Laptops on newer games with that price.)
Only thing I don't like about that one is how it is a 6-cell battery, and there is only 1. Then again, hard to find 2 9-cell batteries (1 for when your other one is out of power) on a laptop for under 700$
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