Silkroad Online Forums

Hello,

Welcome one and all to the marvelous topic where you guys have the amazing opportunity to aide me in deciding Which Phone, and Which laptop to purchase for my University.

Not only will you be helping me by giving me advice, but you will also reduce the size of that dent in the wall where i have been smashing my head, and prevent the further loss of braincells!

So, it's all very simple. You only need to vote on 1 phone and 1 laptop. Hopefully giving your comments for why you voted.

Hokay, here we go:

PHONES

Sony Ericsson c902

• Price: ~$400
• Dimensions: 108 x 49 x 10.5 mm
• Weight: 107g
• Expandable Memory: Micro Memory Stick
• Camera: 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, auto focus, image stabilizer, video (QVGA@30fps), flash; secondary videocall camera
• Battery: StandBy 400h TalkTime 9h

Sony Ericsson g502

• Price: ~$150
• Dimensions: 109 x 46 x 13.5 mm
• Weight: 83.5 g
• Expandable Memory: Micro Memory Stick
• Camera: 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video
• Battery: StandBy 340h TalkTime 10h

---------------------------------------

Laptops:

Dell Studio 15 (~$1,700)

• PROCESSOR
o Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
• OPERATING SYSTEM
o Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition SP1
• HD DISPLAY
o Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
• VIDEO CARD
o 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
• MEMORY
o 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2
• HARD DRIVE
o Size: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE
o 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
• WIRELESS NETWORK CARDS
o Dell 1397 Wireless-G Card
• BLUETOOTH
o Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.0)
• INTEGRATED WEBCAM
o Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
• BATTERY OPTIONS
o 85 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
• SOUND OPTIONS
o Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ Advanced HD Software Edition
• FINGERPRINT SCANNER
o Integrated Finger Print Reader
• KEYBOARD
o Back-lit Keyboard

Dell XPS 1530 (~$2,100)

• PROCESSOR
o Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)
• OPERATING SYSTEM
o Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition SP1
• LCD AND CAMERA
o High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1440x900) & 2MP Camera
• MEMORY
o 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
• HARD DRIVE
o Speed: 250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor
• INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE
o Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
• VIDEO CARD
o 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
• WIRELESS CARDS
o Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card
• BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB
o Built-in Wireless USB capability
• BATTERY OPTIONS
o 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
• SOUND OPTIONS
o Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
• FINGERPRINT SCANNER
o Finger Print Reader XPS M1530

BenQ JoyBook X31 (~$1,300)

• Processor
o Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor LV L7500
• Operating System
o Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate
• Chipset
o Mobile Intel® PM965 Express Chipset
• Graphics
o nVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
• Screen Size
o 13.3" UltraVivid widescreen display
• Memory
o DDRII-667 4.0GB
• Hard Drive
o 250 GB (5400RPM - SATA)
• Optical Drive
o 8X DVD Super-Multi
• Communications/Networks
o Modem:Built-in 56K/V.92
o LAN:Built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet
o Wireless LAN: Built-in Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
o Blue tooth: Built-in Rev. 2.0/ EDR (optional)
• Card Reader
o 4-in-1 card reader:SD/MMC/MS/MS-Pro
• Webcam
o Built-in 0.3-megapixel webcam
• Battery
o 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery, 57.7 Whr (5200 mAh)
• Audio
o Built-in 1.5W speaker x2 Built-in Microphone x1
• Dimensions
o 320 x 229 x 25.3 (front) ~ 25.3 (rear) mm
• Weight
o 1.60Kg(without battery)
• Product Color
o Black

------------------------------
So yeah guys, thats it.

Now, if you really think that i should be looking at another laptop which is not one of the three up there, feel free to give me the name, core-specs, and a link.

Preferably it will be a 15" and im restricting myself to $2,500 max.

Thankz for all the help guys, looking forward to replies.

~Key-J

Kinda depends on your preference. Gamer? Graphic artist? Like taking photos? Etc.

Sony Ericsson g502 for the phone. The 5MP camera of the first one sounds tempting but 5MP for photos is below the standard nowadays, so might as well grab a real camera.

EDIT:

Dell Studio 15 for the notebook. Backlit keyboard helps a lot especially during slide show reports when the room is dimmed. You can get the other Dell if you're more than a casual gamer. As for the other notebook, I'm not too sure as I haven't heard of BenQ... :S

i voted first phone. both seem like good phones, i've had 2
or 3 sony ericssons myself and i absolutely loved em.

the laptops, i voted #2.

#3 was gone for me when i saw it had a screen smaller than
15.4". i'm used to a 17", 15.4 is great too, but smaller is
just too small imo. second, idk much about the vid cards, i
do remember someone telling me that amd and ati are melted
together, so it's best to take an ati if its an amd processor
in there. well idc really, they probably just about the same,
but i voted for #2 mostly cause of the 7200rpm harddisk. sure,
it's smaller than the 320gb in the other laptop, but you can
always buy an external 500gb or something and put your backup
on there. i mean, going for bigger harddisk is no use. if 250
is not enough, then 320 wont be enough either.

I voted 2nd phone and 2nd laptop.

Hey,

Just noticed. I wrote the two Phones in the poll, the opposite way that i listed them in the Thread

-_-"

@_@

dell xps :/
richboy,it makes total of 21000 in our money,and thats quite alot

What?...

We all make mistakes...

Besides, Cin was bugging me about his MSN Cam Whore Bot

Key-J wrote:Besides, Cin was bugging me about his MSN Cam Whore Bot

it has feelings u know

cin wrote:

Key-J wrote:Besides, Cin was bugging me about his MSN Cam Whore Bot

it has feelings u know

That really all depends on your actions.

i think a phone should be used to call ppl and thats it so im not voting on one cause they just seem like a waste of money to me but the second laptop seems very overpriced considering its not much better than mine but cost $600 more for 1 more gig of Ram(isn't ram cheap nowadays) and .10 more GHz on the processor. Im not a fan of dell bu tthe last one seems like crap so if these are your only laptop choices im going to go with the first one just because it seems cheaper (still over priced cause mine is basically better than that and cost $200 less) but not as over-priced.

Dell XPS 1530 looks great. Performance is good, and the Display is the secks - i've always aimed for 1440x900, but all I could afford was 1280x800.

As for the phones, the first one is a waste, IMO. If you want photos, get a photo camera, you don't need your phone for that.

Conclusively: second phone, second laptop.

I was liking the 1530.

However, like im just trying to get a good one with nice Price Ratio.

g502 Phone and the Dell Studio 15.

That would be my choice.

IPHONEIPHONEIPHONEIPHONE

cheaper phone, best laptop


your phone will invariably get damaged/lost/stolen on the many drunken nights out.
get the laptop which will become obsolete slowest, or, with the best reliability. you dont want it to break down when you are hungover, trying to get that essay done for deadline day.

Priam wrote:IPHONEIPHONEIPHONEIPHONE

3G

SM-Count wrote:

Priam wrote:IPHONEIPHONEIPHONEIPHONE

3G

I shall slap you all.

Iphone is Ugh fail

TBH, It's not worth paying $250 more fore 3 extra megapixels.

So I chose the g502, and the DellXPS without a doubt.

I voted for the cheap phone and the expensive laptop.....cause I mean really why do you need a $400 phone? Why not put that money to good use by buying the expensive laptop?

Real laptop choices please.


Key-J, save your money for laptops and buy one here. They're a lot cheaper and UW has a rebate on all mac products, i'm sure UBC has the same thing (and might extend to PCs). Nothing like getting a free itouch, ipod, or a couple hundred $ off. With all the back to school specials, you'll find a good laptop for cheap.


And something to understand about laptops. The very vast majority of the time (like in all of those choices) they list a graphics card but it isn't really there. It's built into the motherboard to save space, and as a result, it doesn't perform as well or have any memory at all. What it does have is shared memory, which means it leeches your ram to provide memory for the graphics card. An integrated 8600 will perform no where near as well as a real 8600, and the 8600 is a really bad card to start with.

In the case of #1 and #2 that isn't the deal, it has a BIT of memory built into the card (not enough to not used shared memory) but it's still not enough, and the mobile versions of cards will never be enough.

• MEMORY
o 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2

• MEMORY
o 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)

And please, for the sake of God, don't buy a dell. I've had to fix them first hand, I know they're shit - i'm not just saying that because it's the cool thing to say. And the XPS series isn't any better. I tried to talk one of my friends out of buying it but he put his "i'm going to buy a pwnage gaming computer, fck you" show, 4 months later he can't play any games on his machine - it just died. You can say "oh, we'll i'm going to buy the extended warantee then so fck you! i'm getting a dell" when for the same price you can buy a real laptop without the cost of a warantee, or take the money for that warantee and upgrade.

dom, about the nvidia cards..
isn't it so that the geforce go cards are the ones with the
shared memory (or often called turbocache, it usually says
the memory is shared when you buy the laptop), and the normal
geforce cards have their memory dedicated? i'm on a laptop
atm with a nvidia geforce 7600 card which has 256mb dedicated
video memory. the geforce go i had on my former laptop, the
geforce go 6200, had 256mb shared. it said 128 videomemory and
128 turbocache.

but i'm not sure about all this, just curious cause i thought
there was a difference between geforce and geforce go (because
the geforce go series are made for laptops specifically).

cin wrote:dom, about the nvidia cards..
isn't it so that the geforce go cards are the ones with the
shared memory (or often called turbocache, it usually says
the memory is shared when you buy the laptop), and the normal
geforce cards have their memory dedicated? i'm on a laptop
atm with a nvidia geforce 7600 card which has 256mb dedicated
video memory. the geforce go i had on my former laptop, the
geforce go 6200, had 256mb shared. it said 128 videomemory and
128 turbocache.

but i'm not sure about all this, just curious cause i thought
there was a difference between geforce and geforce go (because
the geforce go series are made for laptops specifically).

Go or M (mobile) designation means the card isn't like the real card: if you open up the laptop you won't find a card, it's built onto the motherboard (and not nearly as good). But, if it has dedicated memory, it's a step above - but for the most part, there's never enough dedicated memory and they will still use a chunk of shared memory. Like mine, I think, says something like 256 dedicated and up to 1024 shared.

This is a laptop motherboard, there's no real graphics card


This is a desktop motherboard - almost all motherboards have the same integrated technology, that's why there's a plug for the monitor in the card


This is a desktop motherboard with a seperate graphics card - you plug your monitor into the graphics card which is lower then the other plugs and horizontal.


It's only normal that they can't emulate a real graphics card onto a motherboard given it's size, but the naming scheme they use (same name as the graphics card, with M or Go at the end) is misdirecting because it's nothing like the real thing.

so then is it impossible to upgrade your laptop with a real video card.

Aight dom,

I apprectiate your comments, so which laptop do you suggest? I had other ones here with me.

Like a Satellite or a G2, god i even had a NEC.

I just really dono which laptop to buy... So which one or ones do you suggest?

Man when it comes to Laptops i am Nub, why cant it just be as straight forward as a PC

O yeah and dom could you link me to some Canadian laptop shop buyer things as you say

Key-J wrote:Aight dom,

I apprectiate your comments, so which laptop do you suggest? I had other ones here with me.

Like a Satellite or a G2, god i even had a NEC.

I just really dono which laptop to buy... So which one or ones do you suggest?

Man when it comes to Laptops i am Nub, why cant it just be as straight forward as a PC

O yeah and dom could you link me to some Canadian laptop shop buyer things as you say

Because of the way graphic cards work, you will never purchase one FOR gaming. You buy a laptop that will allow you to game, but not one that will be a real gaming machine. With that said, I suggest you look for the back to school sales from futureshop or bestbuy, and buy the best PRICE TO PERFORMANCE RATIO you can find. Computer parts don't devaluate at a steady pace, they devaluate EXPONENTIALLY, and buying a $2000 laptop is never worth it. It has only marginal performance over a $1600, which has marginal performance over a $1200 laptop.

Back in the day it was easy, you had pentium 1, 2, and 3. Now, we have a much more graded and detailed scale, something like "pentium 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4", and that's not even close to how complicated it is, it's more like "pentium 5.1a 5.1b 5.1c 5.2a 5.2b 5.2c". What that means is that even if the number is higher, more often then not it's just a very marginal improvement.

Sales change depending on stock, if I were you I would just wait until you get here and visit the campus PC store, bestbuy, and futureshop. There you can see and touch the PC too, get a feel of what you like. At worst, you can order a dell and get it delivered on campus.

Oh, and the pictures I uploaded. The last one, the graphics card that's the size of a suitcase, it's a 8600 or 8800. The laptops you looked at obviously don't hide something like that inside of them.

Hahahaha,

Aight i guess ill check out what Canada has to offer before i really make my mind up.

Im not really buying it specifically for gaming, i just want it to be good, and hopefully can handle some games. I mean im not going to be playing Crysis at Max. I hardly play any game at max. No real need IMHO.

O, and sorry about that line in your sig, didnt mean to create a frenzy.

Key-J wrote:Hahahaha,

Aight i guess ill check out what Canada has to offer before i really make my mind up.

Im not really buying it specifically for gaming, i just want it to be good, and hopefully can handle some games. I mean im not going to be playing Crysis at Max. I hardly play any game at max. No real need IMHO.

O, and sorry about that line in your sig, didnt mean to create a frenzy.

Not you. Replying to a thread is something that I decide to do. I'm not forced to reply to every tech thread made, and I don't either. What does bother me is the flood of PMs and MSN messages I get daily. And to be honest, i'm not even that great with tech support. There are a lot of people on this forum that can do a better job fixing problems. Tech support (fixing problems as opposed to giving an opinion on something like this) is usually just googling for a fix and doing what the guy with the problem is too lazy to do.

Just bought the G502.

And im happy, i didn't need the c902 expensive one, and now i have like more money to put to other uses!

Woot!!

I still haven't decided on the Laptop though, and could still use help. As i said, by suggestion one urself, of picking one of the above!