Buying Advice · DIGIT-ARC

T

General Questions

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD)
Upto INR 25,000

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
a. Netbook; 10” screen or less
b. Ultraportable; 11" - 12” screen
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen
C and D
3) Which country will you buying this notebook? Also state that if Amazon.com or Newgg.com ships to your country (Only if you know this info).
India

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: N/A
b. Dislike: N/A

5) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
1. Video Conferencing
2. Video Editing
3. Adobe Photoshop/Dreamweaver (Website Development)

6) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
Yes, It should be portable.
7) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
Rarely.

8) How many hours of battery life do you need?
3-4 Hours.
9) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

I'll see the notebooks and will buy offline.

10) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Dual Boot :- Windows 7 + Fedora
Screen Specifics

11) What screen resolution(s) would you prefer?
1280 x 800 , 1280 x 1024

Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to

INR 25000 is too less for your requirements. I'd recommend that you revise your budget.
Photoshop/Dreamweaver requires powerful processor an a good amount of RAM.

T

I can stretch it upto 40,000.

^^ Great. Then you need to wait a little for the new Sandy-bridge laptops to come to market. 40k is a midrange budget & in this budget, it does not makes sense to buy the current offerings when newer & better products are coming within a month.

If you are in a hurry, then let me know.

^^ i3 proccy with 4GB RAM.. wont dat be enough for his requirement?

Yes but is there any such config under 25k ?

And if he's going to spend something near 40k, then it is not justified to get a hardware which will get outdated within a month!

yes there is a model bt it cost 28k.. i think OP can increase his budget to this..

i recently purchased ASUS i3 proccy,14" screen, 4gb ram laptop..

^^ Acer Aspire 5742 - Intel Core i3-370M , 2GB RAM. I won't recommend it.

T

Inspiron 15R Laptop Details | Dell India
Inspiron 15R Laptop
What about this one? Has a modest card (I am not gaming anyways) ,decent RAM and i3, i5 processor. What else does one need?
Yes,I am in a hurry!

^^ 2GB RAM is not enough for running Win7 + Photoshop properly. Plus the Pentium P600 processor is outdated.

Selecting a Dell with 4GB RAM automatically raises your budget to about 36k.

Also a few Sandy-bridge desktops are already available on the Dell site. I'm hoping for newer laptops announcement in 1-2 days. So I'm asking you to wait.

pauldmps said:
^^ Acer Aspire 5742 - Intel Core i3-370M , 2GB RAM. I won't recommend it.

i was talking abt asus 4gb ram , i3 proccy for him

^^ Model no. & price please.

auss a42f - 28k w/o laptop bag
from nehru place, delhi

^^ That's a good choice in limited budget.

yeah... OP can go with this model if thats urgent and he dont want to increase budget

^^ I agree. i3 with 4GB RAM should suffice OP's requirement.

T

So should I still wait ? What will be the expected cost of those laptops with sandy bridge?

If you are planning to spend 25k, then there is no need to wait.

If you are willing to spend 40k, then you should definitely wait.

T

I think Inspiron 15R Severs my purpose quite well.
If I buy a 9-cell battery, would that make a significant difference in the weight/bulkiness ?

Regarding the Graphics,
Of course I would not choose the INTEL HD Graphics, Dell is offering two choices :
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 - 512MB (India)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 550v - 1GB (India)
Which one would be better? Which one would make the least sound?

Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop | Dell India The Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop
looks quite promising as well. I've never used AMD Processors though. How is ATI HD 4225 as compared to Inspiron 15R's offerings?

My advice would be to wait.

If you want to spend 20k on an ultraportable, then wait for AMD E-350 (fusion) based HP dm1z which really bridges the gap between a netbook and a notebook with great battery performance (7+ hours). This thing is still not fit for Dreamweaver and Photoshop though.

But then around 25k+ you can get a decent performing laptop which can give you 3-4 hours of battery life. Don't wait in this case.

If you want to spend 40k, then again wait for Sandy Bridge based laptops.

pauldmps said:
Plus the Pentium P600 processor is outdated.

A small clarification. yup, Pentium P600 is 'outdated' but only if you consider the mobile versions of first gen Core i3, i5 outdated too. Pentium P600 is a 32nm 'Arrandale' - one step below first gen Core i3. (25-30k laptops)

^^ That is 2 generation below the current line-up. Isn't that outdated ?

The Conqueror said:
I think Inspiron 15R Severs my purpose quite well.
If I buy a 9-cell battery, would that make a significant difference in the weight/bulkiness ?

Regarding the Graphics,
Of course I would not choose the INTEL HD Graphics, Dell is offering two choices :
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 - 512MB (India)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 550v - 1GB (India)
Which one would be better? Which one would make the least sound?

Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop | Dell India The Dell Inspiron M101z Laptop
looks quite promising as well. I've never used AMD Processors though. How is ATI HD 4225 as compared to Inspiron 15R's offerings?

If you're not into gaming, either would do. The HD550v would be better.

But you can even get a better GPU. See this: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Configure it with 1GB HD5650 which is definitely a much better card than the two above.

Current AMD processors are less powerful than the Intel ones.
And HD4225 is an onboard GPU so don't expect it to be much better than the Intel HD one.

T

pauldmps said:
^^ That is 2 generation below the current line-up. Isn't that outdated ?

If you're not into gaming, either would do. The HD550v would be better.

But you can even get a better GPU. See this: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Configure it with 1GB HD5650 which is definitely a much better card than the two above.

Current AMD processors are less powerful than the Intel ones.
And HD4225 is an onboard GPU so don't expect it to be much better than the Intel HD one.

The Inspiron 14R mentioned in your link seems to be more better than 15R I had customized.
After configuring it the total cost comes to be Rs.35,497.31 . So is it good or should I wait for sandybridge? If the entry level sandy bridge laptops cost 40K I doubt it would have a good discrete graphics as compared to this one[Inspiron14R].

^^ Absolutely true. Dell is going to bring some crappy GPUs with their Inspiron series keeping the good ones for the costly XPS series. You are better with the model I suggested. But that model is 14" rather than 15.6" but will not make much difference.
And you can play all recent games in med-high settings with this GPU.

pauldmps said:
^^ That is 2 generation below the current line-up. Isn't that outdated ?

No, only one generation below the current line up.

Pentium Pxxx, Core i3-xxxM and Core i5-xxxM all are 32nm Arrandale. I said one step below first gen Core-i3, not one generation below. Just like first gen Core-i3 is one step below first gen Core-i5.

^^ Okay, I got that. I never knew that there is even a low performing CPU under the i3 Arrandale.

T

Going by the name, I thought that 15R would be the better (according to the naming conventions) but it's all different. Is the naming convention according to screen size?
I'm not much into gaming. Should I get a faster processor and RAM? Should I get that Inspiron 15R with 550v and 4GB RAM?
What resolution can I expect with the 14Inch model?

Dell XPS 15 Laptop Details | Dell India
Is this "NEW XPS 15" the sandy bridge laptop you are talking about?

Yes it is according to the screen size for Inspiron & XPS series.

HD550v is an absolute no no. A very outdated GPU (does not support DX11) & a very poor performance. Stick to the HD 5650.

The link you provided is of the Sandy-bridge XPS.

T

Rs.47,900 for the New Dell XPS 15 Laptop. Should I get it? I'm only worried about the noise and heat issues. Considering the heavy configuration would it make a lot of noise?

^^ XPS is a great laptop. You should not worry about heat & noise issues.

And if you are a student, you are entitled for a flat 5% discount. Even better if you know any Dell employee who can give you 8% discount on the price.

T

*www.hp.com/sbso/busproducts_notebooks.html
or *www.flipkart.com/computers/laptops/hp/pavilion-dv6-series-3107ax-comcv7npfnmngpcf ?

Which would be better VFM?

The Conqueror said:
HP laptop, netbook, notebook & tablet PCs | Official HP® Business Site

Which exact model ?

HP Pavilion DV6 Series dv6-3107AX Laptop Price India: Buy HP Pavilion DV6 Series Notebook India: Flipkart.com ?

Good GPU but bad processor. Unless AMD releases Bulldozer, Intel wins here hands-down.

T

pauldmps said:
Which exact model ?

Any. Which one of them is good?
I think Probook and Elitebook look worthy enough but have a bad GPU but that won't really matter as I'm not into gaming! However a Good GPU might help in my web development and a Better performance at video editing or Photoshop/Dreamweaver.
My friend just bought Inspiron14R and he says he can run Crysis 2 like a "butter" on max settings.