celeron vs pentium

[Jim Kuhn]

WOW - that is a very nice present! Can I be your adopted nephew? I sure could use a new laptop! My daughter reminds me we don't have a laptop everyday!

Thank you,

Jim Kuhn
Catfish4U
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[CT11]

It looks ok. I would defiantly add more ram though regardless of who gets it. Laptops get out of date so fast that there is no point in making sure that it will stay up-to-date. Again, a celeron will not work well running PT because of the nature of database applications. I do think the computer will still be usable but the lack of cache is a concern.

In my opinion a laptop is only as good as it is _portable_. I see people lugging around these new 40lb 20"wide 6"thick monstrosities that have 45min battery life all proud of their new laptops. A week later they leave the things at home because it is not worth it to carry. For a laptop the most important thing is to be able to take it places and use it the way it was meant to be used. I have a 600MHz P-III dell laptop. It's about 12" diagonal and less than an inch thick. It's horribly out of date but I still get a lot of use out of it because I can actually take it places. One thing I wish my old laptop has and I believe all new ones should have is built in wireless. There are so many free hot spots now days that it's silly not to have wireless (again assuming your laptop is small enough to take with you).

If I were to get a laptop to be completely practical I may even consider a cheap 12" iBook. I've never advocated Mac ownership before in my life but OS X is in fact solid, the iBooks cost <1000, have amazing battery life, and come with wireless. This of course would be a horrible choice for a multi tabling poker player but a good choice for a college student. If I were to buy a mac for any one I would also make sure they are OK with the concept of MAC ownership before I went ahead.

Sorry if my post doesn't read well but I've been pretty busy with PlayerView and some other personal stuff so I can't spend so long on the forums.

Cheers,

~CT

[cgwahl]

[ QUOTE ]
Granny,

I know you didn't ask for my advice, but:

Celerons are fine for normal usage. You'll want to add another 256MB of RAM to it (buy that over the web, it's much cheaper than in a store or from Dell). (Also double check to make sure that you can install another 256MB RAM module.)

I wouldn't want to play a graphics intensive game on that laptop, but there shouldn't be a problem for using it to write papers and surf the web. We had a Celeron in our office and it worked perfectly well. People would bag on it for being slow, but you could give someone a top of the line computer and in a month they'll be complaining how slow it is.

[/ QUOTE ]


As an addendum to this, you can also have Dell put in the minimum amount of RAM in it and then buy the RAM seperately through someone else (unless Dell will not only put in 128MB anymore). When I got my laptop I saved about $100 doing this after buying the RAM since Dell charges so much for theirs.

Something I didn't think of when buying a laptop was finding out if I can just get it without RAM. Might have saved a little bit more on it then.

This is of course assuming you can (or know someone that can) put the RAM in a laptop yourself.


Crucial has some pretty good deals. Can also normally find Kingston deals going on at Staples, Office Max or Office Depot practically every other week.

[CT11]

[ QUOTE ]

Crucial has some pretty good deals. Can also normally find Kingston deals going on at Staples, Office Max or Office Depot practically every other week.

[/ QUOTE ]

This brings up a good point that I forgot to make. BUY RAM FROM CRUCIAL. not because its cheap but because its high quality and will be guaranteed to work. If you have problems with it they are also easier to deal with.

I always buy my memory from crucial unless its for a server then I buy the exact chip (part number and all) that is printed in the manual. This is because you don't want to have to deal with any small flaws in the memory controller and for a server you need guaranteed 100% stability. Crucial memory is always high quality but not always 100% tested by the motherboard manufacturer.

[Caveman]

Granny,
I agree with the others here about upgrading the memory to 512MB. The integrated video is going to share your system memory so the extra memory will definitely help. I would go ahead and let Dell put in the extra memory, that way if you had problems later they couldn't use that as an out for why you are having a problem. (Favorite trick of tech support(not Dell specifically) is to blame anyone else they can)

Personally I do not like integrated video on laptops or desktop computers. Most companies have models with a decent graphic controllers available now days that are not much more expensive than the ones with integrated video. You might not need it for playing poker, but it will not hurt and you will know you can handle even the most graphic intensive sites. Plus if you decide to plug in an external monitor and run 2 screens at once you will be much better off with the dedicated graphics controller.

Here is a good link for anyone thinking of buying a laptop. laptop advisor The site doesn't seem to be pushing any individual brand just some good advice on shopping for a laptop.

[Izaak_Walton]

If I buy memory over the net to save $$, is this something that the average consumer can install into a laptop on their own??

If not (and I suspect not), then I'd have to take it to a shop to have it installed. Seems like this might be similar to buying your own auto parts and then giving them to your mechanic to install--he's gonna be pissed that you didn't buy them through him , and will jack up the installation price accordingly.?????

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Installing a memory chip is a relatively simple procedure (much easier than changing one's own oil).

Processor speed is not that important in playing poker online at the major sites. Running PokerTracker does require speed and memory if you have a large DB.

[Caveman]

[ QUOTE ]
This brings up a good point that I forgot to make. BUY RAM FROM CRUCIAL. not because its cheap but because its high quality and will be guaranteed to work. If you have problems with it they are also easier to deal with.


[/ QUOTE ]

I tend to agree with the fact that buying memory from Crucial is never a mistake and there service is very good.

The fact is that most computers use whats called value ram and when you buy the lower priced memory from crucial that is what you are getting. Value Ram uses chips that were not good enough for regular ram, but thats ok because it works fine for the way most people use there computer. While Crucial is definitly a good brand if you bought another brand you would not be making a huge mistake if you plug it in and it works. The biggest advantage to using Crucial is that they guarantee it to work with all system boards.

If you are going to overclock your computer forget about buying value ram it will be one of the first bottlenecks you run into. There are several good brands to choose from but the only advice I will give on this particular forum is to do some research.

[Gata Kamsky]

Go to dealsites.net, look for laptops. They compile best prices overall.

[Izaak_Walton]

I know a foolproof way to make ten million dollars a year playing internet poker, but the only advice I'm going to give on this particular forum is to do some research. There now, aren't you glad I posted this?? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]