Hey guys!

Its high time i upgraded my pc, but being between my house and my girlfriends place so often i really want to get a laptop.
Im looking for something pretty top range.
CPU: 3gig~
Ram: 1gig
Graphics: 128 - 256meg
Screen: Something decent sized (15 - 17')

But i dont wanna pay the earth for it.
Been checking out the HP zd8000's. They seem to be pretty nice :D
There is this one on ebay
Not too bad of a price.
There are a few other ones in the US as well which are a bit cheaper.

Anyone have any opinions?
Anyone have any better options/deals?
Whats the wireless like on this model? Im a complete noob when it comes to wireless, but id be getting a new wireless switch/router for my home network also.

Edit: Sorry guys shoulda specified! I wanna play games on it, mainly WoW, and maybe some of the newer FPS's. It will basically be an easily movable desktop PC. I wanna be able to plug it into tv etc and watch movies also.

Thanks guys :)

Ermm that sucks :( Didnt quite think the whole battery life through very well.

Dont really want to spend 4k on a freakin laptop but.
I could buy 2 decent pcs for that amount and have one at home and one at my gfs.
I could always plug it in at uni in lectures or whatever. The ZD8000 seems to have 2-3 hours life...so thats enough for a lecture.

Thanks for the input :)

edit: wtf deleted?

last edited by Fireblood at 16:55:29 19/Dec/05

urrr, Matt... it really depends on what you're going to use it for... are you planning on using it for games?

Most laptops these days are Centrino based (Pentium M) they are clocked between 1.6 -> 2.3ghz and perform similarly to P4's (2.8-3.4ghz) on general office applications.

I'm not familiar with that model they're advertising on the ebay sale. The current HP zd8000 series is made up of the zd8202 and zd8203.

We sell the zd8202 at work for $2999 I believe, which is basically Aus Retail price.

Be very careful with buying laptops from the net. If its an overseas model (which that one appears to be) you may not get any warranty. On the ZD8000 series, HP offer 1yr RTB Australian warranty only. Thats when sold in Australian retail stores anyway...

Australian zd8202 Specs

the Australian price is $2999. (as sold at Harvey Norman, Clive Peters, Officeworks, etc...)

If you look on the HP website for the "ZD8120" it shows two models, ZD8120CL and ZD8120EA. Neither of which would be Australian models. You should be extremely wary of the warranty.

Australian models carry a AP suffix...

last edited by mongie at 18:32:22 19/Dec/05

Hey man. All my friends at uni have just bought from Dell. They have all been reasonable. The centrino's have a very good battery life. Plenty for uni lectures. I got a 2nd hand one with a p4m. I wasn't happy with the battery life and sold it after a few weeks. Decided that there was no way I would get a 2nd hand laptop again or anything except a centrino (or better). Wireless wise, the centrino's have it built in and works well. I had a pcmcia card in the one I had. Didn't work too well after I had it in standby mode.

last edited by Eclipsor at 19:23:54 19/Dec/05

I spent quite a few months researching laptops as i recently got one of mine own. It really does depend on what you want to use it for, i wanted something that could play games pretty well, but was also not too heavy or big.

Dells are alright, not that great though, Acers are decent, i ended up getting an Asus though. This puppy:

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Asus_Laptop_M6VA-Q023P&cat=33

I've found it to be f***ing awesome, plays Doom 3, Call of Duty 2 at high res, good quality, really well. Plus its quite light and has a great battery life.

Main things i looked into were the quality and support services, do some research into the type of motherboard, cooling systems, fan placements all that sort of stuff, you dont want a laptop that gets boiling hot on the bottom, or has the fans in a easily blockable location, etc etc.

Hey, sorry Fireblood, I have nothing useful to add, but I do have a question.

I'm looking at getting myself a laptop sometime in the near future also. I pretty much know nothing about computers except that Mac's are better than Apples. I just want to use it for internet access, word document type stuff, and uni study type stuff. Looking for a decent one, mid-price range, not too ugly looking and not too bulky.

Could someone recommend me a laptop (brand and type, plus explain a little about it)? Any and all help appreciated ~ thanks.

Edit: And decent battery life. Cheers :).

last edited by Agent 99 at 20:15:06 19/Dec/05

seeing how all i do on my laptop is code, use the net or photoshop, i went for the cheapest notebook possible.

i got a acer for £400 and upgraded the ram to 1gig. battery life does suck, just over an hour, but the again, mates sony vaio doesnt do much better.

Mac's are better than Apples.

Hmm?


last edited by evinco at 20:29:08 19/Dec/05

Haha, sorry, I just don't like Apples - I suppose I just don't really know the ins and outs of them as well as I'd like to.

LMAO

I pretty much know nothing about computers except that Mac's are better than Apples.

I giggled.


My sister just bought a lappy from dell and she got an alright deal. 1.86ghz Pentium M, 1gig ram, 256mb geforce 6800, 80gb hdd, longer life battery, and all the usual crap like WiFi and other networking stuff. All up it was $2,845 delivered to the door with a 3 year warranty.

Apple PC's and Laptop's... are so.... sloooooooowwwwww.

HP Laptop's are nice and so are the Sony's

battery life does suck, just over an hour, but the again, mates sony vaio doesnt do much better.

Theres a deal like that here at the moment Mooby, Acer 3002WLC. Sempron 2800, 256mb ram, 40gb hdd etc... Except f***ing acer put 4 cell batteries in them so they get NO battery life whatsoever.

Better option would be a Compaq v2042... They are sempron 3000's in a 14" wide case, for $100 more, but with $100 cashback. (6 cell, 2hrs battery life)

THIS IS MY NEW LAPTOP : )
Got given it at work damn I love my new job : )

Sorry CA i cant make out what you typed,any chance of larger text next time?

My sister just bought a lappy from dell and she got an alright deal. 1.86ghz Pentium M, 1gig ram, 256mb geforce 6800, 80gb hdd, longer life battery, and all the usual crap like WiFi and other networking stuff. All up it was $2,845 delivered to the door with a 3 year warranty.

Awesome, thanks Crizane :) - it's always good to have *someone* offer CONSTRUCTIVE comments. I might check it out.

last edited by Agent 99 at 17:24:30 20/Dec/05

LMAO

Ok boys and girls, so I JUST realised that I made a mistake...I *meant* PC's and MAC's. Meh.

Just got a Toshiba Tecra M4 myself

Essentially a top spec Notebook with tablet functionality (which is quite relevant to me and my line of work)

main reason i'm mentioning it is that im completly stoked with it, so much so that it has replaced my workstation (p4 3.4 with x700 and 1gb ram) as my primary pc
Runs all games i've tried faster then my workstation.

last edited by Phase at 23:04:49 20/Dec/05

last edited by Phase at 23:04:51 20/Dec/05

"I pretty much know nothing about computers except that Mac's are better than Apples. I just want to use it for internet access, word document type stuff, and uni study type stuff. Looking for a decent one, mid-price range, not too ugly looking and not too bulky."

powerbook for sure in that case :D

if ur looking at playing heaps of games, alienware if you have the money, but if your only going to play WoW, powerbook :D, mac version comes on the same CD as windows version, and plays perfectly.

or wait until late january when intel macs come out

^
Hey Simul :), thanks for the advice - actually after a PC type notebook though (don't want a Mac). Not a gamer either so don't need any special software to play WoW or whatnot. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated - planning to get one in another month or so. Cheers :).

Hey guys thanks for all the input. Ive decided to steer clear of ebay, cus of mongies advice :) Thanks dude :)

Im lookin at getting an Acer Inspire Cant Direct link so:
Aspire 1694WLMi - S Entertainment Express $2.5k
What you guys think? I can get it from a wholesaler friend for 2k~ so a fair bit cheaper.

last edited by Fireblood at 15:48:00 21/Dec/05

It looks like a good system. We sell a 1641 at work for $1999 thats similar minus the video card... which makes $500 for a x700 seem pretty expensive... but that does look like an excellent system.