Might be buying a Laptop

[Ultimate Predator]

I# off to University hopefully, so I want a really good one (really good specs), with Microsoft Vista Ultimate, and a wireless modem (I'm right in saying that means I can just log onto the internet if its in the area?).

Any suggestions? it has to be from the UK.

[Capman]

Is price an object?

I am liking Toshiba's at the moment, have worked on a few of them lately, they were fairly priced as well, around £500. PCWorld should have some Toshiba's in.

I positively hate Acer's, they have too much crap on them, they have 2 partitions, (which is probably fine for a lot, but there might be some people who would prefer just one), and they are set up as FAT32 rather than NTFS, (which again might not be a problem to some).

With regards to your other question, yes you will be able to access the internet using wireless if it is available in any given area.

[Ultimate Predator]

Is price an object?

Not really £500 - £650 I suppose, maybe more.

I positively hate Acer's, they have too much crap on them, they have 2 partitions, (which is probably fine for a lot, but there might be some people who would prefer just one), and they are set up as FAT32 rather than NTFS, (which again might not be a problem to some).

That doesn't sound great.

With regards to your other question, yes you will be able to access the internet using wireless if it is available in any given area.

Thanks, good news.

EDIT: Just been looking through PCWorld, they don't have any Vista Ultimate laptops.

[Eldmannen]

You probably do not need one with "really good specs" for university. Depends on what you are going to use it for. But high-end laptops tend to be power hungry, warm, short battery time, heavy, bulky, loud and noisy.

If I would buy a laptop, I would look to buy one that is cheap and has long battery time.

I even heard that Acer had an ActiveX object installed that allowed any website to run code. It was like a backdoor.

I would probably look at Dell.

[Ultimate Predator]

Looking at Dell. If you get some good ones, I think battery time etc is pretty good. I would need good specs, I would want to run everything off it.

[Tarun]

I positively hate Acer's, they have too much crap on them, they have 2 partitions, (which is probably fine for a lot, but there might be some people who would prefer just one), and they are set up as FAT32 rather than NTFS, (which again might not be a problem to some).

Acers tend to give you a recovery partition.

No idea why Acer always runs FAT32 on their drives, but I always change the primary partition to NTFS. Leave the recovery partition alone though.

Just go to Start > Run > cmd and type the following:

convert.exe /fs:ntfs

and let it do it's thing. You'll be amazed at the change in speed.

I would probably look at Dell.

I constantly saw Dell's in the shop. Seemed like two or three a day. I was surprised that it was very rare to see a Gateway computer in there.

Ultimate Predator, you may want to look over JMac's thread as well. :happybday:

[Eldmannen]

Looking at Dell. If you get some good ones, I think battery time etc is pretty good. I would need good specs, I would want to run everything off it.

The higher spec laptops usually tend to have components that drain more energy and therefor have a shorter battery time.

Also, obviously higher spec cost more. But they also tend to have other negative side effects such as generating more heat, hence being more difficult to cool which makes more noise. Being bigger components that make the machine heavy and bulky, etc.

You probably don't need a 200 gb disk because you probably don't need that kind of storage for university stuff.

You probably don't need a GeForce 7900 Go or something like that, that mostly good for games and stuff, and gaming sucks on laptop anyways.

You can probably run "everything" even on a cheap laptop, but not latest games at highest resolutions. But you can do surfing, photoshopping, and stuff like that you need for school.

[Ultimate Predator]

I'll see. I'm gonna wait till Vista is released, and Vista Ultimate is put on systems. Then I'll start judging the prices. I don't know what I'm gonna go for at the moment.

[Ultimate Predator]

I found a couple, thoughts?

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product...b=specification

http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product...b=specification

Does the ACER have a good processor?

Also, is it worth me upgrading to Vista Ultimate? Vista Home Premium is already pre-installed on the laptops, but 2 of the features on the comparison chart I really want, especially for a laptop:

Protect against hardware failure

with Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore[

Easier business networking connectivity

with Networking Center and Remote Desktop

I'm not sure sure if I need the other one though:

Better protect your data

against loss with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption

Please help me decide.

[Eldmannen]

I would go for the one with the CPU with the lowest TDP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_power_dissipation

Vista Ultimate is pretty expensive...

[Ultimate Predator]

Thanks. I know it is, but some of the stuff I think I need.

I'll see what Tarun and CapMan have to say.

[Tarun]

I would go for what you really need. Business seems to be perfect for a lot of users.

[Ultimate Predator]

A lot of the stuff I want is in Home Premium, and not in Business. I'll make up my mind at some point.

What did you think of the laptops I provided? They are wireless?

[Eldmannen]

Yes, the specification list says that both laptops have wireless networking.

Also, I am not so into laptop, but they don't seem so very expensive, and that is good. :happybday:

[Ultimate Predator]

I'll get me one of them I think. I'm now looking for the cheapest way I can upgrade it to Vista Ultimate.

[Eldmannen]

Peter Guttman does not like Windows Vista.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

EULA - benchmark censorship, virtualization, etc

Vendor lock-in

[Tarun]

Peter Guttman does not like Windows Vista.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

EULA - benchmark censorship, virtualization, etc

Vendor lock-in

He's just a negative troll.

[Eldmannen]

He's just a negative troll.

It's an interesting read, with some interesting points. But yeah some things seems a bit misinterpreted, blown out of proportion, or just outright out wrong.