# Customize laptop website?



## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Anyone know of a good website to customize a laptop? I've been to www.ibuypower.com and a few others but i'd like some other suggestions. I'd like the cost to be between 900 - 1200 dollars if at all possible.

The specs:

-Harddrive: 80gig 7200 rpm.
-RAM: 1 gig
-Processor: 1.8 to 2.0 intel core 2 duo.

Those are the main things I'm worried about, others would be a pretty decent video card.

Thank you all in advance!


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Bump - ...


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Personally, I'd just cruise these sites each day until the right deal comes along. There are regular deals on laptops available. I got my HP DV9207US for $800 after rebate, it meets or exceeds those specifications and adds a lot more.

Deal News

Tech Bargains

More Stuff 4 Less


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Hmm, is there a reason that the majority of harddrives for laptops are 5400rpm rather then the 7200? I'd prefer the 7200 but even customizing them on most sites its hard to get? Thanks for the reply by the way John, I appreciate it! I will be sure to check those sites out.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you really have the hots for a 7200 RPM drive, just replace the drive in the laptop. If you buy one of the ones I got, it's big but it has space for two hard disks.


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

There really aren't a lot of 7200 rpm disks out there yet as this only really started last year. John is right as you can upgrade yourself for much less money than a maker will charge you anyway and the 7200 drives are not cheap. I just put an 80 gb in my Compaq 17" X6000 and struggled to beat $80 with shipping.


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## erick295 (Mar 27, 2005)

Every manufacturer lets you customize laptops. I would personally stick with Dell. Buying an off-brand laptop is a mistake.

7200rpm drives don't cost that much more, but they do use a lot more power.


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## snooker (Sep 22, 2002)

Hi ... This site might help , Or at least it will for tech help towards it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/

....


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Let me plug HP here and Compaq. if the only laptop made were Dell I would do without. 
Every one I have ever had was the slowest pc I have ever used, and wiping and loading at the start, only gave fleeting recovery.


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## erick295 (Mar 27, 2005)

Well, speed has nothing to do with the brand, so that must have been something else.

When I say they are good, I'm going by more than this, but just for one example, I have a Latitude that's about 7 or 8 years old. It was used by a business for 40-60 hours a week for the first 5 years of its life and it's been banged around by me ever since. All parts are original, not one hardware problem (except I had to replace the battery, which are a dime a dozen since so many people have these things).

HP and Compaq are also good.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

hey all, thanks a lot for the responses. I agree with Rich, I'm not much of a dell fan either. HP is nice on the otherhand, solid buy. I just got back from best buy with horrible news...windows vista is taking over the world!! All of their laptops are designed to run vista, and apparently (according to the bestbuy guy) they wont run any other operating system without a rebuild. This is an issue for I do not want, and probably wont want anytime soon, windows vista.

The only place I have seen an option for windows XP is on online stores for custom building. It atleast gives you that option. This is why I planned on buying from an online store, but I'm struggling over here as to where I should buy from!


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Go to the Business Division of HP. The models are basically the same with some different numbers and here you have a choice of XP:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF02a/321957-321957-64295.html
The first group all come with XP.


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

> Well, speed has nothing to do with the brand, so that must have been something else.


Ok specifically, well no. However how that brand sets up it's pc's and how much junk "proprietary" software they install certainly does make a difference as does the hardware they employ. Take off all the software by reformatting out of the box as I always did for clients, doesn't really handle it. I honestly cannot explain it as Dell used to use only Intel boards, Crucial ram and I had 5400 rpm hard drives but I just found the systems incredibly sluggish.
One day I had a client with an HP Notebook with 512 ram and a 1.5 P4 4200rpm hard drive and I could not believe how quick it was compared to my P4 2.66 with a gig of ram and a 5400 rpm hard drive...that was it and I have never turned back.
I have 2 clients with new Dell notebooks and to me they are the slowest notebooks I have ever used.


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## erick295 (Mar 27, 2005)

r3drock3t88 said:


> All of their laptops are designed to run vista, and apparently (according to the bestbuy guy) they wont run any other operating system without a rebuild. This is an issue for I do not want, and probably wont want anytime soon, windows vista.


Those laptops are not _designed_ to run Vista; they are _capable_ of running it. They are also able to run any Windows operating system (including XP), any distribution of Linux that has driver support for its hardware, and any other OS designed to run on a PC. You could even run MacOS on it if you used an emulator. A laptop is a laptop is a laptop, regardless of where you buy it from.

I would not go so far as to say that the Best Buy sales associate was _lying_ to you, but remember that those people are paid mediocre wages to stock shelves and make things go out the door. They are not experts in any sense of the word, and I would never rely on any of them for information. They don't want to say "I don't know" and lose a chance for a sale, so they just make up answers on the spot.



Rich-M said:


> One day I had a client with an HP Notebook with 512 ram and a 1.5 P4 4200rpm hard drive and I could not believe how quick it was compared to my P4 2.66 with a gig of ram and a 5400 rpm hard drive...that was it and I have never turned back.
> I have 2 clients with new Dell notebooks and to me they are the slowest notebooks I have ever used.


Well, again, brand has nothing to do with speed. If what you are saying is true, then you are seeing something else, and by coincidence it is happening on the Dells you have used. Proprietary software is a problem, yes, but HP and Compaq have just as much of it as Dell.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Hmm... I never thought buying a laptop would be such a difficult thing! Haha, I appreciate all the responses again. I also see where you're coming from erick. I'm not a fan of best buy but Comp USA was closed :-/ lol. Not like it changes, they still want the sales. Nevertheless, I have been looking around on newegg.com and ibuypower.com for a laptop in the range of 1000-1200$. Could anyone buy chance take a look on those websites and try and help me out a little bit by narrowing down my options? I would appreciate it so much, I'm so anxious to get a laptop but don't want to buy the wrong one.

I'd like 1.8 - 2.0 ghz core 2 duo, 80 - 120 gig harddrive (apparently 7200 will suck battery life quicker? so 5400 will due I suppose) ... 1 - 2 gigs of ram (preferably 1 stick, not 2x 512's.) and I guess thats really the major ones I'm worried about. I'd enjoy a decent graphics card as well if at all possible 

Thank you again!!!!


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Unless you can specify at the time of ordering how you want the memory configured (1 stick versus 2), which I don't see that you can at Newegg.com, it will ship with the cheapest configuration which is two chips.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Actually, for maximum performance, you want your memory in two modules to take advantage of the dual channel memory access. 

I actually had to take out the two 512mb DDR2 modules and replace them with two 1gig modules to get my 2gigs.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

JohnWill said:


> Actually, for maximum performance, you want your memory in two modules to take advantage of the dual channel memory access.
> 
> I actually had to take out the two 512mb DDR2 modules and replace them with two 1gig modules to get my 2gigs.


Yeah, that is why I would have prefered just the 1 gig at the time being so I could later on buy another gig.

So, did anyone take a looky for a laptop? !! haha.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Haha nothing? I was taking a look at these laptops...

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=231

and

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=202

For the first one I'm not so sure about the video card... could anyone take a look at it? I'd like a decent video card so I can play some games or do whatever I need to without having to worry. Is that one going to do the job?

And any comparisons would be nice too between to two laptops, Thank you in advance!


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

They don't even mention the video, which indicates to me that it's pretty lame.  The nVidia 7600 is what my HP laptop has, it's a decent video card, but by no means top-of-the-line. It does have it's own memory, which is a big plus.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

I think I'd be happy with a decent video card. As long as it gets the job done, I don't need top of the line graphics. So you're leaning more towards the laptop with the nvideo 7600 rather then the other one? correct?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I wouldn't touch the other one with a 10 foot pole. Like I said, if they don't think enough of the graphics adapter to even mention it, how good can it be?


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Hmm, very good point you have there! I think I'm going to go with this one

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=202#header

the choices go back to default but thats what I plan on getting! I'll probably order it tonight, it looks like a good buy! Lets hope 

Thank you all very much for your help! I really appreciate it


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