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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Look to upgrade my laptop - Page: 1

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Hi All im after upgrading my laptop @ the minute i have a

Compaq Presario C310EA.

Intel Core Solo Processor (1.66.Ghz)
1024MB DDR2 SDRAM (2 Dimm)
Up To 128MB Video Memory (shared)
2xUSB
S-Video out put.
i Have a notebook 250GB HD aswell
Window XP.
I have been DJing with it for about 2 years now.. no problems with it playing music mixes & stuff with VDJ.
i a have also played videos on it but after about 10 minutes or so it starts going slow & start taking a long time to load.. 1 or 2 time it as crashed because of the videos...

now the time as come to play video in a club i work.. so im after a new laptop.. im not after pay much because the laptop i have is ok for most of my gigs.. I live in England so i look for some laptop deals in the UK.. I have found this one @ PC World

Acer Aspire 5520 Laptop

* AMD Turion 64x2 TL60 Processor
* (2.0 GHz, 1 MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 3 GB Memory
* 160 GB Hard Drive
* DVD SuperMulti Double Layer Drive
* 15.4'' WXGA Screen Size/Type
* NVIDIA GeForce 7000M Graphics Card
* Up to 896 MB Shared Graphics Memory

will this be ok or do i need a more powerfull laptop... as anybody got any advise on a good laptop... thanx all help will be welcome :) ... lol
 
geposted Tue 24 Jun 08 @ 9:21 am
can anybody help me out there please :)
 
Hi
That Acer should work ok for video under Vista, but Nvidia is known for very bad drivers for laptop video cards, so you might consider some Intel based Cpu and ATI video card.
 
thank M8 ... can i just upgrade my Compaq laptop to 3MB ram or will i need a better cpu aswell
 
It might work ok, you can try. For video dual core is recommended.
 
Sometimes we have to do our own experiments. Unless someone has that exact HP, with the upgrade you are asking about, we can't give you definitive yes or no. If you can afford that upgrade, and can see some benefit, go for it. If not, try an Acer with an ATI card, with the most memory that you can afford.
 
ok guys thanx for the info if there is anybody else who can help out...
like a said before the compaq laptop plays videos ok for about 10min...then goes very slow... (crashed X2) after about 2 hours of video..
If i upgrade my compaq laptop with 3-4MB Ram will this help the speed of VDJ or do you think its the processor is to small?? & need to be bigger....
 
Been look about today.. i have found this laptop from Dell & tescos ... anybody think this one will work better...

Dell Inspiron 1525 T5550

Graphics Dedicate - None
Graphics Shared - Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Hard Drive Size - 250GB
Hard Drive Type - 5400RPM SATA
Memory Type - 3GB
Number of USB Ports - 4x USB 2.0
Operating System - Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Optical Drive - DVD Rewriter
Output - HDMI, VGA video output & S-Video, Stereo in, headphone/speaker out & Dual digital mics,

Please help im stuck on which to buy..... :(
 
Help Me Please ... :)
 
i dont have much time using the video part of the software to make a honest jugement about the ram upgrade (i use an HP pavilion laptop with an amd64 processor, 1.5 gigs of ram and it works awesome for the music) BUT, in my opinion there isnt anything from dell worth a crap (they write their own bios and is not very "tweaker" friendly so you are stuck with their stuff and not much else, good for the averege e-mail and web surfer, no doubt)

i am not big on vista either, although it seems the general concesus in the forum is that the video works much better with vista..
i also tend to prefer AMD over INTEL (again personal experience talking, the amd runs much cooler thus extending the health and life of the computer)

i guess the key is to know what your intentions for use of the equipment is.. but front side bus on processors is usualy over looked and can be a big mistake just cause its a dual core upteen ghz what ever doesnt necessaraly make it good.. RAM is another one of those sneaky sales points.. there is good ram and not so good ram (bandwidth and write cycles make a difference) check to see if video card has its own memory or if its shared, another over looked performance affecting descission.. (this is where dell makes their stuff look like its alot of computer for the money and why mac's seem so much better using the same figures)

HP is very "honest" in their specs and is my computer of choice.. compaq is part of hp i belive, its their "entry level" stuff
alienware supposedly builds their laptops with the gamer and multimedia person in mind.. (to much money in my oppinion but suposed to be good stuff)
there is always the mac books (so not worth the money in my mind but they are super computers according to most)

i hope i didnt add more to your already hard descission to have to make, but those few tips i think will be helpfull if not make the difference in the end...

good luck and let me know if it helped T
 
I have an acer extensa 5620z 1.8 mhz intel cpu windows vista home intel video card 2 gig ddr memory and i run vdj 5.1 with no issues
i have a maya 44 sound card and i can run all video operations with no slowdown...hope this helps...

 
thanx ... so don't go for the dell... :(
i think it looks like it will be the acer then... anybody else with any help...
 
Have you considered the Toshiba range of laptop's, fcuking good IMO.

I have a Satellite Pro and it's never let me down, had it now for over a year, do check them out mate.


 
I am too lookin so let me know what u get when u do and how it works, I am retiring my shuttle after 1 year of service lol
well the ole lady stole my vid card soooo
 
stuck on what one to get now :( .... i have found this laptop now @ PCworld

Toshiba A300D-13x Laptop.
* AMD Turion 64X2 Processor TL60
* 2.0 GHz, 1600 MHz, (1 MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 2 GB Memory
* 200 GB Hard Drive
* Graphics Card Type Integrated
* Graphics Memory 319MB UBA MB

Anybody In The UK help out & tell me which laptop works for them & will go my buget. it upto £500 ...
 
I'm a UK guy, check this Advent looks quite tasty, might have a closer look myself and it's intel, not to fond on AMD, and with a dedicated graghics card for £500 bang on.

 
Had a look on Play.com and found this Acer. Looks good for £500. And again it has a dedicated graphics card.
 
I too have been int he market for a laptop but the video cards for laptops are very confusing. I am definitly going with either an Intel Core 2 Dou or Pentium Dual core, 2 gig ram (minimum), 200gig hard drive with 1tb external but I need to know what is the minimum processor speed recommended and what would be the minimum intel inegrated graphics or ati graphics for full smooth functionality with 5.1

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (shared) with up to 358MB Total Available Graphics Memory 3072MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) seems to be a popular advertised configuration...is this good enough to effectively be able to do video and run a couple effects plug-ins too?
 
"I too have been int he market for a laptop but the video cards for laptops are very confusing. I am definitly going with either an Intel Core 2 Dou or Pentium Dual core, 2 gig ram (minimum), 200gig hard drive with 1tb external but I need to know what is the minimum processor speed recommended and what would be the minimum intel inegrated graphics or ati graphics for full smooth functionality with 5.1

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (shared) with up to 358MB Total Available Graphics Memory 3072MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) seems to be a popular advertised configuration...is this good enough to effectively be able to do video and run a couple effects plug-ins too?"

The same here because i think im going for this one now

Acer Aspire 5920 Laptop - £449

* Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5550
* (1.83 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 2 MB Cache)
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 3 GB Memory
* 250 GB Hard Drive
* DVD Super Multi Double Layer Drive
* 15.4'' WXGA CrystalBrite Display
* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (Up to 358mb Shared MB)
* Crystal Eye Webcam
* Gloss Black with White Keyboard
 
Just come across this about the Acer 5920 graphics..

NVIDIA® GeForce 8600M GT with up to 1280 MB of TurboCache™ technology (up to 512MB of dedicated GDDR2 VRAM, up to 768 MB of shared system memory*), * depending on size of system memory
supporting NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology (WMV HD, High Definition MPEG-2 Hardware Acceleration),
Microsoft® DirectX® 9 and DirectX® 10, OpenEXR High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology and PCI Express®br>

MPEG-2/DVD hardware-assisted capability (full decode)

WMV9 (VC-1) and H.264 (AVC) support (full decode)

HDMI™ (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support

S-video / TV-out (NTSC/PAL) support

DualView™ support
 
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