Buying New Laptop: ~30K Budget

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MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
I am looking for a laptop in the ~30K range.
Price: lower the better.

Will be used for LONG durations at a stretch so shouldn't have heating problems.

If there are any heating issues and a particular laptop cooler does the job well, please include its name and price.

Wanted an AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core laptop but they would not be available till 3/4th into 2010 but I plan to make my purchase by march. And they are expected to cost 40K. Worth the money obviously, but a cheap dual core @ 30K is also equally if not more VFM compared to a quad core @ 40K so I wouldn't feel guilty about not waiting.

I will be doing lots of compiling (plan to run Gentoo Linux 64bit) and multimedia. Also plan to do lower-mid level gaming on Windows 7.

Currently I am considering 2 laptops:

1. Acer Aspire 5536G
*www.consumermate.com/laptops/Acer-Aspire-5536_1282.html

2. Lenovo G450 2949CPQ
*shopap.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont...-category-id=559CA420B13440C18C1510E0BFE33D01

But in one of gxsaurav's threads, <link> axxo's comment <link> startled me.

He said Asus x83vm-x1 is available for 29K. Is it true ? I mean that configuration looks INSANE for the price.


Another laptop I am considering is the Dell Inspiron 14 @ 32K.

With 250GB 7200RPM FFS HDD, 2GB RAM, Radeon HD4330 and PDC T4200, on Windows 7 Home Basic, this laptop may not seem as powerful as the first two options but its still my last option since its a Dell and because the 7200RPM HDD with a weaker GPU will have lesser performance impact compared to a 5400RPM HDD with a stronger GPU while gaming.

---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 PM ----------

One last option which came up was the Zenith Director which I saw on this post: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1185119&postcount=16


Please guys, help me decide which to buy. Biggest issue for me is price since my budget is pretty low. And this *might* even go lower to 25K from 30K but hopefully I will be able to keep my current budget.
 
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ssk_the_gr8

ssk_the_gr8

Make Way the LORD is Here
Acer 5542..... is what i'd suggest.. the best for your budget

---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------

it has the new Athlon II M300, so better performance,battery life & no heating problems

---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

it has the new Athlon II M300, so better performance,battery life & no heating problems
 
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MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
ssk_the_gr8 said:
Acer 5542..... is what i'd suggest.. the best for your budget

---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------

it has the new Athlon II M300, so better performance,battery life & no heating problems

---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

it has the new Athlon II M300, so better performance,battery life & no heating problems
Click to expand...
WHOA! Athlon II CPUs already in India ?
Whats its price ?
 
ssk_the_gr8

ssk_the_gr8

Make Way the LORD is Here
yes it has a 5542G edition... but i think you will be able to manage in your budget

---------- Post added at 08:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 AM ----------

acer 5542g costs around 35k
Specifications - AMD Turion II Dual Core M500 (2.2 Ghz,1 MB L2) / ATI-Rad 512MB DedGr/AMD M880G Chipset / 3 GB DDR2 RAM / 15.6" HD-LED / DVD Writer/ 320 GB HDD / BT/ MultiCR / FPR/Gigabit LAN / WebCam/ 4 x USB Ports / Dolby Stereo Speakers/HDMI/ 6 Cell
 
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MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
Hmm... everything is OK in config except missing DDR3 RAM.

And price is 35K only for linux edition. For windows I need to shell out a couple of grands more. Which pushes it way out of my budget.

And Athlon II M300 series CPUs with 512kb X2 L2 cache are supposed to be at par with Intel T4000 series CPUs right ? I'm thinking of going for a T4000 series CPU itself it athlon II continues to be this insanely expensive.

---------- Post added at 08:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 AM ----------

Hmm... everything is OK in config except missing DDR3 RAM.

And price is 35K only for linux edition. For windows I need to shell out a couple of grands more. Which pushes it way out of my budget.

And Athlon II M300 series CPUs with 512kb X2 L2 cache are supposed to be at par with Intel T4000 series CPUs right ? I'm thinking of going for a T4000 series CPU itself it athlon II continues to be this insanely expensive.
 
ssk_the_gr8

ssk_the_gr8

Make Way the LORD is Here
ok... 1st tell me what is your max budget.. is it 32k or 33k or what ever.cause you have mentioned around 30k.....
dont look for dddr3 ram it doesnt matter... there is no performance difference at this budget
& athlon II is not expensive, 5542g is expensive due to the 15.6" screen plus gfx crad
 
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MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
ssk_the_gr8 said:
ok... 1st tell me what is your max budget.. is it 32k or 33k or what ever.cause you have mentioned around 30k.....
dont look for dddr3 ram it doesnt matter... there is no performance difference at this budget
& athlon II is not expensive, 5542g is expensive due to the 15.6" screen plus gfx crad
Click to expand...
Reason I want DDR3 is because I want a safe upgrade path later when 4GB DDR3 modules become cheaper. I don't want to face the buying-ddr1-at-end-of-life effect I faced with my current desktop.

See difference between 5542G and 5536G. Almost EVERYTHING is same except CPU.

Actually due to faster turion cpu at 2.2GHz the 5536G is more powerful. Everything else in config is same. And abroad Athlon II X2 M300 is cheaper than Turion X2 2.2GHz because of it being cheaper to manufacture.

So the reason 5542G is expensive in India is because of high demand for Athlon II M300 series CPUs.

And I don't want to be a high paying early adopter. Would rather buy similar performing Intel. Only thing I won't get on Intel will be SSE4 instruction set support which is barely needed.

As for budget its 30K but I am willing to push it at most to 33k only because I can get a GPU with the 3K extra.
 
ssk_the_gr8

ssk_the_gr8

Make Way the LORD is Here
then 5536g seems to be the right choice for u... go for it
& if ddr3 is a bigger priority the dell studio 14 is what i'd suggest
stay away from lenovo cause i have had a number of bad experiences with it
 
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MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
ssk_the_gr8 said:
then 5536g seems to be the right choice for u... go for it
& if ddr3 is a bigger priority the dell studio 14 is what i'd suggest
Click to expand...
DDR3 ain't a priority obviously.

As for 5536G, its got overheating issues. But considering my uptime, I need a cool machine if its gotta survive 4 years. I fall asleep working.

So right now it boils down to Dell Studio 14 vs Lenovo G450.

Is lenovo reliable ?
 
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MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
@red dragon:

HP-Compaq not under consideration because of the lack of dedicated GPUs on their laptops in the price range around 30k. And these days all old good compaq models are being withdrawn. Its no more as viable an option is it once was.

@ssk_the_gr8:

know anybody with any experience with lenovo ? I am almost finalising my choice but want to be sure I cant depend on lenny since its too good a config to just pass over.

And the dell comes at 33k online. Can I get discounts with retailers or bargain over phone ? Do they give student discounts ? If price comes down to 30k will be really helpful. Is EPP still on ?
 
ssk_the_gr8

ssk_the_gr8

Make Way the LORD is Here
i know 3 people with bad experiences with lenovo, bad built quality , heating issues etc.
that is why i'm against it.
u could try to bargain on the phone but you will have better luck with retailers if you can get the same config.
 
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