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General Q's about laptops....

Pearl Jammzz - Apr 2, 2003

		Pearl Jammzz		Apr 2, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... K, I am thinking about getting a laptop soon, within a year atleast. Anyways, I just have some quations about them so if anyone could answer them, that would be great.......here they are: 1. Do they only make pre-packaged laptops? like this mobo can only fit in this case, blah blah blah.... 2. Do the screens vary from case to case? How so? 3. Are their universal cases? Or if I buy a sony case, I have to use a Sony mobo and vise-versa? 4. How many ram slots do they usually have? max? 5. What's the fastest laptop CPU they have out? or comming out soon? 6. How many HDs can they hold? 7. How many CD drives can they have? 8. How many USB ports can they have? 9. Are they easy to put together? like towers, does everything just slide into place? 10. Could I make one on my own if I knew how to put a tower together? 11. Do they use standard video/sound cards? Thanks guys, appreciate it, peace.

		Curtis		Apr 2, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... 1. Yep - the only way to get a laptop is fully built and ready to turn on. Some companies let you specify some features, but they do the configuring before the send it to you. Laptops a re a case of "no user serviceable parts" in most cases, with a few exceptions. 2. Not sure what you mean here - I think you're assuming you can buy an empty "laptop box" and put your own components in. You can't. Different companies use different quality screens (IBM and Toshiba are great), but you can't specify which one you get. 3. See above - you can't buy seperate laptop motherboards. You really need to be trying to even see what one looks like. 4. Depends - Some have none, others will have one or two free ones. Usually not more than two free slots. 5. I believe that Dell make a laptop with a 2.66Ghz P4 in it. Once again, you can't buy a new chip and upgrade a laptop. The CPU is usually soldered to the motherboard. 6. Usually one. Some models allow you to swap a second battery with a second HDD. 7. One. Unless it is external. 8. It depends. My Toshiba has 3, others have one or two and a couple of Firewire ports thrown in for good measure. 9. You don't put them together. You pull them out of the package and turn them on. That's it. 10. See above. 11. No they don't. All laptops have different cards to those used in desktops. There are cards like the Nvidia GeForce 4GO, which give good performance but nothing breathtaking. The video performance is much less than you'll get out of a desktop. Some expensive models include a graphics adaptor that'll give you a 3D Mark 2001SE score of between 6000 and 8000, which isn't too bad. You can't expect 15000 3D Marks. Sound cards are the same - don't expect hi-fidelity crystal clear performance, although they are generally a lot better than they were a few years back and are very useable.

		Pearl Jammzz		Apr 2, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... hmmmmm I like the portability A LOT but dunno if I wanna get a laptop.....seems like a waste compared to a desktop.....specially since the desktops are cheaper too......

		Gear		Apr 3, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... By a GBA or a GP32.

		Pearl Jammzz		Apr 3, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... Well I need a comp, and I already have a GBA......

		antime		Apr 3, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... There is little point in buying a laptop except for the portability, and with the pitiful battery life of modern laptops you're further restricted to places with power outlets. For work use you can plug in monitors and external keyboards and mice, but the graphics chips are generally too slow for hardcore gaming. Older games should work OK, but stick with a desktop if you're mainly interested in playing games. (If you're hellbent on building your own laptop, you may be interested in the Asus Degatto... which is a laptop chassis lacking a CPU, HDD, memory and OS. However, it's not really a good portable. Asus themselves say it "delivers ... indoor portability".)

		mtxblau		Apr 3, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... Laptops in general are what you see is what you get. There are 'laptops' which are really just machines chained to the desk, but now many people want smaller systems with the possibility of moving them to point A to point B. Further, they are meant for tasks that are more strenuous in other ways (like word processing, web surfing, etc). Gaming is becoming a priority, but not as much as on desktops. Machines that aren't mentioned very often are the business machines some companies offer. For instance, Compaq's Evo line - it's amazing the difference in quality between the Evo and Presario (it's like two different computer companies) - they never advertise it, but the features are pretty impressive. For instance, the laptop I *am* purchasing is the Compaq Evo N600c - titanium alloy case, only 4.something pounds, 14" screen, wireless ethernet built in, ATi Radeon 32MB, and a slew of other features. Dell also is making a great laptop in the Inspiron 4150... Thinkpads are also excellent machines - my current one suffered a pretty nasty fall, and it still runs perfectly (almost). Now to address some issues (no particular order): 1) For many companies the processors aren't soldiered and can be replaced if you know what you're doing. HOWEVER, this voids all warranties. Furthermore, you can't just add ANY CPU, it's generally the top speed of whatever line the processor is on... for instance, the Dell 4100 probably can handle up to 1.6Ghz (base is 1.1), if you can find that processor. 2) Same with motherboards. You could probably shoe-horn a 4150 mobo into a 4100, but it'd require some serious technical prowess. I'm debating myself whether or not to stick a 600X mobo in my 600... 3) Docking stations are awesome items. You can make your laptop a full desktop machine with PCI and with the newer ones AGP slots. It'll cost quite a bit, but if you want the best of both worlds, and have the money, it's something to consider. WIth thinkpads, you can add another four drives (!). 4) There's SXGA and SXGA+, the latter giving you much higher resolutions than 1024x768. As for which laptops to pursue? I'd say Dell, Compaq EVO, and Sony's... I've had extended experience with a number of companies (this thinkpad is my 5th laptop), and those three have performed to my demands... EDIT: I forgot to mention that some Dell laptops are designed to be upgradeable. Ie, you can buy the parts from dell and switch out video cards, processors, etc. A little costly, but a nice option nonetheless.

		MasterAkumaMatata		Apr 4, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... I have a question. How many of you place your laptop on top of your lap? I sure don't, I put it on top of my desk.

		IceDigger		Apr 4, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... If you want the fastest laptop, 3ghz go to xtremenotebooks.com They have radeon 9000's with 128MB ram on the video card, NOT SHARED RAM!!! :smash

		antime		Apr 4, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... And a battery life that's measured in minutes, I presume?

		Taelon		Apr 4, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... I wonder if BJammaz is really out for the mobility of a laptop, or just for saving space. He might consider a Shuttle mini-PC ... those come with your choice of an AthlonXP or P4 mobo (one of them was an nForce 2, the other a SiS... I forget which), and enough room for a Radeon card and a beefy harddisk/CD drive.

		IceDigger		Apr 4, 2003
			General Q's about laptops.... The battery life isnt too bad, mine lasts about 2hrs Mine is a 2.2ghz model with the radeon 7500