Help me choose a notebook for R6000

H

Hosehead

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We've had Dell for ever, but now the wife's Dell is really antiquated as in 5 years antiquated so it's time for another as an Xmas gift, only this time I'm restricted to R6000-00 so I'd consider refurbished and what have you, rather than buying an entry level piece of rubbish with the obligatory Vista basic. I'd prefer XP with SP2
Suggestions please.
 
Got a LG F1 Express Dual that i got new for 6-7k thats served me well,maybe an LG's worth some investigation.
 
I was about to say The Lenovo from Matrix, Its R5000 + R500 for extra ram and really does not feel entry level to me, especially after the ram...
 
HP530 have been replaced by HP550s including some extra RAM these notebooks offer a good deal. Have you tried the ASUS line?
 
slayerza said:
HP530 have been replaced by HP550s including some extra RAM these notebooks offer a good deal. Have you tried the ASUS line?
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I'd hardly call it a replacement. The HP550 is more of a media machine. And it looks worse. Performance is also worse (until they bring out the 1.6GHz C2D here). Build quality is also worse. And worst of all is price :sick:

Can get HP530 with Core 2 Duo T5200 @ 1.6GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB HDD for R6k. Same can't be said for HP550
 
sn3rd said:
I'd hardly call it a replacement. The HP550 is more of a media machine. And it looks worse. Performance is also worse (until they bring out the 1.6GHz C2D here). Build quality is also worse. And worst of all is price :sick:

Can get HP530 with Core 2 Duo T5200 @ 1.6GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB HDD for R6k. Same can't be said for HP550
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Its acually slightly faster, the 1.4 Ghz one is 800FSB vs the old 1.6Ghz at 533FSB. Also, they dumped the awful touchpad that comes on the 530 for a standard HP one. The 550 has the new Intel Onboard graphics (950 vs X3100) that is also an improvement. The PCMCIA slot has also been replaced with the newer Expresscard slot. It now has Bluetooth and a Card reader too.

All that for the same price as the old 530.
 
Sapphiron said:
Its acually slightly faster, the 1.4 Ghz one is 800FSB vs the old 1.6Ghz at 533FSB. Also, they dumped the awful touchpad that comes on the 530 for a standard HP one. The 550 has the new Intel Onboard graphics (950 vs X3100) that is also an improvement. The PCMCIA slot has also been replaced with the newer Expresscard slot. It now has Bluetooth and a Card reader too.

All that for the same price as the old 530.
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Wrong again. Faster FSB doesn't make it faster in all applications. And clock for clock, the T5200 will still beat the T5270. And that's with a lower TDP too.

Looks like HP 530 isn't even available at most places anymore (it dropped off distributor price lists some time ago), but you're wrong about the price too. HP 550 costs about R6800-00 - R7000-00

I didn't mind the touchpad on the HP 530 I had. What bothered me was the buttons: They click very loudly.

But the build quality on the 530 is much better, as are the looks (which are obviously subjective anyway)
 
sn3rd said:
Wrong again. Faster FSB doesn't make it faster in all applications. And clock for clock, the T5200 will still beat the T5270. And that's with a lower TDP too.

Looks like HP 530 isn't even available at most places anymore (it dropped off distributor price lists some time ago), but you're wrong about the price too. HP 550 costs about R6800-00 - R7000-00

I didn't mind the touchpad on the HP 530 I had. What bothered me was the buttons: They click very loudly.

But the build quality on the 530 is much better, as are the looks (which are obviously subjective anyway)
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Dealer price on a HP550 just last week was exactly the same as the 530. 4999 ex VAT for the Dual core models (R6000-R6250) . The HP 550 you were looking at was the one that comes with Vista Business preloaded and not the Home Basic one.

TDP between them is negligible 35W vs 34W.

The performance difference between the 2 CPU's is not enough to recommend either one over the other, but the 550 uses the newer X3100 Intel integrated Graphics rather than the older 950 used by the 530.

I use the 530 as my notebook and the touchpad is my only complaint on a otherwise solid notebook. It irritates the hell out of me, its sticks after a few months of polishing.
 
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Sapphiron said:
Dealer price on a HP550 just last week was exactly the same as the 530. 4999 ex VAT for the Dual core models (R6000-R6250) . The HP 550 you were looking at was the one that comes with Vista Business preloaded and not the Home Basic one.

TDP between them is negligible 35W vs 34W.

The performance difference between the 2 CPU's is not enough to recommend either one over the other, but the 550 uses the newer X3100 Intel integrated Graphics rather than the older 950 used by the 530.

I use the 530 as my notebook and the touchpad is my only complaint on a otherwise solid notebook. It irritates the hell out of me, its sticks after a few months of polishing.
Click to expand...

The HP 530 has disappeared off my lists for quite a while :confused: Not sure which supplier you're using for that :confused:

My 530 touchpad was never an issue for me. The loud click of the buttons was a little too much after a while, though.

I get that the HP550 has newer Intel graphics than the HP530. But I don't think this will really affect performance very much. Rather, the newer chipset in the HP550, and the T5270's 800MHz FSB might make the difference. However, I still think that the performance difference between the two notebooks (as a whole) will be negligible. And in fact, the HP 530 might even pull ahead slightly.
 
What about a Toshiba, I bought one for R6500
The L300 it has a 1.73 GHz intel CPU
2gb ddr2 ram
200 gb Hdd
Wi-Fi and all the other goodies.
All that is not so good is Windows Vista Home Premium, I like XP more
 
Not bad, don't know if its the dual core one, if so, it was a very good buy. Worth a look.
 
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