New Member Intro + Advice on high powered laptop

Hi guys,

I'm Venkat from Chennai and I am new here to this forum. It's a great place to be and I am glad I found the forum through India's Audio Video Home Theatre and Hi-Fi Discussion Forum where there was a banner for this forum and I clicked on it. Not sure if I would have found this forum otherwise.

Anyway I am quite a computer freak and like high configurations. At present at home, our desktop PC configuration is as follows (purchased in Dec 2007):

Intel DG 33 BU original desktop board, 1333 MHz RAM support
Intel Core2Duo 2.33 GHz CPU
2 GB DDR-2 800 MHz RAM
Seagate SATA 500 GB hard drive
Sparkle Calibre nVidia GeForce 8600GT PCI Express graphics card with 512 MB DDR-3
Samsung SATA 20x black DVD writer
iBall Booster 5.1 speaker system
iBall 2.4 GHz Cordless Duo - cordless slimline keyboard & cordless optical mouse
Samsung 19 inch widescreen LCD - model 932NW - black
Microsoft LifeCam VX 1000 webcam
iBall 600 VA UPS
D-Link DSL-502T ADSL 2+ router (for Airtel broadband)
Netgear WGR 614v7 Wireless router
Airtel 512 Kbps unlimited ADSL connection

I had brought the D-Link router back with me when I came back from Melbourne, Australia in 2006 after completing my MBA there. Most of my schooling was done in Singapore, as I grew up there from 1980 to 1992 since my dad was working there in the National University of Singapore. Then, schooling and college continued in Chennai till 1999, worked for 3 years in technical support for HP/Compaq from 2000-2003, got married in June 2003 and left for my MBA in July 2003. My wife and I got back to Chennai in Sep 2006. From Feb 2007 to July 2008, I worked with HSBC in Chennai, in the credit card escalated complaints division, and now I have switched to the IT industry (more of a project management role) and joined iNautix Technologies India Ltd in Aug 2008.

So that's about me. I love computers and generally do all the connecting, installation, configuration etc myself. My computer dealer is reluctant to help me even at times when I do genuinely need help ! But he's a nice chap and we have been buying/upgrading through him for the last 8 years. Anything anytime, he is just a call away and arranges for one of his guys to come and attend to the problem.

Ok now to the main point. My wife and I would be moving to our new apartment in Jan 2009 and I would of course require a computer there. I am now in a dilemma as to whether to go in for a fully loaded desktop or a somewhat matching laptop. For the desktop, my usual computer dealer is always there and I can get whatever configuration I want through him. He's however been asking me to consider getting a nice high powered laptop. But the thing is, I feel even when we spend more than 50k on a top end laptop (barring models like the Acer Aspire 8920 which cost more than 70k due to BluRay), we don't get what we could in a desktop for the same price.

But I guess this is a compromise we would have to live with, or is it ?

Well, there are so many laptops in HP but one that I found quite interesting and at an affordable price point, is the LG Desknote S900-K.CPU5A2 (check it out here - LCD TV, Plasma TV,Colour Television, Audio Video,Computer Products,Mobile Phone,Refrigerator, Washing Machine,Vacuum Cleaner,Microwave Oven,Air Conditioner, CAC Products by LG Electronics India) which costs Rs. 55,490/- on the LG India website.

Configuration is quite good:

* Processor - Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5750 (2.0GHz), 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB
* Operating System - Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
* Chipset - SiS 671 DX + 968
* Memory - 2GB DDR2 (667MHz, Dual Channel Support)
* Display - 19" WXGA+ (1440x900), Monitor Quality LCD (300nit, 850:1, 7.4ms, 160/160, 72%)
* Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 2400 (256MB VRAM, *HyperMemory™ Support)
* HDD - 320GB (SATA II, 7200rpm, 300MB/sec data transfer rate)
* ODD - DVD Super Multi Dual Layer(DVD-R/RW,+R/RW,RAM)
* Audio - Dolby Home Theater, 10W (5Wx2) high output power stereo speakers, 24bit High Definition
* Input/Output Ports - 4xUSB, VGA, RJ45, S-Video, HP-out/SPDIF, Mic-in

However though the display has a nice resolution of 1440x900, I find there is no HDMI output which is present on quite a few laptops these days. But the 19-inch display is a stunning thing in a laptop - well I guess due to its size, it's being called the LG Desknote. Suits it perfectly.

What I need is a large fast hard drive, good speed DVD writer, dedicated graphics, minimum 2 GB RAM (though I'd prefer to have more) and at least a 15-17 inch display. I love the Need for Speed series and I play NFS Carbon, NFS Pro Street, etc which are quite smooth on my desktop now. I would like a similar performance on the laptop so I guess at least 256 MB of dedicated graphics memory would be required. Though I would happily splurge on the Acer Aspire 8920 which has an 18 inch full HD 1920x1200 screen with bluray drive etc, it's beyond my budget. And I am sure laptops with such configurations would come down in price soon.

So based on my current desktop and my requirements, which are the laptops you guys would recommend ? Is this LG Desknote a good buy ? It would be good if your recommended laptops are around the same price range. Please do provide links to the models suggested. Look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Thanks and warm regards,
Venkat

Hello venkat,

Welcome to Notebooktalk.com

I am certain that what performance you can get from a desktop for 50K cannot be matched by a notebook costing even 70K. You have to keep in mind that you pay more for a notebook pc because of its size.

Since I have never used a LG notebook it would be very difficult to comment on its performace and after sales performance and most important service.

The LG is a great buy for the money and I doubt if you could get anything better or remotely close to its price.

However I would suggest you to physically check out this unit and compare it to other large screen notebooks before commiting to buy it.

Hi Trish

Yes that's true. In laptops, we mainly pay for the portability and convenience of having such a small computer. But, nowadays I observe that there is a new category of laptops called Desktop Replacements, which are predominantly with very high specs, sometimes equalling or even beating a desktop in terms of performance.

Price wise, I feel Dell is really expensive when you start customising the laptops on their website. For example Rs.3,000 for adding just 1 GB of RAM. Every small thing costs so much while customising and by the time I finish customising a 40k laptop on Dell's website to my requirements, the final price goes to more than 60k. It's crazy really.

HP is not that bad price wise, but there's not much of an option to customise the laptops. Specs are quite good on the higher end laptops though.

Sony is just tooooo expensive. And I find a lot of people with issues regarding their Sony laptop batteries. It's not a good sign for a person who's looking at getting a new laptop !! Sony products are generally quite good, but they've never been value for money.

I am actually in a fix. I don't want to go in for some entry level laptop for 30k and then get frustrated with its low speed or storage capacity in just a few months.

Do you think I should wait for some time and check out options in the market ? Anyway I won't be buying before Jan 2009. I would definitely like to check out this LG laptop physically though. 19-inch is a huge screen size for a laptop - it's the same as my Samsung 932NW widescreen LCD at home with 1440x900 resolution. Would it not feel uncomfortable in sitting so close to such a large screen and typing, on this LG laptop ?

Warm regards,
Venkat

Hello Venkat,

I would also recommend you to check out the Dell Studio 17

I think its a great BUY for the money (< 60K).

hello trish..i think you are really good at notebooks and laptops..can i ask an advice from you of what is the best brand of laptop?i am planning to buy one..thanks!

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