Laptop advice, please

[jbenj01]

I'm in the market for a laptop (used or new), but am penny-pinching, as usual :D

After searching and doing a little digging, i found this deal on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2729865449

But it seems to be a generic brand and am wondering if someone could advise as to whether this particular item is "fairly priced" AND provide recommendations as what specs i should be looking for??

Must i buy a laptop that already has a DVD burner as part of hardware or can i buy without one and then upgrade?? Which processor should i go with for DVD burning (P4 vs. AMD). Other features i'd prefer is 2.0+G processor and atleast a 40G hdd..

thank you.

[doaa]

That price is pretty good, if I saw that here I'd be very tempted. One thing i'd be conserned about is the processor as its a desktop chip not a mobile, this will cause battry life to drop and laptop to run a bit hotter.

Some laptops will let you upgrade to a dvd burner, however there specific to machine so I belive prices are high. I don't think you'll notice a difference burning a dvd on an Athlon or Pentium, stay well clear of Celerons thou.

At that price you'd be hard pressed to find much better.

[jbenj01]

You mean there are different CPU/chips for desktops vs. laptops?? For example, an AMD XP2000+ in a dt would be different than the same AMD CPU (same processor speed) in a lt?

What are major differences or a site where i could read up? Thanks, doaa..

Also, if anyone's upgrading and would like to sell their old lt... :cool:

[jbenj01]

Also, what's the fastest AMD chip? I see an XP3000 rated at ~2.2G. The fastest Intel i've seen is a P4 3.06G.. I guess my question is which is better suited for video encoding? And how does the fastest AMD compare against fastest IP?

Sorry to change subject from original..

[doaa]

Main difference between a desktop chip and desktop is the power they consume, thus affecting the amount of heat generated. Intel mobile chips also slow themselves down when running on battery to save power, I belive the AMD's do simmiler. I know with Intel you can put the laptop chips in desktops and vice-versa, not sure about AMD.

The fastest AMD chip is currently the XP3200+, not sure on the clock speed around 2.4GHz I'd guess? I belive in general an Intel chip would be better at video encoding, theres a review comparing the speeds of a pentium 4's and Athlons Here

Hope that helps

also I find hexus.net's review usually good.

[jbenj01]

Thanks for the info/advice doaa.. will keep reading and searching.