Desktop Replacement Recommendation Please

Time for a new computer. Am looking for something to do routine MS
Office work, cd copying, light video editing, and occasional gaming.
Also photoshop for digital darkroom work. In short, I need a total
desktop replacement. Battery life is very unimportant, the laptop
will only get moved around the house. I am looking at the Gateway
675X, or the Toshiba P15-479. $2000 is the budget- and not a dollar
more. Any experience with either machine- they're both quite new to
the market with very few reviews.
Any downsides to the use of Windows Media Center edition 2004 that
the Toshiba uses? The TV tuner is bonus, but not essential. I won't
buy a system without a dedicated graphics card- I've played that game
with desktop systems and it's a requirement. Please don't tell me to
get a Centrino- I know all about it and really don't want to trade
battery life for processor performance. Thanks for your input and
suggestions.

Dell 5150


"digital doc" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Time for a new computer. Am looking for something to do routine MS
> Office work, cd copying, light video editing, and occasional gaming.
> Also photoshop for digital darkroom work. In short, I need a total
> desktop replacement. Battery life is very unimportant, the laptop
> will only get moved around the house. I am looking at the Gateway
> 675X, or the Toshiba P15-479. $2000 is the budget- and not a dollar
> more. Any experience with either machine- they're both quite new to
> the market with very few reviews.
> Any downsides to the use of Windows Media Center edition 2004 that
> the Toshiba uses? The TV tuner is bonus, but not essential. I won't
> buy a system without a dedicated graphics card- I've played that game
> with desktop systems and it's a requirement. Please don't tell me to
> get a Centrino- I know all about it and really don't want to trade
> battery life for processor performance. Thanks for your input and
> suggestions.

"digital doc" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Time for a new computer. Am looking for something to do routine MS
> Office work, cd copying, light video editing, and occasional gaming.
> Also photoshop for digital darkroom work. In short, I need a total
> desktop replacement.

Shop around very carefully! Most new laptops have no floppy drive. Also, try
to get the OS on a CD. Stores will load the OS on your computer, but not
give you anything you can use if the hard drive dies.

Thanks for the idea, but I definitely don't want a Dell. First of
all, the optical drive is only DVD+RW, and if I can't have +/-, I'll
stick with DVD-RW as that is what my set top DVD player is compatible
with. Second, their tech support is awful now that it is outsourced
to India. Lastly, I want to actually see the computer I'm buying
before parting with the cash.
Any other ideas?

"David L" <> wrote in message news:<%NrBb.48426$>...
> Dell 5150
>
>
> "digital doc" <> wrote in message
> news: om...
> > Time for a new computer. Am looking for something to do routine MS
> > Office work, cd copying, light video editing, and occasional gaming.
> > Also photoshop for digital darkroom work. In short, I need a total
> > desktop replacement. Battery life is very unimportant, the laptop
> > will only get moved around the house. I am looking at the Gateway
> > 675X, or the Toshiba P15-479. $2000 is the budget- and not a dollar
> > more. Any experience with either machine- they're both quite new to
> > the market with very few reviews.
> > Any downsides to the use of Windows Media Center edition 2004 that
> > the Toshiba uses? The TV tuner is bonus, but not essential. I won't
> > buy a system without a dedicated graphics card- I've played that game
> > with desktop systems and it's a requirement. Please don't tell me to
> > get a Centrino- I know all about it and really don't want to trade
> > battery life for processor performance. Thanks for your input and
> > suggestions.

You're not really trading processor performance for battery life,
those Pentium M processors in the centrino packages are quite fast
despite their GHZ compared to P4's. 1 MB L2 cache, shorter more
efficient pipeline, SSE2 just like the p4.

Last I checked the Sager NP560 models started at around $1700 and
comes with a 9600 Pro. Other systems I've seen with impressive
stats/price would be the ABS zForce F2 and Gateway m505x, although the
latter two have Pentium M processors(centrino).

Benchmarks I've seen show the Pentium M is no slouch.. comparable to a
P4 mobile with 800-1000 MHZ higher speed in many applications. Paired
with a 9600 Pro the gaming aspect is very good as well.

-----------------------------------------------------
Chris
http://www.guide-to-laptops.com

Hi Digital Doc,

I am very pleased with my HP Pavilion zd7010us. Right now I am in Jiffy Lube getting my truck serviced and doing my news groups.
This machine is loaded. Starts of with a Pentium 4 2.66GHz cpu, 512MB RAM, 60GB hard disk, nVidia GeForce video adapter with
64MB of dedicated DDR VRAM,17" WXGA display, all the standard ports except for serial, Wifi, IrDA, SD card reader.

The biggest thing against the machine is that it is heavy and you only get 1.5 hours on the battery.

Ciao . . .
C.Joseph

++ Let know man judge me until . . .
he has walked the road I have . . .
in the shoes I've worn. ++

http://kalek1.home.mindspring.com


digital doc wrote:
> Time for a new computer. Am looking for something to do routine MS
> Office work, cd copying, light video editing, and occasional gaming.
> Also photoshop for digital darkroom work. In short, I need a total
> desktop replacement. Battery life is very unimportant, the laptop
> will only get moved around the house. I am looking at the Gateway
> 675X, or the Toshiba P15-479. $2000 is the budget- and not a dollar
> more. Any experience with either machine- they're both quite new to
> the market with very few reviews.
> Any downsides to the use of Windows Media Center edition 2004 that
> the Toshiba uses? The TV tuner is bonus, but not essential. I won't
> buy a system without a dedicated graphics card- I've played that game
> with desktop systems and it's a requirement. Please don't tell me to
> get a Centrino- I know all about it and really don't want to trade
> battery life for processor performance. Thanks for your input and
> suggestions.

"digital doc" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Thanks for the idea, but I definitely don't want a Dell. First of
> all, the optical drive is only DVD+RW, and if I can't have +/-, I'll
> stick with DVD-RW as that is what my set top DVD player is compatible
> with. Second, their tech support is awful now that it is outsourced
> to India. Lastly, I want to actually see the computer I'm buying
> before parting with the cash.
> Any other ideas?

Sony FRV35, the DVD-R/W may be slow at 1X max i believe. It is $2000 CDN, so
it will be a lot less US

Hi Digital Doc,

I forgot to put parenthesis around serial. The machine does have Wifi, IrDA, and SD card reader.

Ciao . . .
C.Joseph

++ Let know man judge me until . . .
he has walked the road I have . . .
in the shoes I've worn. ++

http://kalek1.home.mindspring.com


C.Joseph Drayton wrote:
> Hi Digital Doc,
>
> I am very pleased with my HP Pavilion zd7010us. Right now I am in Jiffy
> Lube getting my truck serviced and doing my news groups. This machine is
> loaded. Starts of with a Pentium 4 2.66GHz cpu, 512MB RAM, 60GB hard
> disk, nVidia GeForce video adapter with 64MB of dedicated DDR VRAM,17"
> WXGA display, all the standard ports except for serial, Wifi, IrDA, SD
> card reader.
>
> The biggest thing against the machine is that it is heavy and you only
> get 1.5 hours on the battery.
>
> Ciao . . .
> C.Joseph
>
> ++ Let know man judge me until . . .
> he has walked the road I have . . .
> in the shoes I've worn. ++
>
> http://kalek1.home.mindspring.com
>
>
> digital doc wrote:
>
>> Time for a new computer. Am looking for something to do routine MS
>> Office work, cd copying, light video editing, and occasional gaming.
>> Also photoshop for digital darkroom work. In short, I need a total
>> desktop replacement. Battery life is very unimportant, the laptop
>> will only get moved around the house. I am looking at the Gateway
>> 675X, or the Toshiba P15-479. $2000 is the budget- and not a dollar
>> more. Any experience with either machine- they're both quite new to
>> the market with very few reviews.
>> Any downsides to the use of Windows Media Center edition 2004 that
>> the Toshiba uses? The TV tuner is bonus, but not essential. I won't
>> buy a system without a dedicated graphics card- I've played that game
>> with desktop systems and it's a requirement. Please don't tell me to
>> get a Centrino- I know all about it and really don't want to trade
>> battery life for processor performance. Thanks for your input and
>> suggestions.

Thanks for the input. Regarding the Centrino issue, the best I can
figure out is that a Pentium M 1.6 GHz, is about equal at best to a
Pentium 4 2.4 GHz. There is no Pentium M chip that can match a
Northwood 2.8 or 3.06 processor in terms of raw performance. If I
want to do video editing, why get a weaker processor at a price
premium when I don't care about battery life?

"digital doc" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> Thanks for the input. Regarding the Centrino issue, the best I can
> figure out is that a Pentium M 1.6 GHz, is about equal at best to a
> Pentium 4 2.4 GHz. There is no Pentium M chip that can match a
> Northwood 2.8 or 3.06 processor in terms of raw performance. If I
> want to do video editing, why get a weaker processor at a price
> premium when I don't care about battery life?


heat and fan noise - although these may not bother you of course.


--
Gareth
quote of the day
'nostradamus? -sounds like a rock group to me!'