What laptop is more powerfull?

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1

What of these two laptops is more “powerfull”? Or what do you think would be a better deal. I want to run things like Visual Studio and other programming tools mostly.

  1. Dell Inspron 15R ($800.00)

Basic Details:

Intel Core i5-450M processor
2.4GHz (turbo boost up to 2.66GHz), 3MB L2 Cache

4GB DDR3 system memory

640GB SATA hard drive

8X Multi-Format DVD Burner

10/100 Ethernet, Dell Wireless 1501 Wi-Fi

15.6" diagonal HD WLED widescreen display

Intel HD graphicsBuilt-in 1.3-megapixel Webcam and microphone

7-in-1 digital media card reader

3 x USB 2.0 ports (1eSATA combo port), 1 x HDMI port, 1 x VGA port, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x microphone jack, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port

6-cell lithium-ion battery

Toshiba ($700.00)

AMD Athlon II dual-core P320 Vision processor
2.1GHz, 1MB L2 Cache

4GB DDR3 system memory

500GB SATA

Blu-ray Disc Drive & SuperMulti DVD Burner

10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi

17.3" diagonal TruBrite LED-backlit widescreen display

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics with 256MB to 1405MB dynamically allocated shared graphics

Digital media card reader

3 x USB 2.0 ports (1 eSATA combo port), 1 x microphone jack, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x RGB monitor output, 1 x HDMI input, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port

6-cell lithium-ion battery pack (up to 3 hours, 44 minutes battery life)

I like the i5 in the Dell, but I think the AMD in the Toshiba is comparable to the i5, and also the Toshiba has a blueray drive and a huge screen. Dell has a bigger hard drive, but its also $100 more (and has a smaller screen).

2

OK,

Thanks. I think I am going to get the toshiba it’s a little cheaper and from what I understand there’s not a real lot of difference. I don’t need the extra hard drive space, really. Even on the desktop I’ve never even came close to using up my 320GB hard drive.

I’ve also heard that Toshiba is one of the top laptop brands right now, that and ASUS. I don’t know if it’s true, but I do know that Dell support is really bad and their systems are usually BLOATED with free tiral software that is impossible to get rid of. The Toshiba comes with nothing preinstalled, just the plain Operating System.

I don’t usually buy expensive laptops because so far my luck with laptops is that they don’t last more then a couple years, for one reason or another, usually it’s the battery. This way, at least I’m not out $2,000.

BestBuy I stopped shopping at because the store around here SUCKS. They never have anything in stock and they are ALWAYS short handed. You stand in line for 2 hours just waiting to talk to the person with the key to get the laptop out of the case. Will they let you just take the laptop to the front cash resigers? NOOO, you have to wait for a sales person to help you. They have 30+ laptops on display. I went in the other day, and only had 2 laptops in stock, all the other 28 laptops were sold out, and this has happened the last several times I’ve wanted to buy a computer. If they can’t stock their shelves (or employees), I don’t have time to go there.

I don’t know about Gateway, I had a really bad expierence with them. They sold me a Desktop (factory direct) that was dead on arival. It got sent back the next day and then, had to be sent back for repairs 4 times in the first year. The 5th time I asked them to replace the system. So they sent a person to my house who replaced the motherboard. A week later the system completly died and never turned on again. I called them back and they said sorry the system is now out of warranty.

I like my HP desktop. I’ve had it for almost 2 years and never had one problem with it, ever. The reviews on Toshibas’ are always very high (at least the ones I’ve seen on amazon.com, and other websites like bestbuy.com and walmart.com). I’ve seen some complaints about lemon machines, but you will get that with every manufacture that does mass production. But I’ve heard a lot of good things about them so far. One guy gave Toshiba a bad raiting because his $299 laptop couldn’t play hard core games… so there will always be those types of people too.

3

In a laptop? Possible, but not for $700-800. (Few laptops have actual cards, no mid/low end that I know of and 75 GB SSDs are going for ~$400 right now)

HDD Speed? Given <$1000 laptops, I’d guess standard 2.5" 5400 RPM HDDs.

To OP:
The Dell has a marginally faster CPU and larger HDD, but a much smaller screen. Go see them in person and get the one that impresses you more - they’re nearly identical, spec-wise.

Also: Please, don’t shop at Wal-mart (excuse the craptastic site, the information is what’s important)

You may want to look at the Gateway NV53A24u Smaller drive but otherwise same specs as the Dell for only $500 (and it’s not a Dell or Toshiba == :slight_smile: )

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LOL, I’m going to assume this is a spammer, because they didn’t read my post, and also I don’t know what a Soy Waio is… HAS DELL REALLY BEEN REDUCED TO THIS?? :rofl:

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I might try Gateway again in the future, but I don’t know, most likely I won’t ever buy another one. I’m sure BestBuy is a good chain as well, but the store where I live just sucks, and I’ve found other places around here that are cheaper lately.

Thanks for all the help.

5

Sorry to hear about your experience with Gateway, they really sucked from ~2000-2005…

I’ve been pleasantly impressed with every one I’ve ever had, which have all come from Best Buy within the last 4 years. Can’t beat the price/performance, even if you build it yourself.

6

I’ve found that knowing what I’m dealing with (let your fingers do the clicking before departing for the store), paired with “No, thank you.”, to be quite effective :wink:

Anecdote: I recently purchased a Gateway Netbook, from Best Buy, they had one on display ( :\ ) and showed one in stock…which turned out to be in the Geek Squad section and had already had their $60 “new computer setup ‘service’” performed on it. After wrinkling my nose at the cute sales girl and saying that I’d be taking it home and formatting the drive anyway, she took the charge off.

Dell, IMHO, is where Gateway was 10 years ago - the middle of POS Computer City.

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I would suggest the Dell i5 Studio or Xpss is really good with excellent graphic support. It is extremely good for gaming and imaging too. What is most admirable about Dell is the durability and warranty. Dell gives very good warranty offers and is renewable at minimal amount. Soy Waio is also good but the cost is unmatchable with Dell.

Kristeena
<snip/>

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If you’re going to buy a dell, get it directly from dell.

Do NOT buy any electronics from walmart or similar “we carry everything” stores (Sears is ok, though). Even though they may have the same model of a product, it’s actually a specially manufactured version with cheaper, lower-quality parts.

Best-buy is simply overpriced and the sales people try to upsell you on additional items to go along with your purchase.

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I’m not sure what the HD speeds are, here are the actual pages. I know there are several other options. Ugh, I been looking for a month. I just want to get one of these two, but I don’t know what one is the best deal.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-i15R-2217MRB/14335595

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Toshiba-L675D-S7015/14335614

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The toshiba has a low-end gaming card. The Dell just has on-board video.

What are the HDD speeds? Or are they SSDs?

See if you can find a 9-cell battery option. Those have increased battery life.

You may also want to look at asus and lenovo for other options.

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