India Broadband Forum

Logik

Ok ppl, i need ur help a bit. I will put my problems in parts with every post & as per the replies. first lets talk about some theory i.e. Technicals

My needs : 1) i trade in the stocks market (so i will prefer long battery in case of power cut)
2) My brother works wid Oracle, so he wanna to have latest oracle wid it (huge database)
3. My sis in law, needs application like .net & my sql & other regular langauges (C, C++ & u know remaining )

4.some time i will be watching movies regularly (2-3 in month)+Some game, if i can play it after a long gap of 4 years.

After a bit study & wid my knowledge in Computing, i decided to go for following configuration :

Intel Core 2 Duo (1.4 Ghz & above)
1 GB ram (min)
160 GB HDD (more than enough for me, coz i will be using the Notebook most of time, 5400 RPM)

After browsing a lot, i decided the following model :

Sony India : VGN-CR34GN (VGNCR34GN) : Details

Details :

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista® Business (English Version) with Traditional Chinese Language Pack

Architecture
Processor Technology
Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology
Processor Name
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5270(1.40GHz)*1*2
Network Connection
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Chipset
Mobile Intel® GM965 Express Chipset
Processor System Bus
800MHz
Memory Bus
667MHz
Cache Memory
2MB

Main Memory
Pre-installed
1GB DDR2 SDRAM*3*4
SO-DIMM slots
2 SO-DIMM slots (The pre-installed memory module uses two)

Hard Disk Drive
160GB*5 (Serial ATA, 5400rpm)
Optical Disc Drive

Drive
DVD±RW/±R DL/RAM Drive
Maximum Reading Speed
DVD+R: 8x (SL), 6x (DL)/ DVD-R: 8x (SL), 6x (DL)/ DVD+RW: 6x/DVD-RW: 6x/ DVD-ROM: 8x/DVD-RAM: 5x/ CD-ROM: 24x/CD-R: 24x/CD-RW: 24x
Maximum Writing Speed
DVD+R: 8x (SL), 4x (DL)/ DVD-R: 8x (SL), 4x (DL)/ DVD+RW: 8x/DVD-RW: 6x/ DVD-RAM: 5x/ CD-R: 24x/CD-RW: 24x


Graphics Accelerator
Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

Display
Type
14.1 (35.8 cms) Wide(WXGA:1280x800) TFT Colour display (Clear Bright LCD Lite)

Interface
USB
High Speed USB 2.0 x 3
i.LINK(IEEE 1394)
4pin (S400) x 1
Network (RJ-45)Connector
10Base-T/100Base-TX x 1
Display OutputConnector
Analogue RGB, mini D-sub 15pin x 1
S Video In/Out Connector
Output x 1
Headphone
Stereo mini jack x 1
Microphone
Stereo mini jack x 1
Modem
V.92 and V.90 Compliant x 1
Memory Stick Slot
Memory Stick (Standard/Duo Size compatible, MagicGate compatible, Memory Stick PRO compatible, High-speed data transfer compatible)*6
SD Memory Card Slot
SD Memory Card*7 (SDHC compatible, MMC compatible)
PC Card Slot
ExpressCard™/34 x1
Compatible Memory Cards
Memory Stick (Standard/Duo Size compatible, MagicGate compatible, Memory Stick PRO compatible, High-speed data transfer compatible) , SD Memory Card (SDHC compatible) , Multi Media Card
DC IN
x 1

Wireless Connection
Wireless LAN Type
Integrated Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g/Draft n *8

Network Connection
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Wireless LAN Data Rate
maximum 11 Mbps (802.11b)/54 Mbps (802.11a/g) 300 Mbps (Draft 802.11n) *9
Wireless LAN Frequency
5 GHz (802.11a/Draft n), 2.4 GHz (802.11b/g/Draft n)

Bluetooth
Bluetooth standard Ver. 2.0+EDR

Security
Fingerprint Sensor
x 1

Camera
Front Side Camera
Effective Pixels: 1280x1024

Audio
Sound Chip
Intel® High Definition Audio compatible , 3D audio (Direct Sound 3D support)
Speaker
Built-in stereo speakers

Microphone
Built-in monaural microphone


Battery Life
VGP-BPS9/S Lithium-ion battery: up to 4.5 hours of use*10

Optional Long Battery
VGP-BPL9 Lithium-ion battery: up to 8 hours of use*10
Size

Dimensions (WxHxD)
335.1 mm x 21-38.3 mm x 249 mm

Weight
2.5kg (including the supplied battery)

Included Software
AV Entertainment
Instant Mode, Image Converter 3
Video Edit/Playback
VAIO Movie Story 1.1, VAIO Content Exporter 1.2, Adobe® Premiere® Elements 4.0, VAIO Edit Components 6.4*11, WinDVD for VAIO 8.0
DVD Creation
Click to Disc 1.0, Click to Disc Editor 1.0
Music
VAIO MusicBox 1.1, SonicStage Mastering Studio 2.4, SonicStage Mastering Studio Audio Filter 2.3
Still Image/Photo
Windows® Photo Gallery, Picasa™, Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6.0(Installer)
Home Network
VAIO Media 6.0
Word Processor / Spreadsheet
60-Days Trial Version of Microsoft® Office Professional 2007*12
Tool
Roxio Easy Media Creator 9.1, Adobe® Reader® 8, Norton Internet Security™ 2008(Installer)*13
Utilities
VAIO Control Center 2.1, VAIO Camera Capture Utility 2.7, Setting Utility Series 3.1, VAIO Launcher 1.1, ArcSoft Magic-i™ Visual Effects 1.0, Protector Suite QL 5.6
Support
VAIO Recovery Center, VAIO Update 3.0, VAIO Data Restore Tool 1.0
Supplied Accessories

AC Adaptor
AC Adaptor(VGP-AC19V20)

Battery
Lithium-ion battery(VGP-BPS9/S) *14

Warranty
Period
One year*15

Cost: 44990 (Including Every Tax) (no carrying case)

Also there anothet model available model wid vaio, for which post link only:
Sony India : VGN-CR32G (VGNCR32G) : Details

This is a
Dual Core 1.73GHZ,
1 gb ram,
160 HDD & others same as above. (Cost 44990)


Also, i checked one Dell model : Dell Inspiron(TM) 1420 Laptop
with : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T5550
1.83 GHz, 2MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB
2 GB Ram

160 Gb HDD
6-cell 56Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
& vista



(I dont want Accer, HCL,Sahara & other models)

1.now what u ppl say? for which one i should go? from above Vaio or Dell??

2.Is dualcore performance is that slow from core 2 duo?

3.Practically, is the battery back ever touch to 4 hours +? (Particularly of Dell)

4) can anyone explain the significance of term FSB (front serial bus) in the simple language? (i can look for the technical definition anywhere)

5)Last & most IMP, i wanna have WinXP home/premium on my notebook, but company is giving vista. so if i ever replaced the vista with the XP, will that ruin my warrenty??

Sorry for the long post
waiting for ur replies eagarly.

Ragards
Logik

PS :
1.Feel free to recommend me model of ur choice, which fits my min configuration.
2. My budget is upto 45 K.

__________________
BSNL Stands 4 : Bhai Sahab Nahi Lagega

Logik

Hello ppl, i am expecting atleast few replies from regular folks here.

just4kix

My comments:

1. Battery: When new battery lasts long but after a year of use the battery starts degrading in performance. This is a lingo time because you do not really need to buy a new battery but old battery is not having enough juice. Battery needs replacement after 3 years and so does the laptop.
   
2. If you load Oracle on your laptop, be sure to turn off the Oracle services when not required. Oracle will easily use 500MB+ memory and your laptop will reallllllly crawl when oracle is running.
   
3. You should definitely go with XP/Pro (not XP/Home). I do not think replacing Vista with XP/Pro will void your warranty as long as the XP copy is legal.
   
4. FSB is front-side bus and not front-serial bus. FSB is the data bus that connects the core CPU to the Northbridge. Northbridge interacts with graphics card (AGP or PCI-E only) and memory. There is a southbridge also that interacts with other peripherals such as PCI slot cards, USB, 1394, serial/parallel ports, etc. It will be too long to explain. Here is more explanation: Front side bus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Suffice to say that the faster the FSB speed better is the performance. In a PC the CPU speed is not the sole determining factor that tells about the performance.
   
5. Software like C++/.net/VB etc. will only take HDD space but will not affect performance when not running (unlike Oracle).
   
6. 1 GB RAM will not be enough for Oracle. Need 2 GB at least.
   
7. HDD size will depend upon the size of the Oracle database you are trying to create. if your going to load Oracle Applications, the requirements are quite huge and you will also have the additional burden of the Apache server that comes with Oracle applications. (Oracle Applications is different from just Oracle.)

In my humble opinion, buying a laptop is not a good idea because:

• extremely high obsolescence and that too at very high cost
• Laptops are not meant to run database engines
• to upgrade a laptop with additional memory, better hardisk, etc. is very costly
• laptop harddisks run at 5400 rpm unlike desktop IDE disk that run at 7200 rpm or RAID/SATA which are at 10000 rpm.

Buy a laptop if you must but do not use a racing car to perform regular commuting jobs.

__________________

xwhyz

I would suggest you try out Dell with all the configuration you have mentioned which you can actually configure at their website. Dell is cheap as well as has good battery life, etc. I have been using Dell and have had no issues so far for the past two plus years. I can definitely suggest dell for you.

Logik

@xwhyz,
thanks dude i was expectin ur reply.
well my battery need is min 2.30 hours. can dell satisfy that. (A rough idea)
BTW whts ur dell notebook no?

Regarding the oracle, i think i shud skip it ATM. I will remain with my trading & .net & My SQL server only.

Y we need to change the laptop? wont it work after 3 years as effectively as twas workin in 1st year? or it just lost maximum of its performance speed?

one more Q? is RJ45 connector is what we call Ehternet card or Lan card? (the same port in which we connect ethernet cord from modem?)

PS : UR the first among my frnd crowd whos is suggesting me DELL than VAIO. coz when ever it comes to SONY, ppl w/o any thing recommend it coz its quality. But i respect ur opinion equally as others.


Cheers

just4kix

What I meant was that the laptop would not be able to cope up with the latest (memory and CPU hungry) softwares of those times. Laptop in itslef will be alright but effectively useless for a power user. It would still be more than sufficient for web browsing, etc.

About RJ45: 90% of the laptops come with built in Ethernet LAN card and there is a LAN port on the side or back. RJ45 is the Ethernet LAN port where the RJ45 cable plugs in.

Also I agree with xwhyz. Dell and Lenovo are better than Sony VAIO for business purposes. VAIO is better as a media center laptop.

player

i will recommend laptops from DELL ,i am personally using dell and i am quite satisfied by its performance....i am using dell inspion 640m...it is 2 years old and i haven't came across any problem ......

but for power user like you if you can extend your budget a little bit then buy the Dell XPS series it retails around 50k....but it is worth the money there are two main variants in this series namely the Dell XPS m1330 & the Dell XPS m1530
the difference is that the m1330 comes with a 13.1" LCD and thats it is costly and the m1530 is normal 15.1" LCD and is priced normally ......both the laptops sport 3GB of ram,win vista and many other hosts of feature and both the laptops
are powered by 9-cell batteries so they give power back-up of long 5-6hrs theoretical ...i dont know the the actual backup time

the dell xps m1530 comes with nvidia graphics and the m1330 comes with intel graphics ...... so the choice is yours ..........

player

i will recommend laptops from DELL ,i am personally using dell and i am quite satisfied by its performance....i am using dell inspion 640m...it is 2 years old and i haven't came across any problem ......

but for power user like you if you can extend your budget a little bit then buy the Dell XPS series it retails around 50k....but it is worth the money there are two main variants in this series namely the Dell XPS m1330 & the Dell XPS m1530
the difference is that the m1330 comes with a 13.1" LCD and thats is why it is costly and the m1530 is normal 15.1" LCD and is priced normally ......both the laptops sport 3GB of ram,win vista and many other hosts of feature and both the laptops are powered by 9-cell batteries so they give power back-up of long 5-6hrs theoretical ...i dont know the the actual backup time

the dell xps m1530 comes with nvidia graphics and the m1330 comes with intel graphics ...... so the choice is yours ..........

Logik

@ just4kix,
lol......by accident, i just read ur post as post by xwhyz........i am too stupid. i was really wondering where was u & u was actually there........:d
as usaul ur seggestion is precious.
I must say, i am a not a typical business user.....though i do part time business of trading in stocks ()....but that requires extremely light things like trading software (hardly 2-4 mb .msi or.exe file) & JAVA platform. So i am a home user finally

My problem is that, i live in Aurangabad for which both sony & dell (not sure abt dell though) Service centers unavailable. which making is trobling me a bit. but i think i can manage all the software problems wid it. only hardware problem will need Service Center (Pune or mumbai). U have any idea abt the Dell service center in pune? But i am ready to take the risk though.

If Dell & Lenevo are better than VAIO for business, then can i place HP at the bottom?

Lastly i must say........Dell is the cheapest of the all.
for Dell inspiron 1420 u need 44.5 K for Core 2 Duo 1.83 Ghz, 2 Gb ram & 160 GB HDD

where other ppl in the same cost (HP, VAIO,Lenevo) gives Core 2 duo (all below 1.83 for sure), 1Gb Ram.

Think i will go with the Dell (inspiron 1420), if everythin works fine.

But any one has any idea abt how much actaul (Practical)battery bak up dell gives with 6 cell lithium ion battery for my 1420 configuration.

PS : Is buying the dell online (placing the order on website) is only way to buy dell? dontthay have retailers in cities?

just4kix

When I said "business user" I meant opposite of "home user". Business user means a user who uses the laptop for his professional work. That also means guys like me who are in IT services.

You can always send the laptop for servicing in Pune/Mumbai. There must be a service center in Pune. I don't know for sure. That is another reason against laptop as they cannot be (easily) repaired by local technicians. I never owned a laptop - my laptop is from my company and if it has a problem I just give to our helpdesk.

The good things about (reputed) laptops is that, they rarely fail or break down, if they are not at the end of their life. I always had IBM/Lenovo laptop. My previous laptop (IBM R40) developed a fault in the screen - a thin blue line appeared on the right side of the screen. This happens when the LCD chip fails. I got the screen replaced. My new laptop is Lenovo R60.

6 cell lithium will probably give you two hours when new. I am not sure - I never bothered.

Buying on line is safe. Only you are not able to see what you are buying. In Pune, there are shop which stock laptops - though I am not sure that they stock Dell - come to think of it, I don't see Dell laptops in American retail stores also.

Logik

@ just4kix & all,

I called the Dell support person last noon. He just gave the price for the inspiron 1420 as 41853.76 paisa including every tax. they will send the laptop to my address after the payment is realised, in case i decided to buy dell . i just forgot to ask him abt shipping. hopefully it shud be within the price.

Guys i am really not getting one thing, y dell is so cheap. I mean im geting core2duo 1.83 GHz, 2GB ram & 160 HDD for near abt 42. Dell peers like LENEVO, HP, SONY just take almost 50k for that. it means Dell is giving discount of atleast 8k. Generally u see this thing low range models like ACER , Copmaq, HCL. coz they lacks some quality (compared to branded like LENEVO,HP) & hence price is low. it doesn't mean i am putting the dell in the lower range series, but still so much discount is just creating a kind of confusion in my mind. is my doubt is justifiable? or is the case that Dell is new in indian market & they wanna grab some market?

one more thing, can AMD turion (1.90 GHz, 512kb+512kb cache) be option to my core to duo. some ppl are really insisting me to buy AMD as its cheap & can save many bucks.
What u guys say?

player

i will not recommend going to AMD as compared to intel ,intel is far ahead in terms of technology and performance atleast in the present time........and no doubt AMD processors are damn cheap in comparision to intel but for performance you have to pay more!!!

just4kix

Good or you. You said 42k includes every tax but now you are not sure about shipping. Does it include Octroi also?

Any the question should always be asked - "how much will I have to draw the cheque for?"

Some 6/7 years ago, Hitachi were promoting their ACs thru our office and I purchased a Window AC for Rs. 29,990/- (yes those were the prices then). I asked the same question and the salesman told me the same figure. When the AC was delivered they started asking me to pay 29,990/- plus 1250/- for shipping and 4% Octroi on 29990+1250. I fought very with the guys and told them that they could take the piece away - finally they relented.

Logik

Ya the price included everything. VAT, Octrai & every Tax. The dell person gonna call me 2moro. i will confirm the shipping thing then.

BTW, Buying Dell Laptop from Dubai (The famous Cheap city for Electronics Good) can save any bucks? one of mine frnd going there next month. Anyone have any idea abt the international warrenty of Dell?

Guys my Q? in previous post got no answer. I asked y Dell is so cheap as compared to its peers? (HP, Sony,Lenevo) any rough idea? Coz as Customer, i am happy with the clow price, but this also creating a fear of quality in my Mind (eg Acer, HCL,Sahara)

Logik

Ya player
accepted that AMD are Damn chpeap, but i think the Intel Core to Extreme (Quad Core)are the maked thats really dragged the AMD sell down & not Core2Duo.Thugh i am not going for AMD