Shoutbox

So, after living in Spain for a week, my laptop graphics card starts to fail :(
If I have the driver installed it sometimes just hangs for a sec or two (including the music etc.) and then continues where it left off, which is quite annoying.
I'm currently working on it without the video drivers installed, which just plain sucks, but at least it doesn't hang anymore.

Anyway, I decided to buy a new laptop. I've narrowed down my choice to 2 laptops and I need your help on deciding which one to get.
I'll probably buy either a Samsung R510-FS08NL or an MSI EX623-070NL (site is in dutch, for more details click "Meer details" and you'll get to see the specs)

My main concern is the CPU, how does the T3400 compare to the T5800?
The T3400 has a higher clock speed but a lower FSB and only half the cache the T5800 got. However, some sites claim them to be about equal. Is there anyone here who knows more about that?
If they're about equal I'll go for the slightly more expensive MSI, as it has a better graphics card and a numpad (which is quite a pro to me), but if they differ a lot the choice will be a bit harder.
I don't care that much about the disk space. I've got an 80GB hdd in my current laptop, and combined with the 1TB on my external HDD it's enough for now.

As you can see, my budget is about €700, so please don't tell me to "get a thinkpad" or anything like that, as the €700 thinkpads don't meet my needs performance wise and exceed my needs durability wise.

I will be using the laptop mostly for the usual stuff; webbrowsing, email, office and wlm, but I also want to fiddle around a bit with VMware and the likes, do some photoshopping and play some games from time to time.

I still got about a month left to decide because my sister will come to spain in may and she'll take the laptop with her (I don't want a spanish one as most of them have spanish keyboards, ew)

Anyway, thanks in advance for your replies :)

get a thinkpad

nobody?

quote:

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Originally posted by Jesus
My main concern is the CPU, how does the T3400 compare to the T5800?
The T3400 has a higher clock speed but a lower FSB and only half the cache the T5800 got. However, some sites claim them to be about equal. Is there anyone here who knows more about that?
If they're about equal I'll go for the slightly more expensive MSI, as it has a better graphics card and a numpad (which is quite a pro to me), but if they differ a lot the choice will be a bit harder.
I don't care that much about the disk space. I've got an 80GB hdd in my current laptop, and combined with the 1TB on my external HDD it's enough for now.

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Well they should be about the same, according to a bechmark test:http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html
the T3400 is al little better, sadly there is only one benchmark test comparing them in this graph...

So I would say the MSI is the way to go, and instead of alternate order it at Zercom Computers Eindhoven (http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/230556/msi-ex623-070nl.html shop review is good and the price is 50 euro's less...)

quote:

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Originally posted by foaly
Well they should be about the same, according to a bechmark test:http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html
the T3400 is al little better, sadly there is only one benchmark test comparing them in this graph...

So I would say the MSI is the way to go, and instead of alternate order it at Zercom Computers Eindhoven (http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/230556/msi-ex623-070nl.html shop review is good and the price is 50 euro's less...)

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Thanks for your reply.
I hadn't seen that benchmark yet, but they appear to be quite equal indeed. Also on other sites people claim them to be about equal, be it with or without a benchmark.
Also, I spoke to my dad about it (he's an IT professional) and he told me that if it was purely about the CPU I should go with the Samsung, but if other factors played a role too (which they do) it shouldn't matter that much.
I also noticed the price difference after posting this thread. This makes the MSI cheaper than the Samsung too. The Zercom website doesn't give a lot of details though so I'll send them an email to ask whether or not it's the same laptop with the exact same specs.
As it stands now I'll get a numpad and a better graphics card for less money than the Samsung. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me

So unless anyone comes up with a huge downside to the MSI I think I'll go with that one.

Sneaky bastards at zercom increased the price after I asked them for the rest of the specs

Yesterday it was €650, now it's €672... Still just a bit cheaper than the other stores though.

Anyway, I still got about a month to order, so I'll wait till it goes down again