Advice on a new computer (My a-po-logies for any inconwenience)

Ok a-po-logies aside, 'tis the season for a new computer and I have been looking at a laptop instead of a desk top. I've seen some that sound good but since I am extremely ignorant of what is good/bad in sys req. I thought I'd ask the experts (who don't make a commission from selling me one).

All I want to do with it is watch movies/TV etc, Use Photoshop, MS office. And a few games esp the Sims 2 (resource hog) and NWN 1 and 2.

My problem is I suffer from Clarkson's disease and so when I see more power I instantly think "POWERRR!"

I have seen a HP Pavillion DV7-3007TX with Intel core i7 (1.66GHZ), 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, !Gb Graphics with Blu-Ray burner/DVD combo(the blu-ray I could live w/o but it's there so why not) It's $1963 so it just scrapes in under my budget. But, is it any good?
Should I get something less spec-ed ie core2 Duo and less graphics and ignore the voice in my head going "POWER!"

Sorry for the wafflilations but I'd really appreciate any advice.

 

well most full sized laptops are built the same depending what year they came out most of the laptops that i have seen have intel celeron processors and run vista (stores are still trying to get rid of those things) but now while computers are still being assembled with xp on them mainly because not everyone can afford 7 but be aware when you buy a computer most of the price is made up from all of the trial programs that you'll probiably never use and the operating system

 

double post i'm on my psp sorry

as i was saying, i would advise against purchasing 7 my first experience on it was not a good one, first of all everything on that os is not plug and play like on xp and vista this means that you could just forget about pen drives and usb keyboards and mice this is a bigger problem on netbooks which i will talk about in a second, when you don't have any cd drive to install software with u'll have no choice but to use your pen drive but guess what it won't work it says...

 

again on my psp

the computer knows its there, it knows what it is but it just won't let you use it, it doesn't even reconize its own hardware, we plugged an ethernet cable into it waited for hours but nothing happened, so up to this point we just said that the machine was basically useless microsoft sure has lost its touch, we also discovered that you need to connect to the web which we failed to do, to download all kinds of extra stuff to change the wallpaper and screensaver we just forgot about it.

 

before a mod gets mad last post won't get to say much

netbooks in general are very decent machines but they require an os with a small memory footprint and 7 doesn't have that so it was frustrating to get it to work, but xp runs alot better unsuprisingly since everyone has been using it for years but certain programs might not run smoothly like cad software but other than that its a pretty great system be aware of its tiny screen unless you can plug it into tv i want a netbook but im installing linux

 

Thanks Barononeefdip.
I wasn't too sure about 7 as an Os myself, it looks nice but looks aren't everything (well in a computer that is).
I was also looking at getting an asus eepc as well. Are these any good? I would want it for just portability for writing etc.
My question on the HP was, is it good enough to do the job of my current and very tetchy desktop?

I appreciate the advice on W7. Let me guess, it'll become good the moment the next OS is due for release.:-D

 

to be honest i don't really care for microsoft windows os anymore any version i would want to stay away from

i was saying that when i get my asus ee hn which i know several people that own one which means they are good, anyway when i get my netbook i want to install a linux distro on it windows isn't cut out for netbooks anyway you might want to look into it too the distro i plan on installing is called EASYPEASY look it up with several other distros out there one might fit your character

 

and i doubt that 7 will be of any use someday at the moment its only use is to get people who know nothing about pcs excited imagine the expressions on all of those rich peoples face when they turn their expensive machine on, but if all you plan on doing is writing then you should install linux its faster than windows on a netbook you can use openoffice or google docs u need the internet for this one but these are the things that keep gates up at night nobody needs his os or software anymore

 

Whoa man!:eek You start the thread talking about i7s and dribble down to an ASUS EEEPC?! Don't worry about W7, it's a great OS IMO.

lol, that's basically top of the line man! You would more likely want to somewhat back down from that if your budget is being stretched a tad too far. LauraR should hopefully be in tomorrow as she has a similar machine.

I personally think it's overkill, but then I don't game. Still a sweet machine!:cool

 

all thanks to the gpl community and gnu project look for software with their licenses you'll save alot of money on software you'll never have to bootleg or pay for overpriced software anymore but there isn't an alternative to everything some programs are only designed for windows for that we have a program called wine which works on some programs things get done differently in linux what else do you plan on using this machine for other than wordprocessing i bet theres an alternative to that too

 

I know the Asus eepc is a dribble down from the HP I asking about, I am planning on both - eventually. My budget for the laptop is about $2000-ish, and as for W7 I only go by what I hear/read which is mixed. As I said I like the look of it, but never used it. I found Vista a bit fiddly after XP but not bad once I was used to it. I figured 7 would improve with updates/service packs like XP did.

The idea behind the Asus was a more of a on the go type thing, good for school etc. And it would fit in my handbag very nicely.

The HP was a thought that struck me. I could have a relatively good laptop to replace my desktop and I could move from room to room. I had surgery recently, and my Desktop being in another room was an issue. I wouldn't take the HP out with me hence the eepc idea. It's a convoluted piece of logic but if people can own more than 1 car, why not more than 1 computer. Each with it's designated role.

And I'm waffling again. Thanks for the advice Augiedoggie, and I'll keep an eye out for LauraR, that is if they don't mind stupid questions to intelligent answers.

Cheers all and the felicitations of the holiday season:wave

 

I agree with Halo, Windows 7 is a first rate OS and a huge leap from Vista.

I have been using it since the beta testing stage and love it.

It does need a learning curve but once you have mastered it you will wonder how you ever did without it.

 

sorry i didn't see that part but is has been doing well for me since i'm not much of a gamer but i would strongly recommend getting a net book that doesn't have windows 7 (the starter edition is what i tried in class and i didn't like it but as for the other editions i don't know i haven't tried them, I've seen that Microsoft stole, (as they always do) some features from different KDE environments

your choice though win xp is still a good operating system and my bro and mom are getting alot out of their win xp net books like they would with regular desktop computers only inconvenience for us is that it doesn't run very many peripherals well