[Bon]

Hi All,
I need to get a notebk but am not a tech head who is up on all latest w them. My basic reqs are:
- needs to be fast - fast as poss think as cannot bear slow;
-needs to be reliable -ie want to keep it for at least 3 yrs;
- needs to have a decent sized screen as will not buy another home computer so will use this all the time except for at work
- needs to have global/ UK warranty
- bonus would be if it is light

I need to use it for some distance educ stuff, want to download stuff and use MS Office - that's it ( but will use it a lot)

Have been recommended the Asus Z99H54CLE - DR. This is going for about RMB4680 on the mainland.

Could anyone tell me if they agree with the above recommendation and if that price is cheaper in HK or if something else is better? Also if HK is the place - where is a reliable place to go for it? - O am passing through and don't want to make a mistake which I cannot just go back and fix easily.
Thank-you!

[larac]

I never thought I would say this but have you considered a mac?

I have a little ASUS and it is great - really small, light etc. Maybe it is because I am not a techie and therefore I'm missing some vital software but I find that with Wireless Broadband like you have everywhere in HK my little ASUS spends its whole life off searching the internet for new software etc which causes it to contract viruses more easily despite the anti-virus software and it has really slowed down. The ASUS service here is really good but they have had to nuke it twice.

My work mac however does not have this problem, Spam and viruses are vastly reduced on a mac and it is really quick to start up. It is quite heavy though but maybe that is just my one. I have had other mac troubles though and the mac servicing here is terrible - see other threads for details. If you do presentations then Keynote on Macs is vastly superior in appearance to Powerpoint.

[Skyhook]

Hi there Bon,

We have a Samsung Q35 dual Pentium processor equipped note book. Its one of the lightest and most compact fully specced note books around. Extremely light at under 2 kgs. Lightening fast, able to handle heavy memory draining applications graphically with ease.

Ours was optioned up to 100GB of hard drive and 1.5mb of ram, and we love its light weight compact portability while travelling.

I noticed that prices of this note book have dropped about $3000HKD since we purchased ours 8 months ago, street price is about $6999.00 for the standard 512 Ram 80GB dual pentium centrino Q35, which is a hell of a lot of high speed notebook, having built in wireless LAN connectivity, Blu Tooth built in, DVDR writer, laminated high res wide screen ratio'ed screen, 4.5 hours of battery life when using the lithium battery, with factory supplied XP or Vista included.

We have not had any problems at all with ours, so I cant comment on Samsungs service network.

If you run a properly set up internal firewall, or run a router with an external firewall, with prodigious use of common sense, viruses wont be an issue. Never caught one touch wood, and if you buy a copy of IOLO's System Mechanic Professional, it will keep your operating system in optimum running order, and never slow down.



Long term IMHO, the Q35 will be cheaper long term, as you won't be limited in any way, you'll also be able to connect this note book to an external LCD screen or large screen pressentation projector with fully featured high res sync output results.

[Bon]

Thanks for inf, larac and Skyhook. Sort of bit of a learning curve when you're not a techie and sole responsibility of getting your notebk for next 3 yrs lies with you!

[MrMoo]

Originally Posted by Bon

-needs to be reliable -ie want to keep it for at least 3 yrs;
- needs to have a decent sized screen as will not buy another home computer so will use this all the time except for at work
- needs to have global/ UK warranty

Your only choice is pretty much an IBM Thinkpad. Ask for XP or make sure you have a very good spec to run Vista, the R60 doesn't cut it. If you buy with Vista Business you can get a free downgrade.