which laptop is best for htpc..

[unleash_me]

Vortex, I gather that the dragon is an old model, dint see it mention here though! It seems like this monster needs around 5-7 minutes to boot up and the battery lasts only just about an hour. This is definitely a bummer, especially for a laptop.

I wish all laptops had SPDIF output. It would have been very easy to connect to any DAC. Its good to see the latest crop of DACs come with USB inputs. Wonder how long USB 3.0 is going to take to become available and be made mainstream. I'm currently looking for an external storage solution which got USB, Firewire, eSATA and NW. The WD 2TB Studio II has everything but no networking where as the WD 4TB Sharespace got networking but only USB. Smart tactics, frustrated me.

 

[thevortex]

Vortex, I gather that the dragon is an old model, dint see it mention here though! It seems like this monster needs around 5-7 minutes to boot up and the battery lasts only just about an hour. This is definitely a bummer, especially for a laptop.

I wish all laptops had SPDIF output. It would have been very easy to connect to any DAC. Its good to see the latest crop of DACs come with USB inputs. Wonder how long USB 3.0 is going to take to become available and be made mainstream. I'm currently looking for an external storage solution which got USB, Firewire, eSATA and NW. The WD 2TB Studio II has everything but no networking where as the WD 4TB Sharespace got networking but only USB. Smart tactics, frustrated me.

Thing is the boot up time is so attrocious only because of the unimaginable truckloads of junkt that HP insists on loading in its consumer line notebooks. If it is this bad in HP Pavilion I cant even begin to imagine how they load the Compaq's up!

On a clean install of Windows (preferably XP) the Pavilion HDX18 can be blindingly fast.

And yes, if the laptop has a coaxial or optical out that would be great. But USB is not too bad. With a good DAC a lot of fun can be had.

 

[gobble]

I have lived without a laptop and waited some 3 years to find a laptop with these minimum features -

capability to play 720p effortlessly with hdmi out and with 802.11n wireless.

At long last laptops with the Nvidia 9400 chipset will come by 2010 having these very features along with a 10W ultra low wattage cpu - the SU9600 @1.6ghz dual core . SQ will be poor without external DAC ofcourse.

Atlast I can buy one .. my fingers are itching !!

cheers

 

[thevortex]

I have lived without a laptop and waited some 3 years to find a laptop with these minimum features -

capability to play 720p effortlessly with hdmi out and with 802.11n wireless.

At long last laptops with the Nvidia 9400 chipset will come by 2010 having these very features along with a 10W ultra low wattage cpu - the SU9600 @1.6ghz dual core . SQ will be poor without external DAC ofcourse.

Atlast I can buy one .. my fingers are itching !!

cheers

Laptops with the Su9600 are already available, gobble, if I am not mistaken. Considering that their powersaving features do not net any vast gains in terms of battery life I am not quite sure why there is a premium on that.

And most good laptops today can play 720p effortlessly and do wireless without any issues.

Problem is you cant look at India at all for a laptop. I was seriously angry when I saw the price of a Sony Vaio laptop as Rs. 99,999. It had a 2.2 Ghz Core2Duo and an ATI HD3450 for a display card. That is plain horrible.

To add salt to injury, the store salesperson insisted that this beauty of a laptop had special RAM running at 900 Mhz. I felt like hitting him. Instead vented my anger with a few choice words and walked off.

 

[gobble]

Actually they will increase battery life. I dont know any laptops using su9600. Can you point me to some models?

And AFAIK 780G was the first capable of playing 720p and 9400 is the next.
the Intel X45 does not play without stuttering I believe.

So you think buying a laptop abroad is a good idea?

Cheers

 

[thevortex]

Actually they will increase battery life. I dont know any laptops using su9600. Can you point me to some models?

And AFAIK 780G was the first capable of playing 720p and 9400 is the next.
the Intel X45 does not play without stuttering I believe.

So you think buying a laptop abroad is a good idea?

Cheers

The increase in battery life when it comes to processors which use lower wattage is just a little better than negligible. For example you can test the results with a T series Core2Duo processor as compared to a similar speed P series. Not too much of a difference in terms of battery life really. The P series processor inarguably runs cooler though.

As to present day laptops using the SU9600 there is the Lenovo Thinkpad X301, the Sony Vaio VGN series laptop. The HP elitebook 2530 uses the SU 9400 - quite close.

And Gobble - take any midrange laptop with a decent graphics card and decent screen real estate. It should easily play 720p. Nowadays it is possible to get 1080p reproduction on laptops eerily close to the $1000 mark or sometimes even cheaper if you can nail down some deals.

Lastly I dont just think it is a good idea to get a laptop from abroad, sadly I think that is the only way to go right now with the horribly overpriced set of laptops that we have here in India. No choice really.

Get one with a global warranty for a couple of years and live with peace - that would be the way I would take. Just replaced my Thinkpad with an Elitebook. The new one is on the way. And I am perfectly happy at the machine for the money.

 

[gobble]

Hey
You must be talking about those laptops with radeon 47xx discrete GPUs. I was talking IGP and low cost. Sorry for not making that clear. With IGPs the 780G and 9400m are the 1st chipsets really capable of 720p and hdmi out.

Here is the first release in this category:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/dell-studio-14z.aspx

Cheers

 

[thevortex]

Hey
You must be talking about those laptops with radeon 47xx discrete GPUs. I was talking IGP and low cost. Sorry for not making that clear. With IGPs the 780G and 9400m are the 1st chipsets really capable of 720p and hdmi out.

Here is the first release in this category:

Dell Studio 14z - A Review of The Dell Studio 14z

Cheers

OK so you are looking for a integrated solution. But then integrated graphics would be a misleading term when it constitutes the Nvidia 9400M Even though it may not be able to play games, it is certainly decent. 780G in a desktop can easily play 1080p - so should be a breeze with 720p. $800 is a good cost. But I dont know if I will be able to compensate with the loss of an optical drive and hence some versatility.

Plus if you are looking for laptops which can do 720p easily, then there are other options in or around the same budget.

And hey I just saw that this laptop does not use the SU9600 mentioned!!

 

[kaushik]

Actually they will increase battery life. I dont know any laptops using su9600. Can you point me to some models?

And AFAIK 780G was the first capable of playing 720p and 9400 is the next.
the Intel X45 does not play without stuttering I believe.

So you think buying a laptop abroad is a good idea?

Cheers

throw out 720p bhoot.............itz not rocket

my vaio lappy c2duo,1gb ram plays with 23% CPU..smoothly,no nvidia stuff ..just intel GMA
edit1:
screen shot from HD movie

 

[kaushik]

I wish all laptops had SPDIF output. It would have been very easy to connect to any DAC.

10 - 19$ usb-spdif cards r there in ebay...!not bigg amont for lappy playback

 

[unleash_me]

@ koushik
Thanks for pointing out. I still would prefer built in digital out rather than an adapter.

 

[thevortex]

A DAC like the new Beresford Caiman would probably make good use of the USB power.