Decent old laptop with external 1920x1200 support?

[CooperXS]

i'm thinking of getting used lappy for browsing/movies. I want to connect it to my 24" DGM screen (preferably via DVI). My gaming rig sucks quite a lot of power (130W on idle ) and i'm not gaming daily, thus laptop may save me some money.
Any suggestion on 1-2 years old models?

[staffsMike]

DVI is tough. Usually means gaming laptop, which in turn means expensive.

How cheap were you thinking? The dell studio 15 can be had for £400 (sometimes less with vouchers or haggling) and it has an HDMI out and almost always comes with a HD3450 which is perfect for any media blu ray included. It has the benefit of being a really nice laptop too.

There is also the highly errrm odd.. new 10" Asus netbook which comes with an nvidia 9300gs and HDMI out again. probably £500 though, but might be useful for other netbooky type things lol

[CooperXS]

yeah actually i just had a quick look on few etailers and boy are these new lappies cheap

Last time I checked ~600 quid was reasonable.
i think it ain't worth going second-hand with current offers.

well it was worth to ask

btw anyone has experience with HDMI -> DVI adapters? My monitor is hdmi free you see

[staffsMike]

Not heard anything bad if that helps.. but then I havn't heard anything at all. I assume they just..work

[Pob255]

For desktop (internet) nothing much is needed, for movies you'd need something that can cope or a fast enough cpu that can handle it via software.

One thing I would note is you'd need ether dvi or HDMI output as I seem to remember that D-sub cannot go to that high a res (I think it caps out at 1600x1200)

The other alternative might be a low cost pc/media pc, depends if you need the portability of a laptop.
infact what about one of these new mini-itx based atom cpu pc's?
Something like this Shuttle X27 Nettop
http://eu.shuttle.com/en/DesktopDefa...40_read-14926/
This place sells them for £400 and it comes witha 2 year "Pick-Up-And-Return-Service" warranty and are supposed to use around 35w underload.



One other thing to remember is that if a laptop breaks down they are expensive to fix, something as simple as a replacement keyboard can cost £50+

[Webby]

If you fancy building your own media/browsing system then I think you could have it for a fair bit less than £400.

Mini-ITX just because we can

Motherboard - 780G £105 http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12207
or nVidia 8200 £85 http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12081
Both will do high def playback in their sleep.
CPU - 4850e £42 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=807038
RAM - 2GB (single stick) DDR2-800 £30-40
Case - Venus 669 (inc. 200W PSU) £65 http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=10542
HDD - WD 6400AAKS 640GB £53 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=798906
Optical - LG Bluray/HD DVD reader & DVD rewriter £67 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=729076
CPU cooler - Silverstone NT07 AM2 £14 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=798994

Total with the 780G board ~£376. Going with a normal DVD and cheaper board ~£315

I'm pretty sure that spec urinates all over the shuttle But I must say the shuttles case was very pretty.

[Pob255]

yes but some how I think it's going to use slightly more that 35w under load

[Webby]

True but think about what load actually means, you would need to run them both doing similar tasks to compare power consumption, while I have no doubt the Atom would come out on top (or is that below) it will not be as anywhere as versatile especially when it come to playing back HD content (an Atom can just not do it the ageing chipset cripples it).

Oh and my system with an Atom board and standard DVD (no point in bluray with an atom) would come in at ~£275 making the shuttle a bit expensive, you could even get a smaller and better looking case and still be cheaper than the shuttle (http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12042) puts the price just at ~£310

[CooperXS]

My god finally there's 780G mini ITX board in UK

[Pob255]

True but think about what load actually means, you would need to run them both doing similar tasks to compare power consumption, while I have no doubt the Atom would come out on top (or is that below) it will not be as anywhere as versatile especially when it come to playing back HD content (an Atom can just not do it the ageing chipset cripples it).

Oh and my system with an Atom board and standard DVD (no point in bluray with an atom) would come in at ~£275 making the shuttle a bit expensive, you could even get a smaller and better looking case and still be cheaper than the shuttle (http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12042) puts the price just at ~£310

Must say I agree with you, I do have some doubts about the atoms abality to run play dvd's esp blueray. (although a dual core version is supposed to be comming out which might change things)
while I've no doubt you could make it cheaper that's the only atom based mITX I've seen with DVI, all the seperate motherboards I've seen so far have D-sub which cannot handle 1920x1200 resolution.
You have to have dvi or HDMI to run at that high a resolution.

Oooo didn't spot that the 4850e is a 45w cpu teamed up with the 780g that does look good
It will be hard to find now but AMD did do a low wattage (35w) 3800+
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...ail.aspx?id=65

[Agent]

btw anyone has experience with HDMI -> DVI adapters? My monitor is hdmi free you see

HDMI and DVI are both digital, and the signals are compatible. They simply map the pins from one plug to the other. There is no conversion and no worry about quality loss.

In short - you won't even know its there

[CooperXS]

Guys anyone has experience with mini ITX desktop type cases ? Specifically those DC-DC PSUs. i'm just wondering - that mboard has 20+4 pins, but the DC-DC seem to have only 20pin output

lol this thread wen totally offtopic

[Webby]

The DC-DC boards use a laptop power brick to convert from AC and then you just use converters to get from molex to whatever you need. Some of the larger power supplies 90W+ will have the 4pin P4 connector as well which is an added bonus.

As to your 20 pin vs 24 pin dilema ideally you would use 24 pin but those extra 4 pins only supply more 12V and since you are not using high powered graphics cards, CPU etc. this will not be an issue, if you really want you could get a 20 pin to 24 pin adapter but this will not really acomplish anything.

As to Cases if you are looking at a desktop processor on a mini-ITX board then you need to consider 2 things, first the cases are on the whole designed for VIA CPUs with low power requirement so make sure the are adequate vents to exhaust hot air. Second you will need a power supply which can handle at least 90W probably 120W to be on the safe side the problem then is that most mini-itx cases don't come with power supplies this big so then you need to buy one as well which costs you a fortune (well another £60 DC-DC board and AC-DC Brick) this is why I suggested the Venus 669 as it has a 200W PSU built in, the only real issue with it is the size its not really that small especially when you consider how small it could be it also has standard sized 5.25" drive bays which allow for a reasonable priced bluray player Of course you could build a PSU box to have separately and route the cables in but this is still going to cost £30 for the PSU plus all the extra work involved and you would need to put it somewhere as well...

All in all if money is not a problem then get whatever case you like buy the bigger DC-DC board and AC adapter and have a really small well speced system but you will defiantly be paying for making it small.