<p>Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000(2.00GHz)
17.3"
4GB Memory
500GB HDD 5400rpm
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - 1024mb dedicated</p>
<p>The only thing im worried about is the size. I feel the 17.3" will be too big, but i look at the specs and see that an extra inch will not make a difference and the weight difference is not that much and neither is the thinkness. The thickness is acutally the exact same.</p>
<p>The main thing i will be using this latop for is college stuff and video editing (After Effects)</p>
<p>DDR3 RAM uses significantly less power than DDR2, something you might think about with a laptop. Also, RAM is one of the few things you can upgrade on a laptop but DDR3 is incompatible with DDR2. You would need a new motherboard to switch from DDR2 to DDR3. Therefore, less memory with DDR3 might be better since you would be able to upgrade later and it would make you laptop a little more future proof.</p>
<p>The HP 16" - 14.90" x 10.00" x 1.31-1.70" - 7.06 lbs.</p>
<p>The HP 17.3" - 16.2" x 10.9" x 1.37-1.70" - 7.67 lbs.</p>
<p>An Asus Im thinking about getting 15.4" - 14.77" x 10.44" x 1.35-1.60" - 6.18 lbs.</p>
<p>How much of a difference is there in the size of these laptops? The only noticible difference i see is the width which is ~1 inch bigger. As you see the thickness isnt bad at all for the 17" or the 16" compared to the 15.4".</p>
<p>You’ll want to carry your laptop around for a lot of things other than taking notes in class. I bought a 17" laptop at the beginning of the year, but switched to a 14.1" laptop for the second semester because carrying around the 17" laptop was not at all fun. You should really think about getting a smaller laptop and using an external monitor if you absolutely need that big of a screen.</p>
<p>will the 17" one not fit in a regualar latop backpack? i really dont want to sacrifice performace. i mean i doubt ill have that many books in my backpack at once. i may have 1-2 books at once with my laptop. im used to carrying around a heavy backpack from highschool. my backpack usually weights around 15-20 lbs.</p>
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You won’t be. You’ll only be sacrificing screen size. Everything else is available in a 15.4" or 14.1" laptop.</p>
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i mean i doubt ill have that many books in my backpack at once. i may have 1-2 books at once with my laptop. im used to carrying around a heavy backpack from highschool. my backpack usually weights around 15-20 lbs.
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This is the exact same thing that I was thinking when I bought a 17" laptop. The big difference is that you have to walk a lot more at college than you do in high school. When your walk to class is 10 minutes instead of 1, every pound makes a difference. Even without any textbooks, carrying that laptop to class became a pain.</p>
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i went to bestbuy to look at how big a 17" inch hp would be and i was really impressed at how thin the computer is compared to other 17"ers
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The 17" laptop that I got was an HP ;)</p>
<p>^Actually I’ve begun to look at laptops for the fall and see that only a few 15" laptops have high-end graphics cards (~nVidia 9800+) while many 17" have them. And even less have a powerful GPU and 4 Gb DDR3.</p>
<p>Why do you want a powerful graphics card in your laptop? If you want to play games, then a desktop would be a far better choice than a 17” quad-core laptop. The desktop is easier to upgrade and costs less in terms of price per performance.</p>
<p>14" and a more powerful graphics card than either of those. Also it has a 2.4 GHz dual core processor which should by plenty, I think that going for 17" for a quad core is overkill and I would hate lugging that around.</p>
<p>Spec 2 will last you longer (quad core). 4GB of memory is all you need, especially if you are running 32 bit version of Windows (which I recommend you get, not the 64 bit version - 32 bit is more compatible with everyday software). 32 bit version of Windows can’t address more than 4GB. Unless you are running specialty applications (engineering, or photo/video), they tend to be 32 bit applications, not 64bit applications.</p>
<p>The Q9000 is a 64bit processor, so you can upgrade to 64 bit OS/Applications in the future. In the future, you can upgrade the OS and the memory, if you ever need the additional room. You will never be able to upgrade the P8600 to quad core. When multi-threaded applications really start happening, the quad cores will be much more valuable than an extra 0.4 GHz.</p>
<p>I would really consider getting a desktop and a smaller laptop. For the desktop, I’d recommend a 2.66 Ghz Core i7 system (I bought two of these from Dell for about $570 each - used) and the machines are fantastic in terms of performance.</p>
<p>If you have to choose between the two laptops that you described, I’d pick the second one because it should be better for your stated application and you’ll avoid the problems with nVidia mobile chips as it has an ATI discrete solution. The size and weight would bother me somewhat. I have a 17 inch MacBook Pro which has smaller dimensions for such a big screen and I love the system but it’s a little big for trips. My kids have the smaller MacBook Pro which is a much more convenient size. Our daughter carries hers to classes. Our son carries his to some classes. He lives so close that he can just use it in his apartment most of the time.</p>