20 replies to this topic

[PerfectSilence]

Hey Guys,

I'm going to have to start looking for a Laptop to take with me to college as I'm not taking my Desktop. I've been out of the loop for a while so I'm not sure what to look at. I don't want a stock computer or anything recommended by a college. Physical weight of the Laptop isn't an issue. I'm looking for power, not necessarily for gaming though. I'm not willing to spend a sky high amount, but money isn't a big issue here. Reliability is important, I don't want to be dealing with hardware or software issue's all the time like I've had to with my Alienware (still love it though). Of course I understand there will be problems, but parts that have proven to be reliable is important here. It'd be nice if I don't have to upgrade it for a while either, I won't have time to do that like I've been able to in the past. I've been looking at the best that Alienware, Voodoo, Velocity Micro and Falcon Northwest have to put out and i'm most impressed with Falcon. I don't know though, things seem to have changed a lot since I got my Alienware and built my last computer back in November of '06.

What should I look for guys?

Thanks a ton,
Marc

[amerιcιgerm]

http://ibuypower.com

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

[Blue5DG]

Toshiba makes a nice high speed lap top that is small and light weight. Or the New MAC, depends on your needs!

[Murphyslaw4267]

Do not go with Cyber Power, you will regret it. Falcon NW has some good stuff, and good customer service. If you are willing to spend, I would recommend them. Or any of the brands on here are considered to be pretty good. http://www.slizone.c...ilt_nb_us2.html
Don't worry about the specific laptop they are advertising on SLI zone, worry about the brand.

Murphyslaw4267

[Wasabi®]

Toshiba Satellite 78EW

Not sure if they have it in the states, though.

[billski]

I have had my Dell dual core T7200 2.0 Ghz, 2 gig 667 ram, 120 Gig HD, 8x DVD +-R/W for over a year now. It cost me 1200 or so last January. I agree that Falcon and Alienware make nice machines. But, IMO the prices are not justified. Just to give you an idea of everything it can handle, it runs multiple instances of VS 2008 and 2005, UnrealEngine 2.5, etc flawlessly.
Currently I have it set as a dual boot SuSe 10.3 (40 Gig) and Windows XP Pro (80 Gig).
Also, I wrote a non negative matrix factorization and fed it 1000 Enron docs, chewed it up and spit it out in less than 3 minutes. (Real fast for text parsing and matrix convergence) took 17 minutes on the machines at school (p4 2.8's).
The only drawback is the slightly crappy x1400 ATI card (highest available at the time from Dell).
I built it in Dell's Small Business section because it was cheaper than the Dell consumer section.
Not a single problem in the time I have owned it, and I use and abuse it daily lol .

Later,

Billski

[Murphyslaw4267]

I have had my Dell dual core T7200 2.0 Ghz, 2 gig 667 ram, 120 Gig HD, 8x DVD +-R/W for over a year now. It cost me 1200 or so last January. I agree that Falcon and Alienware make nice machines. But, IMO the prices are not justified. Just to give you an idea of everything it can handle, it runs multiple instances of VS 2008 and 2005, UnrealEngine 2.5, etc flawlessly.
Currently I have it set as a dual boot SuSe 10.3 (40 Gig) and Windows XP Pro (80 Gig).
Also, I wrote a non negative matrix factorization and fed it 1000 Enron docs, chewed it up and spit it out in less than 3 minutes. (Real fast for text parsing and matrix convergence) took 17 minutes on the machines at school (p4 2.8's).
The only drawback is the slightly crappy x1400 ATI card (highest available at the time from Dell).
I built it in Dell's Small Business section because it was cheaper than the Dell consumer section.
Not a single problem in the time I have owned it, and I use and abuse it daily lol .

Later,

Billski

I don't think that is enough graphics power.

[PerfectSilence]

I have had my Dell dual core T7200 2.0 Ghz, 2 gig 667 ram, 120 Gig HD, 8x DVD +-R/W for over a year now. It cost me 1200 or so last January. I agree that Falcon and Alienware make nice machines. But, IMO the prices are not justified. Just to give you an idea of everything it can handle, it runs multiple instances of VS 2008 and 2005, UnrealEngine 2.5, etc flawlessly.
Currently I have it set as a dual boot SuSe 10.3 (40 Gig) and Windows XP Pro (80 Gig).
Also, I wrote a non negative matrix factorization and fed it 1000 Enron docs, chewed it up and spit it out in less than 3 minutes. (Real fast for text parsing and matrix convergence) took 17 minutes on the machines at school (p4 2.8's).
The only drawback is the slightly crappy x1400 ATI card (highest available at the time from Dell).
I built it in Dell's Small Business section because it was cheaper than the Dell consumer section.
Not a single problem in the time I have owned it, and I use and abuse it daily lol .

Later,

Billski

As always, great info Billski.

Although I originally planned to major in computer systems, I've decided instead to go into Criminal Justice, so I don't think I'll be using my laptop for CAD or emulations or stuff like you are using it for Bill. Now that I think about it though, I think Battery life is going to be very important. I never really used my Inspiron 8200 on it's battery when I did use it at all, but the battery sucked. but still, if it came down to performance or battery life I'd still go with performance.

I'm not talking about gaming really, because I don't expect to be playing much games when my parents are paying $40+ grand, it's for doing stuff like burning DVD's and browsing the Internet. I could never do that on my laptop, but with my Alienware and 4GB's of Ram it's easy. It's break my heart to have anything less than what I have now

As for the brand although I trust your opinion very much Bill, I have had bad luck with Dell over the years. The computer and the support they offer especially. I don't know much about HP although I know that they acquired Compaq a few years back and now Compaq isn't in nearly as high a standing as they were before the acquisition. Toshiba I am unfamiliar with as well. When it comes to Falcon Northwest, Alienware, Voodoo and the rest I'm thinking that maybe that is too much money to be spending on a computer, because this thing no matter how good may not be good enough two or three years from now, and I feel awful asking my father to dish out that much dough for another computer when he's paying all this for my education.

[Eärendil]

PerfectSilence, I would recommend a macbook pro, 17 or 15 inch one, that would depend on you.

They are great for running CAD software and they rarely have software issues.

You will forget what Ctrl+Alt+Del means : ) Good Battery life too.

Burning DVDs is a funny experience with iDVD, not a problem.

The best thing is that Macs have a great resale value, even after 3 years which is a bit more than the functional time of a laptop (nowadays).

Haha I've never have an issue with Mac OS X...

But don't trust me or others about macs, if you want to know them, visit an apple store or some other reseller.

And play with them : )




waaaa im too tired i need some sleep.

[Murphyslaw4267]

PerfectSilence, I would recommend a macbook pro, 17 or 15 inch one, that would depend on you.

They are great for running CAD software and they rarely have software issues.

You will forget what Ctrl+Alt+Del means : ) Good Battery life too.

Burning DVDs is a funny experience with iDVD, not a problem.

The best thing is that Macs have a great resale value, even after 3 years which is a bit more than the functional time of a laptop (nowadays).

Haha I've never have an issue with Mac OS X...

But don't trust me or others about macs, if you want to know them, visit an apple store or some other reseller.

And play with them : )

waaaa im too tired i need some sleep.

Only people who aren't brave enough go with Mac. I am just kidding, I find MACs to be great computers, but unfortunately the majority of people have Microsoft OSs. And frankly the world of today builds stuff for the majority. So I would most likely have a MAC if I weren't a gamer

[spookyload]

Try Sager out. A co-worker was looking at an Alienware Laptop and decided instead on the Sager as it has all the benefits of the Alienware without the stupid pricing of Alienware. They do everything up to SLI laptops.

Here is a prebuilt with great features for $1200. They do gaming rigs too that are around $2000.

http://www.sagernote...ction=customize

[toxicity]

Try Sager out. A co-worker was looking at an Alienware Laptop and decided instead on the Sager as it has all the benefits of the Alienware without the stupid pricing of Alienware. They do everything up to SLI laptops.

Here is a prebuilt with great features for $1200. They do gaming rigs too that are around $2000.

http://www.sagernote...ction=customize

Agreed.

I'd also check out Hypersonic.

[PerfectSilence]

A lot to consider, Thank you all. I'll let you guys know what I end up doing.

[xoxoaerynxoxox]

I have a new 15" macbook pro (2 G ram, dual core 2.5 ghz, GE force 8600, 200 G hardrive) and love it...I figured I could always add more RAM as needed.

Only issue I've encountered is that there is only two USB ports but I have a hub and that works fine.

btw on Mac's you can run either the MAC OS or Windows...

I don't game on it though so I haven't tried that out. Nor have I needed any support. I did buy the extended Apple care program. And I like the idea that I can take my lap top into a MAC store and get help, instead of the usual phone call where you can't understand each other's accents.

BTW other computer is an Alienware and I've found their service to be very helpful - especially since I had to call often...

[Murphyslaw4267]

You can build your own laptop if you want...

[PerfectSilence]

You can build your own laptop if you want...

I'm listening

[Murphyslaw4267]

http://www.tomshardw...ebook,1026.html

[Major.Winters]

PerfectSilence, I would recommend a macbook pro, 17 or 15 inch one, that would depend on you.

They are great for running CAD software and they rarely have software issues.

You will forget what Ctrl+Alt+Del means : ) Good Battery life too.

Burning DVDs is a funny experience with iDVD, not a problem.

The best thing is that Macs have a great resale value, even after 3 years which is a bit more than the functional time of a laptop (nowadays).

Haha I've never have an issue with Mac OS X...

But don't trust me or others about macs, if you want to know them, visit an apple store or some other reseller.

And play with them : )

waaaa im too tired i need some sleep.

Only people who aren't brave enough go with Mac. I am just kidding, I find MACs to be great computers, but unfortunately the majority of people have Microsoft OSs. And frankly the world of today builds stuff for the majority. So I would most likely have a MAC if I weren't a gamer

Apple Mac's (Intel based) can boot into Windows for gaming. Thats what I do, unless I run the game in VMware Fusion on the desktop which is a handful of games.

[PerfectSilence]

What's your guys opinion of the Asus G2Sg Laptop?

[Wasabi®]

Its fine if you dont plan to carry it around too much