What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Hi, I want a laptop that I can use for around the house but also with the latest versions of inventor (you only get the latest versions of inventor with the free copies given to the teams right?) and buy for under 1000 dollars.
processor: c2d (enough to run the latest versions of Inventor)
RAM: 2gb
Storage: atleast 80gb, more would be nice
video: not integrated. decent enough for inventor.

So far I have been looking at a dell vostro 1500 and those have pretty good deals for under 1000 dollars with great specs.

what do you guys think about running inventor on a laptop and what to buy and who to buy from?

thanks in advance, vivek

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

dells a good choice, dont get a gateway, my school bought a few and they overheated and well u get it...

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

LG and IBM t61 are highly recomended.
the new inventor will be fine with 1gb ram too by the way..

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Saw this one on Engadget the other day, seems to be getting some pretty good reviews. We were going to get my sister a replacement laptop for her birthday [more on that at the bottom], we're thinking about this one.

Dell Inspirons are also very good, and can be fairly cheap if you find a rebate or something (one of my mom's coworkers found some random combination of deals and got a totally spec'd out one for under $1000).


Do NOT get an HP. They're alright for PC's, but their laptops are abysmal. My sister, dad, and several friends have had serious problems with them (combined with terrible tech support). I won't get into the slew of problems my sister's has been plagued with; suffice to say that she's become so frustrated with it that she just goes on someone else's computer most of the time and I've decided that it would be more beneficial to just get a new one than try to fix/upgrade this one.

I second the Gateway advice, I've heard similar stories about ridiculous overheating.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

One word, Macintosh! It will last you forever and it is just beast down to the core. :D

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

That's what I forgot to mention. Yes, the MacBook Pro (dual booting with XP or Vista) is quite possibly the best laptop I've ever used... if you feel like selling your car and refinancing your house to afford it

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

lol, as a poor sophomore without a car or a house to refinance. I think im going to pass on that. unless I sold my parents car..... >_>

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

If at all possible, wait until January! Right now all of the prices are going to be jacked up for the holidays, and well, January is not a very big selling season for anyone because of them. So to make up for that, places like Best Buy will put really good deals out on Sundays (Hint) that you can pick up. I know I got my last two laptops that way and both were cheap. The first one wasn't the greatest, but this one that I have now is great, for only $500 too! I have a 1.6 dual core with 2 gigs of ram (from previous laptop, originally 512mb), 80 gig HD, and a DVD burner. Not to mention the 2.5 hours of battery life!!! Just check all of the ads to your favorite electronics store during that time and you will get a good deal. WARNING!!! DO NOT BUY A LAPTOP ON BLACK FRIDAY!!! They are always bare bare minimum and normally you get more for your money (which is normally about the same price) in January!

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

my recommendation, don't get a Dell. I am an employee of a college who does billion dollar work with Dell and we still get really really bad support calls.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

thanks, that is a great tip. although I really like customizing laptops online.:)

I think ill look for deals then. it is possible to do that for me.

**it makes me feel like i have little elves running around and assembling the laptop for me when i customize it online :D**

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

i prefer using the intraweb for tech support. but thanks, ill keep that in mind. They do have really good deals though.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

I'd take this with a grain of salt. 100 people on this website probably have negative experiences with a given company, and another 100 have positive experiences.

However, it is a little hard to believe your college does a BILLION dollars of business with Dell.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

$1,000,000,000 / ~$500 = 2,000,000 computers. Depending on the size of the university, it is possible. (1 laptop per student, computer labs, professor computers, ect.)

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

For laptops, I usually recommend Macbook Pros, Dell Inspirons or Macbooks. (Usually in about that order.) Edit: Lenovo/IBM Thinkpads are also good Windows business-class machines, although unless you are an Excel number-cruncher I usually don't recommend them.)

If you want a wicked awesome computer, get the Macbook Pro. A medium-spec Macbook Pro at $2500 (with a lifespan of like five years*) is basically the same price as two cheap (about $1000) Windows laptops each lasting two-three years.

After that, my second recommendation is usually split between Dell Inspirons and Macbooks, depending on your usage. I've owned an Inspiron for almost two years now, and it's still going strong [with everything except CAD]. :p

If you're planning on doing a LOT of intense CAD work, I might lean towards the Inspiron with upgraded RAM and video card running XP Pro. Although you can use Boot Camp and install XP Pro on the Macbook, and do the same thing if you want to.


* Team 228 has always owned more Macs than PCs. We used several circa-1999 iMacs up until about 2005 as some of our main computers; and we're still currently using a circa 2003-iMac as one of our primary computers.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Interesting.... I have 1993 Packard Bell Laptop that i use every day for programing and i still run windows 3.11 for workgroups and it has lasted 1 years.

Anyway i would buy one of these:


Acer Aspire 9300 5349 Open Box Notebook PC - AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-56 1.8GHz, 802.11b/g Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, DL DVD RW, 17" WXGA+, Integrated Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium $649.97


Gateway MT3423 Refurbished Notebook PC - AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-56 1.8GHz, 802.11g Wireless, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, Dual Layer DVD RW, 14.1" WXGA, Windows Vista Home Premium $649.99

Toshiba Satellite A215 S7422 Notebook PC - AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-58 1.9GHz, 802.11b/g Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, Dual Layer DVD RW, 15.4" WXGA, Windows Vista Home Premium $729.99

HP Pavilion dv6625us Notebook PC - AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-58 1.9GHz, 802.11b/g Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, Dual Layer DVD RW, 15.4" WXGA, Integrated Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium $804.99*

HP Compaq 6715b Laptop PC - AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-56 1.8GHz, Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 120GB HDD, Dual Layer DVD RW, 15.4" WXGA, Windows Vista Business $959.99


*rebate

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

You got some pretty nice recommendations here from CD's own "elves"! :D I'd agree with getting a Dell or MacBook, especially the Vostros/Inspiron.

Also have to ditto the avoidance of HP AT ALL COST!!! Bad quality and support, and not a very good deal for your money.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php=50086

^ Some useful information.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Using my brilliant knowledge of vBulliten's original URL specifications combined with mad researching "skilz", super sleuth abilities, and all-powerful computer knowhow, I have undoubtedly positively corrected your thread link in beautiful Technicolour!!!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=50086

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

If you've read many of my posts, you'll know I think tablet PCs are great. They're more expensive than a noraml laptop, but once you've used one, you'll never go back.

This is the setup my brother has:
Gateway C-140X
1.66 Core2 duo(an additional $5)
1gb ram, but replaced by a pair of these 1gb sticks. That was a ten minute job that saved $100.:D
80gb hdd
12 cell battery, can litterally get 8 hours on battery power!!!

He also paid for $30 for a fingerprint reader, but I didn't include that.

Total cost $1050 including shipping, but you can save some more if you watch for deals.

I know this isn't the cheapest computer, but tablet PCs are great!


EDIT: If you need more storage get one of these. I have a pair of those that stay in my computer case all of the time.(they're 75% full) :)

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

What would be the difference between 1.4 ghz, 1.66 ghz, and 1.83 ghz core two duo processors when running inventor or gaming?

I will still have 2 gb ram and 128 mb video card. as a poor sophomore in high school without money the processors are pretty expensive :)

thanks, vivek.

p.s. I will probably choose 1.66 but I was just wondering what you guys think?

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

The decision of choosing between those processor speeds are akin to the question of which car you buy. Sorta. The faster it is, the better things run. Actually, that car bit was an outright lie. Just a side note, if you're playing higher-end games such as BF2, CoD2, ET:QW, and so on, then 1.66 may not deliver that well. I've got a dual core 1.60 with 2 GB of RAM, and it's barely running my games on Low/Medium-Low. Then again, it is a laptop with sucky integrated graphics, but 1.6 GHz dual core on a desktop would still let you "just get by".

Although I do understand your position, since I'm trying to build a gaming machine on part time wages, try to find some good deals and treat yourself to at least the 1.83. You'll be glad you did.

http://www.tigerdirect.com
http://www.newegg.com [Recommended]
http://www.ebay.com [Not-So-Recommended, But Still An Option]

Last but not least, the RAM is more than sufficient for what you'll be doing, and the video card sounds like it's good. Kudos in those departments. BTW, what's the video card model? If you need assistance, I might just help you out with buying your processor, really got nothing else but robotics to spend my money on!

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

thanks a lot, but I was looking at the dell vostro 1500 (i know I want it) and it works out to 729 added up for the laptop with 1.83 ghz c2d processor
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7100 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™ edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM edit
HARD DRIVE 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS edit
MEDIA DIRECT Dell Exclusive MediaDirect™ Instant Play Software App
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card edit

It has all the specs I want besides the ram which I will upgrade seperately. it works out to less than 800 dollars total with 1.83 ghz c2d processor, 2gb RAM, and that video card and specs listed up there.

here is the link to the website: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1500?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlesta b
I chose the Enhanced graphics Performance option and customized with basic vista. I have xp pro that I will install onto it.

Should I get the Intel wireless card or keep the dell one?

thanks, vivek

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Oh, ok. I don't know why I thought you were actually upgrading the system. Yeah, that's a steal for the price.

As for the wireless card, I see no reason to change it unless your connectivity needs are different. From what I read on Dell there's two Intel cards. One adds 802.11a support (pffft) and the other adds draft-N. The key word in the latter card is "draft". I'd avoid going with this one especially since it's built into a laptop. I say this because the specification for N isn't set in stone yet, as it were. Bottom line, you may end up paying for something that won't be very compatible with the final routers at all. Not that I'm implying it won't for sure, but the possibility is there.

And the one with A? Please, what consumer really uses it? Just save money and go with the Dell.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

N is pretty $@#$@#$@#$@# near close to being ratified for good, it's just some small software, no hardware changes. Dell, Apple, etc are putting N into all of their hardware now.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Here is a little more reason to get a mac. ;)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...s/article.html

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Yes, true. But still, unless he really truly needs it, it's just a waste of money anyway.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

what exactly would I use N for? I probably wont

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Well right now, not much, but as it surpasses G by a mile you might as well get it. G right now is the standard, but I personally see N coming up to become the standard in a year or so.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

are they router dependant? so would A, N, and G be able to pick up the same router signal?

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

It kinda goes both ways. The card in your computer has it's limitations to what it can receive, and the router has it's limitations to what it can transmit. Most routers today broadcast in more than one mode (b and g for the most part). This is done so then if you have a B only card in your laptop, or a G only, then you will be able to pick the signal up still. Also this makes routers and wireless cards more universal.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

So unless you're using a N router, getting the N card won't really help much. But if you do, go ahead.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

ok. I doubt ill be using an N router.

thanks, vivek

p.s. finally convinced parents to get me a laptop :D

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Good, now you are 1/2 of the way done. Now you have to convince them that windows is going to go bankrupt soon and that they will no longer be able to provide support so you should get a mac. :D

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Congrats! Let us know how you like it, I might be in for getting a new laptop and selling this HP.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

actually I think ill wait until early december or after christmas as there might be some good deals then

-vivek

EDIT:
My System Details
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7100 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic edit
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™ edit
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM edit
HARD DRIVE 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability edit
VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS edit
MEDIA DIRECT Dell Exclusive MediaDirect™ Instant Play Software Application edit
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Wi-Fi Mini Card edit
WEBCAM No Webcam Option edit

those are the specs and all of that costs 739 dollars. do you guys think that the price for that will go down much during the sales?

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

What? No. N is backwards compatable with a/b/g so you'll be fine. You won't get the speed increases, but you will be able to use it anywhere there's wireless.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Dell is always having sales. If you know you want it, buy it now. I doubt it'll get any cheaper towards the holidays.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

ok thanks

-vivek

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

I just stumbled across this article, and I thought it was definitely worth posting in this thread. Of all the laptops tested by PC World (including Alienware), the best one for running Vista was the Macbook Pro.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...s/article.html

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Right. So it's a waste if you don't plan on using it with N. Why pay a whole lot more for something that you can get for less.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

If you plan on using the laptop for a few years, it may be worthwhile. It's like buying an HDTV now, even though all broadcast television doesn't have to switch to high-def, digital signal until February 2009.

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Cough Cough Cough

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Oops, sorry. :o

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

Wow. That's really funny and sad at the same time. It's now officially the trump card...

Re: What Laptops do you recommend?
 

hehe

-vivek

p.s. I decided to get that dell vostro 1500. will commence buying sometime soon hopefully.