New Laptop

[sirbleedsalot]

I am looking at buying a new laptop and plan to spend about $2000 for it, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me with getting the most for my money. It would need to be a desktop replacement type computer. Really fast, and good enough to play some games on, but it does not need a huge HD like 60 GB or so. I am not brand loyal, I just don't want to spend a boatload on a piece of junk.

[Timmyd]

i saw a laptop in a Fry's electronics ad that was awesome
100gig hd
3.4ghrz
1gig memory
17 inch screen
128 graphics
533 fsb
made by hp

or this one
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/447...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[mechanicalbrain]

I REALLY love my alienware. www.alienware.com Only warning, a pentium 4 with hyperthreading can get HOT so I use a cooling pad. They actually are pretty good considering the price. If you want something cheaper though your better off with the above computer.

[Cody Carey]

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...iXM140s1&s=dhs


See for yourself, Dell is pretty good :-)

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by sirbleedsalot

I am looking at buying a new laptop and plan to spend about $2000 for it, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me with getting the most for my money. It would need to be a desktop replacement type computer. Really fast, and good enough to play some games on, but it does not need a huge HD like 60 GB or so. I am not brand loyal, I just don't want to spend a boatload on a piece of junk.

I'm a Mac nut, and I have to put the good word in for the iBook G4:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...ok&mco=DFE2FCC

I'd recommend getting the 14" model with at least a gig of RAM, which costs around $1400 without any discounts, such as the college student discount. (I am dead serious about the ram--I cheapskated and only got 512 MB--and I'm saving up to buy another stick.) The PowerBook line is sexy, but a 15" model already maxes out your $2000 budget. (There is a 12" PowerBook and iBook, but I value screen real estate. Hence I sprung for the higher-end iBook model.)

There's plenty of games (although you'd be wise to check whether your current gaming addictions are available for OS X), and the ease of use of this thing is second to none. Everything looks and works just about like you would think it should, and it'll do everything my former laptop (a Dell Inspiron 5150) would do except play Rise of Nations and fall apart in one semester.

[sanddrag]

I like the Apple laptops but what are you going to do with it? Not CAD that's for sure.

The Alienwares are overpriced imho. Also, someone on our team had one (P4 2.8 I think) and it got so hot you couldn't have it on your lap. And the batter life was aweful.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

By far, the toughest laptops are Thinkpads. They can take any abuse you can throw at them. They're the standard that other laptops are measured against.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I like the Apple laptops but what are you going to do with it? Not CAD that's for sure.

The Alienwares are overpriced imho. Also, someone on our team had one (P4 2.8 I think) and it got so hot you couldn't have it on your lap. And the batter life was aweful.

Alienwares are Sagers with the little alienware ribbing and logos added on.

Buy it from Sager and it's $1,000 cheaper.

At any rate, you can find a recent discussion about laptops here

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Ogre

By far, the toughest laptops are Thinkpads. They can take any abuse you can throw at them. They're the standard that other laptops are measured against.

They're pretty sweet...the only problem is they're way more expensive than other companies, and they tend to be more business than graphics/media oriented.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I like the Apple laptops but what are you going to do with it? Not CAD that's for sure.

The Alienwares are overpriced imho. Also, someone on our team had one (P4 2.8 I think) and it got so hot you couldn't have it on your lap. And the batter life was aweful.

Granted, I can't seem to find CAD software online, but nobody mentioned CAD before. (And there's a viewer or two available, if you've got to look at a product.)

As for what I can do with mine, I can keep my life organized (no small task), do everything a business student needs to do in class, create all manner of documents for FIRST and other purposes (yay for PDF support baked into the OS), and create all manner of audio and video. (I have plans for this coming build season, plans that will bring about memories of WildStang's 2004 teaser video. Fwahaahaa.)

<edit>And I've heard great things about ThinkPads as well. If I had to stay with Windows, I'd probably have traded up to that.</edit>

[Yan Wang]

In April I bought my current Dell Inspiron 9300: 1.86ghz Pentium M, 1gb DDR2 Dual Channel, 60gb 7200rpm HD, 256mb nVidia GeForce Go 6800, 17" widescreen

It's a very powerful machine, light for a 17" screen (7.5lbs) and after using an $800 off coupon code from www.edealinfo.com , I got it for < $2000. If not this laptop, at least get one with the Pentium M chip.

For your reference, its 3dmark05 score is 2868 and 3dmark03 is > 9000. I can post a SolidWorks 2005 SPEC score later if you want it.

Not sure about the price, but the Dell XPS gen 2 is an amazing beast of a laptop, especially because you can get it with a 6800 in it!

[Cory]

Originally Posted by 114ManualLabor

Not sure about the price, but the Dell XPS gen 2 is an amazing beast of a laptop, especially because you can get it with a 6800 in it!

It would appear the Gen 2 is discontinued.

The new XPS is the M170.

and it's base price is $2800.

[edit] weird that Dell put a pentium M in that thing. It's not going to get jack for battery life anyways.

[Brian Lesser]

Gotta agree with Billfred on this one.

I also recommend iBook as well. It's strange that I wouldn't recommend the Powerbook line, but I took a good look at both laptops and saw very few differences (the biggest difference is the illuminated keyboard and audio chat available on the Powerbook). Overall, you are better off saving a few hundred dollars and go with an iBook.

However, it's a shame that the college discount only knocks $100 off the 14" model and $50 for the 12" model (10% discount?). Otherwise, it is a very decent choice for laptops.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I like the Apple laptops but what are you going to do with it? Not CAD that's for sure.

Since you mentioned it, I did do a little searching. The closest thing I found to 3D object modeling is a program called Carrara 3D Basics 2, which can be installed on both Macs and PCs. Hopefully, this link works...

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...lm=TE967LL%2FA

for the number of features available, I'd say $100 is a nice price for it.

[petek]

I just got an hp Pavilion DV4000 for the things my Tibook can't do:
Inventor 10
EasyC
VAG-COM (for talking to my car's computer)

I'm still setting it up, so I can't give you a real evaluation, but so far it meets my needs. I decided on the hp mainly because it was the least expensive laptop which offered a graphics card compatible with Inventor (ATI Mobility Radeon X700, 128 MB), though it's probably the lowest spec machine which can run Inventor 10 properly.

If you plan to run Inventor, I recommend you check their graphics card certification page before you buy.

Some other specs:
Pentium M 740 (1.73 GHz)
1 GB RAM
60 GB HD
DVD/CD burner
XP Pro
$1425

It has all the usual connectivity and a decent package - about the same size and weight as an Inspiron 6000, but cleaner styling, fit and finish. Still not as nice as the Tibook, but that's to be expected!