Getting new laptop...

[ben2the4th]

Hi peoplez. I'm purchasing a new laptop for college and since my Dad has dubbed price as no object, I am free to get whatever one I want. But regardless of being spoiled, I need your help figuring out which one to get.

- Needs to run the best applications for game design and architecture.
- Will be running multiple applications for rendering etc. (so high RAM i guess)
- Required to have Vista
- I don't care if it's heavyish because I won't have many books

Just suggest stuff please. Thanks.

 

[KurrentEweser]

If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, get a Dell XPS. I just love my M1710

 

[JoshSB]

Don't have time to look up actual laptops, but I would definitely recommend something along these lines if price is no problem:

C2D T9300 (or 9000 series, unsure what number it is at right now)
4GB of RAM (only if the programs you need to use can run in 64 bit vista)
8600 or 9600 nVidia Geforce card
at least 250GB HDD

And since your doing alot of smaller stuff probably a 17" Screen.

Really, anything beyond that is candy.

 

[Peter.Cort]

k, few questions before we start looking for some laptops.

1) what size screen do you want.
17" would be great for large gaming, but won't be able to perform on maxed settings as well as you woudl be able to do with a smaller screen.

i would say 15 is good, but if you want to go all out, then go for a 17"

also do you want to game at all? or just render things.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Extreme X9000(2.8GHz/800Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
RAID Performance: 640GB (2x320GB) 5400RPM
CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 8800M GTX with 1GB GDDR3 Memory
Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition

thats made on dell with a 17" insprion, and thats a bit under 5000. and thats about as good as it gets.

 

[ben2the4th]

I was looking at the Dell Precision, does anyone recommend that? And if I do need an amazing screen for anything I will just buy an extra monitor . But since I will be doing rendering I guess I might need a bigger screen?

I probably will be gaming a lot but should i just buy a separate monitor for that?

 

[Peter.Cort]

is this laptop going to be like a desktop replacement? or are you going to be taking this to classes? if you are, i would say you're going to want to get something that has what you need in terms of cpu and gfx power, but no extra. so don't go for like a dual gpu setup or a 2 drive setup. if your goign to be carting this thing from class to your dorm, just think about what you need cause you'll get ****** battery life if you need it.

also, i would strongly recommend a macbook pro if you can get away without using vista. my brother is a ad photo major and does video editing on his laptop along with heavy photoshop editing, and it does it without a sweat. so i would strongly recommend one of those.

 

[KurrentEweser]

I was looking at the Dell Precision, does anyone recommend that? And if I do need an amazing screen for anything I will just buy an extra monitor . But since I will be doing rendering I guess I might need a bigger screen?

You couldn't go wrong with a fully loaded M6300. A large screen external monitor should be no problem if your needs/requirements ever change.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

For under $2000, I got an HP dv9700t with very good specs:

17" 1680x1050 LCD display
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz 6MB L2)
nVidia GeForce 8600M GS 512MB
3GB DDR2 RAM
DVD+/-R/RW LightScribe burner
250GB SATA HDD (laptop has 2 HDD bays, so I can add another one later)
Integrated fingerprint reader, webcam, stereo microphones
HDMI output, VGA output, S-video (7-pin) output
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition
HP ExpressCard HDTV Digital/Analog Tuner with S-Video and Composite inputs and Digital Antenna
HP ExpressCard remote control and full size Media Remote

For just over $2000 altogether, I was able to get the laptop, a 20" 1680x1050 LCD widescreen monitor (second monitor or to use with my desktop), and a backpack to carry the laptop in.

This laptop is awesome too, plays Half Life 2 at full settings at 1680x1050 with full antialiasing. The Core 2 Duo is blazing fast for a laptop chip (beats out my friend's desktop and pulls off an incredible [for a laptop] 17.5 seconds in 1M SuperPi). The screen is nice and bright as well, good for gaming and pretty much anything. It has integrated WiFi a/b/g/n and 10/100/1000 gigabit Ethernet. It also has a full keyboard (with number pad) and a touch sensitive strip with media and volume controls. I love this PC, it's incredible.

It's a desktop replacement all right, but I'm going to be taking this PC to classes as well. It's not too heavy (it's nice and thin, it's lighter than my old 15" laptop as well, which is odd).



I personally don't recommend Dell. I priced up 17" models from both Dell and HP. For a similar priced laptop, HP was a few hundred under $2000 while Dell was near $2,300. Dell sells high because of their name, and I really don't think their build quality is that great. Almost all Dells I've seen have flimsy hinges. Also, Dell had that explosive battery incident a few years back. I think you'll be better off with an HP.

 

[grasswater]

Well Dell XPS M1730 is a cool gaming laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X7900 clocked at 2.8 GHz. It also features high end dual SLI NVidia 8700M GTs with total of 512 MB of ram.

Well within $2000 you can get a Asus G1S-A11 5.4” 1680×1050 laptop, it has Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz T7500, GeForce 8600M GT 256mb GDDR3. Normally priced below $2000.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

The dv9700t is also under $2000 but you can get a T9300, 3GB RAM, 17" screen, and 512MB 8600M.