So it's time to buy a laptop...

Demiurge

All these posts and every brand sucks and is also the greatest. :eek:

MSALLA

I don't think any of them suck. You buy what you need. Some are stronger then others. Some have higher end hardware. I paid 699 for the Gateway I just bought. The case is not the strongest but I don't take it out of the house I just wanted to save space.

audiobliss

Speaking of Gateway, Dad's last laptop is a Gateway.

He's a SnapOn dealer, so he takes his laptop out on the road 5 (errr, now only 4) days a week, bouncing up and down the road in a big ol' truck, cradled in a hard wooden computer area. At any rate, all his laptops have to withstand a slightly elevated from usual amount of abuse. He's always had great luck with Compaq (4, at least), had one Toshiba, one Sony (kept it about 2 days...didn't work with his program), and now Gateway.

Anyhoo, about a week after Dad got his Gateway, he was coming in the door one evening, walking up the brick steps, and dropped it. It fell right on the corner of one of the bricks on the edge. Put a nice little crease in the door to the memory compartment, but it still works just fine.

Not saying the Gateway is really all that tough, obviously he got lucky with that, but still it's a testament to the laptop's ruggedness.

ledhed

MSALLA wrote: »

We use the Insprion's at work. I have 2 of them but for highend internals, the options are limited. Your not going to get a system that is able to do extensive grafix work until you get up to the XPS.

Sorry I didn't clarify. I meant the Inspiron's are the lowest level and the Latitude and Precision lines are higher quality - these are of course Dell's lines.

I found this neat video while going through Dell's site: Video Durability Test

I'm not throwing out all this Dell stuff because I'm a fan or anything - It's the only big company that offers what I want and thus I've spent alot of time there lately.

kab

My experience with Dell has been awful. I bought a loaded Dell laptop ($2500) for my daughter in college. And, though I never buy extended warranties, I did this time. Thank god.

The Dell was 2 years old this past Christmas. The mother board has gone up twice. The DVD drive one time. The charger three times. They finally sent her a brand new one in early December. It started having problems within the month. Last month I gave up on the Dell and bought my daughter an Apple notebook. Guess what...not one single problem. It has worked perfectly.

Although I'd love to have an Apple for myself, I switched about 14 yrs ago because of connectivity problems I was experiencing in the office environment. My last 3 laptops have been IBMs. They've been dropped, been kicked, and have been x-rayed at too many airports to remember. My experience is that they're built like tanks. I have an X40 and love it.

exalted512

Airplay, look at the XPS line for Dell. Theyre usually cheaper if you can find a base model with the options than you want other than taking an inspirion and upgrading it to the features you want.
-Cody

Airplay355

There aren't any base models with what I want. You pretty much have to change everything

When the XPS first came out I wanted one so badly haahaa.

accasbel

IBM/Lenovo keyboards & poionter are the best out there... And the screens are almost the best. The machines are conservative and built for daily duty. Dells, HP, and Toshibas, in my humble opinion, are built for every-other-day use.

Airplay355

The vaio I'm thinking about claims to have PC2-4200 667 mhz RAM in it but I can't find RAM like that. I can only find PC2-4200 533mhz RAM.

Did sony **** up? I want to find out how expensive it would be to buy another GB of RAM from someone besides Sony or if it's just worth buying the extra GB from them. So does that type of RAM even exist?

audiobliss

What's the deal with Dell's Latitude series?

ledhed

Airplay355 wrote:

The vaio I'm thinking about claims to have PC2-4200 667 mhz RAM in it but I can't find RAM like that. I can only find PC2-4200 533mhz RAM.

I can't find any either. i would send an e-mail to customer service.

audiobliss wrote:

What's the deal with Dell's Latitude series?

It's their 'business' line. The Precision series is their workstation line. Both have many features that the Inspiron doesn't such as all metal construction, sealed keyboards and even North American based Tech Support. The Precision line goes further and actually has technicians trained for workstation applications.

Here's what Dell says:

Dell wrote:

Inspiron vs. Latitude
While Inspiron notebooks offer great performance at an aggressive price, users who require a fast notebook that emphasizes networkability, total cost of ownership, long-term stability and rock-solid performance should look to the Latitude family of business-class notebooks.

Inspiron vs. Dell Precision
Dell PrecisionTM workstations are certified to run a variety of workstation-class applications and are optimized for the high performance requirements and processing demands necessary for many engineering, finance, software development, digital content creation, digital video editing and GIS applications.

audiobliss

Thanks for the run down.

ledhed

audiobliss wrote:

Thanks for the run down.

Here's a nice link for all the info I forgot it in my last post - LINKY

audiobliss

Ok, folks, how's this sound (not to steal your thread, Airsupply...well, not too much...:D):

A Dell Latitude? I can get one spec'd out the same for cheaper than either an XPS or an Inspiron, if I'm looking at things correctly.

Dell Latitude D820
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 667Mhz Dual Core
Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2, with media
15.4 inch Wide Screen WUXGA LCD Panel
2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache™ (I realize that's not for gaming...but wouldn't it suffice for gaming?)
120GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM
Touchpad with UPEK® Fingerprint Reader (just for fun )
8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio Digital Media™ and Cyberlink Power DVD™
Dell Wireless™ 1390 802.11g Mini Card

Price: $1,868.24

Comparable XPS:
Dell XPS M1710 Metallic Black
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Professional
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ HD Software Edition
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)

Price: $2,676.96

Comparable Inspiron:
E1505 Dual Core
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium + Belkin Easy Transfer Cable (ugh...wanted XP Pro)
15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™
120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)

Price: $1,686.96


There, all three. I was surprised that the Inspiron was so much cheaper. Hmmm.

ledhed

That's pretty similar to the Precision I'm looking at.

The graphics card only has 128MB of onboard and shares the RAM to get 256MB

I personally wouldn't get a HDD slower than 7200RPM

Also, it is usually cheaper to buy the lowest amount of RAM and HDD then upgrade yourself.

What are you going to be using this for? The Quadro card is made for graphics intensive apps like CAD, Photoshop, After Effects, Maya etc. If you aren't going to be using these then you'd be better off with one of the nice ATI cards (If you can handle having an ATI card... )

The laptop advisor does a good job on telling you what you need - Link

audiobliss

Thanks for your input; much appreciated.

Whenever I buy a new laptop, it'll be used for surfing the web, word processing, music, some videos, though no major video editing, and some gaming. Not really big into gaming at the moment, but I want it to be able to do games justice.

The only reason I went with that video card is...it's the only one offered for that laptop! lol And, I must have XP Pro. I do NOT want Vista.

I didn't know it was easier to replace the HDD. Then I would have to reinstal the OS and all the drivers. I really don't think I'd want to get into all that.

audiobliss

I added a comparable XPS laptop to my previous post, and you can see the HUGE difference in price. Which doesn't make sense. I'll also add one like that from the Inspiron line ASAP.

ledhed

I'm not sure about the Latitude but with the Precision, you can get a disc of all the drivers at no additional cost. I'm going to get Vista and if I don't like it install XP (I have an XP Pro disc)

audiobliss

ledhed wrote: »

I'm not sure about the Latitude but with the Precision, you can get a disc of all the drivers at no additional cost. I'm going to get Vista and if I don't like it install XP (I have an XP Pro disc)

Yeah, drrrr. I even checked that little box to get the free drivers, then forgot about it. Good plan, as I have a few XP Pro discs as well.

If you haven't noticed, I added XPS and Inspiron laptops above, as well, for comparison's sake.

RuSsMaN

Good experiences with Dell, mom's Latitude has been in service for about 5 years, only had to replace the keypad because she wore out the letters and couldn't see what was what.

Bought a Sony Vaio about 6 months ago, typing on it now, so far so good - knock on wood. I run wireless, play SOME games - use it mostly for surfing, email, IM, selling gear, and as a music server for the whole house rig with an external WD hd.

Cheers,
Russ

ledhed

All of those are nice, real nice. I'd spring for the Latitude, I think it is worth the extra $200. You are definitely getting more than you need but, might as well.
You may want to look into getting an expansion dock so you can easily keep a standard monitor, mouse, keyboard but just easily undock for when you want to take it with you.

Also be aware that TurboCache and HyperMemory mean that it achieves the maximum graphics RAM by sharing system memory. With those two computers, they have 128MB standard.

audiobliss

I see. Thanks for pointing that out about the memory. Kind of a bummer.

Why do you like the latitude over the Inspiron? It'll be a while before I blow any money on a laptop since mine, while old, is still working.

I don't *think* I'm much interested in a docking station. I have a desktop, and I don't think I'm very fond of having a laptop instead of a desktop. Not sure yet, though.

ledhed

Well, all metal construction, sealed keyboard and North American tech support. It seems they are assembled to a higher standard.

My laptop will totally replace my desktop, thus I'm getting a docking station. The nice one also gives a PCI expansion slot so I'm going to put a nice soundcard in there (M-audio Audiophile 2496). Then again, I'm only going to be taking it on trips and when I go home so mine will be a desktop replacement for all purposes.

Airplay355

I wish I could get a docking station, but for $249 I will just unplug things.

I don't have the room for a desktop in a college dorm and I'll need to take it to class so I definitely need a laptop.

audiobliss

Airplay355 wrote: »

I wish I could get a docking station, but for $249 I will just unplug things.

I don't have the room for a desktop in a college dorm and I'll need to take it to class so I definitely need a laptop.

Wow, that's gotta be a SMALL dorm!

I definitely like the idea of having a desktop and a laptop, though I don't think it'd be too hard to live off just a laptop.

Airplay355

Well I have room lol, but why waste the extra room with a desktop when Icould just get a laptop. Plus I need to take it to class.

Airplay355

I looked at alienware desktops and not only can you load it with 1gb of video ram but you can get a seperate card just for processing physics alone.

Imaging the gaming you could do with a comp like that? Wow!

MSALLA

Airplay355 wrote: »

I looked at alienware desktops and not only can you load it with 1gb of video ram but you can get a seperate card just for processing physics alone.

Imaging the gaming you could do with a comp like that? Wow!

Alienware makes great gaming systems. If a computer will run games good it will do everything else good too. I'm not sure but I think Alien is a division of dell.

exalted512

Yup, Dell bought alienware recently.
-Cody