$3.5-4K for a laptop, hmmmmm......

[Gus the Mus]

Well I've got a dilemma here. I'm expecting an answer back from my boss tomorrow as to whether he's going to put up the cash for a new laptop for me. I'm looking at the $3500-4000 range & I want intel core-duo, decent graphics card for gaming, mimimum 1Gig ram & probably 17" WUXGA screen but may settle for a 15.4". Any recommendations of what I should get? This will serve as a workstation during the day & a gaming/surfing pc at night sitting on my lap on the couch. Don't want a mac either.

[Kharn]

Macbook Pro

* 15.4-inch widescreen display
* Up to 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
* 667MHz frontside bus and main memory
* PCI Express architecture
* Up to 120GB Serial ATA hard drive
* ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with up to 256MB memory on 16-lane PCI Express
* ExpressCard/34 slot
* Dual-link DVI, VGA adapter included
* One FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports
* Optical digital and analog audio I/O, built-in microphone and stereo speakers
* Slot-loading SuperDrive
* Illuminated keyboard, Scrolling TrackPad
* Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11g), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and Gigabit Ethernet
* Mac OS X Tiger with iLife ’06 featuring iWeb, iWork ’06 trial and more


Plus its the best looking laptop, is less than 3kg in weight and has a 3hr - 5hr battery life.

Dualboot Windows XP and OSX, its a match made in heaven.

[Gus the Mus]

Thanks for that, not really looking for a mac though & please, nobody turn this into a mac v pc debate. I just want a pc type laptop, that's all.

[Viper]

Originally Posted by Gus the Mus

Thanks for that, not really looking for a mac though & please, nobody turn this into a mac v pc debate. I just want a pc type laptop, that's all.

Not Turning this into a mac VS PCs debate. But the MAC actually runs Winxp faster then a normal PC. Using Intel Processors, the new Mac's ARE PC's

Otherwise, go and look at the Toshiba P100, or the Dell 9400

[-BLiTz1911]

Asus V1J - 15" thin and light, Duo 1.86, x1600

[Beaner]

Originally Posted by Viper

Not Turning this into a mac VS PCs debate. But the MAC actually runs Winxp faster then a normal PC. Using Intel Processors, the new Mac's ARE PC's

Otherwise, go and look at the Toshiba P100, or the Dell 9400

God I hate comments like this. Macs run Windows XP the same speed as an excactly the same specced PC. Any benchmark that suggest otherwise is rigged.


So why say "MAC actually runs Winxp faster then a normal PC" Especially considering there are no 3d Video card drivers available for any Mac running Windows XP currently.

[kendals]

Haha, I love comments like yours! They're even better!

God I hate comments like this. Macs run Windows XP the same speed as an excactly the same specced PC. Any benchmark that suggest otherwise is rigged.


So why say "MAC actually runs Winxp faster then a normal PC" Especially considering there are no 3d Video card drivers available for any Mac running Windows XP currently.

Macs DO run Windows XP faster, as was shown in a NON-selective benchmark (a few actually).

In fact, here's a quick quote from gearlogs.com- an unbiased source of IT info, who aren't slanted in their views like you:

PC Magazine Desktops maven Joel Santo Domingo (at right in the picture above) ran some benchmarks on the three machines, and came up with surprising results. The MacBook Pro is the fastest Core Duo laptop we've tested running the Photoshop scripts. It's faster than other laptops originally designed for Windows. This bodes very well for the performance of an Intel-accelerated OS X Photoshop, when that finally appears.

Here's a link to them, and then to the PC Mag. review:

http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/arc...3/21/8212.aspx
http://www.pcmag.com/author_bio/0,1908,a=188,00.asp

I bet you're feeling a bit silly now, hey! The only thing the Mac is performing slower in that matters for running XP is gaming, and only because they've only JUST set up a hombrew version of the boot to run XP, and the gfx drivers are the next thing to be ...functional and not 'just working at average level'....oh, and the other thing was windows media encoding- honestly- how many of us use this? PS won out, as did many other tasks shown in the benchmarks.

It doesn't come down to having the same 'specs'. It comes down to Macs having obviously better components, and a superb configuration to optimise this further. I love naieve comments like yours that have NO base, no leg to stand on- you aren't even hopping here. If you're going to cry bloody Mary and scream how rigged and bias and subjective and useless the benchmarks are, at least have some prior knowledge and investigate- how about running your own tests before shooting off at how equal the playing field is between all these machines running XP.

Honestly....

EDIT: Just for fun, here's some other opinions on the benchmarks and Mac/XP stuff in general: http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardwar.../1717259.shtml.

I'd go with a Toshiba or even a Vaio for that much...

[Gus the Mus]

Please refer to my earlier quote

Originally Posted by Gus the Mus

not really looking for a mac though & please, nobody turn this into a mac v pc debate. I just want a pc type laptop, that's all.

I'm definately going to be gaming on this thing & I'd like to be able to right from the word go. I can get a 9400 with the T2600(2.16Gig core-duo), 2Gig 667 ram, 100Gig 7200rpm HDD, 17" WUXGA(1920x1200), 7800go, 3 year complete warranty & accident/theft & pretty much all the other trimmings for just under $4K. Assuming my boss comes to the party, I haven't found anything better at this point. I'd have to wait a couple of weeks or so until the next batch of 7800s turn up but that's fine.

[Kelvin]

Originally Posted by Gus the Mus

Please refer to my earlier quote

I'm definately going to be gaming on this thing & I'd like to be able to right from the word go. I can get a 9400 with the T2600(2.16Gig core-duo), 2Gig 667 ram, 100Gig 7200rpm HDD, 17" WUXGA(1920x1200), 7800go, 3 year complete warranty & accident/theft & pretty much all the other trimmings for just under $4K. Assuming my boss comes to the party, I haven't found anything better at this point. I'd have to wait a couple of weeks or so until the next batch of 7800s turn up but that's fine.

Make sure you get the bluetooth option, the 9 cell battery and the SPIF / TV out cable and the spare ac adaptor.. and a bag would be nice... Its very hard to find a good bag to fit these things in....

Spare AC adpator is handy.. one in the bag and one on the desk (the best investment of $30...)

[Ionos]

That Mac is very expensive for what you get.

Gus the Mus, if you check out the Dell website current promotions you can get a Inspirion 6400 specced out with - 2.0 ghz Core Duo, 2GB Ram, 100GB HDD, ATIx1400 256MB graphics and a 1680x1050 15.4" screen for just over $2500. Bloody bargin if you ask me.

EDIT: That 9400 you specced out looks quite good too, albeit more expensive. Is portability important? The 17" Notebooks are quite large and a pain if you want to carry it around all day (I had a 15.4" and that wasn't great either, but manageable)

[Gus the Mus]

Portability isn't a concern for me really, I'll be taking it to work & it'll sit on my desk all day & then take it home & use it in the lounge room at night. The 9400 I've spec'd up has basically all the top components & add-ins except for extra software & phone support which I don't need. It's got built in bluetooth, wireless, etc, etc.

[dexster]

We both seem to be on the same boat... looking to spend about 3.5k on a not so portable lap-top

being looking around for about 3 months now and the best value for money seems to be dell!!!

their inspiron range especially the 9400 are excellent and when im ready i will probably get a dell

[Witch]

Originally Posted by -BLiTz1911

Asus V1J - 15" thin and light, Duo 1.86, x1600

Mind double-checking that model number? I can't find it

A thousand thankyous

[googlevich]

I just picked up a Toshiba A7, its pretty sweet. Basically a macbook pro in a pc version.

Check it out.

[Gecko]

The Sony Vaios are pretty nice - expensive but you can see why as soon as you open up the box. I have an older one on my lap right now - 14.1" screen etc and accross the desk from me is one of their new ultra portable ones (not for me though sadly).


All powerful lappies are pretty heavy though - so make sure you take that into consideration if you're going to be carrying it around a lot.