nyte_i

i'm looking to buy a new laptop.
so far i'm looking at a dell inspiron 8500.
or voodoopc laptop
any other suggestions?

The_Dude

check out alienware @ www.alienware.com

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Kyp

Alienware is overpriced...

Try www.powernotebooks.com, and especially read their "Name brand" laptop article if nothing else.

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Mephisto2

Dell actually make good laptops. Especially if you pay the extra couple of hundred bucks for a 3 year warranty.

Well worth the price.

Mr Mephisto

charliex

yep sager for performance (heavy though) or dell

Hold off a bit the M10 should just be around the corner if its not here already, email and ask but they might fib to get you to buy now

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.html

i have a tricked out 8887 and its faaaast.

Ashton

I have a Toshiba Satellite 1955-S805, Pentium 4 2.53GHz, 512MB SDRAM, 60.0GB HD, 16.0” SXGA DISPLAY, DVD-R/RW multi-function drive, Windows XP...... It kicks Ass

darkure

I hear IBM laptops are pretty nice too. I only have a desktop so I have no experience to base this on...only what I hear from my laptop-owning friends.

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COYW

hello.jpg

Get an ibook or a powerbook, you will never regret

OS X is amazing. I have an ibook myself.

sixate

This months Maximum PC compares a Voodoo Envy M460 against a Dell Inspiration 8500. Voodoo is waaaay better! Plus it has the Mobility Radeon 9600 which is the best 3D accelerator for laptops on the market. I haven't looked around to see what it costs, but I have a feeling it's expensive as hell.

hello.jpg

why would you waste tons of money on a laptop that can play games, but then is hot and heavy and does not have a long battery life?


IMO, if you want to play games do it on your desktop.

Kyp

You can also get a Sager with the 9600 for about $500 cheaper and about equal to the VoodooPC.

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scope

Pretty Wallpaper

Well, If you can shell out the money, I would go with a Dell Laptop. They're surprisingly good...especially some of the more compact models. And their tech support isnt bad either...

charliex

Because its portable, some stuff needs a fast CPU and good gfx that aren't games.

I have two laptops, one HP for light use that i carry around a lot, and my sager which i only take when i need it, coz it is heavy, some of the sagers can have dual batteries too.

if i really need the extra run time, i use one of those under the laptop battery extenders, but pretty much anywhere i need it has power.

poof

What Kyp and Mephisto said. Do a search of the TFP and see what IBM offers, quality stuff. Expensive, but, quality.

Mephisto2

For the record, I use IBM laptops. My work pays for them and I have had a T20, T22, T30 and now the T40.

All very good.

The only reason I didn't recommend them is the price!

Mr Mephisto

catback

For the best I go alienware

ironx

HP/Compaq ones are pretty good imho, we have 2 across my family, both very new.

Both blazing' 2.66GHz's, ATI Radeon, 40GB HDD's CD-RW/DVD Combo drive, wireless lan ready, 15' screen, and 192mb of DDR-RAM, and kick-ass JBL pro speakers.

Devilchild

Alienware has to be the greatest systems on earth, but also one of the most expensive, get one if your rich, shop around if your not, take a look at http://www.novatech.co.uk they are always good for a cheep deal

Fat_Boy

I use Dell for my work and travel everyday. I have never had a problem with Dell laptops and I beat them up pretty good.

They are pretty responsive with the Warranty, of course they are probably faster for a business compared to personal.

Peutetre

I've been looking for laptops recently as well.. I really like this sony vaio..
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...rs_V505BSeries

it's too cute! but way too expensive for me..

Great Scott

Was thinking about getting this one for myself. There's a firm that sellls them quite close to me. Would be about 1500 dollars for the one with a 40GIG HD and 512 RAM. Would LOVE to hear some opinions.

http://solution.aopen.com.tw/products/nb/1555G.htm

Though not quite sager or alienware it seems like much more bang for the buck than the brand names.

sakvee

I just bought thr latest and greatest Dell Inspirion 8500

This is my second dell lappy and i'm well impressed, all the features you would ever need (well for the next 6 months anyway) Much better specs for the price than many of the other big pc companies.

Mesmerize

Vaio's are pretty good. Same stuff that's in other laptops, but without the cheap-ass plastic case. You know that ripple that you get when you push on the back of the LCD? Everytime I tap the back of a Dell it does that, but with my Vaio I have to actually push.

IBM = Overpriced.

If you want the absolute fastest laptop around, get the voodoo. Personally I like this one. They have a couple that are bigger/faster, but this one will still murder just about any other laptop, and it only weighs 5.5 pounds. The next one up weighs like 13, and they have one that's even bigger.

GarthInPittsburgh

If this is for games, go for the voodoo, it's good performance, and it's got better battery life and size than the alienware...

If you're not doing games, I'd say go for a powerbook, they're amazing.

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Frozen North

Dell Insprion 5150:
3.06 GHz processor
60GB HD
512MB RAM (1 DIMM)
ATI Radeon 9000 64MB
24x CD-RW/DVD combo drive
Win XP Pro
nice nylon carrying case
at least 3 hours of battery life as long as I don't use a CD/DVD

All for under $2000. No complaints so far, I highly recommend it.

neoinoakleys

"Alienware" or "powernotebooks" are the BOMB!!

If you want something a bit more practical, get a Sony Vaio...I love the HELL out of mine...:-)

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tinfoil

Dell makes a sweet lappy with one hell of a warranty, if you shell out for the good one.

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ack32

You can't go wrong with IBM, I'd have to say that their warranty service is great (having used it over the years with a few different laptops) and the build quality of the Thinkpads (T & X series) is very good. Plus with the matte black finish on the display top and all black exteriour, it looks pretty slick. For all the whiners complaining about price, I agree they can get pretty expensive to buy top of the line new, but I've bought three Thinkpads off of eBay and never had a problem with warranty service and the prices are very reasonable. Just an idea!

marcopolo

I'm also jumping on the IBM bandwagon .
We just recently purchased a IBM Thinkpad R40e .
You cant go wrong with any IBM laptop .

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brandon11983

This thread seems to be PC biased. I have been drooling over the 15" PowerBook with SuperDrive for a month now. I'm gonna pick me up one of those hot little numbers on Sept. 11 or 12.

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GarthInPittsburgh

He did appear to be looking at PC laptops, specifically, gaming laptops.

Otherwise, like I said, the powerbook is the way to go.



Personally, I'm torn. I want to get a new powerbook, but I also want to get a new g5, and an extra PC gaming rig. meh.

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rmarshall

I just bought the same thing. But I got the DVD+RW and used the old leather laptop case. I got the fancy wireless a/b/g adapter. I got Office XP Pro with it.
The only complaints so far is that the plastic case is cheap and flexes. If you squeeze it while closed, you can turn it on! The touchpad occasionally pushes the left button by itself and the full duplex on the network adapter doesn't seem to work. It's the only computer on the hub that doesn't light up the bottom orange light. Maybe it's the cable.

charliex

i love my alienware'esq laptop, except for the wieght, but then i have a little 2.04 G HP for light travelling and i am looking to pick up an ultra lite for when i feel really lazy.

3.06 G HT P4
XP Pro
160G Hard disk
1G RAM
16" 1600x1200 LCD
internal 802.11
4 usb 2.0, 100m ethernet, parallel/serial (very useful when you need them)
Radeon 9000 with Tv Tuner and remote control
DVD+R /CD combo
'jukebox' ability (plays cds while off)
removeable mp3 player that doubles as an extra drive
custom 'chameleon' paint job that changes colour in the light

agball

Good choice, Ive seen it

Lucifer

Toshiba Satellite 2450!!
2.8 ghz
512 MB DDR SDRAM
80 GB HD
CD-RW/DVD ROM
Nvidia 32MB GeForce
15.1" TFT
It kicks ass and didn't cost the earth

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pinklily

wow, me too, thanks for the thread.

JohnnyRoyale

Ok, I'll admit I'm big on the Alienware Area 51-M, mostly cause it's what I' m using right now, but when I was looking, I was looking for something that had desktop power/speed, but I could lug it around. FYI, one of my first computers was a Compaq Portable 386, speaking of lugging.

Anyway, you might want to check out winbook at www.winbook.com. They've got desktop processor in a laptop systems too, and they're prices are pretty good.

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WarWagon

Dell 5150
60gb HD, 80gb Iomega external HD
15 inch UXGA display
p4 3.06 ghz, 1gb ram
DVD+CD/RW
Nvidia 64mb gforce 5200

There are only two things that piss me off about this laptop. First, I bought the thing in September and the hard drive was defective and crapped out twice, and it took 13 hours to ghost it to the replacement drive through a USB HD.

Second, the 5200 Gforce card is SHIT. Graphics are fine, WHEN IT WORKS. UT goes into "slow motion" at random intervals regardless of settings, Medal of Honor just freezes and crashes everything, and its all the result of the POS Nvidia card. When I can scrounge up 125 bucks, I'm going to order the 64mb ATI Radeon card instead and install it. Once thats in there, I'll be happier than a kid in a candy store with this thing.

It also does have a tendency to run hot, and it is pretty hefty, but it's also a pretty loaded system. I'll be getting a $10 card so that it has USB 2.0 capabilities, too.

R3d

check out www.voodoopc.com if you want top quality..

Fallon

here's an added question, whats a good one for cheap? Like under <$500