Possibly buying a new laptop...need suggestions

RuneLateralus · Otaku Knight Gender: Joined: 27 Sep 2002

As you know I need a great graphics laptop since I am 3D animator/modeller, so I have been looking. Here are the two I noticed so far:

Dell Inspirion 9300 $1,884.00

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 (2 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
80GB 5400rpmHard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)
Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr HW Warranty Support
9 Cell Lithium Battery

HP Pavillion zd8000 $1,774.00

Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional with SP2
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 630 w/HT Technology, 3.0GHz
17.0" WXGA+ Wide Viewing (1440x900)
1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 533MHz (2x512MB)
100 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600
12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Which one might be the best buy? The Pavillion has the best processing power, but is not as mobile as the Dell, but the graphics of the Dell are not to be thrown out of.

GAAZ · MOD Black Sheep Commander Gender: Joined: 14 Oct 2002

Neither...Dell is a crappy company and HP is teamed with Compaq.

Hmmm, no one else though. I'd say the HP but see if you can get and AMD Turion.

Shino · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:49 am Post subject:

I have to side with Gaaz on this one.

Dell has lost their edge in most things with me b/c of the way they treat customers and how they make people think they are getting a deal then bend them over with other stuff... like shipping for instance.

HP + Compaq I'm not fond of b/c their quality isn't always of the highest standards.

I'm also with Gaaz on the AMD idea. AMDs are much more efficient and they cost less.

Check on Tiger Direct. They have tons of sales going on right now considering it's the holiday season. I get their newsletter via email. If I seen anything, I'll post it and let you know.

Kugyou · Katori Shintaro! Age: 44 Gender: Joined: 26 Sep 2005

Rune, don't listen to these two. Feel free to spend your money however you like - I mean, it's your right to get an Inspiron whose exhaust fan may die after a few weeks, or whose motherboard may fry because of a faulty power supply; you're also free to buy any laptop with an Intel processor and watch your power bills double - with the added bonus of watching your laptop make your furniture melt!

And don't forget about Dell's wonderful tech support! When they can speak English, they'll be more than happy to inform you that non-functional fans just mean that the computer's not hot enough to need one, and that shorted-out motherboards are caused by faulty wiring in your house!

On the other hand, you could be a sheep and buy an HP Pavilion with any of the AMD Mobile processors like my mother-in-law. Oh, *sure* her laptop hasn't had any problems with the hardware, or with software incompatibilities, but...

Ah, screw it, I can't even keep the ruse up anymore. Intel sucks "raccoon pouches" in the laptop processor market, and Dell just isn't there anymore.

Shino · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 2:00 pm Post subject:

hahaha... PO <3 Kugyou!

Well for me, the final straw with Dell was when they offered a 400 computer... then gave you free shipping at 550... Then if you want just the 400 computer, the charge you 100 shipping.

bastards!

Therin · Gloompf. Iggle! Gender: Joined: 24 Sep 2002

Spend the $30 or so and get "Building Laptops for Dummies." Then you can go ahead and just buy parts, hopefully reducing the cost by a third or so :p

ToolMan · Rookie Gender: Joined: 14 Jun 2003

if you are looking to spend that amount of money I would be looking more for a sony or toshiba. They both have better monitors and video than the average. They both have the longest rated battery life stock from the factory. Most importanty they can be purchased locally without having to deal with shipping and if you so choose you can purchase an extended warranty so if any thing goes wrong you can get it repaired or replaced locally.

Shandriz · Your Death Shall be Swift Gender: Joined: 28 Sep 2003

OMG TOOLMAN POST! *dies*

Blackmage · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:43 pm Post subject:

I wish there was a good alternative to alienware, I love their FX 57 GeForce 7800 GTX Go laptop, but they over over over over overcharged for it.

RuneLateralus · Otaku Knight Gender: Joined: 27 Sep 2002

I found a couple other options that look nice...and even cheaper:

Option 1 - Battalion 101 CL-Turbo ($1,426.00):

Case ( Battalion-101 CL-Turbo [AMD] Series 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter Original Metallic Silver Color )
Processor ( Mobile AMD® Turion™64 MT-37 CPU [2.0GHz, 1MB Cache] w/Hyper Transport Technology )
Memory ( 1024MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC-3200 [Notebook Memory] Major Brand )
Video Card ( [New !!!] Mobility 128MB ATI Radeon X700 PCI-Express 3D Video )
Hard Drive ( 60 GB 7200rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8X Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive [CL-Turbo] )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Notebook] )
Network Card ( Build-in 10/100 Network LAN [Notebook] )
Mouse ( None )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 4x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] )
Carrying Case ( None )
Operation System ( MS Windows XP Home Edition w/Service Pack-2 )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
MP3 Player ( None )
TV Tuner ( None )
Video Camera ( None )
Headset ( None )
Wireless Network Adapter ( [FREE] Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module )

Option 2 - Battalion 101 S-Turbo [AMD]-1 ($1,333.00):

Case ( Battalion-101 S-Turbo[AMD] Series 15.4" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Original Metallic Silver Color )
Processor ( Mobile AMD® Athlon-64 3000+ CPU )
Memory ( 1024MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC-3200 [Notebook Memory] Major Brand )
Video Card ( Mobility 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 256-bit 3D Video )
Hard Drive ( 60 GB 7200rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [Special !!!] 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [S-Series] )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.90 Fax Modem [Notebook] )
Network Card ( Build-in 10/100 Network LAN [Notebook] )
Mouse ( None )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] )
Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case )
Operation System ( MS Windows XP Home Edition w/Service Pack-2 )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
MP3 Player ( None )
TV Tuner ( [USB 2.0] Kworld Xpert TV-PVR TV-Tuner w/Remote )
Video Camera ( None )
Headset ( None )
Wireless Network Adapter ( [FREE] Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module

From the look of things, these should be good for multitasking (good for running Maya or After Effects with Photoshop) and should be good for those "recreational" *cough*games*cough* moments (even possibly might do a somewhat decent job playing F.E.A.R.).

But, the company (www.ibuypower.com) doesn't exactly have the best reputation around. While most of the complaints do come from their desktops, they do have some notebook issues that I seen in company opinions I found online (mainly dealing with their customer service department).