VANITY: Any (constructive) Advice on a new laptop

[Maceman]

OK Freepers --

I have decided to buy a new laptop to replace my five-year old Dell desktop (which has performed well all this time).

I don't do much traveling, and am willing to accept a little higher weight in order to have a 17" display, which is important to me.

I have ruled out a Mac because my whole professional life requires MS Office Suite Pro, and I have determined that having that functionality on a Mac just isn't worth the expense.

My instinct is to go with Dell, since my last several Dell computers have been good, but lately I have been hearing a lot of horror stories about Dell products and service.

Minimum Requirements are:

*17" widescreen display
*speed
*strong multitasking ability
*Excellent wireless
*Generous number of USB ports
*Good reliability and post-sale customer service
*Run XP Pro and MS Office Pro
*Room to grow in terms of handling new business web applications that are likely to arise in the next 3-4 years.

I'd also like to have a really good graphics and video viewing, but probably don't need top of the line because I am not into sophisticated video games, video editing, audio recording, photoshopping, and things like that.

I'd like to keep the price under $2k (including the case) if possible.

Any thoughts about which vendor I should use (Dell, HP, Sony, Toshiba, Acer, others), and maybe even which model to consider?

As always, knowledgable input from fellow Freepers is greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

[taxed2death]

I've had pretty good luck with HP laptops. Buy as much RAM as you can possibly afford.

[stainlessbanner]

Tech-support ping

[llevrok]

Get something with chrome-molly pitons and you are in good shape.

[farlander]

I've had a DELL Inspiron for a year, and have had a relationship with DELL for far longer than that. Never had any problems, and always had great service from their small business reps.

Whatever you get, get lots of RAM (2G or better), and a hard disk with 7500 RPM or better.

[taxcontrol]

Additional bump for max ram. I have always favored Toshiba, HP and IBM .... though I travel a lot and need more rugged models.

[kinoxi]

Mixed results with Toshiba. Cannot recommend.

[MAD-AS-HELL]

Get an Apple macbook and investment in Parallels software that allows you to run windows at the same time http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/. You get photo and Dv editing sofware out of the box with imovie and iphoto. You'll get Mac OS X which is more stable and better integrated with Apple hardware than win XP. Apple is known for it's support. Dell has taken some huge hits in the customer service area.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/0.RSLID?mco=A4791B5D&nclm=MacBook

[Nat Turner]

I guess you did not get the memo that

A. MS OFFICE exists in the MAC format

B. Mac's can run Windows XP

[indcons]

You might want to reconsider the new Mac laptops with the Intel chipsets. They allow you to dual boot from both Mac OS and Windoze. You won't have ANY problems running Windows-based apps.

[Dick Vomer]

i'm liking my MacBook Pro...

it runs excel, word and power point...and everything I hook up to it works...I've just gone over to Apple after 16 years with Win software..

I spent about 3200 with software, wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, Final Cut Pro and Microsoft bundled program for professionals so that I can do the documents for work.

I'm told you can even run window on a parallel partition on this computer, but it works so well I don't want to try it

[tje]

I just got an HP nw9440 (though it also says Compaq on it).. 17 inch screen, 2GB ram.. Nvidia graphics, DVD/CD writer..

Nice box..but it's big to lug around..

[JerseyHighlander]

I'm about to buy a Dell d820 myself. It's only a 15.4" screen though.

1. Make sure you know the terminology of high end mobile video cards. 512mb turbocaching has 256mb gpu RAM on the card, and 256mb shared RAM from the sodimm ram.

2. If you have a real estate agent in your family, ask them to buy you the laptop. Nat'l Assoc. of Realtors has a incredible discount program with dell.

3. Realize that Dell's current vid cards will be the largest limiting factor in your laptop if you go with a high end dual core 2.16 ghz cpu 512MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache™ pretty much is not a gaming card, nor is it for video editing. It does great for cadd or technical drawings though.

4. If you can hold out until October, the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 667Mhz Dual Core will be widely available, they have better power management than the Intel® Core™ Duo T2600 (2.16GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core currently available, and they cost the same right now. But the Intel® Core™ Duo T2600 (2.16GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core will probably have a price drop in mid-October.

5. get 2 gb ddr2-667 ram, and a hdd with 7200 rpm, and 8mb cache

6. all of the dell 9 cell batteries stick out of the laptop body. it's a bit annoying.

7. All the D line have a ridiculous side usb where the 2 usb ports are so close together you can't use both at the same time with the vast majority of usb connectors.

8. If you want to go with a whitebook, i.e. a manufacturer direct laptop, try these guys http://www.btotech.com/ , i've been pricing out laptops for last 2 weeks, they had the best prices for Asus certified VAR's. 2nd best price quote i got behind the Realtor discount from Dell.

Best of luck finding yourself a notebook.

[kinoxi]

You'll get many responses from Mac-heads with an open question like this. Stick to what you know. Get a slower processor if you need extended battery life (a plus) and definitely more RAM in general.

[martin_fierro]

Any (constructive) Advice on a new laptop

pffft. You forget where you are.

< |:)~

[Turbopilot]

I have been fantastically impressed by Sony's service and support since I bought my Vaio laptop late last year. They are also available with big, wide, high-res LCDs that are commonly acknowledged as the best in the industry.

Dell seems to be somewhat hit-or-miss; I've had a couple I've been happy with, but also heard a number of horror stories. They do have very good business support (ALWAYS order from the "small business" phone line or web site, NEVER the "home" site), but Sony was willing to do everything Dell did.

HP has had serious problems with their power systems, both AC and battery, dating at least back to the Compaq merger. If you keep your laptop for a year or more, you stand an extremely high chance of having to replace your battery, an internal power supply control, or both. Service is terrible as they will make you ship the computer to the other end of the country and wait six weeks for a repair. I cannot encourage you strongly enough to avoid HP based on my own personal experience and objective reviews.

[Maceman]

3. Realize that Dell's current vid cards will be the largest limiting factor in your laptop if you go with a high end dual core 2.16 ghz cpu 512MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache™ pretty much is not a gaming card, nor is it for video editing. It does great for cadd or technical drawings though.

Thank you so much for your very helpful perspective.

I am not quite sure I understand what you are saying in the above statement. Are you saying that Dell's current vid cards are not very good, and will not support gaming? Or are you saying that the Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache is the only card they have that does?

Also, how significant is the difference in Dell's vid cards to overall performance? The card that comes with the notebook I am considering is the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 2500M (512MB).

I am considering the Dell Precision M90. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks again for your insight.

[JerseyHighlander]

True, i posted that at lunch, a bit confusing reply indeed.
I don't know your needs, understand that the Quadro® FX 2500M is made for 3D rendering, not 2D rendering, the card is overkill if the most you do is Photoshop or Corel Draw.

if you buy the 2.16 ghz core duo,
1. the 512MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache™ will be maxed out before the 2.16 ghz core duo cpu for most new games. I.E. the Quadro NVS 120M with a t2600 2.16 ghz cpu will get almost same gaming performance as the t2500 2.00 ghz cpu.
2. the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 2500M (512MB) you are looking is absolutely not for gaming. It is arguably one of the three best video cards for technical (CAD, vidoe rendering etc) and video editing available right now.
3. http://www.cooltechzone.com/Reviews/Video_Reviews/NVIDIA_Quadro_FX3400:_A_Quick_Look_200601302176/
It's an article about available NVidia cards

4. The XPS 1710 is the same as the M90 (same chassis) you looked at, but it has the option for the 512MB NVIDIATM GeForceTM Go 7900 GTX Graphics Card card, which is one of the 3 best GAMING specific cards on the market now. also more expensive. I don't know about prices, it was above my needs.