Thinking about buying a laptop: seeking advise

Ogbar · Post by **Ogbar** » December 5, 2006, 10:06 am

It's time for a new system, and I was thinking about getting a laptop this go around.

Workload:
1) Gaming (CoX, Everquest 2)
2) Digital photography support
- Editing (Adobe PS)
- Showing
- Not necessarily storage (have a desktop system that still has plenty of disk for that)
3) Text editing/email/browsing ... the usual crap

Networking:
1) Hardline hookup: 100Base-t sufficient
2) Wifi: nice to have (for use in coffee shops, etc. Not needed at home - yet)

Screen:
17"+, I reckon, for games and photo showing. Will also have an old, decent 21" tube monitor that I can pull from the boneyard for detailed PS work.

Graphics:
1) Don't mind investing tall here.
2) A good card (or card set) required for gaming
3) Want decent to good quality for photo displaying (in a pinch)
4) Video out a must, for monitor hookups

Processor:
I'm a long time Intel snob, but I'm keeping an open mind with this purchase. AMD or Intel is fine

Budget/Period of Performance:
TBD, but I'm keeping an open mind. Roughly $750/year is my mendoza line for desktops (though I tend to be below that due to greater than expected longevity). I fully expect a laptop (my first personal laptop) to run higher than that. I'll go $3K if I know I'll get a good 3+ years out of it.

Any thoughts on this process appreciated.

I've looked at Alienware so far. The m9700 (as configured, with twin graphics boards, at around $3k) looks like it has all the chops. I have no data points, though, as to how long they last, and what the expected longevity would be, and how good/bad their support is now that they're owned by Dell. I'm not sure who else to check out, so any advise in that department is welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

Drolgin Steingrinder · December 5, 2006, 10:45 am

Don't get an alienware, unless you want the fancy design.

An ODM named Clevo makes the Sager NP9890 and the Alienware Area-51 m7700, the Voodoo Envy u:703, the Hypersonic Aviator EX7, the Falcon Northwest FragBook DR 6800, and they are all the same computer (although Sager usually has the more advanced and exotic technology).

Go to http://www.powernotebooks.com and check out the Sager - it's the same exact machine, contentwise, and you'll pay a *lot* less.

Quanta makes machines for Dell (latitudes, XPS I think) and for Sony (Vaio) and AsusTek makes for a bunch of companies, including Apple (macbook and macbook pro).

I recently bought a XPS1210, Dell's mini 'gaming' laptop. It's not a powerpowerpowerhouse but with a 12" screen, that's not what you want anyway. It manages to nicely balance portability and horsepower and I'm able to run EQ2 in native resolution (1280x800) and run it fine.

Wow, messy writing on my part, sorry...

Anyway, just did a quick-and-dirty configuration on powernotebooks, using the Sager NP5760 FORCE as a template.

17" WUXGA "Super Clear Glossy" TFT Active Matrix screen
nVidia Geforce Go 7950 GTX w/ 512mb GDDR3 memory
Intel Core 2Duo T7400 2.16 GHz w/4M L2 Cache
2,048MB DDR2/667 Dual Channel Memory
80GB SATA/150 Hard Drive at 7.200 RPM
Combo 8x8x6x4 Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5xDVD-RAM 24xCD-R/RW Drive w/ software
Built-in Bluetooth Wireless version 1.2
Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g
3-year Parts and Labor, Lifetime 24/7 Toll Free Customer Service

coming out at $2869.26 with no OS installed.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » December 5, 2006, 12:58 pm

you can take or leave the rest of my ramblings in this post... but read this one good and hard: dont ever buy alienware

i just bought this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834224054

At 1K its an awesome deal. Ive had it for a month and I use it mostly for gaming, but also for audio recording. They also sent me a 3 ring binder that contained all of the software discs, licenses, warranties, manuals, and everything else organized neatly for me. A small thing, but its above the norm. I'll vouch for the brand.

3k might be overkill for your purposes. You could easily get away with 2k and still have no lost frames in EQ2 etc. Just make sure you get a good warranty if you spend that much and intend to make it a 3 year investment. Laptops are very fragile

Consider battery life as well. I went with a smaller screen to get a bit more out of the juice

Post by **pyrella** » December 5, 2006, 2:55 pm

I got a hp Pavilion dv8309us about a month and a half ago - 17" wide screen, gig of ram, 80g HD with room for another, 128m video card (more if you share system memory), etc, etc for under a grand. It plays WoW and BF2142 fairly well - Photoshop and such with no problems.

Ogbar · Post by **Ogbar** » December 6, 2006, 2:00 am

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Message heard loud and clear regarding Alienware

(Very) quick check of the high end Sager vs the high end Alienware showed some very comparable features at a significantly lower cost. I didnt readily see a match between a Sager model and the m9700, but I'll have more time to research that this coming weekend. I will also research the ABS and hp models then as well.

I also need to tighten up my specs to bring some sanity to the process.

A couple of other companies were recomended to me today: Falcon NW and Black Widow (? something like that, they weren't quite sure of the name). Any data points, good/bad/otherwise on those companies?

Thanks again

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » December 6, 2006, 5:07 pm

Why does everyone beat up on the Alienware's?

Noone seems to have one yet they bitch about the price.

They are definately overpriced but if you can afford also definately worth it. My floor's DSL went down in the dorms for a few days a month or 2 ago. I went down to 1st floor and played on a friends unused Alienware laptop.

The damn thing was HUGE for one...very thick and when flipped over it seemed to have an entire layer of thin fans as its base...as part of the laptop case. The cooling setup was amazing.
The performance was slightly BETTER than my new desktop which is was build just for gaming.

Next time I'm in the market for a laptop I'll drop the cash and get an Alienware. If you can afford it, its worth it.

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » December 6, 2006, 5:23 pm

I just bought a Dell Inspiron 1705 about a month ago. Its pretty decent.

17inch screen with truelife whatever add on, something for brightness and sharpness
160gig HD 5400rpm
2gigs ram
geforce 7900 GS 256mb
core 2 duo 2ghz
built in bluetooth and wifi
2years waranty and dmg

costed me $1900 but its a pretty good machine. Plays BF2 max settings, WoW max settings, All source games max setting except for hdr effects (slows down to about 15-20fps when using hdr) Oblivion at about medium settings, maybe less, with bloom lighting. Oblivion just about rapes most computers anyway. Whatever the case, im quite happy with my laptop. I'm still wanting to benchmark this thing.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » December 6, 2006, 7:32 pm

I've got like 4 friends with the new Dell XPS systems and they kick ass! For about 3K you can get one with 2GB of RAM and a 7900GTX Go system in it. If I could buy one now, that is what I would get.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 6, 2006, 7:47 pm

Marbus wrote:I've got like 4 friends

Amazing how fast laptops are still dropping in price while performance goes up.

My only suggestion is to go for one of the glossy 17" widescreens. Glossy screens are more reflective but I don't find it distracting and it make the image look so vivid and crisp. Just say no to anti glare! Either 1920x1200 or 1440x900. If you're going to be using business apps, you might want to go for 1920X1200 even though it makes things pretty tiny on a 17". I've got a 1440x900 and while it rocks for comic reading and movie watching, surfing, etc., I wouldn't want to use it for editing, programming, business apps, etc with the short 900 pixel vertical height.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » December 7, 2006, 6:42 am

Sendarie wrote:Why does everyone beat up on the Alienware's?

Noone seems to have one yet they bitch about the price.

They are definately overpriced but if you can afford also definately worth it.

There's a difference between overpriced and expensive. Most people feel Alienware falls into the overpriced category. Expensive to me means you get what you pay for whereas overpriced means you pay too much for what you get.

Owning one shouldn't be a requirment for being able to 'bitch about the price.'

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » December 7, 2006, 11:38 am

Yeah Aslanna I agree they are just over the "expensive" range and into the "overpriced" category, however I still think if you can afford one you really do get a lot for it.

Another friend of mine just got his in this past weekend and I finally stopped down by his room to check it out.
Now given it weighs about as much as a damn desktop and its a bit too noisy for my taste he does have a full portable monster gaming machine and in our world of traveling a large portion of the year I would absolutely say its worth it.

When my current Sony VAIO comes up for replacement I'll be going Alienware for my on the road needs.

Drolgin Steingrinder · December 7, 2006, 12:18 pm

Why, though? Why pay extra for what is only a name? They're made by the same company that makes Sager, so essentially you're paying 25% more for the Alienware tag and a paintjob.

In addition, I have never heard a positive story about Alienware support. Ever. And I've heard a ton of bad ones.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » December 7, 2006, 1:30 pm

alienware, FNW, black widow, and other overpriced brands are for people who want to be hardware enthusiasts but arent able to make a smart purchase because they either dont invest the time in research, or (in Sendarie's case) are clueless about the thing theyre shopping for and just go for whatever has the coolest ads and the highest price tag. Every enthusiast market has brands that exploit these types of impulsive people by the droves with their sweaty hands holding paychecks aloft to the Advertising Man.

yes, you were impressed. and i'm sure theyre fine machines. but the fact is that these are your selling points as the consumer:

its "HUGE"
its "thick"
its "a portable monster gaming machine"
and of course, it has so many fans all over the place!

FUCK YEAH!! SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » December 7, 2006, 3:22 pm

Heard tons of positive comments about Sager. Don't really know too much about gaming laptops though since that is what I use my desktop for. My laptop is small, portable and functional for work environments.

cid · Post by **cid** » December 7, 2006, 9:05 pm

I had a customer bring in an alienware laptop to be worked on. Having to deal with their customer support just to get access for their drivers definitely puts me against their products!

I would go for the Dell XPS

cid · Post by **cid** » December 7, 2006, 9:22 pm

XPS M1710 Black

$3,227
From $3,227
Now from
$3,227
As low as $97/month1

My Selections All Options

XPS M1710 Black

Date 12/7/2006 6:18:29 PM Central Standard Time

Catalog Number 29 Retail 19

Catalog Number / Description Product Code SKU Id

XPS M1710:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) RDM2BN [222-4607] 1

Operating System:
Genuine Windows® XP Professional WPXP [313-4210][412-0689][412-0911][420-4775][420-4928][420-5460][420-5476][420-5769][420-5924][420-6578][463-2282] 11

Upgrade to Windows Vista:
No Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Selected NVISUPG [420-6431] 201

LCD Panel:
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™ 17UXGSB [320-4755] 2

Memory:
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM 2G2D [311-5892] 3

Hard Drive:
60GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive 60GB72 [341-3344] 8

Combo or DVD+RW Drive:
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability 8XDVDRW [313-4079][420-5791] 16

Video Card:
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX NV512G [320-5159] 6

Sound Options:
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ HD Software Edition SBAHD [313-4218] 17

Network Card and Modem:
Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card and Modem INTNIC [430-1277] 13

Adobe Software:
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 ADOBER [412-0917] 15

Miscellaneous:
Award Winning Service, Support M1710B1 [465-2373] 82

Future Operating Systems:
Windows Vista™ Capable VISTAC [465-4663] 118

XPS Specialized Support:
Inspiron XPS, Specialized Support XPSSUPP [970-5927] 31

Processor Branding:
Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor ICNDNB [310-8314] 749

Primary Battery:
80 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 9BAT [312-0422] 27

Carrying Cases:
Targus XL Rolling Notebook Case Fits Notebooks Up to 17-inch 618947 [A0618947] 28

Wireless Networking Cards:
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945a/g IP3945 [430-1931] 19

Office Software (not included in Windows XP):
No Pre-installed software MSONO [412-1397] 22

Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed):
Norton Internet Security™ 2006 Edition 15-months NIS15M [412-0905] 25

Dell Digital Entertainment:
No preinstalled software NODE [464-9572] 399

Warranty and Service:
1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service S1OS [412-0360][950-3337][950-9797][960-8710][970-2180][983-8447] 29

Internet Access Service:
6 Months America Online Internet Access Included AOLDHS [412-0787][412-0934][412-0935][412-0938][420-3224] 37

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » December 8, 2006, 12:50 am

The XPS systems seem like a rip off to me. The only thing that laptop has over mine is a better video card (7950 gtx instead of my 7900gs)
and a faster but smaller HD. Plus I got 2 years of each support instead of one. I paid half that amount of that XPS setup by just getting inspiron. The only advantage xps systems have are better looking cases and the capability of stronger hardware.

Ransure · Post by **Ransure** » December 8, 2006, 3:21 am

Hrm, maybe I shoulda started this thread when I bought my dell

Then again, I got a dual core 2ghz 4gb cache 2gb ram and an ATI X1400 256mb with a 15" 1440x900 ultrasharp for $1300.... I havent gamed in years... but I am planning on rebuilding my desktop to game.. right now my 20" dell widescreen is Wii only.