Time for a new laptop

[aversion]

I'm looking for a large laptop to use as a 'desktop replacement' since I'm going to be moving around a bit during the autumn. It won't be moving much, just going wherever I go and sitting on a desk so portability isn't really an issue.

The only notebook I can find that matches the specs I'm looking for at a good price is the dell inspiron 9300: Intel M chip, 17" wide screen, 512 megs (which I can swap out for 1gig independently of Dell's silly memory prices), 100gig hard drive and a decent 128meg graphics card, in this case the x300 or x600.

Any others that people can recommend? I'm all for buying Dells, my last dell laptop lasted 4 years and was still running Photoshop CS happily in the end, it was bullet proof. But now I need something with a little more oomph and a modern screen.

[Jeff2A]

I've seen 2 dells go 'bad' lately (one had a bad power supply jack that effectively prevented it from being charged, the other lost a hinge on the cover that eventually led to a cracked LCD). If you go Dell, I (personally) recommend an extended warranty. Beyond the breakage, they seem to run quite well.

[admedia]

Those new Vaios look slick as hell. I stopped and asked someone in the airport the other day what he was using.

I have heard not so good things about Vaio in the past, but this one definitely deserves a second look, especially for portability and power.

[Markp.com]

Yup... I've heard mixed reports about Dells... some people swear by them... others don't touch them at all! Alot of proprietry (sp?) stuff in them too makes it difficult to upgrade.

ASUS make sexy laptops and they come in just about all specs... why don't you buy a base system, add your HD memory and CPU then you're sorted!

[Genesis F5]

I posted a bunch on it here. It's a really nice laptop and perfect as a desktop replacement.

-genesis f5 (mx)

[aversion]

Yup... I've heard mixed reports about Dells... some people swear by them... others don't touch them at all! Alot of proprietry (sp?) stuff in them too makes it difficult to upgrade.

ASUS make sexy laptops and they come in just about all specs... why don't you buy a base system, add your HD memory and CPU then you're sorted!

yeah I'll check out asus, I checked acer but couldn't remember asus...

I have had eight different dells, five desktops (two in the last few months) and three laptops, never had a single thing go wrong with them so I'm definitely trusting them with if they have the best deal. There's not a lot of proprietary stuff, mainstream manufacturers like dell have changed quite a bit, you can upgrade almost everything in the laptops now and it even comes with a guide. I upgraded the video card on my old laptop easily. The only painful thing about mainstream stuff is all the crap that comes preinstalled but you should always do a reinstall anyway.

I'll check asus out, I know too many people with vaios to take them seriously, they're expensive and from what I've seen not terribly reliable.

[Markp.com]

Yup... vaios are all show and no go... they look preedy though

What about those Toshiba Osimos or what ever they are called...?

[zakp0]

I've had a lot of problems with Dell myself. And with Asus.

I really recommend you check out some of the Toshiba Qosmio series, and Sony's Vaio. Vaio has excellent support, and a MASSIVE load of add on little widgets that were made for the Vaio specifically. I myself use one of the top end Qosmio's for work, and its a beauty. You gotta love those widescreens...

[admedia]

When I am ready to replace my notebook, I go to a local a guy who lives and breathes notebooks and has been in the business of repairing and selling them for years.

He sells me These made to order, they aren't real pretty or light, but they are tough, relatively inexpensive and powerful and if there was ever any problem I know were to get service or help.

As far as name brand he swears by Toshiba for quality and swears off Vaio. Maybe I was taken in by that slick case. I guess I'm a little vain too .

[Markp.com]

I've had a lot of problems with Dell myself. And with Asus.

I really recommend you check out some of the Toshiba Qosmio series, and Sony's Vaio. Vaio has excellent support, and a MASSIVE load of add on little widgets that were made for the Vaio specifically. I myself use one of the top end Qosmio's for work, and its a beauty. You gotta love those widescreens...

Thats the Toshibas I was talking about! The Quasimodos!

They look damn sexy and perform well too...

[zakp0]

Yeah, those are BLOODY awesome. Toshiba's also releasing dual processor laptops soon, but that might be a long wait and a lotta money

I love my Qosmio. If only I was allowed to install personal stuff on it. I want to play FarCry on it BAD

[kevin_smithers]

Have a look at the VAIO range I have a PCG-FR315s it runs 18 hours aday and has for the past 18months I regulary run Flash, Dreamweaver, Adobe PhotoShop and WMP all at the same time (And FireFox, MSN Messenger, AOL messenger, Norton, Omnipass and Outlook in the background) and have no problems with it, I did have to upgrade the RAM to 1gig though.

[stevietat]

If not a dell, I'd definitely go for a toshiba, I've heard quite a few good things about them, and some of their laptops looks pretty damn nice as well.

So far I've been really pleased with my dell. If you're going for specs, dell is almost always the cheapest solution.

If you do get a dell again, a really handy tool I've been using is this fan utility

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html

A lof of laptop BIOS allow for pretty high temperatures before the fan kicks in, so this allows you to change those temperatures (lowering them) Your fan may be on a lot more, but I'd prefer to wearing out my fan, than causing damage to the cpu with overheating (something some of the recent dells have supposedly had problems with)

[TallGuyLittleCar]

I posted a bunch on it here. It's a really nice laptop and perfect as a desktop replacement.

-genesis f5 (mx)

hey I have a compaq r4000 as well, amd64 3400 + though. Great laptop, short on battery life, but the price for the power was pretty damn good.

Aversion, having such great experience with dell... why go elsewhere if you are married to the pentium m chip. THe only valid reason I could think of not considering dell, with your past experience, would be if you wanted an amd chip.

[Markp.com]

What do you think of this one Av?

[aversion]

The toshiba and the vaio are nicely designed machine with a lot of wow to them but they're both substantially more expensive. The same priced vaio for example has half the memory, 20gigs less HD, 2" smaller screen, and most outrageous, an intel gpu with shared memory!

It's just not worth the premium to have a sony, the vaio just isn't a desktop replacement. The toshiba has much better specs (and is beautifully designed) but it comes with all this stuff I just don't need, and costs almost $1000 more for the basic package. I just don't need my laptop to be a media center

The toshiba satellite p30 is more equivalent to the dell 9300 but the components are all older spec. It does have a DVD burner but it's video card, memory and cpu are all last generation. Maybe there is an update coming soon.

Aversion, having such great experience with dell... why go elsewhere if you are married to the pentium m chip. THe only valid reason I could think of not considering dell, with your past experience, would be if you wanted an amd chip.

I was looking at the AMD 64 chip but it's still expensive, there is something called the ibuy power battalion s-turbo which uses the new chip and seems to be one of the fastest reviewed notebooks out there right now. I'm trying to find more info on it since I've never heard of them, some of the other components seem lacking and it only seems to come in hideous colours

I was really just wondering if there was anything I wasn't considering, Ic hecked out asus and acer and they have pretty good models, except for that silly ferrari laptop (the acer 8103 looks good but lacks a 17" screen, plus acer seem to have no dealers in toronto and you can't buy it from them....), but dell seems to be the best value right now. I've got to order one this week so I get it before august and I guess it'll be the dell.

[aversion]

What do you think of this one Av?

dude..... it's tiny....

[Markp.com]

dude..... it's tiny....

I know, I know! But it ticks boxes... I bought a Tiny 5ish years ago and its still going strong today!

I did pay £2000 for it then (p800 128mb ram woohoo!) but its sturdy, reliable and is still used daily five years later!

I've upgraded the Ram, HD, CD drive and so on, but its still the same screen, mouse pad, keyboard, processor etc...

Best thing, its fairly cheap compaired to the Tosh's of this world!