Laptop advice, help...I suck... Options

[Guest_CANNONBALL_*]

I thought I would ping you guys for your personal or professional opinions on laptops. I figured the people on this forum are a bit more hip to this stuff than the mil or contractor boards.

I need one...asap. I don't need one of those indestructible powebooks or whatever they are called. I don't plan on throwing in a big pile of sand and shit.

needs to have good battery life, powerful enough to play some movies/games/wifi/etc.

although they may all have that capability now.

the last time I purchased one was in 97...so I am totally out of the loop. I'm sure I could just go to bestbuy and get one, but when throwing down more than a grand the last thing i want is buyer's remorse...you know?

I am not against getting a mac either. I have no platform loyalty...I just want to be sure that it's compatible with the formats used for gaming...because all work and no play makes jon a sad boy.

help please.

[Rocky]

The mac is more expensive no matter what bullshit people try to feed you.

now if you WANT their library of default software, then you may really dig it. Just see if thats what you want. I personally don't find their hardware configurations/prices worth consideration.


And the mouse thing, 1 button mouses are long gone. Hell, get a mighty mouse or somethin !

And as far as upgrading the LCD ? Fuck you noobs, you can upgrade the Dell LCD on their notebooks. They claim that if you get the supa pimp LCD it looks equivalent to their LCD monitors.

HP laptops seem to be cheaper than Dell honestly, but they have fewer customizations (on the website at least). It all depends on what kind of machine you are looking to build.

Thinkpads are pimp. I evaluated one recently and I have nothing but good things to say about it. Battery life was impressive, the screen looked fine enough, and the onboard video was rather decent. A bit pricey though as far as I'm concerned.


If you DO decide to go to a pc/windows based notebook, make sure you get the Operating System CD also. Don't fall for that "built in restoration" shit. Don't get me wrong...images are badical, but you really are a fool to NOT get a physical cd (for a whopping 10 bucks usually, mind you !) of your Operating System.


Whatever you do end up getting, here are a few things to consider for your needs :

- CPU : Intel is releasing a new line of their Duo Core Processors (this is a very good thing) that is supposedly going to drop their power consumption a considerable amount. This means your battery will last longer , weee. These notebook CPUs are to be out this August. So wait until at least then.

- RAM: Get 1GB, none of that 512MB bullshit. The price jump over 1GB is too much, 1GB will handle your needs and more


-Hard Drive : most shit comes default with a 60/80GB 5400 RPM hard drive. Its a bit much to upgrade to a 7200RPM (they access data faster), and you probably don't particularly care TOO much about that. Just know that with the prices of Hard Drive these days, you could always plug in a quality External Hard Drive for massive storage, that is portable also !


- Video Card : Web flash games and shit are getting a little more and more demanding. Try to get something with a video card upgrade. Not the onboard default ! This can tack on an extra 100-150 (even more if you go more big time) but if you want this bad boy to last, its a worthy investment.