Laptop Shopbot

[Gben 20]

If I have AUD$3000 to spend on a laptop; software (except windows) is not included in budget, so what should I buy?

 

What individual features/components should I be zeroing in on?

 

I need to future-proof it as much as possible. It needs to be a solid allrounder - not neccesarily for gaming; but a nice bonus if it does.

 

Help a hardware noob!

[Guest Spartan-117²]

It's depending on your needs.

 

For gaming - Lots of Memory, a good RAM, Good Video Card, maybe some other stuff you need, and maybe a decent screen

 

For Work - Alot of Memory, A good Keyboard, Long lasting battery, WiFi capability??

 

For Balanced - Mix them Together

 

thats sorta All I can make up for a good laptop

[Gben 20]

A good Keyboard...

 

How in the world can I do that?

 

 

 

 

I know I need the fastest processor, the most ram, and the biggest hard disk I can manage... but I'm looking for better advice than that. Otherwise it's simply walking into a shop and buying the most expensive thing on offer. :roll:

 

I know it's kinda like asking how do I find a girlfriend - or what to look for in a girlfriend... it's way too open-ended a question and depends a lot on individual tastes. So this thread could be doomed to failure... but I'm hopping to find some helpful advice none-the-less, at least from notebook users and their experiences or industry knowledge.

 

You get what you pay for, but I'm hoping to get a little but more with a 5min course in laptop-buying-for-dummies thanks to the chums (or chumps) here at cncnz.

 

Advice like understanding the standards, the good brands, the great models that are performing well or achieving good benchmarks for performance in laptop-world!

 

For instance someone mentioned ASUS have some good stuff... is it really?

[Guest Spartan-117²]

The built in ones get a comftorable keyboard, one that is easy to use and any other stuff

[Inferno 22]

Why do you want a laptop anyway? Considering your high budget, I think you want to play the newest games on it. My advice: Buy a cheap laptop and upgrade your desktop.

[Gben 20]

No laptop is for travelling interstate and overseas, not for gaming.

[Inferno 22]

I was told Acer, Asus was good.

[mormreed 0]

Toshiba laptops are nice, but the wireless on the satellite is a pain in the ass, for some reason the wireless card likes to scramble up the names of all the networks every once in a while

[JahSpoR 0]

My freind's Thoshiba laptop's started to smoke when he was playing "Serios Sam ( 1 )"

 

Seen nothing but crap from Acer's pc's.. they just don't seem to work.

 

My suggestion: http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...s=dhs&cs=19

Have the "M1710" version.. It's a masterpiece!

[Gben 20]

My suggestion: http://www.dell.com/content/products/produ...s=dhs&cs=19

Have the "M1710" version.. It's a masterpiece!

 

nice. I've had good experience with dell's so I'd be willing to go there again. It's sad when your desktop is a pale imitation of a laptop though!

[Luk3us 63]

If your going for Dells, then get one from the XPS range. They're really powerful, and as a bonus can play lots of pretty games. Well as good as laptops can anyway.

 

Or a Sony VAIO, they look pretty, which is all that really matters. hhaaha

[Alphabear 13]

the apple laptops are good as well

[Gben 20]

yeah I was reading about the new ultra thin mac books... and I have a lot of mac freaks around me...

 

but I'm not prepared to change religions!

[mormreed 0]

yeah I was reading about the new ultra thin mac books... and I have a lot of mac freaks around me...

 

but I'm not prepared to change religions!

our work is done with this one

[JahSpoR 0]

I have an XPS Laptop myself, wasn't that expensive, and it plays most new games with high graphics..

-and it works.. haven't got a single "blue screen of death" or a single shutdown I didn't order myself.

[Gben 20]

so pros and cons of 2x 160GB hard drives compared to a single 320GB hard drive?

so pros and cons of upgrading from 2.4ghz to 2.6ghz extra for $350 or 2.8ghz for $900?

 

 

I'm liking the specs of the Dell XPS M1730, but perhaps not the looks.

[Guest Spartan-117²]

The MacBook Air doesnt have a CD Drive, so it cant play game or anything like that.

[Alphabear 13]

Yes but he wasn't after it specifically for gaming which is why I suggested a mac in the first place. And actually the macbook air comes with an optional dvd drive.

[Inferno 22]

1. so pros and cons of 2x 160GB hard drives compared to a single 320GB hard drive?

2. so pros and cons of upgrading from 2.4ghz to 2.6ghz extra for $350 or 2.8ghz for $900?

 

 

I'm liking the specs of the Dell XPS M1730, but perhaps not the looks.

1. Pro: you get two drives (which you can also do manually, but still)

Con: more expensive

 

2. Pro: slightly faster

Con: much more expensive (money is better spent at more memory/better gfx card)

Edited January 24, 2008 by Inferno

[Gben 20]

2. Pro: slightly faster

Con: much more expensive (money is better spent at more memory/better gfx card)

 

Yeah, I was having a hard time visualising the speed bump compared to the price bump. It seemed like diminishing returns.

But if I was also getting the max memory and graphics with the dell system.... I think I'm comfortable with the fitting the processor into the overall budget.

 

(I've already decided against the Mac, but I could always get a no-cd crack or patch. I noticed the other day that the latest official Starcraft patch now includes a no-cd patch. How cool is that.)

 

Woot! spell checker!

 

[Guest Spartan-117²]

Just get a Even computer and Hard ware that you need in a laptop for traveling.

 

Get like a Dell or something.

Dell has some great work notebooks.

[Gben 20]

OK final call for advice... for a NON-GAMING machine,

 

can anyone convince me to spend AUD$600 extra for a

Dual 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8700M GT with NVIDIA SLI Technology

 

as opposed to a single

NVIDIA® GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2 Dedicated Graphic memory

 

And my final noob question - what's the difference in real terms between a single 512mb card, and dual 256mb cards?

Edited February 13, 2008 by Sonic

[Luk3us 63]

Eh, dual video cards are a waste of money.

 

Though make sure you the video card you get has GDDR3 type memory, as its much faster than GDDR2 and better than 512 GDDR2 type memory.

 

 

Eh, go here for information on Nvidia grahpics cards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...rocessing_Units

[Duke 0]

Means you can run multiple monitors. But dual 256mb cards probably arn't required? What do you plan to be using it for?

[Gben 20]

Slaps head - dual cards = dual monitors... of course.

 

But why would they have that configuration in a GAMING laptop. I thought it was giving some sort of graphics boost, like a duo processor.