What is your thoughts on laptop brands? I'm a dell man, BUT I'm in the market for a laptop and I'm open to a different brand what do you guy like? I'm thinking about this one- http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51m_7700/area-51m_7700_features.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51-M-7700&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

Dell - No need to look back.

Alienware!

Gamer Laptops, pretty much can't go wrong there. There will be plenty of juice.

This was a suggestion as an alternate to a Alienware on the forum below: http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/highendsystem/ntbkx79000.asp?v=d

I went onto MaximumPC's forum and checked out what some were saying about Alienware. Many didn't like the support, most hated the desktops and didn't see many complaints about the laptops except for the poor support.

I have a toshiba (Satellite 5150) which is a few years old and I like it.

Chris

I've had a Vaio (Sony) in my shop for 2+ years, never a bit of trouble.

I am very happy with my emachines unit. I have stopped building Intel machines for my shop, I find the AMD units are a little quicker on the graphical programs.

Are you looking for a "laptop" or a "portable desktop", mine is the portable desktop kind, sucks WAY too much battery to try and use without a power supply.

Well if you think about it how many times to you need the battery feature of your laptop? Unless you jump airplanes often then it is just extra weight taking up space that could be used for performance. Even in a car there is power available.

I am typing this on one of these. http://ecsusa.com/products/a929.html in black with a mobile AMD XP2200 cpu, 512 meg of memory and a 60 gig disk drive. It has a nice 15 inch TFT and includes 4 usb ports and a firewire along with the standard bevy of PC ports. Nice platform that runs AMD mobile chips and uses standard DIMM memory

Edit Oh yeah if you really need to go mobile with it there is a external battery available for about $80

Dell - A reason to kill yourself....;)

I personally HATE dells! I have absolutely never had a good experience with a dell, laptops or desktops.

I have actually been a fan of HP laptops for a little while. They are reletively solid machines both physically and hardware wize.

If I was to buy a different laptop, it would be a barebones laptop that I found.

What I have is a hp/compaq nx7010 widescreen centrino laptop.

One of the biggest things in a purchase of a laptop is the cpu, I personally believe with backup that its not worth getting a laptop that doesnt use a Pentium M. Any other processor is very likely to overheat, die or something else. The Pentium M processor consumes less power, and is an actual mobile processor. Most warrenties are at least double than a laptop with a desktop processor.

My laptop is a centrino dothan 2mb cache 1.7ghz with 1gb of ram, 60gb 5400rpm Wd hdd, high resolution screen, I have not been able to slow it down and even after 20 day uptime it is still running strong.
I get upwards of 5hrs of battery life when the screen is dim.

Jon

From what I know is that alienware is a little overpriced. Since your a Dell man why not the Dell inspiron xps gen 2 or something in the precision series if your in to CAD.

I use a 3 year old compaq evo n1015v and my next computer will be a laptop again.
(I'm typing this sitting outside on my roof terrace :)).

http://www.powernotebooks.com/index.php3 Is the way to go. Sager makes laptops for all of the companies above, I think even dell. Sager is an original design manufacturer. They make um and sell um for someone elses label. I like to say I have a toshiba clone so people will understand..

Dell - A reason to kill yourself....;)

I personally HATE dells! I have absolutely never had a good experience with a dell, laptops or desktops.


Jon
:withstupi :withstupi

Generally very poor luck with Dell stuff as well. IBM's are solid but you pay for that too.

i have both Dell 600m and 700m, i have no problem with it. The pentium M CPU give you at least 2-3 hrs of battery. Go for it.

Yeah - the AMD mobile runs pretty hot. Is quick though.
I also strongly recomend getting something with a seperate vid card (not shared mem) and preferably an Nvidia. Most of us use CAD/CAM and I have found this is the best way to go.

Dell makes great laptops
HP makes great Laptops
IBM is at the top of my list.

For Games Dell makes a great desktop replacment laptop alleinware is better built.
IBM has a great laptop very well built and the battery last long time.

HP has a great laptop as well.
It all come down to what do you want the laptop to do.

I prefer IBM laptops with the magnesium cases, but for personal use I usually buy dell.

Currently I have a dell xps laptop, its not very light thought but its more of a desktop replacement than a true portable.

I've used Dell, Toshiba, IBM, Compaq laptops. My favorite is the IBM, with the Toshiba as a 2nd. If your going to use it in your shop get a ruggedized version.

Jay

Consumer Reports likes the various Toshiba models. They usually review the Satellite series only because that is what you find in most of the stores.

The Tecra series tends to have a few less bells and whistles but be better built; it is meant for the businessman who needs a laptop to be ultimately reliable, but doesn't care about gaming features.

The IBM is a very well engineered machine,I have had three thinkpads with no trouble at all,then for a change I bought a Toshiba Tecra S1 and had to return it for service three times in the first year.On each occasion the repair was very slow.from now on I will only buy IBM,you pay more but to me it is worth it.

Have to agree with the Alienware post, but there are alternatives. I have a Sager. Incredible. Every port you can imagine, huge screen, and rock solid. Sager is made by the same company as Alienware, just not the big price. Also check Clevo, Prostar, and I think there are a couple of others that are made by the same company.

Compaq, Toshiba, Dells Lattitude, IBM in that order....from a price point....Dell, Compaq, Toshiba, IBM.

I bought an HP Pavilion zd8000 series widescreen, so I'd have something that would play a modern 3d shooter when I'm away on holidays, since that is about the only time I feel like gaming :D I'm very happy with it, it beats the pants off my current at-home desktop pc, performance wise.

This HP is a desktop replacement, so it is heavy, and the battery life is about an hour, but that is good enough for me to fire up the thing, plug in my GPS and find out where the heck I am :D

Oh, I had an IBM T30 Thinkpad previously, and it was also a nice solid little machine. Only 800mhz, but still good enough to run my cad on, even with its limited graphics capability.

We have over 40,000 IBM Laptops at my workplace... We've been through other vendors for laptops but IBM from a Business / service / reliablity / durability / total cost of ownership standpoint is Tops... Second in line is HP/Compaq... Dell makes a nice laptop but on our last purchasing round they lost out for a variety of reasons. For Personal use though they are really nice but... From a corporate/business stance I don't think the quality is up there like their Optiplex series is for business use.

IBM's failure rate is hard to beat...

IBM, Toshiba, Dell Lattitude.