Laptop Suggestions

[Dillinger4]

This might be too soon since im probably not going to purchase one untill christmas but i was wondering what kind of laptops people would suggest buying. Ive been looking at the Gateway 400XL's, the apple powerbooks, and some of the Toshibas.

The Gateways are pretty good on the price, very affordable, but some of the middle 400 1.5GHz Intel Centrino series cost more than the higher 600 Pentium 4 2.2GHz-M series and bolth have the same amount of ram and video ram.


The apples are nice but very pricy especially when you add in a super drive and im not sure id like to work with Mac OSx.

What do you guys think? Please dont say "Dude get a Dell"

[Lightning]

Unless you're very shure don't buy an Apple. It are good computers, but not compatible with Intel/AMD/Microsoft.

[Pirate]

If I had the money , definitely I would buy the new Toshiba Satelitte . and what's wrong with Dell ?

[Dillinger4]

Nothing wrong with Dells. I just didn't want to hear "Dude get a Dell".

[The Hobo]

I believe the slogan is "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell."

But I have no usefull information to offer. I like pretty colors.

[Muddy]

http://www.powernotebooks.com/

[Dillinger4]

Holy Laptops! Those prices are dam good especially being that most of the laptops on that site have processors in the upper 2 gig range and have 64 to 128Mb Video Ram. Honestly a laptop computer made by another name brand company with those specs would be $1000 more than the computers on powernotebooks.com

[Muddy]

Originally posted by Dilenger4
Holy Laptops! Those prices are dam good especially being that most of the laptops on that site have processors in the upper 2 gig range and have 64 to 128Mb Video Ram. Honestly a laptop computer made by another name brand company with those specs would be $1000 more than the computers on powernotebooks.com

Good customer service over there too. I recently picked up 2 Sagers from them. The only quirk was that they arrived underclocked. They made it right though ... even crosshipped 2 new boxes to me before they recieved the returns.

They are a reseller for Sager and their house brand is Power Pro. I think if (probably more like when) I buy from them again Ill lean more toward the Power Pro.

[Dillinger4]

What do you guys think about the Toshiba Satellite Series? I just got my Toshiba Credit Card with a nice credit limit of over $3000 so im tempted to buy one.

The only thing i dont like is the limited amount of configurations, plus they don't give you any specs on the CD/DVD drive like speeds and eventhough the memory expandable is to 1024MB there is no option online to add additional memory to the laptop.

The 15.0" UXGA CASV (Clear Advanced Super View) display (1600 x 1200) on the Satellite 5205 Series sounds sweet.

[Muddy]

Ive got a Toshiba Satellite that I have had for about a year and a half. It was a good value for the money.

However, last time I checked, Toshiba was putting firewire ONLY on the more expensive models . Firewire is a must for a laptop IMHO so that kills the idea of owning another Satellite for me.

[Pirate]

Originally posted by Dilenger4
What do you guys think about the Toshiba Satellite Series?

The best .

[PeterClark]

I would go for a Sager if I were you. The ODM that makes them is named Clevo and sells the same computers to MANY companies. Some of the other companies that use Clevo are Alienware, Voodoo, Hypersonic, Eurocom, and one other that slips my mind. There are also many websites that sells Sagers. I think Sager is better than the other Clevo companies since it has good prices. I got a Sager NP5670 with a P4 3.06GHz with HT from a company called PCTorque. PowerNotebooks is good, yet I prefer PCTorque. Other Sager stores include Sagernotebook.com and mobileperipherals.com. If you want to learn more about Sager computers, go to http://www.sagerforums.com/ since a ton of Sager owners post there. The site is run by PCTorque yet allow people to talk about other sellers of Sagers. They provide legit info and all the other owners on the site will give you all the info you need. The newer sagers will be coming out soon so I would wait and get one of them.

[Muddy]

Word of caution if you travel a lot:

1) Pentium 4 cannot be run on airplane power
2) Pentium 4 Mobile can run on airplane power but lacks in performance compare to regular Pentium 4
3) Pentium M is supposed to work on airplanes AND outperform Pentium 4 and Pentium 4M

[JCScoobyRS]

Bang for buck = Toshiba. They have the best quality and standard options for your money. Thanks, Jeremy

[Eras3r]

just remember, just the 'video memory' is not enough to go by. you must also look at the model of the video card.

[Muddy]

also be aware that on some of the Sagers that the video memory is shared architecture .. which means that some of the system RAM is allocated for Video use which of course effectively reduces your system RAM proportionaly. Not necessarily a huge negative, but something to consider.

[mendhak]

How come no one's mentioned Compaq yet?

[JCScoobyRS]

I have a Compaq laptop and it is the bomb. I really think since the merger with HP, Compaq has benefited alot. I would suggest Compaq as well as my earlier bid for Toshiba but I still don't think that you can get the same bang for your buck with Compaq as you get with Toshiba. Later, Jeremy

[Sastraxi]

Sager's what I'd go with if and when I buy a laptop.

[siyan]

Originally posted by JCScoobyRS
I have a Compaq laptop and it is the bomb. I really think since the merger with HP, Compaq has benefited alot. I would suggest Compaq as well as my earlier bid for Toshiba but I still don't think that you can get the same bang for your buck with Compaq as you get with Toshiba. Later, Jeremy

HP's consumer line was never that good....
Compaq's consumer line always did suck....

However both companies had decent business lines (Armada and Omnibook I believe...)

[PeterClark]

Originally posted by Muddy
also be aware that on some of the Sagers that the video memory is shared architecture .. which means that some of the system RAM is allocated for Video use which of course effectively reduces your system RAM proportionaly. Not necessarily a huge negative, but something to consider.

The Sager I have has a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 and that was the only option (so I did not have to upgrade to this). I have the NP5670 and I think that the NP888x has the same card. I have never seen the shared architecture before on a Sager. Sagers are made for high end use and high graphics so the last thing it would do is lower productivity.

[Dillinger4]

There really is no comparison. Granted the Toshiba has a little more features but the Sager 8887-V seems like a far better choice.

Satellite 5205 Series $2,699.00

15.0" UXGA CASV (Clear Advanced Super View) display (1600 x 1200)
Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor - M (2.40GHz)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition
512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (256MB x 2)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX Go5600 GPU w/64MB DDR memory
60GB HDD (5400 rpm)
DVD Multi
Integrated Wi-Fi™ (IEEE 802.11b)
Panasonic MotionDV Studio™, Microsoft® Works
3-USB (2.0) ports
iLINK (IEEE 1394) port
Infrared port
SD media slot
TV-Out port
10/100 Ethernet
V.92/56K modemº
S/P DIF Optical port



Sager 8887-V $2122.04

16.1" UXGA Active Matrix LCD
Pentium® 4 3.06GHz 533 FSB
1024 MB DDR
Ati Radeon 9000 128MB DDR
40.0 GB HD
1 IEEE-1394 Firewire Port (6 PIN),
Built in wireless 802.11b antenna and optional wireless MiniPCI card.
4 USB 2.0 Ports
8x DVD / 24x10x24 CD-RW Combo Drive & Softwares
TV Tuner with Remote
Smart Li-ION Battery

[Dillinger4]

This is starting to get funny.

http://www.alienware.com/system_pages/area-51m.aspx

is the same as.

http://pctorque.com/5620.php


the only difference is a ton of money.

[Muddy]

Originally posted by PeterClark
I have never seen the shared architecture before on a Sager. Sagers are made for high end use and high graphics so the last thing it would do is lower productivity.

Here are 2 examples .. the Sager NP2720 and the Sager NP6160

http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/comp2.cfm

[Sastraxi]

If I had a P4-M 2ghz and a r9000 pro mobile..

[big_k105]

Well i have had my Toshiba for a not quite a year and i love it. i have only had one problem and it was a big one my harddrive was fryed but that was probably not there fault. when i sent it in to get fixed they payed for the shipping overnite air i sent it on monday and ups tryed to deliver it back to me on that weds. i wasnt expecting it back till atleast friday. so that was really awsome.

i have been looking at http://www.powernotebooks.com/ and they seem to ahve some great deals as well.

[Muddy]

I would suggest running the intel utility at:

http://www.intel.com/support/process...tools_proc_id&

as soon as you get whatever you buy out of the box. Out of less than 10 purchases over the last several years, I have had 2 substantially underclocked new laptops. The manufacturer had no problem replacing them, but I only knew it because I specifically tested the boxes ... you can very easily pay for a 2.4 GHz box, recieve a 1.7 GHz and never know it.

[abdul]

I was just going to order a Dell tomorrow, but when I checked back on this forum, I'm amazed at how cheap & powerful Sagar laptops are! I'll hopefully buy a Sagar now!

[Dillinger4]

Yeah i was just about to order a Toshiba laptop with my Toshiba credit card. Im glad you guys told me about www.powernotebooks.com and www.pctorque.com

[Dillinger4]

According to Sager. The 5680 and 8890 should be available late July/early August both of which will be released with the ATI 9600 Pro. Im puttin my order in.

[alex_read]

I'm only gonna offer 1 piece of advice here - whatever laptop you go for, make sure it's got a decent processor in & NOT a celeron!!!

[Crusader]

I have bought 3 laptops from this company and will buy my next when the time comes. Because I am a gamer and I need the most powerful laptop out there with the most power in the video subsystem. These are it. 128mb or ram on the ATI 9000 is more then enough for any game and the configurations you can get in their laptops you cannot get anywhere else. They are some of the fastest and most reliable I have seen. I have the 5660, 8887 and the new 8890 when it comes out. Check them out and see if you can find a 3.06ghz with any other laptop. And if you can, do the comparrison where you configure Powernotebooks and the other and see if you do not get more for your money. I have done it. I was going to buy a Dell Inspirion 8200 but decided after seeing what power had decided to go with them.
I guess the most important part of buying anything that has a high dollar value is customer service. Powernotebooks has a 9.8 out of 10 on Resellerrating.com. Check it out. The exceed normal customer satisfaction by leaps and bounds. If I was going to drop over 1500-3000 dollars on a computer I would check out all my options, and see who gives the most for the money and the best customer satisfaction. www.powernotebooks.com

[andreys]

Try here:

http://www.winbook.com