Time for a new laptop-Suggestions anyone?

[lweedop]

I have had my Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop for a couples of years now, and while it has gotten me through school, I'm almost at the end of my rope with it and ready to upgrade.

I'll be using my laptop for graphic design, video editing, and a small amount of gaming. I'll be running the Adobe CS3 Master suite. My wish list includes 17in+ screen, 8Gb RAM, and a 1Tb hard drive. I don't know much about processors but I know I'd like a fast one.

My budget is probably somewhere between $1000 and $1500 so I might have to come down on some of my requirements but I'd like to get as close as I can.

I'm leaning toward a Sony Viao; they seem like a solid brand name with a decent reputation. I don't want another Dell and don't really want to hear the argument that "you should TOTALLY buy a Mac." Since my Adobe Suite is a Windows version, and I don't plan on buying CS4 any time soon, the only Mac advice that might be helpful is your experience running Windows on a Mac including the pros and cons.

Your helpful suggestions would be much appreciated!

[John_Scianna]

I've owned several brands so I'll weigh in. You'll get the most bang for your buck with an HP as far as power goes, but I haven't had the best experience with them working the way they should. They do have very quick and efficient customer support, though. So if you can handle running into a problem or two while owning it, I'd recommend an HP for sure. I own a highly upgraded dv5t, got a great deal when they were having a sale.

Here's a really good deal going on right now I just found, http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/183763

Can't go wrong with an i7 and 4 gigs of ram.

Sony Vaios are definitely quality, but of course cost a little more. I've also had great experience with Compaq.

[anothefoo]

I've had Sony, HP and Toshiba Laptops. Out of those 3, I'd never buy a Sony again. Toshiba's good but my experience had problems with it getting hot and battery problems.

Going to get a MBP this weekend and going to compare the experiences.

[lweedop]

Originally Posted by John_Scianna

Here's a really good deal going on right now I just found, http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/183763

Can't go wrong with an i7 and 4 gigs of ram.

Thanks for your reply! I checked out the link and the prices look decent but they look pretty similar to what I have right now. I'm looking for something a little more powerful. The processor that is listed on most of those machines (Intel Core i7-720QM Quad-Core @ 1.6GHz) seems a little slow. Like I said, I don't know much about proccesors so maybe the Quad-Core makes all the difference?

I'll look into HP. I don't really like having to deal with issues, I'd rather it just work went I want it to, but maybe if I don't have to call India to get help it would be more bearable.

[lweedop]

Originally Posted by anothefoo

I've had Sony, HP and Toshiba Laptops. Out of those 3, I'd never buy a Sony again. Toshiba's good but my experience had problems with it getting hot and battery problems.

Going to get a MBP this weekend and going to compare the experiences.

My husband has had 2 Toshiba and he swears they are the best thing ever but he only uses them for surfing. Why wouldn't you buy another Sony?

[anothefoo]

Cause you're paying for the brand much more than the quality of components inside. My Vaio fell apart (cracks at the joint between screen and keyboard, wtf) after a year of use. It just seem to me they use the cheapest/least quality materials and it doesn't justify the price tag.

If you're after PC, Toshiba's the most solid line out of all the ones I tried.

[lweedop]

Ok, you've got me looking at Toshibas. Here's what I've found:

Toshiba Satellite P500

Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz, 3MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)

RAM: 6GB DDR2 800MHz SDRAM (4096MB+2048MB)

Screen Size: 18.4" Diagonal Widescreen HD (1680x945) TruBrite® display

Video Controller: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

Hard Disk Drive #1: 640GB SSD (Solid State Disk, Serial ATA)

Hard Disk Drive #2: 400GB 2nd HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA) (This is a $106 upgrade)

Other Stuff:
Blu-ray Disc™ ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer drive
Realtek® 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN
Bluetooth® Version 2.1 +EDR
High Capacity Lithium Ion Battery (12-cell)

It's pricing out at about $1600 after tax which is a little more than I'd like to spend but it might be doable. I would appreciate some input on the processor and video controller that I've selected. I will be doing some video editing but it won't be the main focus of my use. Here are the upgrade possiblities:

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 (2.80GHz, 6MB L2, 1066MHz FSB) - Extra $127.50

Video Controller:

NVIDIA® GeForce® G 210M discrete graphics with 512MB DDR3 dedicated memory - Extra $80.75

and

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 230M discrete graphics with 1GB DDR3 dedicated memory - Extra $123.20

[mojoprime]

well, i think operating systems are going to more and more offload some of the heavy lifting processor tasks to the graphics card, so i would say buy a discrete graphics card. also, buy as much processor as you can afford. it'll last you longer. another small thing -- SSDs are cool and all, but you're still paying a premium for that new tech right now. if you could get a 1tb or 750gb 7200 RPM drive, and get another the same size, you could run a RAID on them and match that speed, or get close, of the SSD. i'm not sure, for what you're doing, that you'd really appreciate the speed difference of solid state.

even if you didn't run a raid, you could get a smaller secondary hard drive, like 250 or 320, and use that as dedicated scratch disk. that would keep your primary drive less cluttered.

just my .02.

[lweedop]

Thanks for the input Mojo, you've really got me thinking now. I went back and changed some of those specs on the laptop and it made it even more expensive (with the upgraded video card). Plus it would only be a 500Gb raid.

The more I look around, the more I wonder about getting a desktop. I could spend way less money, get more power, and I would still have my current laptop when I need to be mobile.

Does anyone out there currently do the majority of their work on a desktop and also have a laptop for mobility? I really like being mobile and don't want to have to worry about forgetting what files are where but it might be worth it for the price diff. and power. Input anyone? Maybe I should start a new thread for that question.

[lweedop]

Actually, I think I am going to go with the desktop. I talked to my dad about it (he's also in the graphic design/computer business) and he recommended I go the desktop route and then I could still remotely log on to my desktop with my current laptop if the need arose. Sounds like the best of both worlds to me!