INFO: Building/Buying a Laptop (PC or Mac) - Page 7

Bralkan · 03-06-2008, 09:02 AM

I love my Eee!

Slide · 03-06-2008, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zarcath

Uhh how good are the Asus brand laptops?

i've heard good things about them, with exception of the lamborgini or ferrari or whatever the hell it is. they seem to be reasonably well built, with competitive specs at that moderate gamer pricepoint and a good warranty.

its one of the ones i was looking at before i impulse bought the macbook pro, but the dell xps series were also well in contention; i'd probably pick the xps 1530 if i was gonna buy a Windows laptop.

(the EEE are brilliant, but not what you are asking)

Foradream · 03-26-2008, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slide

its one of the ones i was looking at before i impulse bought the macbook pro, but the dell xps series were also well in contention; i'd probably pick the xps 1530 if i was gonna buy a Windows laptop.

The dell Inspiron 1720 is quite good as well. I haven't looked in detail but it seems like you can get one with better specs than the xps 1530 at a lower price.

Amnesiac · 03-30-2008, 11:58 AM

HP - Pavilion Laptop with AMD Turion™ 64 X2 - dv2715nr

$650 HP Noteook @ Best Buy. Does this seem like a respectable buy? My current laptop is on the fritz, and I'm not looking to upgrade to something real special at the moment. Just need something that's solid enough to use as a laptop around the house and give me portability when needed, which is not too frequent.

Any opinions appreciated. My mom has a 17" HP laptop that has seemed decent. Costco had an HP notebook that seemed to be the same model but with a Core 2 Duo Mobile processor for $900. I'm sure it's better and all but I was looking to stay closer to $600-$700 for now until I'm ready for something better. Costco is always nice for 90 day returns and they extend warranties to 2 years on computers. Thanks.

Tyen · 03-31-2008, 09:14 PM

Turion is lose

Korioni · 03-31-2008, 10:22 PM

With an educational discount, a top-end macbook is $400 cheaper than the starting macbook pro (1400 to 1800). I intend to use this primarily for school and video editing... games unlikely. Worth the extra 400 bucks?

edit: That is of course overlooking the middle macbook which would be $100 cheaper than the black with the exact same specs. So is pro worth the extra 500 bucks?

joz123 · 03-31-2008, 10:54 PM

Lookin to get a decent gaming laptop to play WoW and HL2 shit on for around 1k or so anything good?

The Dauntless One · 04-01-2008, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Korioni

With an educational discount, a top-end macbook is $400 cheaper than the starting macbook pro (1400 to 1800). I intend to use this primarily for school and video editing... games unlikely. Worth the extra 400 bucks?

edit: That is of course overlooking the middle macbook which would be $100 cheaper than the black with the exact same specs. So is pro worth the extra 500 bucks?

Do you value the video card? Basically with the video card you can play most current games with decent settings. Also the extra 40 gig hard drive, firewire 800, a few more usbs, expresscard and the bigger screen which but those aren't worth it if you don't value the video card ie don't plan to play games on it. The 512MB version is quite useless at that resolution so its not worth it.

The Dauntless One · 04-01-2008, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joz123

Lookin to get a decent gaming laptop to play WoW and HL2 shit on for around 1k or so anything good?

probably not 1k... 1.5k can score you something good like an Asus. If you don't care about DX10 you can get a used one for 1kish that will play WOW and HL2

Slide · 04-01-2008, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foradream

The dell Inspiron 1720 is quite good as well. I haven't looked in detail but it seems like you can get one with better specs than the xps 1530 at a lower price.

The build quality on the xps series is *much* better than the Inspirons, we have a bunch of different dell laptops here at work - and the xps are so much nicer. There's little things that you'd not notice on a cursory glance also like GDDR3 instead of GDDR2 memory + the XPS support is much better.

Tavik · 04-01-2008, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joz123

Lookin to get a decent gaming laptop to play WoW and HL2 shit on for around 1k or so anything good?

Asus F3SA $999.99
Newegg.com - ASUS F3 Series F3SA-A2 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T7500(2.20GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 2GB Memory DDR2 667 160GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 - Retail

Video card is pretty good for a $1k laptop. The ATI HD2600 scores an average of 3125 on 3DMark '06, which improves more with increased RAM, and is fairly overclockable (obviously less then a desktop vid card). Comes with 2 gigs of RAM, but feel free to slap another 1-2 gigs of DD667 RAM in there for $30-60 for even better performance on Vista. You won't get the full 4 gigs unless buy the 64 bit OS, but it's good to have for the future.

This is what I plan to get for a new college laptop in the fall, unless Asus has something better at the same price range by Aug/Sept.

The Dauntless One · 04-01-2008, 07:07 AM

That Asus laptop is a really nice buy. $1000+ cheaper than my new MacBook Pro but almost the same performance.

TKarrde · 04-02-2008, 05:40 PM

Ack. Don't buy a Macbook unless you want OSX. It's a waste otherwise.

Get a Sager from pctorque.com, or similar reseller website. You'll be able to beat the price on a MBP every time with the same components - and often times, you'll be able to squeeze quite a bit more power in there for the same cost as the macbook.

Don't get me wrong - MBP are nice laptops, but they're not worth the cost unless you really need, or want, OSX.

Korioni · 04-02-2008, 10:09 PM

Well, i'm getting this laptop almost entirely because I'm going into video editing. Any laptop is accepted into the classes but I might as well go for the one with the best editing utilities... which would be a MBP and OSX, right?

TKarrde · 04-03-2008, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Korioni

Well, i'm getting this laptop almost entirely because I'm going into video editing. Any laptop is accepted into the classes but I might as well go for the one with the best editing utilities... which would be a MBP and OSX, right?

Honestly, it's pretty even these days, with Avid and other solutions out there that work on windows, but Final Cut Pro is still very nice software

03-06-2008, 09:02 AM	#91 (permalink)
Bralkan Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 2,118 -1 Internets	I love my Eee! __________________ We're all idiots. http://nottheparrot.blogspot.com

03-30-2008, 11:58 AM	#94 (permalink)
Amnesiac Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 45 -18 Internets	HP - Pavilion Laptop with AMD Turion™ 64 X2 - dv2715nr $650 HP Noteook @ Best Buy. Does this seem like a respectable buy? My current laptop is on the fritz, and I'm not looking to upgrade to something real special at the moment. Just need something that's solid enough to use as a laptop around the house and give me portability when needed, which is not too frequent. Any opinions appreciated. My mom has a 17" HP laptop that has seemed decent. Costco had an HP notebook that seemed to be the same model but with a Core 2 Duo Mobile processor for $900. I'm sure it's better and all but I was looking to stay closer to $600-$700 for now until I'm ready for something better. Costco is always nice for 90 day returns and they extend warranties to 2 years on computers. Thanks. Last edited by Amnesiac : 03-30-2008 at 12:04 PM.

03-31-2008, 10:22 PM	#96 (permalink)
Korioni "Critic" is such a dirty word Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 694 -56 Internets	With an educational discount, a top-end macbook is $400 cheaper than the starting macbook pro (1400 to 1800). I intend to use this primarily for school and video editing... games unlikely. Worth the extra 400 bucks? edit: That is of course overlooking the middle macbook which would be $100 cheaper than the black with the exact same specs. So is pro worth the extra 500 bucks? Last edited by Korioni : 03-31-2008 at 11:07 PM.

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03-31-2008, 09:14 PM	#95 (permalink)
Tyen FoH Thriller Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cambridge, MA Posts: 1,867 +40 Internets	Turion is lose

03-31-2008, 10:54 PM	#97 (permalink)
joz123 Stop, drop and ROFL Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 804	Lookin to get a decent gaming laptop to play WoW and HL2 shit on for around 1k or so anything good?

04-01-2008, 07:07 AM	#102 (permalink)
The Dauntless One Flaccid Steel Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,470 -11 Internets	That Asus laptop is a really nice buy. $1000+ cheaper than my new MacBook Pro but almost the same performance.

04-02-2008, 05:40 PM	#103 (permalink)
TKarrde Beebop a loubop awhapshamboo and domo arigatou if I got to Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 638	Ack. Don't buy a Macbook unless you want OSX. It's a waste otherwise. Get a Sager from pctorque.com, or similar reseller website. You'll be able to beat the price on a MBP every time with the same components - and often times, you'll be able to squeeze quite a bit more power in there for the same cost as the macbook. Don't get me wrong - MBP are nice laptops, but they're not worth the cost unless you really need, or want, OSX.

04-02-2008, 10:09 PM	#104 (permalink)
Korioni "Critic" is such a dirty word Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 694 -56 Internets	Well, i'm getting this laptop almost entirely because I'm going into video editing. Any laptop is accepted into the classes but I might as well go for the one with the best editing utilities... which would be a MBP and OSX, right?