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best brand for laptops?

S

subgenius

Member
My boss is looking for a new laptop, and he's willing to spend between $2000-$3200 for it. He needs a reliable/stable laptop from a company with good tech support. Other than that, his minimum requirements are:

Win XP Prof
1.6GHz+ CPU
512MB+ RAM
40GB+ HD
64MB+ graphics card
DVD/CD-RW drive

He's thinking Dell because he knows the name, but I've heard people talking about IBM, Sager, and Voodoo. What brands and configurations would you recommend for a laptop with around $2500 to spend?

Thanks in advance.
 
If you can afford it go IBM, if not get a fully decked out Dell.

A few things you didn't mention that can be kind of important are screen size and portability, The difference between a Dell 600m (portable 14.1 inch screen) and Dell 8600 (heavier with wide screen).

I would check out the IBM T40 series as they get rave reviews, but you will probably need to get a 'p' model to get the 64mb video.

Also it will probably be cheaper to get 3rd party RAM instead of RAM directly installed by the manufacturer (ie www.crucial.com).
 
Originally posted by: kayatai
If you can afford it go IBM, if not get a fully decked out Dell.

A few things you didn't mention that can be kind of important are screen size and portability, The difference between a Dell 600m (portable 14.1 inch screen) and Dell 8600 (heavier with wide screen).

Also it will probably be cheaper to get 3rd party RAM instead of RAM directly installed by the manufacturer (ie www.crucial.com).
Click to expand...

My boss will probably want a 15" screen. He won't use a resolution higher than 1024 x 768, but it's important that it be a high quality display because he'll use it for presentations. As for RAM, I've never had a laptop, so I don't know how to install it on one, but if it's fairly simple, I would definately do it because I built my own desktop this past summer, so I feel comfortable with that kind of stuff.

 
With his budget, I'd seriously take a look at the Voodoo Envy M355. Its a pretty sweet setup, but a bit lacking in the video department. Excellent battery life though.

IBM builds a solid notebook, but their videochips are always dated, but I'm guessing your boss isn't going to be playing many games on it regardless. Even so, newer chips often use less power or incorporate more efficient power saving designs.
 
ibm is pretty much the best.
the t41p is currently the best. it seems to fit into your maximum budget too.
if not, get the voodoo M855.
its a great machine. period. plus, i think it will also fit into your budget too.
as always, get as little ram as possible and buy your own from crucial or another brand.
 
also if you know he will always use 1024x768 you may want to make sure the native resolution of the LCD is 1024x768. Getting a sharp display, then setting the desktop to a lesser value will just make things blurry. There are some work arounds to this (ie higher DPI settings, etc) but most people don't want to fool around with that.

also if your boss is using it for business/presentations, IBM is still a nice name to flash around when people are admiring your stuff.

ram is generally really easy to install these days, easier than on a desktop. you may want to check online documentation, but most laptops now have a panel with a screw that you open, exposing where you can insert ram modules. total process time = 5 mins... if you stop for coffee in the middle. Now if your talking about an older laptop that's a different story entirely.
 
Originally posted by: Frightcrawler
ibm is pretty much the best.
the t41p is currently the best. it seems to fit into your maximum budget too.
if not, get the voodoo M855.
its a great machine. period. plus, i think it will also fit into your budget too.
as always, get as little ram as possible and buy your own from crucial or another brand.
Click to expand...



I'm not sure how you hink he's going to get an 855 for around $2500. Unless you figure 3k+ is around $2500.
 
Originally posted by: dnuggett
Originally posted by: Frightcrawler
ibm is pretty much the best.
the t41p is currently the best. it seems to fit into your maximum budget too.
if not, get the voodoo M855.
its a great machine. period. plus, i think it will also fit into your budget too.
as always, get as little ram as possible and buy your own from crucial or another brand.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure how you hink he's going to get an 855 for around $2500. Unless you figure 3k+ is around $2500.
Click to expand...

well, his budget limit is $3200..
 
BM builds a solid notebook, but their videochips are always dated,
Click to expand...

Um no.. or at least not at the moment. 🙂

The T41p is on sale. You can get it for 3K plus tax/shipping without a G wireless card and 100 more for that.

It is arguably the BEST notebook you can buy at the moment. Light, small, awesome battery life, PM 1.7, 512 std 333 RAM, 14" 1400 display. Eh.. get the better display and set the size settings right. The 1024 won't do the system justice. Has the 128MB M10 ATI graphics. It's what I'd get if I had the budget. I'm probably going to "settle" for a lesser T41.

Also these things apparently blow Dell away on build quality. Yes... Even the lattitudes.
 
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