best high-end business laptop

[quanttrade99z]

Hello All,

I need to buy another laptop to serve as an emergency system for my trading operation, if all my other systems crash.

Last laptop I bought was Lenovo ThinkpadW500. I guess it was good enough. I was wondering if people still really like Lenovo for high-end business use laptops or if Dell or another has beat them. What is the best really reliable laptop on the market these day?

For CPU:
Intel Quad Core Processor i7 720QM (1.6GHz 1066MHz 6MBL3)
versus
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P9500 (2.53GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2) 25W

Which is better for running lots of normal office apps at the same time? (no high end graphics processing)

Sort of leaning towards either:
DELL Mobile Precision M6500
or LENOVO W510

No high-end graphic requirements, and no single application I run is very resource intensive. But I would like to be able able to run a lot of applications at the same time, and be able to switch back and forth quickly. Finally, most important is top quality reliable hardware which will not crash! Does not need to be ultraportable, is ok if a little heavy.

Other questions- is it worth it to add a SDD drive? My harddrive crashed in my W500, and Lenovo tech support was telling me SSD drive is more stable because no moving parts, etc. Do you all agree?

Finally- is Win7 "ready for primetime" or is it better to stick with XP?
does "Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64" cause trouble? better to stick with 32 bit?

Thank you!
quanttrade99z

 

[DeviousTrap]

Both of those computers (and even the W500 that you have now) are overkill for what you need. The only advance the Lenovo W series has over the T is the fancy graphics card and a possible WUXGA screen, same for the Dell Precision over the Latitudes.

Is there anything wrong with your W500 (assuming you replaced the HDD)? Most of those came with high-end Core 2 Duo processors and they're still definitely fast/current enough for any office type applications.

 

[CurseTheSky]

As far as the operating system goes, Windows 7 (and 64 bit) is perfectly stable unless you or your business have applications that are untested or known not to work with anything other than Xp. While I'm at it, I'll say the Vista (including 64 bit) is also perfectly stable. There's nothing magical about Xp other than the fact that it had such a long run in the main stream (continuing to this day) that most businesses find it too costly to upgrade these days.

The best reliability will come from the best warranty rather than the hardware. Even the best computer manufacturers will still have hiccups, so it's more about how much of a hard time they'll give you, and how long it'll take you to get it fixed. I don't know how Dell's business support is (better I hope), but their home / home office support is mediocre at best, atrocious at worst. I can't say about Lenovo, though. I heard Apple's support is really good, if you want to go that route. You can always dual-boot Windows 7 or (IIRC) Xp if you please.

 

[Emulex]

if you love tons of junk on your laptop - go lenovo - i thought the machine was infected when i saw how much junk "thinkvantage" adds. ridiculous. seriously.

love the hp for that reason - the higher end elitebook are mostly clean of carp to function.

good luck trying to remove lenovo power management and the hell it will bring to your wifi power settings