Best overall laptop company?

[Beev]

I'm looking to buy a laptop in the near future. It will be used primarily for gaming when I'm not home, but it doesn't need to be top of the line. As in, it will need to run Crysis, but by NO means will it need to be maxed, just playable. I will also use it for school in which I animate using Maya.

I have a friend that has a Dell, and it seems ok, but I've also heard terrible things about them. Alienware seems overpriced, too. It really needs to be easier to build your own...

 

[TheStu]

what is your budget for all this?
What screen size are you looking for?
What beyond games will you use it for?
Planning on moving it around much?

I really really like the build quality on Apple's machines, and I have used laptops by almost every OEM (Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Alienware, HP, Compaq, Asus) and IMO Apple's machines seem better put together, even their consumer machines.

The MacBook Pro will game, I think it will even run Crysis, but at the end of the day you will probably be better off with another manufacturer. HP seems to get recommended a lot around here, and their new machines are quite nice, you may want to check those out.

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: TheStu
what is your budget for all this?
What screen size are you looking for?
What beyond games will you use it for?
Planning on moving it around much?

I really really like the build quality on Apple's machines, and I have used laptops by almost every OEM (Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Alienware, HP, Compaq, Asus) and IMO Apple's machines seem better put together, even their consumer machines.

The MacBook Pro will game, I think it will even run Crysis, but at the end of the day you will probably be better off with another manufacturer. HP seems to get recommended a lot around here, and their new machines are quite nice, you may want to check those out.

Don't know
Don't care
Maya and net browsing
Move it to work and back

I'll have to check out Apple.

 

[DarkThinker]

I would get a T61p ThinkPad and I wouldn't look back 😉

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: DarkThinker
I would get a T61p ThinkPad and I wouldn't look back 😉

Heh! Dig that "roll cage"!!! 🙂

 

[TheStu]

It looks like the T61 only comes with the NV140M graphics card. Last I had heard workstation cards were not designed (specifically their drivers) for gaming purposes. I think that the 8600M GT would be a better choice. Ideally the 8700M would be the best choice (for now) for the latest games, however unless you need this right now!!! then you might want to hold off as long as possible so you can see if the 8800M will hit, particularly in an SLI setup

 

[Beev]

Oh I don't need it now. Hell, I don't really need it at all, but it would be nice to be able to do things other than at home.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Sraaz
Oh I don't need it now. Hell, I don't really need it at all, but it would be nice to be able to do things other than at home.

LoL! That's why I bought a Toshiba - 699 bones! 😀

I'm installing StarOffice 8 as we 'speak' - *free* via Google Pack! 😉

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Originally posted by: TheStu
It looks like the T61 only comes with the NV140M graphics card. Last I had heard workstation cards were not designed (specifically their drivers) for gaming purposes. I think that the 8600M GT would be a better choice. Ideally the 8700M would be the best choice (for now) for the latest games, however unless you need this right now!!! then you might want to hold off as long as possible so you can see if the 8800M will hit, particularly in an SLI setup

Agreed. Even though the 8600GT will render alot slower than the NV140, the gaming trade-off favors it by alot more... Unless you favor work productivity more than gaming productivity 😉

I also agree with holding off to see what new revisions nVidia (or even AMD for that matter) put out for the top end GPU notebook line; it doesn't seem like a laptop is a pressing need for you at the moment, so tread the waters lightly at the moment before you dive right into a new system.