Brother needs new laptop (for laboratory work)

[Tiamat]

I haven't been in the market for laptops, much less DTRs, need some suggestions...

Desktop replacement workhorse...

Notes:
1. High computing performance not required (MS Excel, Powerpoint, Word)
2. Screen quality not important
3. Screen size not important
4. Laptop weight not important
5. Harddrive size not important (he has many external drives)

6. Must support TWO independent external monitors at 1920x1200 each
7. Must support 1080P playback of movies
8. Port Replicator/Docking station needs to be available
9. 5.1 surround sound output


Other notes:

His current laptop is Dell Inspiron 600M. It is getting "old". He had the 5 year warranty which he liked.


Is dell still the way to go? Notes 6, 7, and 9 are a must have.

 

[IlllI]

did his old laptop do 6,7,8,9?

 

[Rottie]

He can go with either Dell or Lonovo Thinkpad notebook. Dell 1520 notebook is close to 600m notebook, Most modern notebooks usually come with 6 to 8...

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Rottie
He can go with either Dell or Lonovo Thinkpad notebook. Dell 1520 notebook is close to 600m notebook, Most modern notebooks usually come with 6 to 8...

I haven't seen any notebooks that have two DVI outputs... This is what he needs regardless if he had it before with the 600m.

Surround sound seems to be an easy add-on. I'm not so sure about the 2x DVI. Dell only offers Kensington Docking stations and on a brief perusal, none of them had 2 external monitor output capability.

Perhaps Lenovo will have better chance of getting these features...

 

[TheStu]

The Studio 16 might be what he is looking for. Has HDMI, VGA and DisplayPort out, can be configured with a 1920*1080 screen, and I think has optical audio out that supports surround sound.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: TheStu
The Studio 16 might be what he is looking for. Has HDMI, VGA and DisplayPort out, can be configured with a 1920*1080 screen, and I think has optical audio out that supports surround sound.

Interesting, I didn't even look at the studio line because I thought it was the same as inspiron but with "pretty" colors Ill check it out.

Actually, I think you meant "XPS Studio 16". I checked it out, seems to have all the features that he needs. Is there a way to find out if the graphics card can actually drive all of the video outputs simultaneously and independently? (I'm still on "hold" with dell chat sales support)

Edit: Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[TheStu]

I did mean Studio XPS 16... i forgot they have the XPS moniker on there.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: TheStu
I did mean Studio XPS 16... i forgot they have the XPS moniker on there.

Apparently the Studio 15 will do dual monitors, although one is a VGA... I guess that would be a call my bro has to make depending on if he wants to save the few hundred dollars.

Thanks for your help!

 

[alimoalem]

I have no idea if it can output to 2 monitors (in fact I don't know much about it) but the Lenovo IdeaPad Y series looks, at least externally, to be something that would compete with the XPS Studio 16. Maybe someone knows if it would fit the bill?