Buying New Laptop

[miketab]

I need a new laptop and I'm not too sure what to get... I'm going to be using it mostly for 3D Studio MAx, Maya, Viz, AutoCAD, etc, and I want to get a top of the line.

I own a Dell Inspiron now, so the only other Lappy's I looked at were the Dell ones; so far I saw the
Inspiron 9200
Inspiron XPS
Precision M70 (Workstation)

It's meant to be a desktop replacement, not a laptop (although under 8lbs would be nice)
I was wondering what other companies to look at, keeping in mind that I need reliable service and warranty (otherwise I'd get an ODM).


Here's what I'd like:
17" widescreen (hopefully like the glosy Vaio ones)
7200RPM hard drive (60Gb or more)
(I'm out of touch with lappy CPU's today, what's with the "3.4Ghz w/HT Tech Extreme Edition" vs the "2.1Ghz 400FSB"??)
Integrated wireless and Bluetooth
1~2Gb RAM

and that's just cause it was the best Dell had to offer.

Also, if you think I should go with the dell's, what's the diff between XPS, 9200 and precision? (performance-wise)
Any of these will likely be over 3K (the Dells were 3,800 with coupons and student discounts)

Thanks for answering
Mike

 

[mdahc]

You should really be considering a notebook with a Quadro FX GPU like the Precision M70. That's the main difference between the Precision and 9200 and XPS. All the CPU power in the world won't do you much good unless you have a powerful, OpenGL optimized GPU like the nVIDIA Quadro FX line or ATI's FireGL series. Thus, even when you're looking at other companies, pay attention to the GPU and not the CPU (and I'd avoid the Extreme Edition P4...they offer marginal performance increases at quite a premium...the Pentium M or the regular P4 will be just fine). If you want a 17" widescreen display, BOXX and Eurocom offer notebooks with a Quadro FX Go 1400 and 17" display. Pretty much everyone who offers the Quadro FX Go 1400 with a 17" display uses the same ODM design kit, which has a glossy display somewhat like the Sony Xbrite's.

 

[miketab]

What's BOXX's and Eurocom's service like? Is it reliable? at-home, or mail-in?

edit: also, are they the only companies that offer 17" widescreen with QuadroFX Go 1400 (or ATI FireGL)?

 

[miketab]

I just looked at Alienware; they have one too that has QuadroFX and 17", and it's about 4K fully loaded, like the Dell precision. anyone know how good their service is?