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Can anyone recommend a great laptop for the money?

A

AntMan

Senior member
Well I have quiet a bit saved up, and I'm expecting to pay around 2500-3000, I really need a high performance laptop. Anyone know of any out there, that they would personaly recommend?





Thanks
AntMan
 
Type? Size? Weight? Features? Screen resolution? Etc, etc.

What do you want? There are some pretty good pre-Xmas deals right now, and 3000 US bux will get you far.

Personally, what I wanted was:

13" TFT screen
PIII with speedstep
DVD
Modem
LAN
SVGA and SVHS out
10 GB hard drive
128 MB RAM
Windows 2000
Reasonable video card
2 USB ports
IR port
Li-ion battery
floppy drive
Ultra-thin with docking bay.
Touch-pad. (I hate those joystick things.)

Well, I didn't get that. I scrapped the ultra-thin idea and extra USB port, and got only a 6 GB drive. I got just about everything else for $2000 US (+ extra LAN card). Weighs 7.6 lbs, but it's got a 15" inch screen. 🙂 I know nothing about the usability of this Dell Inspiron 5000e/Sceptre 69002 however, so it should be interesting when it arrives.

What I really wanted though was the Sceptre 7300 but it cost too much. It's an ultra-light that becomes a full-on desktop replacement with a docking station which makes it the size of a normal sized notebook. Very cool. However, it fits your price range at around $2900 for what I think are the ideal specs.
 
Well im going for the whole 9 yards, these are the options I was hoping for, but I would probably have to pay around 4000 to get, unfortunatly.

850Mhz
256 Ram
32 MB of Video Memory
Dvd Rom
14-15 inch best quality type screen

Size and weight do not matter that much. Lighter the better though.
As many features or addons already built in, if they are quality parts are a plus.


Im loosing my desktop in about a month, so this laptop will be my main hub from now on, and I need great speed performance, as well as good multimedia performance out of it. Only reason I dont go for another destop is b/c I move around alot, need that mobility.

THanks
Antman
 
I just got a Dell Insperon ( not sure if I spelled that right). It's a P3 600, 192MB, 10G HD, 14 inch TFT display for $2000. I think it may have been education pricing. It runs great after I formatted it and took off all the crappy software that comes with it. I'm dual booting winME and W2K advanced server.
 


<< Well im going for the whole 9 yards, these are the options I was hoping for, but I would probably have to pay around 4000 to get, unfortunatly. >>

You could almost get it for under US$3000, if you're willing to accept 16 MB of video RAM and a PIII 750. A PIII 850 is $550 more than a PIII 750. :Q

If you're into the pointer stick thing, then check out IBM. Their prices have dropped a bit lately. (So have the touch-pad endowed Dells though.)

Hey LordSandMan, which Inspiron is it? The one I've been talking about is the same as a souped up 5000e. Why are you running advanced server?
 
What do you mean by point stick? Right now I guess im looking the most at getting a Dell Inspiron 8000, with a 800mhz cpu and 256 ram so I can aswell run server on it. Whats so hot about tft? and speedstep? and is the speed that noticable between the 600-700-800-850 cpu's.
 
Our company just bought us these. They seem to work alright. We have specialized software on them depending what division we are in. I'm in wireless so it has to work out in the field and gets bumped around alot and goes to a few extremes in temperature. Seems solid enough.
 
Why do you guys want to run Win 2000 Advanced Server? 😕

Anyways, the 8000 looks good. They've been having issues with the Firewire port though. A lot of people say they can't get it to work properly, if that matters to you. The joystick thing I'm talking about is that little stick that sits in the middle of the keyboard that substitutes for the mouse. It's usable, but I much prefer the touch pad. However, with the 8000 that's not an issue, because it has both.

I see no point whatsoever in getting a PIII 850. You'd be much better off buying a 700 and putting the extra dough towards software. Unless you have very specific needs, a 700 is plenty fast. Most people are going to use SpeedStep anyway, which slows your CPU when using battery power. Also, are you sure you want to buy the 15&quot; SXGA+ screen? A lot of people don't like the 1400x1050 display, but that's personal preference. I'm sticking with XGA at 1024x768. The higher resolution is nicer for stuff like Photoshop though.

What are you using it for?
 
Why pay 200.00 more for 50MHz?

I picked up a Dell Inspiron 8000 Notebook:

Intel® Pentium® III Processor 800MHz
15.0&quot; SXGA+TFT Display
64MB,SDRAM,1DIMM <--- ( I already have (2) 256MB Samsung SoDIMMS waiting on it )
32MB ATI Mobility M4? 3D Video, 4X AGP
32GB IBM Ultra ATA 5400rpm Hard Drive
Microsoft® Windows® Millennium <-- Will put Win2K on it
Internal 56K Capable V.90 + 10/100 Mini-
Free! 8X Max Variable DVD-ROM Drive
Microsoft® Works Suite 2001 plus Money 2001
8X CDRW Max Variable Modular Drive
Norton Antivirus® 2000 for Windows Millennium
3 Yr Next Business Day International On-Site Parts &amp; Labor
Additional 59 WHr Lithium Ion Battery

3176.00
Plus 500.00 cash back <-- max cash back available from MSN/Dell

It should arrive tomorrow 🙂

Do not buy the extra memory from Dell, get it from Crucial or another online vendor and save some cash.
 
First off thanks so much guys for all the help already.

Ok EUG, I need this thing for alot of things actually.
Some Video Editing
Lots of Word Processing
Some Gaming
Some Dvd Mobile Watching(would be really nice durning air flights)

I might be running server on it, b/c just on my free time I am studing for MCSE, and need to practice with server.
I would like to load it up with ram to ensure it runs perfectly smooth, specialy in win2k that 256 is really nice.
Last I really would like a great display

I think my choice is gonna be a Dell, I don't the difference between the 5000 &amp; the 8000. I mean there's a huge price difference. Is it for the Ultra XGA or the speedstep? Witch all in all has more features, and is better?


Ill go with the 8000 or the 5000, I guess 800 mhz for the 8000 or 700 mhz for the 5000(Considering the huge price increase in the 5000)

If only getting 64 mb is the way to go, and then buying else where, then what are some options. I looked at it, and if I went with crucial dell memory it would only cost 20 bucks more to have dell preinstalled with it. And isn't it extremly hard to install the ram?


Anyways I need to make this decission tonight, so if you can drop me a line on icq, it's 85910982.

Once again thanks so much for all the help people.
Ant_Man
 
Some of the difference between the i8000 &amp; i5000 are:

i815 chipset on the i8000 vs BX on the i5000
i8000 has firewire and spdif
you can get a 15&quot; UXGA LCD on the i5000
i8000 supports dual optical drives
i8000 has up to 32MB ATI M4, i5000 up to 16MB ATI 128
i8000 has Harmon Kardon speakers
i8000 has mini modem/nic option

To install the memory, flip either unit over and pop the hatch, pop it in a slot....1 min job 🙂

Why pay Dell extra $$ to do that for you, as well being charged more for the same memory you can buy from a third party? 😛
 
What's wrong with Sony? I saw some laptops at Compusa which were jampacked with features and were very lightweight. But Dell won't do you wrong either.
 
The reason I run server is because I need Mac clients to connect to this machine as well as PC's. The organization I work for works almost exclusively with schools. I believe it was the inspiron 4000. The only slight downside I've found so far is that you can only have either the floppy dirve or cd drive in at a time, but they sent sent some sort of parrallel port cable to hook up the floppy externally. Don't know if they've been doing this for a while or not. I thought it was kind of cool.
 
Since you want a desktop replacement (Dell Inspiron 8000) forget about getting something light, it's gonna weigh a ton but then again it'll be a true desktop replacement.

DO NOT buy RAM from Dell you're gonna get ripped off big time, buy a 128MB or 256MB SODIMM directly from Crucial.com which makes quality Micron RAM.

Is it really worth paying $200 more to get a 50 MHz faster laptop? Use that money towards some RAM.
 
If weight is not an issue, the inspiron 8000 packs more features and performance for the price than the 5000. The 5000 is lighter, and has a better available screen, (15&quot; UltraXGA vs. 8000's sxga+, although both are great). I carried an inspiron around back in the day, and although it started to get annoying with 15 pounds (battery and junk) on your shoulder in airports it was worth it. As long as you can fold it up and carry it around, i dont care about size. That's what my ipaq is for.
 
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