Help Me Find A Laptop for School

[arter2]

Hello AnandTech can you tech heads help me find a good laptop for school. I?ve been looking for month and I have been having a lot of trouble. See I?m going to art school [The school of visual arts to be exact] and my major is computer graphics. I know I need a high-powered laptop for the essential programs I will be using. Programs like Maya, Photoshop, After Effects and many others. So here are the two options I?ve been looking for:



1. A regular high powered gaming notebook with a high-powered graphics card and main processor. I?d prefer And AMD 64 chip whether it be duel or regular and an ATI graphics card [whatever is the best at the time the best seems to be the x800] though I am open to other choice I just am confused what will be the best for my money. Also I?m looking for the highest quality screen too 17? wide screen.




2. The second option is a little more ambitious but I believe it will be perfect for my major. I am looking for the closest thing to the above a leading edge high-powered computer that is a tablet pc. See a tablet could be great for the drawing and modeling that I will be doing. The problem is all the tablets on the market that I could find is that they are way under powered.



I know I am asking for a lot guys but I?ve been looking for months and there is nothing out their that really meets these specs some companies have one thing and not the other and I?m just wondering what company has the best for the money that I will be paying which I know is a lot. I?ve looked at Dell, Alienware, Falcon, and some random others.
So guys can you help???



p.s.

How is the Dell xps it seems way under powered compared to the other high end note books?

 

[arter2]

gah help please

 

[ryanv12]

Well, as I understand it, mobility isn't an issue for you and you're willing to carry a bag of bricks. The tablet PC won't do what you need so I wouldn't go with that. You should look at desktop processors because they're faster for what you're doing than pentium-m processors. Look at some of these beasts...they'll be cheaper than an XPS

http://xtremenotebooks.com/

 

[ShadowBlade]

laptoplogic.com
shouldve posted in sff, notebooks

 

[Excelsior]

For number 1, this is what I would be looking at.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

http://buyABS.com

 

[arter2]

why exaclty aren't thier more AMD based high end laptops it really confuses me why every one seems to use intel with an nvidia graphics card. I think you'd just get more bang for your buck with an athelon 64 and a ati x800.

 

[magnificat]

Originally posted by: arter2
why exaclty aren't thier more AMD based high end laptops it really confuses me why every one seems to use intel with an nvidia graphics card. I think you'd just get more bang for your buck with an athelon 64 and a ati x800.

Why people use Pentium 4 or 4M in laptops, I'm not sure, but the Pentium M is an exceptional for its good performance and low power consumption, which can bring very significant increases in battery life. For me, portability (mostly in terms of battery life) is a major consideration, so I wouldn't seriously consider another processor in a laptop. Others may not need 4 to 5 hours of battery life, however.