laptop 4 me...

[gujuguy007]

well i thought it would be easy looking for a laptop..but its been a difficult one. i've been going through these boards for about a month and just need to make a purchase before i take off for college (1.5 weeks left). i need something that is light and portable, great graphics, 512 memory, ok processor (pentium m), dvd, cd-rw, wireless for around 1200-1300.

i like the dell 600m, but after taxes comes out to 1600. fujitsu is tempting, but gets very expensive and not easily configurable. i've seen the acer's, but not sure about their quality. avaratec's are new, but not sure how they will work in like a year.

its a difficult choice...anybody have any input or thoughts on some nice, solid laptops? also does anybody know anything about the fatwallet 4% discount?


FYI...I'm a graphics designer and a moderate user of visual studio if that will help.

 

[Mermaidman]

I bought the Acer Aspire 2010. It was DOA. Pretty paperweight though!

 

[Koing]

light and portable, great graphics

Sorry this really DOES NOT GO WELL TOGETHER. In the portable stuff graphics IS SACRIFICED.

Another thing is how 'portable' do you want it?

http://vaio.sony-europe.com/ShowProductCategory.do?category=UM%20S%20Series&language=en&country=GB&domainname=vaio.sony-europe.com

This looks great but it isn't cheap but if your going to spend 1300 what is another 350? Not 'that' much imo.

Comes with the Ati 9700 with 64mb and a CRACKING screen 13.3 widescreen 😀 and a DVD-RW, 512mb (upgradeable to 1Gb) 60Gb HD.

I have a Sony Vaio great machine. Bro has one also. No problems with his. Mines 1.69Kg ~ 3.7lbs but no optical drive.

Koing

 

[gujuguy007]

thanks...the sony s-series looks good...for that price, its not that bad. i'll try to look further into it....any more suggestions?

 

[jkresh]

be careful with a sony notebook, their build quality is pretty good but their support is downright awful. Avertec is realy cheap, and you can tell when you use them. Does you school have discounts with any manufaturers? If so that may be the way to go. Its easy to find a light machine with an acceptable procesor for a good price, getting good graphics into your price range with battery life and light weight may be impossible. Whats the most important, graphics/battery/weight and is this going to be your only machine or will you have a dekstop aswell?

 

[gujuguy007]

ill definitely have a desktop...i need portability, but i ask for good graphics because i will be showing my work to clients...

if this would help..i have a pc in which i run a geforce2 mx200 32mb card and to me its just fine especially since my monitor is crystal clear. i'm willing to settle for a laptop that is comparable or better to the graphics card i have on my pc and i know geforce has come a long way since 2001 as well as ATI.

 

[ai42]

If I were buying a laptop today I'd say Acer Aspire 2010.

You can alos look into the Gateway m505 series which is what I have and is quite strong overall and according to some people over a FW some office depots have this clearanced for 1000.

Stay away from the 600m. I owned one and it just trash terrible build quality I felt like I was going to break it all the time.

 

[jkresh]

ok, then what you realy need is a good screen, not good graphics. A radeon 7500 or 9200 would be fine, no point on going directx 9. Try to find an sxga or uxga or wsxga or wuxga screen in your price range, (though be sure to check out those resolutions at a store to make sure its not too small for you). This is assuming that most of your graphcis work is 2d, if you are doing/plan on doing 3d, that brings this to an entirely different level. As long as 2d is your medium screen will be far more important then the card. You might want to look at an hp zt3000, pricing is not bad, screen is high quality (have used an wxga and wuxga, both were crisp and clear), graphics are acceptable and well beyond what your desktop currently runs. You can probably get an educational discount from hp if you call them. If you school has any legitamite discounts with ibm then a t40 (older one with 7500 or 9000 and sxga) would also fit your needs nicely and ibm is great in terms of quality and support.

 

[zensafari]

If you aren't hung up on PC's I would go with one of the new G4 iBooks from Apple. Apples come with nice screens (IMO) and I think you can one now for a good price. Its very portable and I think it would suit your needs.

 

[Wuzup101]

I'd second the idea to get a iBook or maybe even the 12" Powerbook. With the edu discount the most expensive machine there (the 12" Powerbook) is $1399. They have decent grapics, nice screens, are very very portable, and great for showing work to clients... mostly because they are just downright sexy as hell. They Powerbook will also have built in wireless b/g, bluetooth, firewire, usb2, cdrw, and one of the nicest full sized keyboards on the market! If you go for an iBook you have to add the wireless/bluetooth if you want it; however, they are still very sexy machines. Definitely figure in buying another 512mb of pc2100 or pc2700 depending on which one you get (another $100).

 

[gujuguy007]

the ibooks are excellent...i like them except for the limited array of programs that it can support (or what my budget can support)... office is not an issue since discounts are offered at our university, however i can't afford to shell out another $400 for adobe creative suite and also i don't think macs support visual studio.net. I need to be able to run some programs so i can work on the go for quick updates if i wanted to.