Thinking about buying a laptop

[Dudd]

Well, I'm thinking of purchasing a laptop, and I'm wondering if now is a good time to buy, or to wait for a few months. First, a little backround. I had $400 in Gateway gift certificates, my father used those and bought me a horrible laptop for Christmas (8mb S3 video for a gamer... ugh), and I have returned it. So, now I have around 1800 bucks in Gateway credit. Should I purchase a laptop now with the Geforce 2 Go video card, or wait until NV17M is released? All that I've been told by the Gateway sales reps in regard to possible future releases are "You never know." Real helpful. So, I'm asking you guys. Do you think think that NV17M will be released within a month or two, or will I be waiting for a long time? It doesn't help that Gateway is going down the tubes as we speak. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[AMDSoldier]

Hey I'm also looking to buy a laptop. Here's the thread I just made. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=689262

You know what they say, you can wait forever and never get what you want.

my $.02

 

[Beatnik]

Uh, seems like the ATI Radeon mobility is actually the right place to be right now.
I love NVIDIA also, so I wouldn't fault you if you go that way.

Best perf-for-$$$ is usually Toshiba.

I'd probably look at the Dell Inspiron 4100,
the HP Omnibook 6100, and the A-Series of
the IBM stuff.

There's a lot of interesting stuff out there right now.

 

[Beatnik]

Two more comments:

I really like the Fujitsu "P" Series.
That little sucker is just cool. Transmeta 800MHz I believe
and a weird screen, like 1280x768... but killer for a portable
DVD / notebook. Very light. And not too expensive. Definitely
take a look at that. It's sweet.

Also wanted to point to this site: since it shows what's
coming down the pike, so gives you a good hint at what the
next gen will look like:

http://www.dynamism.com/

 

[ojai00]

Whatever laptop you get, make sure it's a PIII-M processor. They're a lot better than the regular PIII processors. Dell, IBM, and HP all make exceptional laptops. Don't really know what the NV17M is, but Geforce2 Go and ATI Mobility are both pretty strong video cards that will give you a hell of a gaming experience on your laptop. Hope this helps.

 

[Derango]

Yes...my p3-M dell notebook can cruch seti units in anywhere from 4:50-6:00, which is actualy faster than my friends Athlon running at 1.3 (I think its 1.3) ghz.

 

[Dudd]

Well, it's all good advice and what I'd like to be able to do, but since Gateway will only give me credit, not a full refund, I'm stuck with them. Unfortunatly, they do not offer the Radeon 7500, or I'd get that in a flash. I'm hesitant to wait too much longer, since Gateway seems to be doing poorly and might not make it for too much longer, but I don't want to order a laptop with the Geforce 2 Go only to find out a week later that NVidia has shipped the NV17M to the major OEMs. So, my original question still stands: does anyone have a reasonably informed opinion on the estimated release date for the NV17M?

 

[Dudd]

Page 2 bump.

 

[Dudd]

Final bump. I saw a article that stated Q1 2002, does anyone know if this is still the case?

 

[Jackhamr60504]

Gateway started carrying the 9550's recently, and I don't see them doing a major overhaul to that model anytime soon. I purchased a 5350 series a month ago, and love it. However, I am not a gamer. The 9550s with the GF do perform resonable well. And they do have the PIII-M's... Let me know if you had any other specific questions, I have a buddy that works for Gateway.