• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Very best notebook?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
I'd have to hunt for lots more information, but basically this might be a decent starting point if you're curious:

http://plex.us/outbursts/liebermann.html
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a lot of information. Thanks. If this is the same guy, he's going to get a serious beat-down one day.

That makes for some really amusing reading, too.

However, you do realize, jvarszegi, you're now guilty of 'liable'.


 
Originally posted by: trikster2
Almost everyone has better video than the IBM's, if you are coding anything with graphics or multitasking where a Hyper Threading P4 will help, go with something like the XPS or the new HP ZD8000.
Click to expand...

The graphics chipset won't help write graphics code, though. I think the Thinkpad's graphics are fine for business use. For the money he can get an FireGL 128MB card, which comes with workstation-class drivers but is basically a MR 9600.

The point about hyper-threading is a good one, but in general WITH a lotta multitasking it gives about a 10% performance boost; in other words, a 2Ghz HT and 2.2Ghz non-HT P4 should multitask about as well. It's not going to make the machine a super server or anything; it's a slight advantage. I think the Dothan 2.1Ghz is likely to be screaming fast anyway, and still offers great battery life. I fully expect a 2.1Ghz Dothan to be fine for running an IDE, a database server, and several other editing programs in a responsive manner if the OS is set up correctly. For testing multithreaded code, it'll still be great; and you'd never run server-side code performance tests on a laptop any way.
 
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
Originally posted by: Thin Lizzy
Im just curious, what did go-i do that defrauded the public?
Click to expand...

I'd have to hunt for lots more information, but basically this might be a decent starting point if you're curious:

http://plex.us/outbursts/liebermann.html

Back before the company went bust, there were lots of people in outrage because Go-L's website made clearly impossible claims; I didn't know enough to verify the accusations, but lots of knowledgeable-seeming people claimed at the time that some Go-L components were impossible to use in the ways stated on their website. There were also people who'd placed orders and not actually received anything, and people claiming to have received hardware different from what they'd ordered. There's some pretty entertaining reading if you track it all down.

I believe that the guy behind that "company" has done this several times, but the Go-L fraud is probably his biggest. One of his previous companies (called "Michael's Computers", I think) put up seals of approval and other awards, like "Editor's Choice" logos, without permission to convince people that the machines were super-fast.
Click to expand...

Thanks jvarszegi. Thats some interesting stuff!!

Back when I used to use Internet Explorer, I would always get a pop up saying "Win this Super computer" and it was a wicked looking computer, and it had that huge monitor sitting right next to it!! The same computer and monitor from Go-I. It looked awesome.
 
Originally posted by: Thin Lizzy
Thanks jvarszegi. Thats some interesting stuff!!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. You may enjoy also reading about the aptly named Phantom gaming console; here's a starting point:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEy

Here's a later story from USA today, from May of this year; in retrospect the final quote is funny:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/n...0-phantom-launch_x.htm

Finally, here's the website of the company itself. Looks like they're still in responding-to-misleading-statements mode after all this time, and are still as optimistic as usual, but haven't actually produced any hardware. They do have a neat-o mouseover effect going there, though.
http://www.phantom.net/

The subscription page says, "Check back to find Phantom at the store nearest you!"
 
AlienWare. They have a rather slow update cycle, but when they come out with new Area 51 laptops, they're usually the best on the market for several months.

My favorite thing about Go-L was their original website. For the longest time, it looked like a clone of Apple's site. Even some of the graphics were way too similar. A buddy of mine compared the HTML of the two sites and found that entire chunks of the code was the exact same.
 
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
Originally posted by: Thin Lizzy
Thanks jvarszegi. Thats some interesting stuff!!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. You may enjoy also reading about the aptly named Phantom gaming console; here's a starting point:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEy

Here's a later story from USA today, from May of this year; in retrospect the final quote is funny:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/n...0-phantom-launch_x.htm

Finally, here's the website of the company itself. Looks like they're still in responding-to-misleading-statements mode after all this time, and are still as optimistic as usual, but haven't actually produced any hardware. They do have a neat-o mouseover effect going there, though.
http://www.phantom.net/

The subscription page says, "Check back to find Phantom at the store nearest you!"
Click to expand...

Thanks for those articles. I like to read about those things. It makes me wonder if Phantom will every produce anything! We will wait and see. It would be cool because their products look awesome! 🙂
 
I would personally go with what ever highest end think pad T42 you can configure, but since you want pricey you might want to go with voodoo pc laptops. Though I don't know thier build quality etc.. I think they may be good, my T series laptop is very nice and sturdy so you may base you buy on that.. I heard about the panasonic tough books but I don't know how they are, any comments about it?
 

Some additional notes:

Keyboard:
T42 has no windows key. It's an issue for some people

Tall:
I agree with the comments about "portrait mode" It's wonderful when I write papers to have a full page on a single screen, and I can imagine it's great when coding too.

"tall" monitors are available on laptops. Most tablet PCs can be used in portrait mode. Also there is nothing preventing you from rotating your screen on your laptop using the built in drivers, just makes typing kind of hard....

Battery life.
The T42p's (with the 15" IPS screen) standard battery life is not much better than the I9200's, so make suere you get the extra batteries. Not that these are "up-to" numbers from the tabook, users on thinkpads.com report way lower real-world values:

Up to 3.5 hr; Optional 9-cell: up to 5.7 hr; 9-cell plus Ultrabay Slim battery: up to 7.7 hr

The Inspiron 9200's battery life is somewhat of a mystery. PCMAG reported 4 hours then using a similar configuration CNET (after saying, we don't do reviews anymore) reported 2.5hr, when playing a DVD. Someone over at notebookforums.com backed up CNETs claim. 2.5hrs is still pretty good in the 17" notebook category but I agree it's a hassle to always be looking for an outlet.....

I'm surprised that when looking for a spare-no-expense great quality laptop no one has mentioned the Panasonic Toughbooks.

http://froogle.google.com/froo...ughbook&scoring=pd



 
Yeah I would probably go with VoodooPC. However there is an even better notebook they offer than the one linked above. The Envy m:870 is extremely impressive

http://www.voodoopc.com/sellPage.aspx?productID=1019

I really don't know of a more powerful laptop than this. In every review of vodoo laptops I have read the computer typically breaks the reviewers' previous records, but I bet its battery life sucks accordingly. Anyway this is what I would get hands down for looks, power, and functionality. Portability is probably more the IBM laptops' thing.
 
Personally... well, I'd actually get a fully-loaded 15" PowerBook with a 20" Cinema Display. 😛

But in the x86 world, I'd go with a Voodoo PC m:360. I hate hate hate "desktop replacement" notebooks, since they're too big and too heavy to carry around outside of the occasional LAN party. The m:360, on the other hand, is about 5.5 pounds and has good battery life (4h according to VPC) and will actually leave room for other things in a laptop bag.

The best part is that you can still get good performance out of it: you can get a 2 GHz Pentium M, 2 GB of RAM, up to a 100 GB hard drive, and so on. A 128 MB Mobility Radeon 9700 is still a very good graphics chip for mobile gaming. You'll still be within budget, too: even if you max out the specs (including the LCD guarantee, the upgrade assurance, and a 3-year warranty), you hit $5000. That still leaves room for buying a laptop bag of your choice (if needed) and an accessory or two. I'd personally forego the upgrade assurance and use the difference to get, say, an iPod. 😉
 
I think something's being missed here: that there is no way to usefully spend $6000 on a business notebook. There are no code development needs that aren't satisfied easily by a decent sub-$2000 notebook, and for server-side scalability testing (especially for a distributed app) there's no way a laptop can fit the bill. A mid-range Pentium M works fine for compiling even large projects-- I know from experience. For a very large project, you can't get sub-second compile times on ANY available hardware, and a few seconds here and there is no big deal.

If this guy is a developer and is being given $6000 to spend on a laptop, he's most likely at a small start-up early in the going, when they typically throw investment capital around like it's going out of style. The question should really be rephrased as "How should I best waste the company's money?".
 
Get a Sager 9860, and it won't cost you $6000, more like 3-4000. And you'll have the fastest DTR there is-all the rest is lagging behind.
 
CindySue:

The problem is that if it's a business notebook, that generally means that he needs to travel. 😉 Unless it will spend most of its mobile time on the passenger seat of a car, it's not the best choice.
 
Originally posted by: jvarszegi
Originally posted by: stingygrrl
this will blow your budget: the best! so they say..
Click to expand...

Less than one-hour battery life? It's a hunk of junk as laptops go. As desktops go, it's pretty crappy too; you could get way better performance for the money.
Click to expand...

I guess sarcasm doesn't go too far online... I was just posting what THEY say:

quote:


Overall the best piece of gaming machinery that money?lots of money?can buy.

Would *I* buy it-- heck no, but it's $5300 -- right in his budget.. hehe

 
Originally posted by: Commodus
CindySue:

The problem is that if it's a business notebook, that generally means that he needs to travel. 😉 Unless it will spend most of its mobile time on the passenger seat of a car, it's not the best choice.
Click to expand...


Oh. 😱
 
I happen to have a Dell Inspiron XPS notebook. You can get one loaded for about $4000 with the extended warranty, additional 16-cell battery pack, and maybe a modular floppy. Probably the only thing it is missing is a 2nd modular bay. It weighs about 10 pounds with the 16-cell battery.

Mine has a P4 3.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, MR9800, 15.4" 1920x1200, 4x DVD+RW, 60 GB 7200 RPM HD.

It pretty much handles anything I throw at it. The 15.4" LCD is kind of small for the resolution, but it looks really good. I also have a 2001FP which I use as a 2nd display if I want a larger display. I am now using the Omega drivers and have no issues with DVDs or games.

It has 3 cooling fans, so it stays pretty cool considering the speed. Battery life takes a beating, but I have it on AC 90% of the time.

It comes to about $3700 for a P4 3.4 GHz, 1024 MB RAM, MR9800, 15.4" 1920x1200, 8xDVD±RW, 60GB 7200 RPM HD, 4-year at-home service, extra 16-cell battery, wireless b/g, modular floppy drive, WinXP Pro, and XPS back pack ( you will need it 🙂 ).
 
Original Poster here: Just ordered a T42p, fully loaded (2373Q4U), with lots of extras.

For the record, this wasn't a tax rebate or venture capital money. I am under contract to spend a certain amount of money on hardware before the end of the year. Sounds bizarre, and it is. I'd rather give the money to a school, but I can't.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I don't expect to receive my T42p until January.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top