What would be the best laptop for...

[Gimmpy]

Gaming / Programming (and possible graphics and CAD designing). As of right now I am a freshmen in college and Im looking for a laptop that will be able to hold its own in all those for at least a few years , im willing to spend 2-$3000 on one.

I was looking into the Pavilion HDX
.

I honestly don't understand much about laptops hardware, not sure just how different the mobile series of video cards differs from a desktops.



Also, I would be willing to wait a month or two to get any new series of laptops coming out, I heard from a friend that a 8800 chipset will be coming out for notebooks soon.

 

[TheStu]

What kind of gaming do you do? Also, bear in mind that no laptop you buy will be able to play top of the line games (at full) in even 2 years, let alone 4. Personally, i would get a decent, though not necessarily ridiculous, laptop that will last you for 4 years (something like the specs of the MacBook Pro) and then invest the rest in a decent desktop. The desktop is then upgradeable, the laptop good enough for games on the go, and everything else you want it to do, and is still portable enough to take to class.

just my 2 cents

 

[mruffin75]

See my other post about HP repair issues... If you *really* want an HP...get an onsite warranty (if it is available)..

 

[Rockinacoustic]

For that kind of Money Dell XPS 1710 all the way. I drool at the one on display in my College's bookstore

 

[Gimmpy]

Another factor though would be a laptop that could eventually play DX10 games . But like Stu said I guess no laptop will be able to very effectively in a long time.

My desktop as of right now is pretty decent , itll be upgraded next I just wanted a nice laptop that I could play like Quake 4 / WoW (yes im a wow nerd ) on. One reason I liked the HP was 1, it looked like a very nice media machine just because of the huge screen and the built in HD DVD player, and from the specs it seemed like it would be pretty kick A at gaming.

A buddy of mine made me swear not to get a XPS lol, he used to work for dell and swears up and down the the CS sucks and the service for parts and such is a pain too.


Also thanks guys for the help with this lol. My first time to visit these forums and im lovin it!

 

[TheStu]

Well, any laptop with the 8xxx series cards will play DX10 games since that is a DX10 card. To the best of my knowledge, the highest DX10 card out for mobile is the nVidia 8700M in some Toshiba laptops, but I am unsure just how much better that would be than an 8600M GT.

If you search for a machine with the following specs:
2+ GHz Proc (either Core 2 Santa Rosa [which you can tell by the 800MHz FSB] or Turion X2)
2+ GB RAM (I would look for 2GB, but if you want more, then get it from Newegg)
15" screen or better, at 1440*900 or higher res

Anything else is up in the air really

 

[Gimmpy]

can anyone confirm that the 8800m series will be out soon?

Also, any companies I should try to stay away from (such as HP lol)? Any horror stories youve heard of?

 

[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: Gimmpy
Gaming / Programming (and possible graphics and CAD designing). As of right now I am a freshmen in college and Im looking for a laptop that will be able to hold its own in all those for at least a few years , im willing to spend 2-$3000 on one.

I was looking into the Pavilion HDX
.

I honestly don't understand much about laptops hardware, not sure just how different the mobile series of video cards differs from a desktops.



Also, I would be willing to wait a month or two to get any new series of laptops coming out, I heard from a friend that a 8800 chipset will be coming out for notebooks soon.

HDX ftw. Got a friend on PCMech that swears by the thing. Well built, didn't break when he dropped it on the kitchen floor by accident, and make great counterbalances on the fly wheels of semis because of their rediculous weights (ok a little sarcasm on that last one). But yeah, the HDX is good. The Dell XPS line is alright, but I didn't like the feel of the 17**XPS i felt at the store. Seemed like...plastic?