Buying Laptop, What Brand Is The Best For Me? Please help.

[Twinkies 0]

Ok so here's the deal. I'm getting a laptop really soon (this month) and I want to know what brand is the best. Mac is out of the question and Im not to big on DELL. I will be doing ALOT of graphics and animation so I need something that will be powerful in those areas and I will be doing home work on it as well. I also need it to last a long time. I have alot of animals so it needs to be well bult, and I would prefer a nice look. Price doesn't really matter. Any ideas?

[sonesay 7]

price dosent matter? i would say go for this one then http://www.alienware.com/main.aspx

the duel video card that would be very good for anything from gaming to video editing? HDD is only 160 gb though so it will run out fast once you start loading stuff into your laptop.

[Saint_Michael 3]

Like sonesay mention if cash isn't a problem then hit up a alienware computer is all you need, but if money is an issue then I would check out newegg as they have some powerful yet cheap laptop computers. So take a look around there and see what you would like.

[silver_wolves 0]

well, when i read that, i was like, how could a mac be out of the question, it would be perfect for you. but if you dont want that, go with an alienware laptop, if money isnt a question, but otherwise, i would look around at local stores for deals, not online, unless you go to newegg.com. i really like the sony vaio as well, but they tend to be pricey. so maybe an hp as that is pretty much the only other good brand out there that is cheaper. i would also recommend acer, they are very nice as well.but for real, a mac would be the best way to go in your situation.

[strange-garden 0]

Isn't alienware now owned by Dell?I have an Acer laptop and thought it was a dream when I first got it, sure it's cute, cheap and powerful but I've had numerous problems with stuff just not working...For example, the DVD rom drive wasn't working on the first one, so I had to get it replaced. Then I got another one and the screen was shot, then I got this one and I've since dicovered that the touch pad doesn't work and neither does the volume button on the side. Also it has vista on it =(...which is fun at first, but not so great when you only have 1gig of RAM.So yeah, don't get an Acer laptop. I think alienware laptops are amazing, but they're owned by dell...You could always get a macbook and load windows or linux onto it?

[Saint_Michael 3]

OMG I can't believe Dell bought them, but regardless the hardware that goes into their computers won't be dell since it it some high powered stuff, and Dell says so as well.. So I wouldn't worry about that because everyone knows how great those computers are so Dell won't be messing with, heck maybe Dell will force them to drop there prices a bit .

[Watermonkey 0]

...I will be doing ALOT of graphics and animation so I need something that will be powerful in those areas and I will be doing home work on it as well. I also need it to last a long time. I have alot of animals so it needs to be well bult, and I would prefer a nice look. Price doesn't really matter. Any ideas?

Yeah... I can see why you wouldn't consider a Mac... Especially if price doesn't matter and you could buy a 250GB HD, partition it for Windoz and Mac and have the best of both worlds and have a Hi-def 17" display, 4GB of RAM, and an absolutely powerful and beautiful machine the whole world would envy. Yeah, that would suck. Buy a Panasonic military spec machine. You can drop kick it and use it ten seconds later. Never mind the weight...

[Saint_Michael 3]

Watermonkey did you buy yourself a new computer and just for me aawww, well he could do a Mac/linux partition if he wanted as well. Its funny you mention the military computers and it reminded of the toughbooks. Now those you can have a car rollover and they still will work . Although I have to ask this question why not a Mac computer, besides the fact they like to crash a lot As for being built well and being reliable then you might have to look into building it yourself, which means you would have to drop the laptop and go for a desktop in order to do that. Laptops are reliable, so taking the proper care and maintenance and making sure if you set it up in a area where your pets can't knock it off and break it.

Edited December 5, 2007 by Saint_Michael (see edit history)

[rayzoredge 2]

I can safely recommend HP if you're not willing to go Apple...

I have an HP Pavilion zd8000 desktop replacement and it comes with a 256MB ATI Radeon Mobility X600, which suffices for decent gaming as well as working with AutoCAD renders (although I haven't tested that yet). Toshiba also has a laptop that is very similar to the one I have, although it features a Duo Core instead of the Pentium 4 processor.

I would recommend using CNet's laptop finder tool. Here are laptops that are listed for high performance desktop replacements that may be suitable to your needs that come with XP.

Your best bet though will be with a desktop if you want the best performance. Why would you want a laptop other than portability reasons?

[Twinkies 0]

Watermonkey did you buy yourself a new computer and just for me aawww, well he could do a Mac/linux partition if he wanted as well. Its funny you mention the military computers and it reminded of the toughbooks. Now those you can have a car rollover and they still will work . Although I have to ask this question why not a Mac computer, besides the fact they like to crash a lot As for being built well and being reliable then you might have to look into building it yourself, which means you would have to drop the laptop and go for a desktop in order to do that. Laptops are reliable, so taking the proper care and maintenance and making sure if you set it up in a area where your pets can't knock it off and break it.

Im a girl actually. I couldn't stop laughing when you said a car could run over it and it will still run Im not going to abuse this laptop by leaving it out where it can be trashed by my animals, but just incase something happens I want to be safe than sorry.

I looked at a MacBook for about 6 months but the more I got into it, I found out that it's not real world and it's very limited versus a PC. Only reason lol I really wanted that mac, but I decided I should buy something I NEED rather than something I want. I'll get my mac later

I'm getting a kickass desktop as well, but I still need my laptop for portable reasons
Edited December 5, 2007 by Twinkies (see edit history)

[rayzoredge 2]

Im a girl actually. I couldn't stop laughing when you said a car could run over it and it will still run

Im not going to abuse this laptop by leaving it out where it can be trashed by my animals, but just incase something happens I want to be safe than sorry.

 

I looked at a MacBook for about 6 months but the more I got into it, I found out that it's not real world and it's very limited versus a PC. Only reason lol I really wanted that mac, but I decided I should buy something I NEED rather than something I want. I'll get my mac later

 

I'm getting a kickass desktop as well, but I still need my laptop for portable reasons

How portable is portable? Desktop replacements are rocks. My desktop replacement (the HP zd8000) weighs in at about 11 lbs with the power supply. I don't know of any computers that are good for value that actually are good on performance... it seems that 256MB video cards are the peak of the choices out there for video performance.

 

Then again, Xtreme Notebooks came out with the 917V Accelerator. If money is no object, you might like the fact that it has a 2.66GHz Quad Core processor, 4GB of RAM, and not one but TWO NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GTX 512MB video cards. Then again, at $5000 and the fact that this thing would probably weigh you down like a friggin' anchor (15 lbs with AC adapter).

 

My recommendation still remains with HP, as I only have experiences with HP and Dell. I've own one Dell and currently have two HP laptops, and I can say that after over a year, nothing to complain about except for PEBKAC.

[Twinkies 0]

If money is no object, you might like the fact that it has a 2.66GHz Quad Core processor, 4GB of RAM, and not one but TWO NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GTX 512MB video cards. Then again, at $5000 and the fact that this thing would probably weigh you down like a friggin' anchor (15 lbs with AC adapter).

lol I was thinking something like that actually, but not as much. Something like 2.66 Dual Core, 4GB RAM, 1 (maybe two...) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra video card and like 250GB HD running at 7200rpm Edited December 6, 2007 by Twinkies (see edit history)

[silver_wolves 0]

i still dont see why you dont just get a macbook....you could run windows vista on it (it was rated the fastest laptop for vista by pcworld) and a linux distro if you wanted. ive never had problems with my mac. but then again, you could get an hp and put os x and a linux distro on it. the only reason i recommend macs is that they are amazing for graphics and can run vista better than a windows a machine can for the same price....what apps are you going to be using?

[Saint_Michael 3]

Your best bet then is to build a computer to your liking instead of getting a name brand computer that will cost three times as much, I recommend using this article as a guide if you choose to build a PC. Since it is pretty in depth in telling you what you need to know how to build a computer and handling all the parts so when you turn it on it don't blow up on you. I think its the operating system that Twinkles doesn't want, but the thing is though and I could be wrong is that linux cannot offer the graphical power to produce high end graphics, like I said I could be wrong.

[rvalkass 5]

but the thing is though and I could be wrong is that linux cannot offer the graphical power to produce high end graphics, like I said I could be wrong.

And indeed you are All that really matters when it comes to graphical power is the hardware. No matter which operating system you use, that hardware remains the same. Windows and Mac have the commercial software available, but you can get the same power graphics editing wise from The GIMP. There are also various other image, animation and video editors out there you can take a look at.