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I have $2850.00 and need to spend it

post #1 of 20
Thread Starter 
I have been shopping around for a new laptop. And I have come up with a price range, but before I mention that I wanted to list the specifications I need (minimum) for my laptop.

3 Ghz Processor
1 gig ram
7200 rpm HD, I dont care about the space, it could be 40 gigs
Nvidia geforce 6800 ultra PCI express
I want a motherboard that wont bottlneck my hardware
I need a wireless internal card

now I have proced systems with specs slightly higher than this for around $2750

I am not a frequent computer shopper and I need help finding a decent laptop for a bargain price. Any help would be appriciated.

P.S. I could go up 2900.00 but I have to concider the cost of the postal delivery and I only have 2900.00
post #2 of 20
Best choice is XPS Gen 2.
post #3 of 20
Thread Starter 
right but the gen 2s fall quite a bit under my 3 ghz mark. I did look at those but I noticed that the mhz on the processors were unexceptable. A friend of mine had told me that dell was horrible on customer support and frequently had problems with their pcs.
post #4 of 20
1) Pentium-M hasn't come to the 3Ghz mark yet. If you want that, you are have to get Pentium-4, which I don't recommend. They are hot, battery life sucks.

Other than that, your choice is the Dell XPS Gen2 mentioned above. You could setting down to the i9300, but it doesn't have the ultra card, just the normal 6800 PCI-E
post #5 of 20
Why 3 ghz? you do realize a pentium M 2.0ghz is faster than a 3.0ghz p4, right?
post #6 of 20
Thread Starter 
Please understand that this response is not in anger. But of course I dont know that it is faster, your question was entirley retorical.

So why exactly is the pentium 3.0 slower?
post #7 of 20
pentium 4 is a longer pipeline which is less efficient, the P-Ms pipeline is much shorter, and thus it doesn't have to run as fast to get the same amout of work done.

think of it as such:
P4: you have to drive 60mph to get to your destination 60 miles away in an hour
P-M: you have to walk 3 miles at 3mph to get to your destination in an hour.


a fair comparison of P-M to P4 is a ratio of 1.5. That is, multiply the speed of a P-M by 1.5 and that will give you an estimate of how it performs in comparison to a P4.

For instance, my laptop has a 2ghz AMD64 in it, but its rated at "3200+" which means it performs in about the same ballpark as a 3.2 P4, even though it is only 2.0ghz. Its the same thing for P-M.

P-M only go up to 2.13 (2.26 comming soon) at the time. but thats plenty good, because it will whip a 3.0ghz P4 in all tasks (except for maybe DV)


as for the topic of dell, although i would never get a dell laptop (i think they look crappy and are cheap plastic), though the XPS2 is deffinatly the best and most solid dell lappy out there (its actually pretty solid compared to some other lappies on the market). I do own a Dell Axim X50v however, and my BT keyboard broke, a DHL truck was at my door 3 days after i called up with a brand new keyboard. So i wouldn't worry much about their service. I also own a desktop thats 5, going on 6 years old, had no issues with it at all. I also owned another desktop (just got rid of it like a month ago), it was a P1 MMX 233mhz, made in 1997/8 and that thing was rock solid, never failed me once.
post #8 of 20
Thread Starter 
Ok, so I need three more questions answered, one is a repeat for good measure

Is dell the cheapest for the performance?

Is dell hardware reliable, will it likely suffer from hardware failure? As soon as I entered this forum I was greeted by a post that was complaining about a broken dell lap top.

Should I worry about the motherboards? Will I have to worry about the hardware bottle necking?
post #9 of 20
I edited my post above to address quality issues.


As for motherboards, i don't think you have to worry about it, because in all honesty the latest mobos are very good. I would worry more about the ram and the video card giving you a hard time.


Dell is also the only company at this point to offer a 6800 in their laptops, if you are willing to downgrade to a 6600, or ati x700, you will have A LOT more options to choose from.

and for the price question, are they the cheapest, well, with a $700 or a 40% coupon they are.
post #10 of 20
Quote:
Originally Posted by reavera
Ok, so I need three more questions answered, one is a repeat for good measure

Is dell the cheapest for the performance?

Is dell hardware reliable, will it likely suffer from hardware failure? As soon as I entered this forum I was greeted by a post that was complaining about a broken dell lap top.

Should I worry about the motherboards? Will I have to worry about the hardware bottle necking?
The XPS2 right now is the best 'bang for the buck' IMO esp. if one of the big % coupons come along.

The hardware should be fine, but remember that people yell and complain more when they have a problem. You don't hear from the happy people as much.

As for the last one, I really can't help you.
post #11 of 20
Thread Starter 
Well I dont seem to have one of those...... yep possitive, do no have one.

So since I do not have a discounted price, where do I turn to now for a cheaper price?
post #12 of 20
did you look at the coupon section of the forums? cause if you did, then you would probably have a coupon....guess you didn't look hard enough
post #13 of 20
Sager 5320 maxed out Fully maxed with tv tuner and all $2574

2.26ghz.. 2gb ram..120gb sata drive.. xp pro.. etc.. etc

unless u really want a faster than a x700 vidcard :P
post #14 of 20
there is always the 9880 with the X800 or the new upcomming clevo with the AMD X2.....
post #15 of 20
Do you even play games? Why on earth do you want to spend 3 grand on a laptop??
post #16 of 20
Thread Starter 
I own over two hundred pc titles dating clear back to wing commander privateer.
So yeah, I play games. :P Yeah sorry bout not checking thse coupons, First time here on the forum and I am in the middle of writting several college papers.

In reply to the GFX card question, yeah the best is very important for me. I want this thing to last me at least a year. So in one year I want to at least be able to run a new 3d title at mid range settings.
post #17 of 20
i see. well, my lappy is only a 9700 128mb, for when i got it last year, it was as high as they would go (wait..well, there was the 9800 xps). anyway...long story short, today it still plays HL2 at mid-high settings quite well at 40-50fps (my screen is @60 refresh rate so anything over 60fps is just useless crap)
post #18 of 20
Thread Starter 
So in otherwords I most definately would want a nvidia go 6800 ultra.

I really want 2 gigs of ram but I cannot get it within my price range. Can I upgrade the ram later ( with XPS2 )?
post #19 of 20
get minimum ram and then buy 2 sticks off of newegg. Im sure this will put 2gigs in your price range.

Anyways I dunno if XPS2 are still 40% off but if you can get this coupon then you will most likely beable to get an XPS 2 for less than 2500 dollars.
post #20 of 20
Thread Starter 
You wouldn't be trying to shut my post down would you? :P

You have all been great and I completely appriciate all of the comments and suggestions. Before I came here I felt overwhelmed and insecure over my future purchase. You have my thanks.
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