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best notebook - no cost limit

post #1 of 27
1/5/04 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 
I'm looking for the best laptop (period).

Only things i'm concerned about are that it's an actual laptop (battery built-in). 15" screen is plenty big. I'd prefer Radeon 9600 128mb PRO. 3.2ghz p4 or 1.7ghz P-M. 1Gb Ram, atleast 60gb HDD. The lighter the better to a certain point.

I've so far seen the 8600 from dell, G556 from ECS, m460 from voodoopc and one from ibuypower.com. i'd buy the voodoopc one but they said up to a month to build it - screw that.

and preferably a DVD-Burner

Boss is buying it for work/gaming so it's his money - lets spend it .

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Nick
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post #2 of 27
1/5/04 at 10:55pm
IBM T41p
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post #3 of 27
1/5/04 at 10:55pm
Sager 5680....period.

That or the Sager 8890
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post #4 of 27
1/5/04 at 10:56pm
I would give HP's NW8000 or NC8000 a serious look. Great screen (1600 x 1200 resolution),, ATI 9600 ATI card, the works. Check it out in HP's business section. The only problem is that there are few reviews out for this monster. Other wise than that I would go to ATI's website and find the ATI card, from there they list computers that use their card. I would also look at the Sager 8890 and the comuters at www.eurocom.ca. Hope this helps.
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post #5 of 27
1/5/04 at 11:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by giper
I would give HP's NW8000 or NC8000 a serious look. Great screen (1600 x 1200 resolution),, ATI 9600 ATI card, the works. Check it out in HP's business section. The only problem is that there are few reviews out for this monster. Other wise than that I would go to ATI's website and find the ATI card, from there they list computers that use their card. I would also look at the Sager 8890 and the comuters at www.eurocom.ca. Hope this helps.
Eurocom makes the same computers as Sager, they just charge more.
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post #6 of 27
1/5/04 at 11:30pm
You may want to consider the IBM R50p. Reviews are here.
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post #7 of 27
1/5/04 at 11:52pm
Dozier
There is nothing even close to the R50p if all you're looking at is build quality, features, keyboad, and supprt. It's just way ahead of everybody else unless you want a funky 15.4 wide aspect screen. Personally, I don't care for them and would settle for a quality 15" anytime.
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post #8 of 27
1/6/04 at 2:22pm
I agree with giper, BargainSeeker & jjfcpa, the IBM R50p and the HP nw/nc8000 of the creme of the crop as of now. A comparison between the two machines would be great. Most of the PC mags have yet to review these specific models, opting to review the lower end customizations.

If money is not true object, buy both machines to test and keep the one you like the best.
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post #9 of 27
1/6/04 at 3:37pm
Is it true that the fireGL card are less suited to games?
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post #10 of 27
1/6/04 at 4:25pm
I'm with the IBM guys - either a R51p or a T41p - build construction on these things (particularly the T41p) is *solid* - they're quiet - fast.

They'll spend your bosses money fast too.
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post #11 of 27
1/6/04 at 5:22pm
I am interested in getting an IBM and came across a bulletin board that said this....

"Q: Where can I get a good deal on a new IBM ThinkPad T40?
A: Direct from IBM. Call 1-800-656-0833 +3. Tell them you're a first time buyer, and you'd like the 20% discount. (NOTE: This discount doesn't apply to the IBM Express Program configurations. They are already discounted greatly. Most CSRs will give you 5% off the Express models, so don't be too disappointed!) You should also be able to haggle free shipping, but there YMMV.

Can anyone verify this?
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post #12 of 27
1/6/04 at 6:35pm
I read the same thing - (after I had bought my Thinkpad...d'oh!) - can't hurt to try.
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post #13 of 27
1/7/04 at 8:36am

FireGL v Normal 9600

I would have to disagree with the IBM/HP lovefest. They are great computers for business folk and engineering folk running a CAD Program or wanting to work on that excel spreadsheet on the 5 hour airplane journey from LA to NYC but they are not the best computers for Gamers.

The 9600 Pro Turbo 128 will beat the FireGL T2 128MB on any gaming benchmark (e.g. Eurocom Monte Carlo at 3Dmark01 of 10500 or so and IBM mark of roughly 9200--sorry too lazy to get exact numbers). Part of the problem is the processors in the IBM/HP--both are Pentium-M---great processor, but not as good as a 3.2 or 3.2 EE for gaming.
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post #14 of 27
1/7/04 at 10:40am
Quote:
The 9600 Pro Turbo 128 will beat the FireGL T2 128MB on any gaming benchmark (e.g. Eurocom Monte Carlo at 3Dmark01 of 10500 or so and IBM mark of roughly 9200--sorry too lazy to get exact numbers). Part of the problem is the processors in the IBM/HP--both are Pentium-M---great processor, but not as good as a 3.2 or 3.2 EE for gaming.
So the problem is the processors, and not directly the cards, right?

What are the main differences between the FireGL T2 and the MR9600 Pro Turbo?

I thought the Fire GL had extra support for OpenGL industry graphics, wich are needed by graphics stations, but would have the same specs for the rest (DirectX)...
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post #15 of 27
1/7/04 at 11:48am
That 20% deal is NOT TRUE. I gave them a call and told them that I am a first-time buyer and if i would get a 20% discount, he told me that there is no such deal, and the best he can do is a 5% discount.



cheers
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post #16 of 27
1/7/04 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix
So the problem is the processors, and not directly the cards, right?

What are the main differences between the FireGL T2 and the MR9600 Pro Turbo?

I thought the Fire GL had extra support for OpenGL industry graphics, wich are needed by graphics stations, but would have the same specs for the rest (DirectX)...
No even with identical processors the 9600 will be a much better game card. The 9600 is optimized for gamming, the fire-GL for CAD and such.
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post #17 of 27
1/7/04 at 9:27pm
FYI reference the T41p. You might check www.thinkpaddepot.com for pricing on a T41p. I think they have it for $ 2999 which is significantly less than IBM Direct or most resellers. That's where I got mine.
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post #18 of 27
1/8/04 at 4:48am

How do you know this?

Quote:
Originally Posted by breathe nitrox
No even with identical processors the 9600 will be a much better game card. The 9600 is optimized for gamming, the fire-GL for CAD and such.
Not that I'm saying you're wrong, but I'd be interested to see some hard info to show that this is true. (From what I've read, also with no actual evidence, the fire-GL is supposed to be better for CAD than the 9600, but it wasn't at all clear that it's 3d-gaming performance is worse.)
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post #19 of 27
1/8/04 at 5:13am
The best Notebook, in my opinion is (or will be), the "Hollywood GOLD Series Professional 17" ", you'll find it here ---> http://www.go-l.com

specs (copied from the site)
Quote:
Fully upgradeable and configurable High-end Workstation Class Professional Notebook.

Superb Ultra-high contrast 17" WXGA (1440 x 900) or 17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 500:1 contrast ratio/ 120 angle viewing Widescreen.

Extreme Edition 3.20GHz/3.40 GHz Intel® Pentium 4 with HT Technology & higher.

Support for Intel's new Prescott Pentium 4 Processor with 1MB of L2 Cache up to 3.6GHz.

800MHz Front Side System Bus

Super-BIOS? (IBPT), enhanced CacheFlow? and PuRam? Technologies.

Up to 2 GB Dual-Channel DDR433 SDRAM fully upgradeable.

ATI Mobility Radeon? 9700 AGP Pro with 256MB DDR.

1.3 MegaPixel Digital CCD Color Video Camera Built-in.

Up to 160GB of hard drives via 2 physical drives.

Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 Fault-tolerance System.

DVD, CD-RW, COMBO (DVD/CD-RW) and/or high-speed DVD-R/-RW.

Audio: Virtual 6 channels audio output; DirectSound 3D Accelerator; Virtual AC3; Digital S/PDIF Connectivity.

Connectivity: Gigabit LAN ; 802.11g (11Mbps/54Mbps) wireless LAN; Bluetooth; 56K V90/V92 modem.

7-in-1 Card Reader Module.

Ports: 1x DVI; 1x RJ45; 4x USB 2.0; 1x IEEE1394; 2x S-Video In/Out (with TV tuner); 1x LPT; 1x COM/Serial; 1x IrDA 1.1; 1x PS/2.

Optional accessories: * internal TV Tuner with S-video and coax video-in,, * 12V Car inverter.

nl
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post #20 of 27
1/8/04 at 7:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by breathe nitrox
No even with identical processors the 9600 will be a much better game card. The 9600 is optimized for gamming, the fire-GL for CAD and such.
FireGL and Radeon 9600 are the exact same card with no differences at all. The difference is in the drivers, which means the software DLLs that interface with the card. I don't know the difference between the two drivers, only that the cards are identical.
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