LapGuru's...need help selecting new Laptop

So you want a power machine bascially. What of battery life? You said you will use it when you travel. Is battery life important to you?

If your using CAD Type programs, then you might want the extra real estate a 17'' wide screen can give you. But it is wide, as in the whole laptop so that should be takened into consideration for travelling. It would help if we knew if battery life was important and your screen size perference.

As to Alienware, speaking only for myself of course. There chasis are rebadged machines mostly. Like the 5690 use to be sold under Alienware..can't remember which model, im sure someone here knows. But I bet you couldn't have bought it from Alienware for 1600 base price. Not to say they aren't good machines. The are indeed just that, but why pay for the fancy brand name and paint job when you can get that in a Sager at a much better price. I doubt anything Alienware has will out perform the 8790 and 5690. If you ever look around futuremark, the highest ranking laptops are Sagers followed by ::drumroll:: Dell!

Toshiba, Sony all make great laptops but fail miserably on the GPU end of the units. I saw a Sony the other day with the Xbright screen, super glossy 17inch wide..and it made me drool. 2700 then I get to the Video card and I think it was like a 32 or 64..im thinking it was 32 because I said you have to be kidding me. heh

Anyway those are just a few of my thoughts on the other brands. It really just depends on what you want and need. Compal is a very good gaming system, with great mobility but doesn't quite have the power of the Sagers.

No illusion. The reason it is there is that most notebooks put the touchpad directly below the space bar...so the 8790 has it directly below the space bar as well. Since it has a full size keyboard (with num pad) it comes off center. No trouble...but then again if you're using CAD you'll probably be better off investing in an external mouse...I just yanked my desktop one off of it when I sold it.

yeah sager

i just ordered my sager an 8790with the 17 inch screen.ill tell you right now not one of the big names (sony,toshiba,hp etc)has a laptop with a video card even comparable to sager.its ridiculous really. i think within the next year youll see the big guys getting into high end video laptops but for now sager or something along those lines is the only way to go

No way I would go with a Sager for my first laptop, then you would never have anything to move up to. I'd start with an Acer or a Sony for my first laptop.

If you can wait for pci-x then wait. If not , the 5690 or the 8790 are good choices. Another alternitive would be a amd 64 with the 15.4 wide screen with the 128meg 9700 that I buy power is offering starting at 1500, or a centrino with the same video card. Since you say you are using it for traveling the 8790 might be a bit to bulky.

i thought sager was ATI all the way?? i must be mistaken

Well assuming the new model is the Area 51m-2, I will say it was called the Area 51m

Or go to www.cyberpowersystem.com, they sell the same thing basically.

Colored
1 gig corsair mem
Ati 9700 pro
AMD 3400+
60 gig 7200 rpm hd
15.4 screen
dvd/cd-rw combo drive.

It comes out to $2153 and you get 5% off making it $2045.35 then shipping is $29 making it $2074.35. Not sure about the whole tax thing. I am actually debating on getting that laptop myself as we speak hehe and I have been for awhile. You can get the I Buy Power it is $2055.35 including shipping at $29, only difference is I Buy doesn't have Corsair memory in that price and they don't offer it either.

yeah but they don't offer any kind of extended warranty

True, but alot of times warranties aren't even used and a waste of money. It is good to have that option though if you need it. In a way I am irritated I paid extra money for an extended warranty on my own machine, because I've never used it, but I think I am going to call and see about getting a new combo drive for free hehe.

Actually neither place offers it from what I see eh, oh well rofl. If someone *cough* AW, Sager, Dell *cough* would come out with a dang AMD laptop that would be nice. I mean if they came out with it soon.

Um... riight... So a 5700 isnt comparable to the 9700..?
http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.js...&oid=95408&m=0 toshiba 5700

http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.js...&oid=94673&m=0 sony 9700

http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.js...&oid=95728&m=0 hp 5700

yeah but look at those prices, those are some way overpriced machines. You can get a sager 17 incher for under 2000

The toshiba and hp are just plain UGLY. The Sony IS pretty sweet. And they have a decent battery life. You can't really compare 256 video memory to 64, though, can you?

CPU I would go with either the Pent 3.2 or the AMD64.

GPU at the moment ATI9700 is the ONLY way to go..and this is comming from an Nvidia die hard. But even I have to admit the Nvidia is not quite what the ATI is. Hopefully they will catch up. I still perfer them becaue for some reason ATI has always had buggy drivers heh.

For your 17 inch I would suggest Sager 8790. The 4780 has been known to have heat issues. There is one other choice but as far as I know, no one has this unit yet but for the money its a good system here is the link. http://www.internetishop.com/product...&item=G900D32A
Its made by ECS and I very nearly bought it but since its new I was reluctant to be the first to buy it lol. But ECS Are suppose to made as good as if not better then Sager machines from my understanding and this unit is 2199 out the door with everything you want on it.

Oh as to the touchpad questions. Its off centered because your thumb would end up directly over it if it were centered. And typing nice little notes like this one would become a nightmare. Nothing worse then to type away, accidently highlight all your text because your thumb hit the touchpad and the next letter you typed wiped everything out heh.

Hope that helps.

You can upgrade to 128

Really? How, in my own private electonics labratory?