Help me out here. I wanted a 5680 untill today, and would like some advice -
Here’s the problem - I’ve budgeted about $2100 for a Sager 5680. Today’s New York Times had an ad for a laptop at Staples that was $900 for an Athlon 1800 with 256 megs of ram and IT WEIGHS 4.1 POUNDS. That weight difference will mean that I will carry the machine to a lot more places than the 9 or so pound 5680. And the battery will last longer.
Further, this will leave me with $1200 to spend on a desktop machine.
My 600 mhz machine is okay for my current uses, so the Athlon laptop would be a lot faster than what I need as a bare minimum. It’d let me do video editing on the road with the software I use today. And a $1200 desktop will support new video editing stuff like real-time previewing and rendering. It’ll come with a DVD burner. It’ll come with TWO optical drives, to make copying compact disks very simple. It’ll let me toss in another hard drive when I need to. All I lose is the ability to plug my current external CRT into the 5680 for the massive screen space that makes editing video easier.
And it’ll guarantee me the ability to upgrade my video card in a year to get something that’ll just rock with Doom 3.
So,
1 - Should I get a Sager 5680, or a lightweight laptop and a desktop?
2 - Does Sager make a 4.1 pound sub $1000 machine that I could buy as my cheap laptop?
---matt
Here’s the problem - I’ve budgeted about $2100 for a Sager 5680. Today’s New York Times had an ad for a laptop at Staples that was $900 for an Athlon 1800 with 256 megs of ram and IT WEIGHS 4.1 POUNDS. That weight difference will mean that I will carry the machine to a lot more places than the 9 or so pound 5680. And the battery will last longer.
Further, this will leave me with $1200 to spend on a desktop machine.
My 600 mhz machine is okay for my current uses, so the Athlon laptop would be a lot faster than what I need as a bare minimum. It’d let me do video editing on the road with the software I use today. And a $1200 desktop will support new video editing stuff like real-time previewing and rendering. It’ll come with a DVD burner. It’ll come with TWO optical drives, to make copying compact disks very simple. It’ll let me toss in another hard drive when I need to. All I lose is the ability to plug my current external CRT into the 5680 for the massive screen space that makes editing video easier.
And it’ll guarantee me the ability to upgrade my video card in a year to get something that’ll just rock with Doom 3.
So,
1 - Should I get a Sager 5680, or a lightweight laptop and a desktop?
2 - Does Sager make a 4.1 pound sub $1000 machine that I could buy as my cheap laptop?
---matt
I can stay at my desk, move to the couch, lie down, whatever -- it works anywhere. Furthermore, I travel for business one week each month and this thing trots along on the plane and wherever I go -- it isn't too heavy for that. Having two computers when this one does the work of both would just be too cumbersome -- I can't think of any reason to do it, and having to keep moving files around would be a pain in the neck! 
Unless you intend to take long hikes or something with your ultralight, I would vote to simplify your life and get just one computer that does it all....
I think even an AlienWare setup would look competative with that (and they aren't too cheap).
