Video Editing, Gaming, Engineering

You have really conflictin needs:

Video Editing --- Definitely Pentium 4
Gaming, Engineering --- AMD 64 by a long shot
Light Weight ----PM no question.

Which is the most important?

Turion 64 might be what you are looking for, which should be out by the end of the month.

Well the Acer 8104 is an option, but it gets hot. Another option is the Dell XPS2... very powerful and PM.

XPS2 ? Do you really want a Dell, while working on an important engineering project, while knowing that the computer could crash on you at anytime??

Dell is simply not reliable enough for professional work, unless you are talking about their server/workstation lines.

American Airlines?! Would you really want to fly American Airlines, knowing the plane could fall out of the sky at any time?

That's a very broad assertion, HardBall. I'm certain there are many members in the Dell forum who would argue otherwise.

For the record, I don't own a Dell. But for what it's worth, I do have two friends, both computer engineers, who swear by their Dells (they had a go at me when I decided to custom build my own notebook). You'll find some people who are happy with the reliability/quality of Dell notebooks and others who aren't. Exactly the same as any other notebook vendor.

I am a long time Dell owner, have owned 4-5 in the past. Although I have learned better never to have Dell as my primary computer. Dells are fine for entertainment and play, but a good reliable computer, calls for brands such as IBM, ASUS, ACER, SAGER, and especially APPLE. Dell simply does not stand up to the test of time. Every one of my Dells started having problems after at most 15 months. And recently, one of my friends had a Dell HDD burn out within 2 months of getting the computer, and paid dearly because much of his school final project was on the computer; another friend recently was forced to pay 400 USD to get the MoBo of a Dell 9200 replaced less than a month after the 1 year warrantee expired.

I stand by my statement. Dell is not for serious work. They may last you, but more often than not, you will run into trouble with a Dell eventually. ( by eventually, I mean as soon as the warrantee expires) For professional work, get a real, quality computer; Dells are only good when you are short on dough, or if they are have a 50% off sale.

That's cool. You've had a bad experience with Dell machines, so now we know why you don't like them.

I just don't like posts that run along the lines of "Dells are bad, mmmmkay." Pet peeve of mine.

I'm glad that you've had good experience with Dells, and I hope that you continue to stay trouble free.

I, on the other hand, have not had much luck with them, so I can only speak from my experience.

Official unhijacking of this thread post.

Feel free to return to the orginial poster's dilemma at any time now that this thread has been unhijacked.

This should suite you need for all these diverse requirements, but none perfectly.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...146-044&depa=3

It would only need a RAM upgrade to become a powerful machine, with already a pretty good CPU, good enough GPU for editing work, and body solid as M1A1, excellent service and support; this machine can serve you no wrong.

I pretty much have the same requirements for my notebook (except the engineering software). I've been looking at the Asus Z71V, Sager 4880, and Sager 7620. The 7620 has a P4 in it, so it's not as portable as the others but otherwise looks pretty nice..

I don't agree with the P4 vs P-M vs A64 overgeneralisations.

Only if 5-10% difference in performance (in 32-bit apps) matters to you, then decide based on that.

Decide based on (in your order of importance):

- how much battery run time do you need?
- do you super absolutely need 64bit support and are willing to wait for your particular apps to be ported (might take 1,2,3,4,5 years.... nobody knows... it's purely app dependent)?
- what are the other feature of the laptop models that you think are the most important (if you want a particular type of screen, and it's only available with type X cpu, then consider that).

As for CPU speed differences:

- A64 vs P-M are almost equally fast in games (clock for clock). Sometimes P-M wins, sometimes A64 wins

- P4 is only significantly faster in some video ENCODING work (using a proper app that's properly multi-threaded, not so many of them). How much of your video work is ENCODING?

- P-M (1.7Ghz and below) is always less power hungry (less warm, less noisy) than any P4 or A64 model currently available (25W A64s are not shipping yet and even those will draw more power than most P-Ms). How much noise/heat/battery run time mean to you?

- Almost all powerful P4/A64 laptops are heavy bricks. You can get decently powerful P-M for almost half the weight. How much will you lug around your laptop? Does weight matter to you? How about sturdiness of construction (if you travel/move it a lot)?

These are just my opinions, but the speed figures have been tested by many in many places and I think the overgeneralisations brandied around in this forum (P4 is always so much better for any video editing, A64 is the best always for gaming and P-M best for everything else) are getting a little bit too much. Imho of course

True, but misleading, because A64 has currently significantly higher clock speeds, at 2.4 soon to be 2.6 (end of this month) on MA64. And even more importantly, the PM is MUCH more expensive than the Mobile A64 at the same clock speeds, so if a fast computer for gaming and engineering apps is No. 1 priority, then A64 will be by far the best choice.


Agreed, a P4 6xx series of CPU would do you the best if encoding would be the highest priority, and the extra cache may not matter on most tasks; in encoding, it will certainly come into play.

True to the first statement.
PM and Turion 64 MTs are equivalent in TDP, with a max Thermal Envelope of 25W, which has been tested extensively, so there should be no real difference between the power consumption between those two; and battery run time should be the same, given all the other components consume the same amount of power.


Absolutely agreed.

But there are Turion laptops in the very near future, which should have superior FPUs and BPUs than PM, and consequently better at games and engineering than the PM (which inherits Floating Point Units from the ancient P-III architecture).

Sturdiness calls for an IBM or Panasonic.

wait for a turion to come out in asus... my fingers are still crossed... if they could put that in the V6V.... amazing...

Yeah I'm waiting for turion too - for pspice all you need is a good processor (p4, p-m or a64) with a decent amount of ram, i'd recommend at least 512mb-1gig.

get the gateway notebook th enew one its very powerful 2ghz pentium m way faster than 3.2ghz penitum 4! IF very cool very quiet and very nice looking. ALso very thin but its not exactly poetable its 17inches! BUT STILL ITS GOOD! Look into Asus they have a 15.4inch model thats very light and resoably quiet and cool!

I have an Emachine 6809 (AMD 64 3200/ATI 9600/60gig 7200rpm HDD/512ram pc 2700) and I use Solidworks / AutoCAD and play Counter Strike / Unreal Tournament I would recommend this sytem except for the fact that it gets so hot it freezes up on me and I have to restart after a mere 1 hour of game play... So you may want to go along these spec guidelines but not this manufacturer.. Are you doing advanced modeling and complex assemblies..?? I have not REALLY pushed this system as far as regenerating a large assembly so I cant tell you how it would handle that..Probably get hot and restart you ..

I hear you.

I agree, companies like Dell and Emachines, make really good products with excellent specs. The problem is not enough quality control, and may end up biting the customer in the rear end.

Pentium 4 is best for heavy calculus and encoding, but it gets heavy and drains battery fast. Pentium M is best for long battery life, and less need for cooling.

P4 HT 17" WSXGA+ notebooks:
HP nx9600 (Business)
HP zd8000 (Home)

P-M 15.4" WSXGA+ notebooks:
HP nx8220 (Business)
HP nc8230 (Business)
HP nw8240 (Business)