The 17" Notebook Guide - Page 3

while the 9700 with 128 megs is now bottom of the barrel since the new cards came out, it can still play all the major games without switching to low settings. When HL-2, Farcry, etc, all came out, it was the king, and played them all fine.

We haven't exactly seen any new GPU killing games come out to relegate it to trash heap status.

Granted, I wouldn't buy a lappy with one if I were looking today, but it's still an awesome card in my current laptop

He isnt reviewing any of the computers, he is compiling facts about each of them to make things easier for people who are trying to compare and chose a system. Dont rag on someone for providing a service and making things easier for people.

could you add the Fujitsu-siemens Amilo M3438? is the best laptop of fujitsu now, I think that could be compare to 9300.

thank you

what are the odds of adding in a Toshiba? Qosmio G20 or the New Satellite M60

Asus W2VB-U003M - W2VB with the following spec.

Dothan PM 760 (2.0G) - ATI X700 128MB - 1024 MB DDRII (512x2) - 100GB HDD - 8x DVD Dual - WLAN 802.11g - MCE (UK) 200517" TFT ì WSXGA+(1680x1050) Color Shine + Anti-reflection, Hybrid TV-Tuner (Analog + DVB-T)

only cost $2300

it also comes with build in sub woofer. wow that's impressive for a notebook.

for more detail spec of this notebook go to the asus website here:


http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...5&l2=22&l3=192

hey guys think you can tell me which upgrade I should go for in a inspiron 9300, I will use it for gaming and school. I can either add the 1.73ghz processor or the 60gig 7200rpm drive, but I can't do both... which is better for gaming? Btw I already added the geforce6800

btw got another question, is it better to have 2 512mb sticks or 1gb, im guessing the best thing is to run them in dual ch, can i do that with the 1gb stick?

what's the best

toshiba 17 " truebrite WXGA

or

dell 17 " UltraSharp WXGA

Haven't seen either, but I'm sure you're going to get a few subjective responses on this one.

In your opinion, is WUXGA worth it or would WXGA+ suffice? I'm interested in buying Fujitsu's new Amilo M3438G/M4438G models (17" display, PM-760, nVIDIA 6800GO 256MB, 1 GB of RAM). M3438G has got WXGA+ screen with a 16ms response time, M4438G has got WUXGA screen with 25ms response time.

Now I've heard many types of opinions on this matter. First, the alledged negatives of WUXGA. The 25ms response time is really high and might not suit FPS-games and dvd action. WUXGA makes everything way too tiny; you barely can read texts. Mobile GPUs don't have to power to run newest games in WUXGA and so you must scale down which makes the image worse.

Then the positives. WUXGA offers superior picture over WXGA+ because of its sharpness. Games look great in WUXGA. WUXGA is ready for HDTV, Blue-ray and HD-DVD. Dell XPS Gen2 has also WUXGA and it too has a 25ms response time: XPS Gen2 should be the top gaming notebook around so how could its screen be too slow for games and dvds due to high response time. WUXGA offers more screen estate.

My two main worries are:
1) When time goes by (I plan to keep this notebook at least 5 years) and the GPU gets old, do I still have use for WUXGA?
2) Will WUXGA be too sharp for me to do my papers (with MS Word) for unversity and surf the net?

So if I want DTR-notebook with longevity and use it for typing, surfing, gaming (Half-Life 2), dvds (and future formats) and light editing of pictures, should I take M4438G with WUXGA or settle for M3438G wtih WXGA+? Opinions? I mostly type and surf the net. I game under 5 hours per week. I want to be ready for HD-DVD and Blue-Ray (maybe buy an external drive later when they come out).

(BTW, if I choose M4438G with WUXGA I have to order it from abroad and buy a new OS to it.)

so basically, what the guy that made this post is saying is that you should basically just buy the dell xps gen 2 and then your done.

haha jk jk

Thanks, this is a great informative post. I think this post will help alot of people (has kind of helped me) make the right decision about this type of notebook.

Again thanks

good job..sorry you don't have time to do more with it and sorry that some folks are assinine enough to make a negative comment on a positive attempt to provide information so that folks can make a more informed decision. i guess for some, its better not to have this post, then we can deal with newbies like myself posting 1,000 different questions all asking, "which laptop should i buy?"

I have an inspiron 9300 and I play every game @ 1920x1200 with everything high except for Anti aliasing. But at that high of a resolution, it doesn't look any different with it on. I play BF2 @ 1920x1200 and it's silky smooth. I use WUXGA and it's not too sharp. In the dell quickset settings I just make everything a tiny bit bigger and everything is still crystal clear. I don't notice any lag even though you say the response time is slower.

PowerBook 17" or Vaio A-790?

Hi, folks,

I'm in the market for a 17" machine for visual arts; digital art, illustration, photo editing. My primary apps will be Adobe CS2 and Corel Painter IX and the Gimp.
I'm not a gamer. I plan on watching perhaps one or two DVD's a week.

My "absolute must" is a big, clear and sharp display with a high-quality video card.


This will be my only computer, so reliability is a huge issue for me.

I plan on purchasing a Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW monitor, so any machine I purchase will have to be able to drive that.

My last major criteria is high-quality audio output.

I'm not a big traveler, so weight and battery-life aren't big issues.

I've essentially narrowed-down my search between the PB 17" and the A-790.
Either machine will have 1Gb memory and the 100Gb HD.

Winders XP isn't an issue for me because I'm only going to use that OS while working with PhotoShop or Painter. I'm going to install Linux and use that as my primary OS if I go with the Sony.

I've heard some nasty things about Sony's reliability - or lack thereof. Any experiences?

Also, I'm not really wild about the idea of dropping damned-near three grand on a u-processor as old as the G4.

Anybody have any personal experiences with both the PB-17 and the A-790?

Barring that, I'm open to out-and-out opinions.

thanks,

inadaptè

Nice

17" gaming notebooks under $2600

I am looking for a notebook for myself and I made a .xls file with specs. Notebooks are arranged by the GPU performance. Since I am looking for P4 2.0GHz processor, 17" screen, 100Gb HD and 2Gb RAM I configured them so that I can compare their price.
I thought it can help someone to make their choice.

What could be added is that on most systems, the brightness may be less on the WUXGA screens than on their lower-res equivalents (I'm talking about the detailed specs, not any general impression). It's that way on the Fujitsu screens, for one.

Secondly, when you're cramming more pixels into the same physical space on a 17'', it seems logical that the percentage and likelihood of dead pixels goes up, although I don't have any stats as yet to back that up.