new laptop advice

[swiftstarz]

................
eeeenie meenie minnnie mo told me to pick the SECOND one

*no knowledge of computers, sorry*

ok seriously. i would pick the shinier one with more pretty lights but i guess the lights are like POW BLINDING at night :/
plat's laptop has shiny blue lights

[MaximusAurelius]

Uh oh... I made a boo boo... I'm on my cell phone viewing this right now and I accidently selected the delete post option instead of the modify post option -_-

I'm traveling right now so I won't be able to easily repost it til later after I get home.

Sorry =/

[zaphor]

haha well wen u repost it i'll give u my take on which one u should get.

[MaximusAurelius]

here's the deal: i'm stuck between these two laptops. they're both pretty good deals and both pretty sweet lookin'.


Alienware: $2,199

www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m9750-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREAM9750R2BTS&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

Windows Vista® Home Premium
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processors (4MB Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Intel 945PM + ICH7M-DH Chipset
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
2 dedicated SO-DIMM slots for Dual Channel DDR2 Memory
Dual 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT GDDR3 - DirectX 10 enabled with NVIDIA® SLI™ technology
160GB at 7200 RPM (8MB Cache) w/Free Fall Protection
8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW
Internal Intel PRO Wireless 4965 b/g/n Mini-Card
Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
Integrated 56K V.92 modem RJ-11
7.1 Digital High-Definition Audio
Two Speakers with SubWoofer
17” Wide Screen WUXGA 1920 x 1200 with Clearview
1.3 Megapixel Camera
Rear Ports: audio in; coaxial; s-video in; modem; power; usb; s-video out; dvi-d; vga
Left Side Ports: security lock slot; ethernet; 2 usb; firewire; memory card slot; express card slot
Right Side Ports: volume scroll wheel; headphone; mic; front, surround, and center speaker; optical; usb

Dell: $2,394

configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dycwm90&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=productdetails~xpsnb_m1730

Windows Vista™ Premium
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
NVIDIA®SLI™Dual GeForce®8700MGT with 512MB GDDR3 Memory
AGEIA PhysX™ 100M Processor
160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) Free Fall Sensor
CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card
Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
2.0 Megapixel Camera
Dual Digital Array Microphones
Rear Ports: power; usb; ethernet
Left Side Ports: dual link dvi connector; s-video connector; usb; ieee; media card slot; mic; 2 headphones
Right Side Ports: express card slot; wifi catcher; 2 usb; security lock slot

[softshoe]

Get the first one. Why? Cause it's a little bit cheaper and it has a subwoofer.

Also, the first one has the home edition of Vista.

[zaphor]

hmmmmm well see if you can configure it maybe to have xp and lower the price vista is pretty eh.... i drains memory and makes everything SLOOOOWWWWW XD The first one looks the better out of the two deal wise but, make sure that support for which ever one you buy is GOOD. I think alienware is owned by Dell too but i'm not very sure..... Also just throwing this out there, what are you goin to do with this laptop? Cause if its for gaming maybe a desktop will be a better choice, cause no matter how you do it a desktop usually doesn't overheat vs a laptop, and for the same money u can buy a much faster and nicer one. xD and if its for college..... meh... 17" i don't know a single person that is willing to lug that around xD but ya both are nice. O ya and I think if you do plan to game on the go you will prob get 2-4 hrs of play on battery, cause the video cards kill power xD.

[TheOneAndOnly]

I hate to admit because i dont like dell, but i'd recommend the 2nd one. A physics processor can speed up future games alot. Even tho the L2 Cache is only 3MB, the higher FSB will enhance the communication between RAM, GPU and CPU, what can give a feelable speed advantage, Even tho i think both are too expensive. A Notebook with SLI GFX willl be loud because the GFX cards will get really hot and hard to cool or d**n slow because the speed will get reduced too much. Dunno but i think its not worth the money to spend in a notebook. And he display... geeeez... you know how tiny the pixels will be at this resolution and a small 17 inch screen? You will hardly be able to read fonts and if you reduce the resolution later because everything is so tiny and your deadache starts burning, everything will look wishy-washy unsharp... thats a TFT-natured technically problem because one pixel has to be streched over 1.5 chrystals whats physically impossible.

So well... i'd highly recommend to pay half and get a nice mainstream notebook what is basicly fast enough and spend the other half in a real desktop with more power and where cooling isnt such a big issue and you can put a like 24 inch screen with the desired resolution. But my 2 cents ^^

[MaximusAurelius]

thank you, thank you all for the advice ^^

well, the laptop is for college... i mainly want somethin that'll be higher than average performance, and prevent me from havin to buy another machine til the end of these upcoming 4 years. i hear ya on the whole 17" is slightly large for a laptop thing, but the 15.4" ones dont have the diversity and multitude of integrated ports as these ones... TheOne, i'd consider you to be a computer guru so what do you think about it? is it really practical to have a 17" for all those extra ports? or should i just not worry about them and get an equivalent performance smaller machine? i'd get a base sale laptop and get a high end desktop, but its just not practical in my dorm =/. as for the price, my parents said they'd pick up half the bill as part of my high school graduation gift ;D . hmmm and the loudness of the graphics processors... i read reviews saying that you have to go in yourself in the nvidia settings to enable the SLI part, so when i'm not in need of high end graphics for a game or something, would it stay cooler and a bit quieter to disable the SLI? o.O

[TheOneAndOnly]

Well... i checked the 3D Mark05 results on same systems...

NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT: 9102 points
NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT SLI: 13665 points (will consume 58W!!!)

NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX: 14642 points (consumes only 35W)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX SLI: 17230 points

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900: 234 points (chipsetgrafix FTW )

So you will realize the SLI power.... but be honest - will you activate and deactivate manually every time you need the power (if you ever need it) or not? And its driver related as it seems... that means technically the GFX card still consumes power and produces heat... not as much as in full 3D calculating but still. I'd recommend a notebook with a single 8800M GTX, because it wont produce that much heat, SLI wont be used by all games effectively, its even faster and it is cheaper i'd say all in all.

To the ports. Most Notebooks only seperates in sound and USB port amount. Your first notebook has a nice soundcard and the appropriate ports (Coaxial for surround sound sounds nice for a notebook). But does your soundsystem support coaxial in for surround? Most newer sound systems only support optical input for surround sound/DTS. The Subwoofer at the notebook wont do a diference really... the sound might not get as squeaky as it might be at a base consumer notebook, but it will still be really crappy and silent compared to a real external sound system.

Well the fact you will get half the money from your parents is nice. And 17 inches can make work alot easier because the screen aint so small you have to concentrate on what prevents headache. But the screens resolution is way too high for the size. A notebook with like 1440x900 pixels display at 17" might be alot more concentration and headache saving than 1920x1200. I'd recommend 17" tho not because of the ports (for extra USB ports a USB-hub will do a better job for like 5 bucks) but the display is a bit higher of coarse so that you don't look down that much compared to a 15.4" wich will prevent neckache and additional headache.

I still wanna point out, that notebooks have a few big advanteages and big disadvantages you should think about if its really worth the money to get one:

+ Its mobile (if you travel alot go for it)
+ Its space saving (if you really have problems to fit a tower, keyboard and display in your room go for it)
+ Its more silent (well not really since new Core2Duos came up and fast GFX in notebooks get more and more hard to cool what makes notebook fans turn like crazy)
+ It can save energy (because basic notebooks are designed to run as long as possible in battery-mode, so they are designed to consume as few energy as possible)

- The cost for tower-comparable performance is WAY higher
- The repair costs are WAY higher (you can't fix most parts yourself and will mostly have to ship it in, what can reach the cost of a new, faster notebook easily)
- Its not meant for long time use (you will get tired alot faster because you have to concentrate on a smaller screen and look down too much what can make you sick after a while and notebooks have a way shorter expected life-time).
- You cant upgrade a notebook as easily as a tower (once you decided you have to stick with it in most parts)

[caster]

LoL, while reading this I realized I got no clue about computers. ^^

[MaximusAurelius]

wow, thanks for checkin the 3D Mark05 things.. i wouldnt have thought to do that. it puts it in better perspective though as far as what kinda GPU to get. and what you say about the coaxial and the subwoofer wanna make me swerve towards dell bc thats mostly what was keeping me pulled towards alienware. (and the dell has a integrated microphone so i'll be able to talk on vent now ) unfortunately i dont have a really nice sound system i just have 2 speakers and a subwoofer that came with this desktop i'm using way back from 2001 when XP was first becoming popular, so the sound stuff i have is pretty old considering the uber improvements that have been made over the past few years. as far as the resolution, if i cant get the option to tone it down a bit wouldnt it be just as effective to right click and go to display settings to change it?

so right now i'm leaning towards the dell. Dell has a few little extras that alienware doesnt have: the CPU is a bit better (i forgot to list it but alienware is a Core2 Duo T7200 2.0GHz and dell is a T8300 2.4GHz); the integrated microphone like i said before; the keyboard has toggle backlights, so if you're in a darklit place just turn on the lights and YAY you can see the buttons! ; logitech made a small LCD screen thats placed above the keyboard that displays the date and time, which seems good for gamers since you dont have a start menu to see the time while in-game; AND!!!!!! well... uh... i guess i'm at that age where "i think i know more than my parents" lol. considering that, Dell has been my dad's main supplier for YEARS, and he's always gotten outstanding customer service whenever he needed their support. i guess that would create some ease-of-mind for me knowing my own parent trusts the company so much. like i mentioned before, the only thing keeping me towards alienware was the ports and the subwoofer, but if i'm not gonna get use out of the ports and the subwoofer wont do much good, then i might as well go with dell, and if i need the extra sound i'll take my speakers from this machine.

[softshoe]

Well, I'm not all that much about computers either, but look at the practical sense of the computer.

A) you won't be gaming, so all the graphics cards listed here are imho over-the-top.
B) think about what programs you will need for school. Will you be needing a word processor? Will you be needing photoshop? Are you goign to take any programming classes that require a compiler? Will you be taking any online courses that may possibly require extended use of video streaming?
C) Think about where you're primarily going to be using it. Will it be on your bed in the dorm, in a coffee shop, all those places? Generally, you will need a better cooling system on your bed in a dorm than in an air-conditioned library.

These are the kinds of things you need to be thinking about when you choose your computer. It sounds to me like you will need to focus on some key things.

1. netcard. All students use the internet at some point and usually a lot and if you have wireless (which you probably will be unless you take an ethernet cable with you everywhere and try to find a jack) you should pay pretty close attention to your netcard.
2. Battery life and battery conservation. Nothing worse than your computer dying as you're typing the last line of code in a 4,000 line computer program project for a programming class, when it's due the next day. (well, ok not "nothing" worse, but this is definitely not a picnic when it happens)
3. minimal power consumption. Definitely want to try to conserve stuff. As TheOne said, the subwoofer isn't going to do much good as far as sound goes (my friend has a laptop with a subwoofer and it does almost nothing) so think about turning it off. Use minimal graphics (word isn't going to look much better withthem turned up anyway). Wow, I feel like Al Gore now.

One thign about power consumption though, be sure you do have enough power to smoothly run vista. I definitely recommend vista for a school computer (although it looks like you've already decided). Why? Cause schools generally stay pretty up-to-date on technology and you want an OS that can support the newer versions of word, powerpoint, photoshop, etc...

Example: you want to put a file on your thumb drive to transfer from your computer to the school's computer because the school's computer has a printer you want to use. Even though you can work around it, it is just much smoother if you have the same file type on both computers than if you have two different versions of a program. And in some cases with different versions, you can only transfer the files one way, from the older to the newer, without editing the file in the newer to be compatible with the older. When you're printing out an essay 10 minutes before it's due (which none of us ever do of course *cough*cough*), you dont' want to have to deal with that.

[MaximusAurelius]

i'm majoring in computer science, so i will be using it for computer classes. the battery life doesnt concern me as much just bc i HATE having to use a laptop when its not plugged in to an outlet, whenever i have to though, i put it on the most power saving setting, and i still constantly check the little lights on the battery itself even thought theres a battery meter in the task bar (i'm just paranoid that way). although i AM after all inexperienced in college life, so idk how often i'll have the luxury of a power outlet...

[medikate]

Jul 13, 2008 23:14:19 GMT -5 TheOneAndOnly said:

I hate to admit because i dont like dell, but i'd recommend the 2nd one.

...btw, Dell bought AlienWare a year or so ago.

edit: ...and you shouldn't have any issues with support on either one.

[MaximusAurelius]

wow swifty, the one with the most lights appears to be winning XD