Laptop recommendations

Ok, ya'll set me straight when I was ready to home network with router recommendations. So I come to you again ! I am ready to purchase a laptop specifically for SL. I am ready to spend up to 3 - 3.5k. Needs monster graphics, monster memory etc capabilities and a 17" screen would be nice. I am looking at the Dell XPS but thought I'd check in with my forum pals first.
Thoughts?

I loooove my HP ZD7000. Mmmmm.

ZD7000, definitely - i have never found a better laptop - gorgeous screen, great performance, full size keyboard. After disappointing Dells and Toshibas, I have to say, I would not recommend any product more highly than I would this laptop, except maybe Tivo Which reminds me, there is a version of this laptop that comes with Windows Media Center Edition so it can be a Tivo lol.

Avoid the Dells - get the HP ZD7000 series - customized to your specs - you won't regret it. Talk to Flipper and MrsJakal - they also have the same laptop. Make sure you get the 1680X1050 screen - you have seen nothing until you have seen SL in all its widescreen glory at that resolution.

Note - it is now the 8000 series w00t.

what they said.

Ok, wow this does look a LOT better machine wise and deal wise than the Dell. One more question, Radeon graphics. No issues ? I thought ATI was non-com with SL ?

I like my Toshiba P35.

HP and Compaq will give you the most bang for your buck. Just go to the HP website and customize. Make sure and try it with both the top model of HP and the top model of Compaq. You can usually be cheaper by about $200 with the same config on the Compaq.

Also, you might check out cyberpowerinc.com

They have some very nice laptops fully customized for alot cheaper than you will find at Alienware or FalconNW.

I have a Dell 600m Inspiron with the Radeon 9000 Mobile chipset and it is amazing. I can only imagine what the 9700 Radeon would look like.

If you search, FlipperPA put up a glowing review of that HP laptop they are all raving about. I think he has an Nvidia chip in his.

If you do decide to go with the Dell, Bensbargains.net has a list of coupon codes and their affiliate evalue links that can get you $1,250 off of an XPS.

I can't speak for the new 8000 series - the 7000 series was Nvidia, I am not sure why they switched - however, the new chip is the pretty high end PCI-Express ATI x600 with 256 megs of memory - certainly not something to balk at. While I think there are still a few ATI compatability problems, I think it has gotten better, though I could be wrong - you may want to check the technical forums. It is definitely the best high end notebook on the market for SL.

Very well, thanks a lot to everyone who replied. I appreciate it.

Well, I'm quite happy with my new Apple Powerbook and it saves me from having to run that same crappie OS that everyone else puts up with.

The 12-inch model I got probably isn't optimum for running SL, but it does rather nicely. I wanted something small, no noise, no heat. I almost just got one of the new Mini's, but they only have 32M video ram, and my old Compaq could go at any minute so I thought another laptop/desktop-replacement-style might be better. The 12-inch model (well the new ones anyway) will run an arbitrarily large external monitor AND the built-in monitor at the same time in dual-head mode so I no longer need a 2-PC switch to run SL in full screen mode and still do web browsing etc. My external monitor (a Compaq as a matter of fact) has both analog and digital inputs and the Powerbook supports both.

The Apple OS is also quite compatible with Linux systems, so I can open up an X-window and run Linux applications remotely too, so, after I get used to this, I think I can give away my KVM switches... the never-ending transition from PS/2 to USB to wireless I/O devices making them rather hard to deal with anyway.

For LESS money I could have gotten one of those desktop-sized G5 systems which I'm sure do a better job of SL...but then I think the days of those big space-heater systems are numbered.

My only concern was if SL would cause the tiny fan in the Powerbook to run continually and eventually (fan bearings being the weakest link in most computers) overheat. But I found that if I use the option in the OS to throttle back the CPU (mostly in there to save battery power) SL is still useable but the fan doesn't run (at least not fast enough that I can hear it). Hint: This would be a good option to build into SL I think for those of us who don't really need 30 FPS when we are standing around chatting, but I couldn't figure a way to achieve the same results with the existing SL display options without cutting my visibility range down to almost nothing.

I'd be curious to know if others have run their laptops (of any kind) on SL for a long time (several hours a day for a few months for example) with no ill effects. Maybe I'm just over-cautious.

By the way, my model has an nVidia graphics card, I think the higher-end Powerbooks use ATI. I know the ATIs are supposed to be better but for my needs nVidia is fine, and ATI drivers are notoriously flakey. Having once had ATI drivers corrupt my hard drive (YES!) I swore never again. YMMV.

Leck,

I've had an Alienware Area 51-m for about a year now and SL is great.

You can get it with either a GeForce 6800 Go or ATI's latest Mobility RADEON X800 graphics module.

You should be able to stay within your budget.

- T -

I would like to change my answer to pandastrong Fairplay's laptop. He may have a little p, but it's a damn fine lap!

But then again, why get a LAPtop when you can get 350 LAPdances for the same price?

- T -

Lek,

Sager has a new one that matches all your specs and Mobile Computing just gave it rave reviews and said that it was better than the Dell XPS-check it out.
www.sagernotebook.com

On the other hand I run SL just fine with my Compaq Presario R3000 notebook.

-Kiamat Dusk
Laptop Fetishist

I'd definetly go with the power book, with the higher end models you can actually upgrade the card in it while ordering it from apple.com. I love my iBook I'm finally glad to get away from Windows, the only OS I use now is Ubuntu (Linux Newbie Distro) and Mac OS X.

Ditto I have an alienware area 51 laptop also.. my only regret was not getting the internal network card.

Edited to add: 3.4 Ghz with 1 gig of ram with Nnvidia GeForce FX Go5700

My gf got a toshiba pro m30 or whatever that was called. It looks VERY sturdy and the performance is great.
If you have that much money to waste, get a Qosmio.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a laptop in the $1500 range that will run SL nicely?

TIA,
Anjaleka

I fit comfortably in a lap.

But what resolution can you display, Devlin?

I'm not good at displaying, but I am great at cuddling.

I gotta jump on the powerbook train as well. The 17" is just flat out sexy.

I grabbed one of the minis a couple of weekends ago and its very impressive for the price. Mac is right though, 32MB video isn't really all that good for SL. It does run, but it's no where near as pretty as it is on my PC using a Radeon 9700 Pro.

I haven't been a Mac user for very long yet, but I'm already seeing huge advantages to the platform. It has a wonderful clean, working UI, and like Mac mentioned, being able to run X11 and bash is a dream come true.

Thanks to all for the great advice. I did some powershopping over the weekend and settled on the HP route. Next question; How do I enable HyperThreading or is it auto on ? I didn't see it anywhere in the BIOS setup routine.
TIA
Leck

Should be auto on by default. Quick way to check is look in Task Manager [ctrl-shift-esc] under the Performance tab. You should see 2 CPU graphs there instead of one.