Need a desktop replacement for college.

b2386

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
187
I would greatly appreciate everybody's opinion in this matter. At the end of August, I will be starting college and will need a laptop. I won't have a desktop so the laptop will need to be a workhorse. Size will not be a factor and battery life wont be either. I'll just buy a couple of extra batteries for that. I will be using it for gaming so it needs to have top of the line components. As far as price goes, the sky is the limit. I have been looking at the Dell XPS and the Alienware Area 51m(upgradable graphics), but I am open to any suggestions. Thanks
 
I've tried the Alienware Mobile's and they are great, but quite heavy. Battery life isn't too long on those, but like you said that doesn't matter. Not quite up to par on desktop video cards, but it does the job, especially for a laptop.

The Dell XPS's are a bit bulkier, but pretty much near Alienware's performance.


Don't waste money on the Intel EE's though, a nice 3.0-3.4 will fit you nice.
 
Look into IBM T41p or T42p, you can get a 64mb 9600 or a 128mb firegl T2, or sony is supposed to be releasing a Vaio S series that has a 13.3" widescreen with a mobil 9700, and both run about 5 lbs.
 
I am an eBay seller and the other day I was looking at new laptops up for auction. There were some really good deals. For instance, a Dell XPS that retails for $4300(I priced it at Dell.com) sold for $3050. If you can find a reputable seller, this seems like the way to go. But I am not sure if warranties can transfer. Does anyone else have any experience transferring warranties or know how that works?
 
Besides battery life, are there any major performance differences between a Pentium M and a Pentium 4 desktop processor?
 
Pentium M - Core is similar to the Pentium 3 short pipeline more work per clock.
Pentium 4 M - Long pipeline less work per clock.

You really should consider an M680X they are by far the best bang for $$. Plus when SP2 comes out you get the buffer overrun protection that only AMD offers. Then when Longhorn comes out you'll be able to run the 64-bit version of that as well.
 
I haven't read the entire thread, but if you want a desktop replacement, there's only one company to look at- Sager.

www.powernotebooks.com

Take a look at their 8790. It's faster than the Dell XPS, and its got hardware RAID support. It's also probably cheaper. I bought my 5620 from Powernotebooks almost 2 years ago, and I'm still very happy with it.
 
I'd get one with a pentium M, just in case you were to take it anywhere. A nice notebook with a Pentium M Dothan, 128mb radeon 9700 m grahpics, and a gid of RAM can be had for slightly under 2grand at Ibuypower.
 
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