Nicest to use 17" laptop?

R

Ronco

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2005
Messages
1,306
I have a number of ultra-portable laptops but they're restricting me, so I want to get a 17" laptop for use as a desktop replacement when I'm on the move but can carry lots of luggage. I was first looking at the Dell Inspiron 9300, but after speccing it up to something usable it's ended up looking not as cheap as I thought, so I figured I might as well look into other options. Use is likely to be things like MS Office (Word and especially Excel), Bloomberg Anywhere, watching videos/DVD's and company webcast, as well as runing iTunes and similar software. Games ~ no. Bluetooth is a must, PCMCIA slot, 802-11g, headphone/mic socket, 2 USB 2.0 ports and a built-in DVD-RW drive. I haven't done much research, but what's good in the 17" (Windows) category?
 
I have to say my GEN2 is really awesome...like you said not very cheap but if you hang out and wait for a coupon maybe you could score a good deal on the 9300 or something similar:)
 
17" machines all tend toward the pricey side right now, as most have a gaming GPU in there. For a nice machine for your purposes without the 6800/7800GTX gaming GPU pushing the price up, check out HP's 8000 series. That's a pretty nice multimedia machine.

Edit: specifically, I'm thinking the dv8000z might be right up your alley.
 
Thanks for the replies. I may have phrased myself a bit incorrectly there. Cost is not a problem. It's just that I equate Dell with cheap and looking at the total cost of the laptop I specced, I thought, well that's not that cheap so I might as well look at alternatives. I would actually prefer something that looks a good deal better than the Dell.
 
Thanks. Sager? neverheardofem :p Specs look interesting though.
 
let me ask, why must u need such a huge laptop? why not a 13, 14, or 15in widescreen?
 
It's a case of the bigger the better in terms of resolution when looking at large Bloomberg-linked spreadsheets. At the same time though, I don't want to be squinting hard as I would do with a ultra-resolution 15" widescreen. I have smaller laptops and they work great for when I'm moving around a lot, but I've decided it's good to have something else more like a full desktop replacement around for situations when I'm on the move but can carry lots of luggage.
 
I think Sager is getting ready to celebrate 20 years or something like that. They have been around and are a popular enthusiast notebook. They just dont spend the advertising dollars that the Dell and HPs of the world do.
 
I vote for finding a deal on a 9300 - this xmas (not long now) there are bound to be good dell deals on the way.

I have one, and take it everywhere. Make sure you get the 1920x1200 res screen. I love it to death.
 
The other one I was lookign at is the Toshiba, but it seems to have a whole lot of totally pointless features. The Sony VGN-A517 looks OK. Resolution is not fantastic compared to the Dell, but as I said I'm after realistic resolution on a big screen rather than squinting at relatively tiny text. 1440 x 900 sounds OK for a 17" display.


At this point I'm inclined to go for the Sony. What say you?
 
just to slightly hijack the thread ;) (sorry):

i currently have my 17" HP zd7000 notebook for sale...

if youre looking to get a relatively powerful 17" notebook for a little over a grand, thats what ive got.

its very capable of gaming, as long as its not 'next-gen' games (the 128mb fx5600 is surprisingly powerful. and i have it OCd. i play NFSU2 and CoD and UT2K4 on it all the time)

i have a bluetooth usb dongle id throw in if youre interested at all.

unfortunately it doesnt have a dvd burner :( only a dvd drive...

im asking for 1350$ shipped (flexible), if youre interested at all.
 
Not to knock this guys system, but i had a zd7000 for a year.

The first seven months were fine, then the video card burned out.
I had service on from bestbuy (for all the ppl that put down getting the service plan, i used to do it to, but now i wouldnt go w/o)

So i send it in (i had the platinum package witch is posta be a 7 day turn around), well after a three weeks i get it back.

Over the next two months, it seems to lock up more and more, till one day it acts like it did brefore.

So i send it back in, after 4-5 weeks i get it back again. Everything looks to be fine, but when i try to use my wifi, i notice there isnt any card installed.

So off to get fixed.

A week goes by, i call "its in holding waiting for a part". Another two weeks go by i call again, some how the pc is dead and theyre going to refund me what i paid.

I was looking at getting a zd8000, but didnt want another 7000 on my hands.
I ended up getting a sony VGN-AX570G and so far its GREAT.



Whatever you get i would new or used, i would search the net if there is any message boards around with people posting about problems with that model.

After the second time my video card went dead, i found out that i was a common problem.
 
so far mines been running great. the only issue i had was before i had an external HDD i had to run everything on this little 5400RPM drive, and i killed it in about 11 months.

now that couldve also just been a manufacturing flaw on Toshibas part, but thats the only issue ive ever had. they replaced it in less than a week, and its been running absolutely flawlessly ever since.

i also clean this laptop regularly (not just reformat, but literaly take the HSF unit off, apply AS5, and also clean out all of the dust.) at least every 6 months, if not more. so if it was overheating that wouldve killed those other graphics cards, thats a nonissue w/ this baby. i also have it mounted w/ approx 2.5" of clearance to allow cool air to hit the fans.

my friend did have an issue w/ his zd7000, where his modem died. he sent it back, but not only didnt that get fixed, but his ethernet refused to work. it appears to me that as long as you have a flawless unit, youre in the clear. if you have one hardware issue, its most likely going to escalate from there.

www.zd7000forums.com
 
Donk3y said:
I thought this was pretty sexy too:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220066

Definately a bit pricey for myself however.
Click to expand...

What a coincidence... I was out shopping yesterday, saw that and passed it by because it was an Asus. Odd because I rely almost totally on Asus motherboards for my home desktops, but they're not someone I equate with notebooks. I may have to put my odd prejudice aside, go back and ask them to demo it to me.


And thanks for the post re: the HP, but I'm not interested in anything used.
 
The_Engineer said:
I vote for finding a deal on a 9300 - this xmas (not long now) there are bound to be good dell deals on the way.

I have one, and take it everywhere. Make sure you get the 1920x1200 res screen. I love it to death.
Click to expand...
Second vote here! I paid the extra and am now the envy of the IS department at work. It's simply GORGEOUS!!!!! My only real complaint is battery life, I only get around 2 1/2 hours but I usually am near an outlet so it doesn't matter. I also don't have the power settings on very conservative either.
 
Ah... is this new? I can't find any details of it on the Sony books in the UK. Mind you, a Media Center notebook is probably not what I'm looking for. Or is it? I haven't used XP MCE before so I have no idea whether it impedes regular working in the likes of Office / Bloomberg or not.
 
Ronco said:
Ah... is this new? I can't find any details of it on the Sony books in the UK. Mind you, a Media Center notebook is probably not what I'm looking for. Or is it? I haven't used XP MCE before so I have no idea whether it impedes regular working in the likes of Office / Bloomberg or not.
Click to expand...

MCE just has built in support for a lot of TV-tuners and has an optional candy coated Tivo rip-off front end you can choose to run. The core is still XP Home.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top