[Zardon]

For those of you who have a laptop or are contemplating buying one, what is your main criteria for the purchase?

is it for gaming? meaning high end mobility card and fast cpu, is it for general use or for design work or office production?

[Logla]

Office work comes closest for me.

Really only gets used to do a little bit of websurfing as its only a little PII 300Mhz w 64Mb RAM.

[Zardon]

I think im in a minority I really like Dell's laptops. very corporate looking, no frills design. Some nice monitors they use as well. After playing with the dell inspiron 9100 I reviewed the build quality is wonderful. If I was ever buying one I have to say I doubt id go for a desktop replacement primarily due to the fact battery life is terrible and they are too bulky.

Something small with wireless, a nice screen 1280+, fastish cpu (around 1gig+), 512meg of ram+ (for photoshop work) and a DVD player would be nice enough for me.

[Logla]

Me too - I'd be able to play Championship Manager and keep the wife company at the same time

[LeanWolf]

I use mine for everything, 3D modelling and gaming, though it's 2.5 years old now so i can't play the newest games. This bothers me less than i'd thought as gaming is just a waste of time
Dell i8100, PIII 1GHz, 512MB ram, 15" UXGA(1600x1200), MobRad9000 64MB

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by LeanWolf

This bothers me less than i'd thought as gaming is just a waste of time

ive felt like that all through 2004, apart from a few games like farcry CM4 and perimeter ive gamed very little,

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

I just wish I had one

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by The_Neon_Cowboy

I just wish I had one

well if you had the chance to buy one, and money was no object would you go for a top of the line gaming laptop or a top of the line slimline/high battery life all purpose machine.

[Zelig]

My laptop's mostly for school work... I network it, and let other people use it when we play older games multiplayer though.

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by Zelig

My laptop's mostly for school work... I network it, and let other people use it when we play older games multiplayer though.

Whats the spec?

[IronChisel]

My experience would get a thumbs up.I bought a Dell Inspiron 9100 a few months ago with the following specs:

3.2 GHz CPU
1 GB DDR 400 MHz RAM
60 GB 7200 RPM Hard-drive
128 MB ATI Mobility 9700

It has been great for gaming and everything else I have put on it. It played KOTOR at 1280x1024x32 and I have yet to find a game that won't play at that resolution, if supported. And the fact that I can now browse the net, game, or whatever else, anywhere is a definite advantage to a laptop.

[Dom]

I'd use one for word processing and browsing the Internet.

[digitalwanderer]

Main purpose in buying a laptop?


Two words, chick magnet.

[Bart1987]

Haha. My parents bought one just before going on vacation. Now we could game some on vacation . And my dad could change photo's on vacation. That's what we bought it for. And to have another oc where we could game on at home. My dad's 8500le and 1800+ are getting a bit slow

[No_Style]

School work. 2-D fun. Light 3-D fun. Visiting DH and browsing the net. I'd say all around I have an HP ZE4560. HP is alright. They have good laptops for low prices.

Criteria for buying a laptop.

1) Battery life.
At least 1.5 hours of battery life is required. Just enough to get through one lecture.

2) Mobility.
Buying a monstorous laptop is in my opinion defeating the purpose of buying a laptop. Sure you can carry those, but trust me you'll hate lugging some wide screen mofo around all day at the campus.

3) Noise level.
When gaming, laptop fans go whirring like a mini jet engine, and you don't want that to happen if you're trying to game while in a lecture.

4) Durability.
Will the laptop last? Some do, but some have very flimsy designs and smaller pieces may literally fall off.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

Main purpose in buying a laptop?


Two words, chick magnet.

Word.

[No_Style]

Originally Posted by Zardon

ive felt like that all through 2004, apart from a few games like farcry CM4 and perimeter ive gamed very little,

I've gamed immensely this year, but primarly playing the older games which I've skipped over the last year or two. I'm currently playing Halo (again because I left half way due to immense boredom) and I'm hating it.. But I want to see the end of the game.. I won't rant on about it, but I'll say this: the game was already mediocre in terms of gameplay, but it's even worse when it performs like a snail.

I'm also playing BOF4 on the PC. Decent RPG from Capcom from way back in 2K2.

[Zelig]

Originally Posted by Zardon

Whats the spec?

Dell Inspiron 2650. P4 1.6Ghz, 256MB ram, 16MB Geforce 2 Go.

Not great, but it's fine for what I do, which is usually just note taking, some web browsing and other light use.

This one will probably last me a few more years. I doubt I'll get a Dell next time though, since I probably won't be bothering with Windows, which is mandatory with Dell (and many other ) laptops.

[Zelig]

Originally Posted by No_Style

I've gamed immensely this year, but primarly playing the older games which I've skipped over the last year or two. I'm currently playing Halo (again because I left half way due to immense boredom) and I'm hating it.. But I want to see the end of the game.. I won't rant on about it, but I'll say this: the game was already mediocre in terms of gameplay, but it's even worse when it performs like a snail.

I'm also playing BOF4 on the PC. Decent RPG from Capcom from way back in 2K2.

Way back in 2002... I'm playing Half-Life for the first time these last few days.

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by IronChisel

My experience would get a thumbs up.I bought a Dell Inspiron 9100 a few months ago with the following specs:

3.2 GHz CPU
1 GB DDR 400 MHz RAM
60 GB 7200 RPM Hard-drive
128 MB ATI Mobility 9700

It has been great for gaming and everything else I have put on it. It played KOTOR at 1280x1024x32 and I have yet to find a game that won't play at that resolution, if supported. And the fact that I can now browse the net, game, or whatever else, anywhere is a definite advantage to a laptop.

I reviewed that model recently (with the 9800), good laptop. a little large and heavy on the batteries but powerful for sure.

[wealthykoh]

i am seriously considering a laptop as i travel alot and like to game. because of travelling, i was considering a P-M chip or a new 35w a64 mobile for size and battery life issues. since the graphics chip is pretty much the bottle neck of all systems, and i won't really be doing anything super processor intensive, i'd rather have 3-4 hrs of battery with a mobile proc rather than 90-120 min with a full blown desktop proc. being a stickler with money, i am considering ording a barebones model from an odm, and just building the sucker myself (already have everything picked out and priced, just waiting to actual order it). however, i've been holding back, waiting for the 9800 mobile chip to become more widely available and the alviso chipset/sonoma platform to take advantage of pci-x, higher fsb, etc.

[Lchevy79]

well ive thought of a laptop for vacation.

1st a dvd drive to let the kids watch movies and shutup durring the trip

2nd to pull the photos off my digital camera

3rd to pull video off the camcorder

4th just all around use , no gaming thats what this rig is for

[kemet64]

Zardon, I agree with you here. I really like dell's Laptops too. They are very nicely built, not to mention have excellent deals and prices. The Customer Service and repair is also top notch.

I did choose a desktop replacement, mainly because im going off to college...my dorm is already going to be crammed with crap. While it is unfortunate in size, weight, and battery life. I do love the upgradable Radeon 9700 and 3.4ghz intel processor. I love my Dell Inspiron XPS and dell all together.

Gotta love the "if you run your laptop over with a car-drop it in a pool-drop it off a 4th story balcony-shoot it-blow it up-accidental replacement care.