Help picking a notebook

[herbage11]

My brother and I are looking to buy a couple notebooks. I will need something pretty powerful as he will use it for Auto CAD and other engineering/drafting applications. I will be using mine mostly around the house and for the wife's college stuff. Also gaming, wireless connectivity etc. We want to stay at or around $2000. The ones I have like so far are:

Sony Vaio 505B $2000
P4 2.0 (not M)
512 DDR
12.1" XGA display
40 or 60 GB 7200 rpm HD
Only comes w/ 16mb video :disgust:
etc, etc

Dell Inspiron 8600 $2400
P4 1.6 M
768 DDR
15.4" WSXGA+
40 GB 7200 rpm
64 mb Nvidia

Gateway 200XL $2500
P4 1.6M
512 DDR
14.1" XGA
60 GB ?rpm
integrated Intel extreme graphics 2 display ???

And after looking here I found the Sager NP8890
Powernotebooks

What would you buy for about $2000 to satisfy these applications?
Anyone bought from Powernotebooks? Any and all help is much appriciated.
thanks

 

[eriqesque]

T40 Express

Just a thought.

 

[herbage11]

Yea I have seen the hype here on the T40. Anyone had a Presario x1000? I could get into a P4 1.5m w/ 512 etc etc. one for under 2k.

 

[ericboo]

I have the 505BX which suits me perfectly becuase I wanted real portability. Doubt I would use for CAD, but I don't game either. Would have been nice with better graphics though, but you cannot beat the size. Key board takes a bit getting used to.

My dad has a Dell 8100 Inspiron and it is a nice machine. Nice when your screen dies and you have your laptop back in two days.

 

[herbage11]

Hey thanks. I think w/ 512+ Ram and 1.6+ on processor CAD should run smooth like it does at home w/ similar specs. I do worry about that 16mb video card though. Thanks again and keep em comin. :beer:

BTW Your Dad had good luck w/ Dell Cutimer Service huh? Not what I've heard but good to know.

 

[JoeShmoe85]

8600! that's my baby!

 

[bunnyfubbles]

http://pctorque.com/8890.php will sell you those Sager notebooks, those things sound like desktops crammed inside a large notebook. Maybe not the most portable notebooks but they don't seem to skimp on power whatsoever, they even offer RAID options, lol! Price isn't too bad either because it doesn't say "IBM" or "Sony" on it...

Myself? I'm pretty sure I want to try to just go all out with a note book at college but I need it to be able to game (and because I compete I really don't want it to skimp on performance at all if I'm going to be spending $2000+). Right now I'm kinda stuck between getting one of those Sager beasts or a Dell 8600 (as it sounds more like a "reasonable" laptop). It'd be really nice to play around on either of the two before deciding :|

 

[herbage11]

Alright thanks for the info. I thought those beasts would not only be heavy but also loud. I like the 8600 so far. This is damn tough though. Thanks again all any additional info is apprciated.

 

[DaemonJ]

Not to make your life tougher, but you should also consider the Toshiba Tecra S1 notbook in your comparison.

 

[John]

The good thing about Dell notebooks is the ability to stack coupons. I saved roughly 25% off of my D800 purchase a week ago. another good thing about Dell is their on-site service. Not having to mail in your notebook for repairs is worth its weight in gold IMHO.

 

[DaemonJ]

Another item to keep in mind about the Dell 8600 is to view their support forums.

There are a lot of people complaining about the flimsy keyboard and most returned their laptops within 48 hours.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: DaemonJ
Another item to keep in mind about the Dell 8600 is to view their support forums.

There are a lot of people complaining about the flimsy keyboard and most returned their laptops within 48 hours.

Can you please point to some threads that indicate this? I've not seen any indication of this for any 8600s yet.

 

[DaemonJ]

Dell's support forums

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: DaemonJ
Dell's support forums

Again, I see no indication of everyone returning their 8600 within 48 hours; rather, I see several indicate that it IS fixed, and that if not Dell will fix it for free.

I guess I'll know soon when my 8600 gets here.

[edit]Nm, I do see a few people complaining, but others have said it's fixed *shrug*[/edit]

 

[DaemonJ]

 

[jpeyton]

My brother and I needed notebooks for college this fall, and we decided on a pair of Compaq X1000s.

We have been nothing but pleased with them. Ours were configured to be budget systems ($1100 each), but they are proving plenty fast for everything (in my case: productivity apps, Photoshop, and UT2K3). Keep in mind that our systems are 1.3GHz/384MB/32MB Radeon 9200/40GB 4200RPM. A $2000 X1000 with more RAM, a faster hard disk, the faster 64MB Radeon 9200, and a 1.6/1.7GHz Pentium-M would be a sweet system indeed.

They are built quite solid, with the top cover being aluminum and the rest of the body utilizing hard plastic (does not bow under pressure). We both opted for the WSXGA+ screens, which are bright and crisp, and offer enough space to view two pages side-by-side in Word legibly.

The notebooks are also quite slick looking; silver exterior on the top, with black on the bottom, and dark grey trimming the screen and the keyboard/touchpad area.

I also like the dedicated scroll area of the touchpad; I find myself using it very often. And the built-in speakers are quite good for laptop speakers.

The only big issue with the notebook was the Shift-key problem, which affected faster touch typers. But HP released the new F.09 BIOS last week, and it does indeed fix the keyboard. Besides that, I have no complaints with my notebook. Battery life is between 3-4 hours, depending on power settings.

 

[herbage11]

Thanks a lot for the replies. This helps.

 

[RedBeard]

I would consider the dell 5150. A 3.06, nvidia FX... for less than 1700 easy. (depending on the warranty)