Which Laptop

[Kulag]

I'm looking into getting a new laptop, and I currently have two that I'm interested in.
Toshiba M60
Alienware Area-51 m5500
With the Alienware, I upgraded the CPU, memory, HD, and monitor, so it comes up to about 1300 USD.
I'm in Canada.

What are you guys' thoughts on these two?

[786ARS]

dont go alienware, they will rip you off big time

[Kulag]

Why do you say that?

[rave]

what are you gonna use it for?
gaming would be way better on the alienware for sure(considering you did upgrade the graphics card aslo)

could you give the full system specs of the alienware you have configured?

[Kulag]

Light gaming, I'm playing Age of Empires 3 at the moment. Primarily internet, music editing, development(both application and web).

Pentium M 740 1.73 GHz
Upgraded to the Wide SXGA (better resolution)
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g
512 Dual Channel DDR2 533 MHz
60 GB 7200 RPM ATA 100
Intel GMA 900 Extreme
24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo

In fact, the gfx cards are identical...

[786ARS]

alienware is a rip off, is because you buy the brand, i mean if you want tosemthing that is asthetically pleasing, go alienware, but for better value for money, get a dell, toshiba or an acer.

[vanquished]

Personally i think Dell is a rip off. All my friends have them, but not me. I built a Desktop and have a compaq laptop.
Like mine i would recommend and AMD64. This is perfect. Mine is almost a year olds, and works great. But i have the r3000 now the R4000 but the only difference is the video card. now it gives the option of a 128 mb video card instead of my 64mb. But its the same price. Go with Compaq they're really cheap and the only thing dell has over them is the customer support. Although you can easily trick compaq into giving you extra parts.
Hope this helps
- Jack

Here is the R4000 page http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...computer_store

[Jaggannath]

Alienware is expensive but build custom rigs for certain situations. Sure, they're expensive, but they're not rip-offs. If you're happy to pay, and want peace of mind, go with them.

Dell are actually one of the best in terms of cost. The obvious downside to Dell is that, unlike Alienware, they use proprietary parts, and are therefore harder/more expensive to upgrade down the road. Have you had a look at Dell Kulag?? If not, have a look at both the XPS and the Inspiron 9300

[vanquished]

Im sorry,
Obviously we have a Dell fan in the room.
The truth is that i have/had a Dell. I wasn't pleased with them in the slightest bit. You are buying the Name, which sucks as it is. The got off with the schools and students, but are not for gaming. Even the XPS Dell charges 3 times what i paid to build my own pc 3 times. and it isnt even as good.
Im sorry if i come off as an angry but its the truth.
- Jack

_{Please read the rules about language usage - Moderator}

[Kulag]

I've never been impressed by Dells as it was, and a freind of mine knows many people who have huge amouts of trouble with their Dells.

The Alienware and the Toshiba are nearly identical, but the Alienware has a 60 GB 7200 RPM HDD as compared to the Toshiba's 80 GB 5400 RPM HDD. Also, the Alienware is cheaper.

vanquished, the entire line of Compaqs there are WEAK. Al least, compered to what I had there. Also, both HP and Compaq have terrible ratings in the reliability and tech support areas. As of about 6 months ago, Toshiba was the best here, then Dell. I have no idea where Alienware would come in, but likely it would be very close to Toshiba. I've heard many success stories from other places than the Alienware site.

[rave]

i think since the alienware is cheaper...and it would definately perform better at gaming(you would see a big difference in more power hungry games other than age of empires).my choice for you is the alienware.

you can make a gaming computer do word processing.but never a word processing computer do gaming

[Statica]

Actually if Dells do work out great in terms of cost and there is nothing wrong with the quality of their builds for the large parts .. of course, on the other hand I would never recommend an HP/Compaq .. this board is full of horror stories about their products. I have always bought Toshibas and they work fine for me.

[yeoamuca]

i would like to throw one out there for gateway
we use a lot of gateway laptops at work (we have a contract with them)
and they are all pretty nice laptops
if you go to best buy they have some pretty decent gateways with amd 64 bit processors for pretty cheap
i think they have one that is
athlon 64 4000+
well here
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1125464966640

it seems like a pretty decent deal i dont know
we have similar ones at work
they dont have amazing graphics cards but if all you are playing is age of empires 3 you really dont need anything special

but for 1200 i dont see how you could go wrong with that
the hard drive is kinda slow 4200rpm but its big
and you could always upgrade to a faster one for the money you are saving
the screens take a while to get used to
but once you do they are pretty nice

[vanquished]

Dude,
I have a Compaq laptop.
I havent had any problems with it and it was cheap. it can have the highest 64 bit processor. and a 128mb video card, so whats the problem there. The only problem with my compaq was the customer support. But for me it didn't matter. I myself am good with computers, and i live in a net of computer geek friends. In the end i would say get the compaq because it is cheap, and certainly if you are good with pc's.

I had a toshiba and a gateway neither of these i felt were anygood. (unless toshiba made a comback in 7 months)
As for Alien ware i can't vouch for them, i havent had an alienware.
Anyways im just giving you advice and i dont want to come across as an
- JAck

---

Mod note: This is your second language warning in the same thread.

[786ARS]

if you want something for protability and near bullet proof, get an IBM, they are very portable, and wont ever break. ever

[vanquished]

Um............
Ibms are expensive.
They have to be a huge waste, unless you get a great discount or need it for business.
Sure IBMS are great computers. They dont come standard with good video cards. Good HDD's, or pretty much anything else good for gaming. To get a good gaming one you'll be cahrged quite a bit of money first.
- Jack

[swp]

vanquished.. you got the 128mb video card in your compaq? Hows the gaming on that radeon xpress? think it can handle WoW well?

[vanquished]

I have nvidia.
And i havent played WOW.
I bet it could though.
Im sorry bout the radean i am an nvidia guy.
Not my choice but my friends turned me on to it.
I hear WOW is good, havent played it but my friend showed me.
He has the same laptop in the hp version so it worked well.

[stupid_idiot]

I just bought an asus lappie.
very stylish looking and fantastic features.
ati and geforce graffics are available in the pentium models.
I prefer to stay away from hp/compaq,gateway etc.

[thefultonhow]

Vanquished:

I have had a Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 laptop for the past five months. Overall it has been very reliable. I did have a problem with the video card earlier on, but the Dell support (despite being based in India) was quite helpful once I got the right tech. We went through a bunch of troubleshooting steps, and then Dell sent me a new laptop with a non-problematic video card. Since then the laptop has been rock-solid.

I am selling the Dell not because of problems with it, but because it is too big and heavy and battery live witht he GeForce Go 6800 Ultra is terrible. I now have an IBM ThinkPad T43p, which is excellent.

In my experience (and I have a lot of it, from working as a User Assistant at my college and as a freelance tech), Compaq and HP laptops are extremely flaky. My cousin's Compaq died after less than two years; one client had a problem with her HP not registering all the keypresses (it was a hardware problem that I couldn't fix), and I saw multiple HP/Compaq laptops as a User Assistant that gave me no end of trouble. The IBMs and the Dells I saw there all had either software problems (spyware/viruses), or hard drive failures. Their other hardware was very reliable.

Yes, Dell makes mostly mediocre desktops with too many proprietary parts (although for people who just need their computers for basic tasks, Dells should be fine). But their laptops (at least the higher-end ones) have been excellent.

----------------------

Kulag, if I were you, I would get the Dell Inspiron 9300. If you configure it with the GeForce Go 6800, it is a gaming beast, and doesn't have the battery life problems of the XPS2. It would probably meet your $1300USD budget as well.

[vanquished]

I didn't mean to offend you about the Dell.
I still use my compace r3000 and it is great, as far as gaming goes its fine, but productivity is awesome. The amd 64 has worked great.
Like i said Ibms are awesome as well but much more expensive.
In the end i really dont care what he chooses for his laptop.
Im simply giving some advice.
(i recently did a lot of research to find a laptop for me)
- Jack

P.S.
In regards to me being muted for my language.
Im sorry, but the b word is not a swear. and also i had no clue. so before you go saying this is my second warning you might want to give me the first one before the second one.

[tomster2300]

Dell also offers numerous coupons which typical equal incredible deals. They normally shave off hundreds of dollars if you configure the laptop to its requirements (which usually produce a laptop with numerous bells and whistles for a fraction of the cost).

Good luck.

EDIT: I recently bought a Compaq Presario V2312 laptop with the ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M IGP integrated graphics, and it runs the Sims 2 on low detail exceptionally well. The first one I purchased did have a keyboard malfunction, but they swapped it for me at Circuit City. I suggest not getting one with a Turion 64 bit processor since they drastically consume battery life. I unfortunately get 1 hour out of my battery with everything turned on (includes wifi and fully lit screen).

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by vanquished In regards to me being muted for my language. Im sorry, but the b word is not a swear. and also i had no clue. so before you go saying this is my second warning you might want to give me the first one before the second one.

Don't pre-empt the mods, if they didn't write anything and just changed it they're not going to

As to Dell fan, I'm not actually. I just think that in my experience, their laptops (I know nothing of their desktop builds except that I would never buy one) they're actually pretty good quality, and with discounts if you wait they can be excellent value. HP are poop, and Comcrap isn't called that for nothing, the laptops I've seen from them have had HDD and opticals burn out, etc. etc.

I second the recommendation for the Inspiron 9300, I have one and it's excellent. Bigandy also has one, and I'm sure he'll tell you the same if you ask him

[Statica]

Originally Posted by vanquished P.S. In regards to me being muted for my language. Im sorry, but the b word is not a swear. and also i had no clue. so before you go saying this is my second warning you might want to give me the first one before the second one.

---

Note:
1) If you want to argue with a mod, have the courtesy to use private messaging. I took the time out to send you a warning in private. Continuing with this on another person's thread is also highly inconsiderate.
2) Maybe the b word is acceptable parlance in your language, it isn't here. Rules are here: http://forum.pcmech.com/rules.php .. note that you've also used the 'a' word as well on this thread that I've edited for your benefit
Flaming me will not get you anywhere, while we welcome & appreciate your contributions to this board we happen to be pretty strict about what is acceptable on these forums, I would appreciate it if you could adhere to the rules here.
Thank you for understanding.

---

Kulag - please accept our apologies for the diversion from your thread and your question; I hope you're getting the answers you're looking for on here.

[Floppyman]

Another vote for IBM. Using a 6 year old model here that's still going strong. Will hopefuly be upgrading to a nice T-series when I head off to Grad School.

[Kulag]

Well, actually, I was really looking for advice on those two laptops. The only other recommended laptop that looked interesting was the Inspiron 9300. However, the proportions are off, and as configured it was already as expensive as the Alienware. I've pretty much made up my mind to go Alienware, thanks for all the help guys!

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by Kulag Well, actually, I was really looking for advice on those two laptops. The only other recommended laptop that looked interesting was the Inspiron 9300. However, the proportions are off, and as configured it was already as expensive as the Alienware. I've pretty much made up my mind to go Alienware, thanks for all the help guys!

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your new laptop. I like Alienware, they're just a bit out of my price range . Post back and tell us how it is when you get it.

Vanquished: There is much irony in your name. What you said was way out of line - moderators are here to keep things in check, they certainly don't pick on people. If they were to pick on somebody I would definately be a candidate due to all the dumb things I have posted in the past. The clean conversations and respect maintained on this forum is why it remains so popular and continues to draw members back years after they leave - they know that upon their return it will be just as helpful as when they left it. Acting in a mature fashion makes everything much more enjoyable and rewarding, while dealing with profanity simply makes me want to go watch t.v.

I'm off my soap box, sorry everyone.

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by Kulag Well, actually, I was really looking for advice on those two laptops. The only other recommended laptop that looked interesting was the Inspiron 9300. However, the proportions are off, and as configured it was already as expensive as the Alienware. I've pretty much made up my mind to go Alienware, thanks for all the help guys!

To get back on topic, I'm glad you've made an informed decision, I'm sure you'll enjoy it for a long time

Tell us how it goes when it arrives, so we know whether it was a good decision

[Kulag]

Yeah, okay, but I still have a few questions:

Should I go with the 5400 or 7200 RPM HDD?
Intel GMA 900 or GeForce Go 6600?
Intel 2915 a/b/g wireless card or Intel 2200 b/g?
UXGA, SXGA, or XGA? (resolutions, 1920*1200, 1680*1050,1280*800)

BTW, I know the modding and stuff was necessary, and I don't mind.

[hobey19]

Originally Posted by Kulag Yeah, okay, but I still have a few questions: Should I go with the 5400 or 7200 RPM HDD? Intel GMA 900 or GeForce Go 6600? Intel 2915 a/b/g wireless card or Intel 2200 b/g? UXGA, SXGA, or XGA? (resolutions, 1920*1200, 1680*1050,1280*800) BTW, I know the modding and stuff was necessary, and I don't mind.

most laptops have 5400 rpm hd's, i believe, but as you get into the higher end, they become 7200. if it were me and i was buying the alienware (presumably for gaming) than i would with the 7200 rpm hdd to increase the speed a bit. going with the same gaming logic, i would go with the geforce go 6600.

unless you frequent places which use the A standard for wireless, there really isn't a reason to go with that, so i would just stick with the intel 2200 b/g.

as far as resolution - especially on a laptop - its personal preference. some people can't read the smaller text as the resolution gets higher. if it were me, i would get 1920x1200 because i like to go with the highest resoultion possible for more screen real estate.

hope that helps a bit

craig