New laptop for work. Need suggestions.

[WRXtranceformed]

Oh wow, and I just priced out a Macbook like the co-presidents have. I'm guessing theirs are the 15" screen Macbook Pro with no other options other than the Applecare plan and theirs were $2500 after the discount. Not even close competitively in terms of options or protection plan once you pimp out an XPS or Alienware laptop. An XPS 16" reasonably well-appointed is like $1900ish after corporate discount and the Alienware 17" blasted out with ridiculous shit is like $2800 after discount. Both of those also have 4 year performance plans.

[Mike]

Do you need a riced out laptop? Do you plan to play the latest and greatest games on it? As with cars, it's not al about the raw numbers.

[WRXtranceformed]

The multimedia presentation I use requires a lot of memory and a really good graphics card. The screen of course is important too. Those are the main things I focused on when upgrading the laptops.

I do plan to play the latest and greatest games on it though if I have to repay the company for it

[ViPER1313]

When you say "multimedia presentation" what are you talking about? There is a major difference between the hardware needed for real-time 3D rendering (ex... 3D Studio Max / MD20-20) and the hardware needed for a PowerPoint with embedded movies. If you need real-time 3D you should really look for a computer with an Nvidia Quadro based video card.

[ViPER1313]

I would think this would be more than enough computer - the only thing being that it has an 9600M video card which may or may not be enough if you want to play the latest ballin games on it. ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9600M-GS.9450.0.html">http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeF ... 450.0.html</a><!-- m --> ).

Vostro 1720 - $1,427

Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Bonus-Windows XP Professional downgrade
Intel┬« CoreÔäó 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Deep Cherry Red
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM
3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service
Deep Cherry Red with NVIDIA┬« GeForceÔäó 9600M GS 512MB
17.0 inch WXGA+ Anti-Glare LED Display
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with Free Fall Sensor
Integrated 1.3MP Webcam and Digital Mic with webcam and video chat software
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVDÔäó DX 8.1
Norton Internet Security 2009 36-Month Subscription
Dell WirelessÔäó 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 XP
8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
90W AC Adapter

[Mike]

The multimedia presentation I use requires a lot of memory and a really good graphics card.

No, no it doesn't.

[BLINGMW]

No, no it doesn't.

I'm going to go ahead and agree with Mike, you might be surprised to find that even the most basic graphics cards these days would have no problem keeping up. Any halfway respectable 15-17" laptop is going to be able to stream 1080p video, likely with hardware decoding on chip, at least 128MB to itself, and also have some sort of 3D acceleration, and I don't know of any presentation software that would need all that. I'm also going to go ahead and say that laptop posted above with the 9600M video card would do very well with games too. Our Mac mini has a 9400M which doesn't even have its own memory and isn't half as fast as the 9600M and it'll play just about any game decently.

[WRXtranceformed]

I don't know much about memory requirements, but the program I'm running is proprietary and has some pretty advanced graphics / 3D sequences on it. More importantly, the interface needs to be able to be run seamlessly and quickly.

We get a 30% discount on Dell, 10-12% on Apple. The CEO is pushing for me to get an Apple, as well as all of the guys in corporate in Indy. Since I'm ultimately purchasing it though it needs to be something I can live with.

I read some reviews and the XPS M1730 is apparently way too big to be portable, in terms of carrying it around easily and setting it up outside of your home.

[.RJ]

I read some reviews and the XPS M1730 is apparently way too big to be portable, in terms of carrying it around easily and setting it up outside of your home.

A 17" gaming laptop isnt portable... file that under 'no shit sherlock'

[WRXtranceformed]

Decided to go with the Macbook Pro, extremely reluctantly, mainly because Dell had so many options for their laptops that it was seriously starting to stress me out despite the 30% discount. I'm sure I'll grow to like it, or supremely regret the decision... it remains to be seen.

Specs were:
15" Macbook Pro
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (upgraded)
4gigs of 1066 MHz RAM is fine, I can upgrade it myself without paying $1k+ like Apple wants
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm (upgraded)
Applecare Protection Plan

Total before discount is $2998.00

Thanks for all the advice guys.

[Apoc]

Decided to go with the Macbook Pro, extremely reluctantly, mainly because Dell had so many options for their laptops that it was seriously starting to stress me out despite the 30% discount.

lol.

pay more for something i don't want 'cause i can't handle the optionzzz!1!!

[ViPER1313]

That has to be the biggest ripoff in the history of man. For the same price from Dell (actually much cheaper due to your discount):

Dell Studio XPS 16 - $2,921
Intel┬« CoreÔäó 2 Duo T9600 (6MB cache/2.8GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition 64-bit
4 Yr Ltd Warranty, On-site Service, and 4Yr Tech Support
Edge-to-Edge FullHD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
256GB Solid State Drive
BluRay Disc Combo (DVD/CD read/write + BD read) Slot Load Drive
ATI Mobility RADEONÔäó HD 4670 ÔÇô 1GB
Intel® 5300 WLAN Wireless-N (3x3) Mini Card
6-cell Battery
Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR)
Obsidian Black with Leather Accent
3 Year Complete Care Accidental Damage Protection
Geneva Laptop Tote 17 Black
McAfee 36 month

I threw in 3 years of accidental damage (IE, you run over it with your car after 2 years and 364 days, they replace it for free), a 4 year warranty, Blue Ray, Full HD screen, a way nicer video card and sound card than the Mac has and a solid state HD (which is 1/2 the size of the Macs but around 3x as fast and much less likely to die.)

At least the Mac is white :dunno:

[WRXtranceformed]

Ha, that pretty much hits it actually. Aside from the fact that dells reliability is spotty at best. Mine has been fine but I know a lot of people who have had tons of problems, including my brother whose self destructed within a month.

I know several people who have had mac laptops for 4 years+ that run great. Paying more upfront for something that will stay more stable for longer is worth the investment I guess.

[Apoc]

I know several people who have had mac laptops for 4 years+ that run great. Paying more upfront for something that will stay more stable for longer is worth the investment I guess.

Whatever helps you accept your crappy decision.

[WRXtranceformed]

Adam do you think that would hold up better over the years than a mac?

[Evan]

Total before discount is $2998.00

hock: hock: hock:

[ViPER1313]

Who cares? They will fix anything that goes wrong for 4 years, including idiocy on your part for the first 3.

In my 2 years experience fixing laptops with CampusNet, 80% of Dell failures were hard drive related (same held true for Macs), 10% were broken network card ports due to careless users shoving telephone cords in them and all other failures were a mix of dead motherboards, broken screens and broken keyboards.

One impression that I walked away with was that it was also very hard to recover from a Mac hardware failure. Many times the data on the HD was completely unrecoverable when the OS became corrupt.

IMO Dell caught a bad rep for a string of bad hard drives they used in the older D and Latitudes (Hitachi Deathstars) - even the Hitachi in the Dell D800 Andrew sold me a few years back died about a year after I got it. My new Vostro has a 7200rpm Western Digital, which is (arguably) one of the best HD manufacturers in the business.

If I were you I would buy the Dell and with the $100 to $1000 you save, you can invest in a 500gb external HD and back your critical data up.

[Mike]

At least the Mac is white :dunno:

Aluminum.

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice, yeah I've actually got an external hd I use for that purpose. I'm on my phone at the pool right now so its kind of hard for me to double check, but the xps 16 I think was lighter and slimmer than the gaming xps. Portability is really important.

[HAULN-SS]

haha..borderline hate