[RIV@NVX]

I would like a laptop that:
* has a good gfx card (NVIDIA series 6 mobile or ATI 9700 mobile)
* has a good soundcard (this limits me to Intel Azalia which comes together with Intel Centrino, afaik)
* has a >=100GB drive (SATA or PATA, doesn't matter)
* has a 17" display
It leaves me Gericom Cinema XXL as only choice. However, I'm not sure it uses Intel Azalia HD audio, and I have no idea how to find out beside buying it (since I wasn't able to find any reviews on it).

Can anyone suggest any other laptops to look at?

[Tipstaff]

Dell Inspiron XPS would be one. It can go up to 100GB hard drive, has a 17" wide aspect screen, and an Nvidia Geforce GO 6800 Ultra w/256mb of ram (also, it's PCI-E). Only thing is the sound sucks, but you can get by that with the purchase of a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook card. Price wise the XPS is expensive though.. around $3000US.

Others to consider are the Alienware Area-51 7700, or Voodoo Envy M:380.

Again, all expensive though.

There are a bunch from other companies like HP/Compaq, Toshiba, Fujitsu, none that are at the level you want... but a little lower.

-Tip

[Zardon]

I was about to reply but tipstaff nailed it. All costly machines.

[pr0digal jenius]

for audio, btw, look into the creative Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA card

might as well, while dropping 3 grand or so on a Laptop

[RIV@NVX]

These laptops are really nice... and I don't quite look at the price, since I want to buy a laptop I won't need to change in a year or so. And it's mostly not upgradeable, so well...
As for Audigy 2 ZS Notebook PCMCIA, great card. Thanks for letting me know it exists It would resolve one problem when choosing a laptot (not needing to be picky over integrated soundcard), however, this worries me a lot.
The most impressive is this Alienware laptop... A perfect laptop, well worth the price... It even has Azalia soundcard (it seems to me, from all the facts listed on their site), so I wouldn't need Audigy2 ZS... I REALLY need to ask around for any dealers offering it...

Tipstaff, can you list a couple of laptops that are on little lower level?

[Zardon]

How much is your budget Riva?

[pr0digal jenius]

Some of the highend HP widescreen books are quite good (good speakers, mobile radeons, and enough power to muscle through UT2004, in my experiences with one)

[Zardon]

I think for any future proofing with gaming and mobile, you will want a minimum of a mobility 9800 based card.

[RIV@NVX]

Originally Posted by Zardon

How much is your budget Riva?

I'm targeting for around ~2000-2500$ if my dad pays a part of it.

I think for any future proofing with gaming and mobile, you will want a minimum of a mobility 9800 based card.

That's right, but usually a high-quality laptop includes something far better. However, I'm not sure about Linux support of ATI's mobility chipsets. NVIDIA is better in this area, as far as I know. There is another thing - NVIDIA's Series FX cards are total failure, so...

Also, for me, good soundcard that is supported under Linux is almost a must-have.

[Son_of_Thunder]

this would be worth looking at http://www.buyabs.com/app/Series.asp...o=25&series=76

[Tipstaff]

Originally Posted by Son_of_Thunder

this would be worth looking at http://www.buyabs.com/app/Series.asp...o=25&series=76

Hehe.. you beat me to it Son. Was at work when the name finally popped into my head.

If you can get the laptop through a business, you can get the Dell Insprion XPS I mentioned for $200 less (making it $2199 US). Otherwise all the other Dells aren't worth mentioning.

For Toshiba, at around $2000US there is the Satellite P35. The higher end of the the 3 choices is the P35-S629 which has the ATI 9700, 100GB hard drive, but the sound is junk.

Although not too bad, there is the Asus M6000Ne/M6000BNE (one is SXGA, the other WXGA) barebones which are less than $1000 US. They come with an ATI 9700 (64mb), but you need to buy the ram, hard drive, and CPU. I just put one together for someone with these specs: 2Ghz Pentium M, 60Gig Hitatchi Travelstar Hard drive, 1Gb Kingmax PC2700 SO-DIMM DDR333 plus the barebones 6000BNe for just under $2200 Canadian (about $1750 US). 'Course, you could lower the price by picking slow CPU, less ram, different hard drive.

Last one I'll mention would be (even though I hate their @$$) the Compaq R3000Z. It's an AMD based laptop, with a Geforce MX 400 GO chip (kinda week), but if you go through the customizing you can deck this out with an Athlon 64 3000+, 15" WSXGA LCD, 1GB of DDR, 100GB hard drive, DVD+- Dual Layered DVD Writer, 12Cell battery, and XP Pro for about $1700US before rebates. Again, weak link is the grapics and sound.

Hope that gives you a start.

-Tip

[RIV@NVX]

Originally Posted by Tipstaff

Hope that gives you a start.

Indeed it does a lot more than that. Thanks a lot for your help.

[bananaman]

check this review out

looks pretty nice

http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzU3

nana

[Randy P]

Alienware laptop...... ........my next purchase when my seanote ages

[RIV@NVX]

What's the difference between Alienware Area-51m 7700 and MJ-12 7700? I looked around a bit and they seem pretty similar to me, even the price is similar.

[Tipstaff]

Originally Posted by bananaman

check this review out
looks pretty nice
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzU3
nana

Dell has dumped the original XPS for the XPS Gen2 (and now you can see why). Nice lappy.

Originally Posted by RIV@NVX

What's the difference between Alienware Area-51m 7700 and MJ-12 7700? I looked around a bit and they seem pretty similar to me, even the price is similar.

The 2 main differences:

1) The A-51 is for sale to all types of customers.. that means personal to gov/education. The MJ-12 is for sale ONLY to small-mid sized businesses, and gov/education/healthcare departments.

2) The A-51 uses the ATI X800 mobility chip, while the MJ-12 uses the Nvidia Quadro FX GO 1400 video card.

If you are gonna get one of these then for sure get the A-51. The Quadro video card in the MJ-12 is primarily used for OGL apps (such as CAD/DDC), and has tweaks and specific settings to enhance them.

-Tip

[Zardon]

Just to clarify, when you order the M51 you arent just limited to the X800 mobility card you can choose the 6800 go series as well. The MJ is catered more for professional users as Tipstaff said.

[Zardon]

Incidentally here is my alienware laptop.



with a 6800 gfx in it. broke 22k in 3dmark01 and around 4.8k in 05

[Drakon]

I just configured a few laptops from Alienware, Dell, Hypersonic PC. They all were pretty expensive. I guess i've got to decide if i want a laptop with gaming power or not. I mainly need it for school, though it wouldn't hurt to be able to play farcry or UT2004 during class or my breaks...heheh

[RIV@NVX]

Originally Posted by Zardon

Incidentally here is my alienware laptop.



with a 6800 gfx in it. broke 22k in 3dmark01 and around 4.8k in 05

You have an Alienware Laptop?
The results.... well, it's obviously mobile gaming desktop, not a laptop.

Few questions:
1. Does it have heat issues? I mean, does it's case get too hot during usage?
2. Does the CPU support frequency scaling?
3. How long does it work on battery power?

Nothing compares to it, so I was thinking about getting 6800 version as well, it seems the best choice to me currently. I need to get some extra money then, perhaps a job during the summer.

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by RIV@NVX

You have an Alienware Laptop?
The results.... well, it's obviously mobile gaming desktop, not a laptop.

Few questions:
1. Does it have heat issues? I mean, does it's case get too hot during usage?
2. Does the CPU support frequency scaling?
3. How long does it work on battery power?

Nothing compares to it, so I was thinking about getting 6800 version as well, it seems the best choice to me currently. I need to get some extra money then, perhaps a job during the summer.

Yes I showed you a review link to it earlier. a lot of info in there.

1: heat issues, well at 4ghz it runs around 50-55 idle and 60-67 load (check out the cooling page in the alienware review for pictures of the cooling indepth), but its perfectly stable, but one thing is for sure you wont be using this on your lap for safety reasons and for airflow reasons.

2: yes it steps down on battery to 3ghz if you choose that option.

3: battery? well that sucks, maybe between 30 minutes to 1 hour, its a bethemoth of a system though, basically a desktop machine.

[Tipstaff]

I had forgotten that Alienware used a modular video card for the 51 series. Thanks for reminding me about that Z.

Speaking of which, at the 'Intel Product Training' seminar I went to this year Intel mentioned that by mid next year consumer leveled modular video cards will be hitting the market. Right now it's a 'customized' choice right from the manufacturer for specific models, but as I mentioned, by mid next year you'd be able to walk into a PC shop, buy whatever mobile video card you wanted, and simply drop it into your lappy. It's about bloody time too.

-Tip

[yoda133113]

I hate to say this, but look at Gateway, I have a M680 and it actually rocks with a mobility x700, and a p-m 750 (1.86 GHz). I can run HL2 on max specs at a playable rate, and Doom 3 on Ultra (no AA) gets an ave. of 33+ FPS on the timedemo. no heat issues (actually it's extremelly cool (compared to my last GW laptop that was a stove), nor stability issues. and 4+ hour bat life. Again I hate to say this, but Gateway actually made a good computer here.

[Zardon]

Yes nice laptop but the X700 isnt futureproof for gaming.

[yoda133113]

This is very true, but this computer is also cheaper than the ones that are truly future proof, and is upgradable (the video card and processor are easy to switch out)

[Geminiwave]

Originally Posted by RIV@NVX

I'm targeting for around ~2000-2500$ if my dad pays a part of it.

That's right, but usually a high-quality laptop includes something far better. However, I'm not sure about Linux support of ATI's mobility chipsets. NVIDIA is better in this area, as far as I know. There is another thing - NVIDIA's Series FX cards are total failure, so...

Also, for me, good soundcard that is supported under Linux is almost a must-have.

nvidia mobile linux drivers dont work. I have heard a tale of ONE getting to work, but not on any regular basis. My attempts all fail miserably, soooo I dunno. I wouldnt count on this being an easy venture if possible at all.

[RIV@NVX]

Originally Posted by Geminiwave

nvidia mobile linux drivers dont work. I have heard a tale of ONE getting to work, but not on any regular basis. My attempts all fail miserably, soooo I dunno. I wouldnt count on this being an easy venture if possible at all.

I was referring to linux driver, from experience with my father's Toshiba laptop with GF4MX-420Go. It installs and works more or less OK.
I'm not sure that ATI even supports mobility on linux.

[RIV@NVX]

Originally Posted by yoda133113

I hate to say this, but look at Gateway, I have a M680 and it actually rocks with a mobility x700, and a p-m 750 (1.86 GHz). I can run HL2 on max specs at a playable rate, and Doom 3 on Ultra (no AA) gets an ave. of 33+ FPS on the timedemo. no heat issues (actually it's extremelly cool (compared to my last GW laptop that was a stove), nor stability issues. and 4+ hour bat life. Again I hate to say this, but Gateway actually made a good computer here.

Wwww... wait a second. A bit more than $1500 laptop that looks good and actually seems interesting to me. I'm concerned about future-proof, but not so much to avoid this chance.

What soundcard does it have?

[yoda133113]

Originally Posted by RIV@NVX

Wwww... wait a second. A bit more than $1500 laptop that looks good and actually seems interesting to me. I'm concerned about future-proof, but not so much to avoid this chance.

What soundcard does it have?

Unfortunately it doesn't have a creative soundcard, it is a "Conexant AC-Link Audio" sound card it sounds just fine as far as I'm concerned, but has no audio out other than the headphone jack.

[RIV@NVX]

Originally Posted by yoda133113

Unfortunately it doesn't have a creative soundcard, it is a "Conexant AC-Link Audio" sound card it sounds just fine as far as I'm concerned, but has no audio out other than the headphone jack.

A quick look at ALSA webpage gives me an idea that it's supported (seems like it's just an AC97 codec). That's good.

Creative's mobility soundcards aren't supported anyway, so... I wouldn't like it to be that way. Ideal soundcard would be Intel Azalia + Realtek ALC880 HD codec, but that's not anywhere.

It's not available where I live, which ain't a big problem, however it seems to me that this laptop is only for American market (UK Gateway page doesn't list anything similar).