bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA
 ·Qwest.net
 ·Mediacom
|  Choosing a new laptop
I am looking for a new laptop to replace my four year old HP ZX5000 and would like some model or brand suggestions.
Some things I would like in a laptop are:
• Dedicated video 256MB or more
• PCMCIA slot / PC Card and Express card slot
• High resolution screen
• about 15 inch screen
• 4 to 7 lbs
• Up to 2000 dollars
I have been looking at some IBM and HP models.
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···34146427
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···34147620
Does anyone own either of those?
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Jahntassa
What, I can have feathers
join:2006-04-14
Conyers, GA | As must always be asked, what do you expect to do with it? Gaming? Internet? CAD? |
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA
·Qwest.net
·Mediacom
| I would mainly use it for internet and office but I would like to be able to game on it when away from my desktops. I would like the best performance from a 15 inch display laptop with a weight of 7 pounds or less. Battery life is a always a plus.
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mack1951
Universal Soldier
join:2000-04-18
Bayonne, NJ
·Optimum Online
| reply to bufferoverru
Check out »www.portableone.com I just bought a laptop from them, the SXS37, a custom build from the Asus barebone systems. Configured any way you want. They also sell other brands and most you can get de-crapped with no bloatware installed. Their sales and customer service are number 1 as well. Very happy with my machine and the whole experience of dealing with them.
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decx
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Toronto, ON
·Bell Sympatico
| reply to bufferoverru
At that price level you can get the 15 inch 2.4GHz MacBook Pro. I has everything you listed except for a PCMCIA slot. But nowadays you can get most cards in an Express Card format anyways.
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA | It looks like a nice system but I think I need a PCMCIA slot. I sometimes need to use a sensitive wireless cards in Linux. Atheros USB adapters don't work in Linux and there really aren't any extreme range Express card slot Wireless cards. |
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA | reply to bufferoverru
Does anyone own an IBM T61p with the Quadro FX 570M? I would like to know what you think of it. |
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decx
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Toronto, ON
·Bell Sympatico
edit:
March 16th, @10:27PM
| reply to bufferoverru
The wireless on the MBP is a Draft 2.0 802.11n based Atheros AR5008 with fairly good range. It has about the same or slightly better wireless signal performance as my Atheros a/b/g (don't remember the chipset at the moment) PCMCIA cards I use on my older (no integrated wireless) Windows notebooks.
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Go Leafs Go! |
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA
·Qwest.net
·Mediacom
| I have an EnGenius 400mW Atheros AR5006 mini-PCI card in my current laptop. It is crazy the range over the stock broadcom it has. I would say 3-4x the distance in buildings. But even the Broadcom had better range than my Cisco A/B/G PCMCIA (Atheros) card.
On a different note, how easy is it to run linux on those MBPs? I mainly run Fedora.
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decx
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Toronto, ON
·Bell Sympatico
edit:
March 16th, @11:22PM
| It should be fairly straight forward even if you install it to run natively (dual booting). After all it is a x86 system. You can also run it as a virtual machine using VMWare Fusion or Parallels.
Specifically for Fedora:
»fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraOnMactel
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA
·Qwest.net
·Mediacom
| Wow, that looks complicated. I currently use Windows + two different Linux distros on my laptop. I tri-boot with grub witch means I would be quad booting... »wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Triple_···BootCamp |
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decx
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Toronto, ON | Generally anything that is written down make things appear more complicated that it really is. 
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
·AT&T Yahoo
| reply to bufferoverru
said by bufferoverru  :Does anyone own an IBM T61p with the Quadro FX 570M? I would like to know what you think of it. I do not own one, though I've used a couple of closely related models, but not with the Nvidia Quadro FX 570M graphics. I am assuming that this is going to be primarily for professional 3D applications? If not, I would not necessarily go for a Quadro based solution.
The Leveno (no such animal as "IBM" ThinkPad anymore), is built solidly, albeit not very much for style points. I've always liked the track stick over the touch pad, and it is nice to have them both. ThinkPad keyboards IMHO, are very, very good, and overall very well-built notebooks capable of holding up to a lot of travel/usage.
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA | I wouldn't be using it for professional 3D applications. I need more power than Intel integrated graphics but in a business class machine. I use my laptop about equally for work and play. |
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by bufferoverru :I wouldn't be using it for professional 3D applications. I need more power than Intel integrated graphics but in a business class machine. I use my laptop about equally for work and play. In that case? I would really recommend a model with say a Nvidia 8600 (or better yet Nvidia 8000) based graphics solution...although I do not think that there is anything "wrong" with the Quadro. Unless you are a real "power-gamer" the Nvidia 8600M is a very decent graphics solution for a notebook, and doesn't "break the bank" on cost. I like HP notebooks (I should, since I bought one), but I do think that if you are looking for a fairly ruggedly-built notebook, that can take a lot of travel well, the ThinkPad T61 can take a "licking" and keep on ticking.
My only "preference" is that I'd save a few bucks, and get a larger hard drive. 120 - 160 gb drives are really pretty much "entry-level" today, and for what you are willing to spend, why settle?
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bufferoverru
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Ottumwa, IA
·Qwest.net
·Mediacom
| I can't seem to find a 15.4" laptop with anything better than a 8600M GT or a 570M (about the same thing). My old HP is still going but I do haul my laptop around a lot. Also the IBM does have a 160GB hard drive, it is a 7200 RPM model. The biggest 7200RPM drives I've seen are 200GB. |
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koam
Pink Pecker
Premium
join:2000-08-16
Eagle River, AK
clubs:
 ·ViaTalk
 ·surpasshosting
·CCLHosting
| just got a new HP with 2 x 120 GB 7200 RPM HDs. they had larger HDs, but this was the best at 7200 RPM. (i'd prefer speed over gigantic...my old laptop has 40GB, so 240GB is already big enough for me) also has NVIDIA 8600M GS ...pavilion model dv9700t |
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PeteC2
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT
clubs:
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by koam :just got a new HP with 2 x 120 GB 7200 RPM HDs. they had larger HDs, but this was the best at 7200 RPM. (i'd prefer speed over gigantic...my old laptop has 40GB, so 240GB is already big enough for me) also has NVIDIA 8600M GS ...pavilion model dv9700t I hope that you enjoy it! That should be a pretty capable model...I would prefer the two fast 120 gb hard drives over one 4200rpm 240 gb drive...
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...something is happening here but you don't know what it is...do you, Mr. Jones? |
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