recomendations for kick-butt notebook.

im currently looking for a desktop replacement note book, wondering
about others sucesses or failures. i would like to hear others
non-dell experiences as well.



if anybody could lend there experieces with non-desktop processor notebooks



i am currently looking at the dell:



inspiron XPS

and another P4 based machine...



thanks.

I've been a fan of the IBM Thinkpads. They're well built and have
features comparable to Dell notebooks. But like Dell they can be
somewhat pricey but I guess you pay a little extra for the quality.

Desktop replacements however tend to be much heftier in size and weight
and probably won't be suitable for ultra-mobile travellers - yet
they're the most powerful. I've personally used notebooks that fall in
the middle when it comes to finding a balance between mobility and
performance. In terms of the notebook processors, the newest Intel
Centrino M processors are quite fast. It also really boils down to what
you're going to do with notebook as well. Good luck

I bought a second hand dell m60 which far suited all my needs<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />


fx go 1000 certifiedcard and a gig of ram with a centrino 1.70 does the trick but it does heat up and then everything starts to slow down a bit.


The heating up is my only niggle but otherwise its great.


thinking of upgrading to 2 gig for the graphics work i do but other than that for the price i paid i dont think you can go wrong.


I've never used an IBM but i hear good things on them and i like that new finger print login thing, makes you feel all 007 secret agent.

I'm also looking for a kick butt notebook. I have the Dell M60
right now, which is a good performer but heavy. I am looking for
a notebook with performance but not as much weight. I checked out
the HP Compaq nw8240, which seems to be the only PTC
laptop certified by PTC that weighs in at under 6 pounds. Or is
there another one out there? Does anyone else have a
recommendation for "performance with mobility"?. I am even
interested in non PTC certified systems if the system is similar to
those that PTC certifies (i.e. it has a good graphics card similar to
those that get certified.)



My opinion on the M60/M70: It is a dang good machine, but you
might as well have it sitting on your desk full time. With the
case, charger and machine, the thing weighs a ton. I am looking
to shave a couple pounds off what I need to carry by finding a lighter
machine/case/charger combo.

How about AlienWare ? I know they come with lots of options.


They can be very pricey depending on features you want, but have lots to offer in way of harddrive RPM (and type RAID etc) , processor speed, screen size, etc.


Alienware would be my first choice, but have never seen them mentioned in a CAD forum.


Thoughts ? Comments ?
Edited by: coolntn1

I've never thought of my M60 as wieghty, I chuck it in a laptop back pack or a sholder bag and don't really notice it as heavy, and I always thought the charger was great and nice and light, but maybe thats just me, I haven't really tried anything lighter.





My opinion is that you should think of the wieght as exercise training. killing two birds with one stone I'd say, haha

Stick with IBM if you can afford it the built quality is simply second to non, pay homage engineers!!!!!!


Cheers

On a second note I would much rather lug around something heavy which actually does the job u intend it to do as oppose to something nice and light which struggles with the tasks encountered!


Cheers

For home use I bought a ZD7000 CTO with 3.2 GHz P4, 1 GB RAM & 17" screen. I too wanted a desktop replacement, it never leaves the house. I liked the big display and keyboard with number pad. It is definately heavy and the battery life is pathetic but I knew that before I bought it. It was very inexpensive for what you get, no problems of any kind after 18 months. I only run Pro/E R20 on it, no WF license, but it works fine for that. HP has replaced it with the ZD8000 series now. Great bang for the buck.

I have an Alienware Area m51 7700 laptop computer, or should I say Alienware has my Area m51 7700. I DEFINITELY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND AN ALIENWARE! I purchased the thing in March 2005.


Lately, I've had two hard drive crashes in three weeks and ended up sending it in for repair. Now they tell me it will take three weeks to repair (due to hurricane, they say - whatever). This doesn't do much for productivity, that's for sure.


I think their problem is that they pack too much into them and end up with conflicts. Mine has 4 photo card slots, PCMCIA, multiple IEEE and USB among other things I'll likely never use. They even have an option TV card... woopie.


I purchased the laptop with the 1MB processor and NVIDIA 6800FXGO (256MB) graphics card. It works fine when it runs, only there is a graphics issue. When selecting from the top toolbar, the menu selection stays on screen until you repaint.


I think I'll look at an HP or Dell with certified graphics card.

We've got Dell M70's and they work really well. Never had any trouble.


I'm not sure about the whole weight issue, Dell's website says the M70 weighs 6.69 pounds. Not too heavy in my opinion.


My only recommendation would be to make sure whatever you get has a certified graphics card.

A group of us at my company use IBM T20p laptops. They were great for the first 12-18 months, but since have deteriorated rapidly. We have mother boards go, graphics die and hard drives grind to a near hault. We were using them intesively for tool design with over 4000 part + assemblies, and when they worked, they worked great; but simply they are not a workstation. We have tested the new T43's and again they smoke, but over the long haul I would expect the same issues to arise.


I now run a new M-Pro workstation for my Mcad work and keep the lap top just for email and reports.


J