Reading Hardware

Now that's more like it! With those resolutions and the FireGL card, I think an IBM would be a compelling choice, if the price is reasonable, because the rest of the features, particularly the build quality, diagnostics, fit and finish, are very enticing. The cards available here are mainly either onboard Intel, ATI topping out at the Radeon 9600 (a good but old card) or low end, obsolete Nvidia. Frankly, these options cannot compare to what other vendors are offering for less money here in the States, especially now that a whole new generation of laptop cards is becoming available. It sounds as though IBM has a better product overseas, which makes me think I shouldn't even give advice to someone in a different market in the first place.

Ewige Blumenkraft!

I just saw a laptop sized 6800 ultra pci-express.

Can you say overboard?

Pistol Grip Pump In My Lap At All Times

Whassat? Actually, the Dell XPS ships with a 6800 Ultra. Oh, one last though:

While in a desktop solution I'd puke at the thought of ATI, in a laptop it'd kick nVidia's ass. Do not, I say DO NOT get an nVidia powered laptop.

I should be ashamed of myself.

This post was edited by Aynjell on Mar 29, 2005.

I have owned Compaq Presarios, Dell Inspiron, Dell Latitude, IBM Thinkpads, and have talked to colleagues who have owned Sony Vaios, Toshiba, and other brands. And, here's my 2 cents on this:-

* Price-wise, you can't beat Dell here in the US, not sure how is the scene in Europe. I recently (2 months back) bought a Dell Latitude with the following config: Pentium M, 1.8 GHz (which I have heard is similar to 2.4GHz on a Pentium 4), 60GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM (as Aynjell said, anything less is not worth it), Windows XP Professional, built-in wireless card, for $1000. With extra $100, I was getting a DVD burner.

* Support-wise, you can't beat Dell. There support is awesome! I have never had any issues with Dell support ever since I bought my first Dell laptop in 1999.

* The negatives of a Dell system are that their CD/DVD drives have always had issues. They stop working pretty soon. The good thing is that their awesome support can get you a replacement in a day, with no questions asked. Once I had a problem with my Dell Inspiron's CD Drive in 2002, and it had been already close to 3 years since I had bought it, Dell simply shipped an external CD/DVD Burner to me as a replacement as they had stopped making that particular model of CD Drive.

* Look-wise, and feature-wise, Compaq laptops are pretty good. But, they are costly.

* IBM Thinkpads have the sturdiest design, their fans are at the right places, the laptops don't get heated up pretty fast, from what I have seen and heard, they are one of the best in the market (at par with Toshiba ones). I knew a friend who had done his Ph.D. in the fan designs in IBM Thinkpads, and had very high praises for them, as they constantly challenge their R&D team to come up with a better design to improve performance and focus a lot on ease of use. The only think I don't like is their mouse. I have had got carpel-tunnel-syndrome once and it was a pretty painful experience for me, and hence I vowed against using Thinkpad's mouse, I always connect an external mouse whenever I have to use a Thinkpad.

Hope that helps. I would suggest that if money is not an issue, don't go with Dell, if support is a major concern, then don't go with HP/Compaq. If you like Thinkpad's mouse and have no issues with it, go with the Thinkpad.

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

Wow, thanks everybody for replying. I've got way more information than I hoped for. I should be able to find a decent laptop with that. Wish me luck :-)

Consider yourself hugged.

Check out Dell, I looked through some notebooks shopping for one for college, and I liked what I saw at Dell (my Dad had an IBM Think-Pad A series and I love it, but they discontinued that line).

All the stuff he wants, you can only find in their XPS Gaming model. P4 EE with hyper threading, 7200 rpm HD (as fast as it gets in laptops), 512 etc. etc.

Apperantly they have a new model, XPS Gen 2. Pentium M, but GDDR2 ram (512), Geforce Go 6800 Ultra PCI Express graphics card, etc. etc.

Or just shop around. Like I said, the XPSs and the 9200s are good (obviously you'll have to change the locale from US to... sweden right?).

Pistol Grip Pump In My Lap At All Times

sweden right?

Switzerland, but it was a close enough guess. :-) Thanks.

Consider yourself hugged.

I loose again :-P

Pistol Grip Pump In My Lap At All Times

That reminds me of something, forgive me for briefly going off-topic:

In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. ...The problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman -- the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress -- mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.

''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''

Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.

Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''

The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.

Ewige Blumenkraft!