Help me choose a laptop

Hey guys, my laptop uh died. Long story short the display wont turn on and I can't fix it because idk what's wrong. So I am gonna do the next best thing and salvage what I can and buy a new one. I was looking at alienware computers but there a bit pricey. Though I can afford one I need to know if there is a reason I should not buy one. I checked and they wanna charge me $2,500 for the features I want. So I was thinking of what else I can buy for that money. I do have an infinite amount of cash so its not a problem LOL "Jokes ofc". I can only afford a new laptop if I have a payment option. 300$ a month is no biggie for me so I can affford a 2500$ one. Now unless there is some good reason I should not get a alienware laptop then I'm gonna go for it. I "do" however need a notebook as I go everewhere with it. Maybe you fellow nerds can enlighten me on some good deals n steals or just tell me if I am making a good purchase. Oh and please don't say buy a Mac. I'm not a Mac fan.

Thanks
Jeff

I would say buy an Alienware.
Specifically the M17x R3: Alienware M17x Laptop Details | Dell
But. I have had several Alienware computers and am totally biased towards them.
Really, for a little less money, you could get a non-alienware with similar performance, but you wouldn't have the "cool" factor of an Alienware.

ya alienware is pretty good but like 2 times the price of a custom built one with the same components
(well.. i cant build laptop's )
so alienware is a option..
and what are you looking for actually (specs)

Ash said:

I would say buy an Alienware.
Specifically the M17x R3: Alienware M17x Laptop Details | Dell
But. I have had several Alienware computers and am totally biased towards them.
Really, for a little less money, you could get a non-alienware with similar performance, but you wouldn't have the "cool" factor of an Alienware.

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this is the specific kind of input I was looking for. Glad you like the alienware notebooks. I've heard alot on Intel chips so I'm kinda iffy on em

If you were looking for a possible alternative:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Notebooks - ASUS G73Jw

I have a Dell XPS M1730 before Dell bought out Alienware (Few years ago now), and looking back... If it weren't for the look of my current laptop I would have gone with Asus no question. They are another brand who have really nice higher-end laptops with good warranty and support options.

Just my 2c

jeffreythe00 said:

this is the specific kind of input I was looking for. Glad you like the alienware notebooks. I've heard alot on Intel chips so I'm kinda iffy on em

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Alienware uses Inter processors in their laptops...

What do you mean, Intel chips? Like, chipsets (Northbridge/southbridge)?

enigmahack said:

If you were looking for a possible alternative:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Notebooks - ASUS G73Jw

I have a Dell XPS M1730 before Dell bought out Alienware (Few years ago now), and looking back... If it weren't for the look of my current laptop I would have gone with Asus no question. They are another brand who have really nice higher-end laptops with good warranty and support options.

Just my 2c

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another reason I posted . yes I am looking at alternative notebooks. Asus specificly. ill comment more l8r cuz I'm at work now.

You should probably mention what features are must-have and which are preferred. Nowadays even the $800 laptops will be quite sufficient for or even outclass my needs (except maybe the screen size), but it wasn't like that a few years ago. Plus, what you save can be spent on outside upgrades like a nice SSD or two. The one I added to my older laptop gave a whole new life to it.

on my current laptop I need to run about 500,000 KB of prosesser memory minimum. so mainly a smooth laptop for lag free or minimal lag for gaming.

jeffreythe00 said:

on my current laptop I need to run about 500,000 KB of prosesser memory minimum. so mainly a smooth laptop for lag free or minimal lag for gaming.

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First of all, it's spelled "Processor", you've mispelled it like 15 times in MSN chat already.

Second, there are three levels of processor memory called Cache. What you're interested in is L2 cache and in today's processors it ranges in 8, 16 and rarely , 32 Megabytes.

So no chances you're getting 512 MB cache memory processor

Even that numbers are totally meaningless actually, what really matters is the brand, make and model of the processor. Each has unique inner architecture and today, it's frequency, cache memory and other numerical statistics mean apsolutely nothing.

Besides, not that you have much choice in Laptops, since processors are in 90% cases soldered directly to the motherboard without the socket, so you cannot change them and pick new ones.

I have a Dell XPS M1530, and it has a socketed processor. Most of the higher end Laptops will have a socket. For Gaming on a Laptop You're going to have to spend a pretty penny or it will be obsolete in a year or two at best. Most Laptops have the Video on the motherboard, so try to find one that has a socket or standalone card.

Coherent Light said:

I have a Dell XPS M1530, and it has a socketed processor. Most of the higher end Laptops will have a socket. For Gaming on a Laptop You're going to have to spend a pretty penny or it will be obsolete in a year or two at best. Most Laptops have the Video on the motherboard, so try to find one that has a socket or standalone card.

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I never knew this. I though most if not all laptops that had video cards have intergraded video that you can't remove. How exactly can I find out if there is a socket or not?

I lost all My bookmark yesterday, but I think if You go to Nvidia, ATI or most any other video card manufacturers You should be able to find which cards are replaceable. I know for a fact the some Laptops have removable video cards, because when I was looking for a new work laptop I came across a few.

Hope this helps, and if I can recover My bookmarks I'll send you the site that has a list.

To echo what Coherent said, it's very true that *MOST* laptops will have a user-replacable hard drive, ram and sometimes processor. (Most motherboards on a laptop I've seen will support a upgradable processor)

But video cards are where you end up paying BIG money to get an upgradable component.

I have the Dell XPS M1730 (the bigger version of what Coherent has) and I have dual-sata HD's in RAID 1, Dual nVidia M8800GTX's in SLI, Core 2 Duo X9000 "Extreme" processor, 8GB of pc8000 ram, blah blah blah.

Anyway, my point is that I CAN upgrade the video card(s) in my laptop but it'll cost me close to 1000$ to do.

All of those components that I've mentioned *CAN* be upgraded if I choose to do so, and my laptop was also over 4000$ when I got it brand new only a few years ago.

There are laptops like that Asus I mentioned that blow it out of the water when it comes to performance, and are about 2000$ cheaper.

**Sigh**

These are the way computers go though.

Personally, if I could do it again, I would build a gaming PC and have a cheap laptop for internet browsing, etc.

I use My M1530 for Gaming, and it does a decent job for the most part. I love that it has HDMI, and I connect it to My 47" Toshiba Hi-Def TV. I get higher quality video, and a better frame rate by doing this. The Nvidia Ge-Force is a nice on board chip, and all I have to do is switch the display in the Nvidia control panel to the TV and turn-off the laptop display. The 8600M GT can't quite run both displays at the same time. I highly recommend getting a laptop with HDMI capabilities.

I would just buy a laptop with a somewhat decent third-party (nVidia/ATI) video card and then spend the rest on an SSD. Other than that, your laptop will come with the necessary processing and RAM to do what you need if it's coming with the 3rd party video card in the first place. Gaming will always be sub-par to even a low-end desktop, so get something middle-of-the-road and it'll be about as good as you'll get anyway on a laptop.

The hard drive has *always* been the limiting factor on my laptops. No matter how much RAM, or how good the processor was, or the video card, they always felt slow to me--at least until I bought an SSD. Now the computer feels as snappy as any desktop. It is the most worthy upgrade to a laptop as you can find.