New Lappie

CoreyG87CoreyG87
edited May 2007 in Hardware
Hey guys, I just wanted to see if anyone had any advice on a brand of laptop and also specifications I should look for when purchasing a new one for college. The one I got my frosh year was a Toshiba Satellite. Pentium M 1.8 GHz blah blah 2Gb Ram whatever whatever. However, unknown by me, most Toshiba laptops have a little problem with the power supply breaking. I am a business major and music minor. So I need a pretty powerful machine to run the music notation programs. Also, like any college student, I love to game. Thanks for the help guys.

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    "Music notation program" - is that a music composition automation tool? Sorry, when I went to college the only computer was a punch card monster in the main admin building! Also, what games would you want to play? Latest and greatest? Would you still want to be gaming on the laptop two or three years from now? You may be looking for quite an expensive laptop if you want great gaming capability. There aren't that many models that come with higher-end graphics cards.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    Yes, that is what it is. Like you can tell the program what notes you want via midi keyboard or point and click on the staff. One of the main programs is called Finale. It is very taxing on CPU power and RAM since it recreates everything you notate. As you could probably fathom, it takes a lot of power to recreate an orchestra. And I could get it upgraded later for later games or just buy another. The desktop I am currently saving for should have me covered for the next 6 years or so.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    And I could get it upgraded later for later games or just buy another.
    That's one of the problems with laptops - you can upgrade the memory, the CPU (usually), the hard drive, but quite often not video card.

    Based on what you provided and my assumption that you'd like to be happy with it for at least two years, I recommend:

    Intel "Centrino" platform
    Intel C2M (dual core mobile) CPU
    2GB DRAM
    *Nvidia 7800 series video card

    CD/DVD burners, wireless, number of USB ports, LAN port -- that's up to your preference. Usually though, a laptop with a superior processor, 2GB RAM, and better video card will include all the other bells and whistles (and a price to reflect it all, ouch).

    Brands. Dell, HP, or Lenovo. I would look around at retail stores to see what size and resolution of monitor screen suits you. There's everything under the sun these days for size and format of laptop screens.

    * if you want to game, do NOT get a laptop that has an integral graphics chip on the motherboard. You want a true video card that is a separate component, just like the memory and hard drive are separate components.

    The brands I suggested are better than many of the budget brands and some of the 'no-names.' The are other good manufacturers as well.

    Don't hesitate to come back with more questions.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    Thanks a lot. I was looking at an Acer, the Ferrari series to be specific. I was also thinking about a PowerBook because of the dual-boot capabilities and Macs are some of the best concerning creativity applications. I'll see what I can find.


    I also wanted to know what you thought about the Turion series from AMD. I have always liked AMD as far as desktops go. In fact I am saving to get an X2 5200+.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    I looked at it and Dell only offers a 17 inch XPS C2M with Vista. Would you still get it? They do offer it with XP Pro. Which would you get?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    I would get it with XP Pro and stay far away from Vista.

    Also, comparing a physically identical OSX Mac to a physically identical Windows PC, Windows will probably come out on top because Windows is just generally faster. Keep that in mind.
  • mtroxmtrox Minnesota
    edited May 2007
    Thrax wrote:
    Windows is just generally faster.

    They're building a gallows for you right now Thrax. Get your affairs in order...
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    I'm sorry, I'm not Apple® Gallows® compatible.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    Corey, you are all over the map! Gaming + OSX = you-takes-your-chances and probably lose. MacBooks are fine machines, but not if you want to game. Turion is a good processor, but if the price is within $100 for a comparable C2M machine, I'd go with Intel. I've heard nothing negative about Acer. For both the Mac and "Ferrari" Acer, you'd be paying extra money for the looks and the name. Put the money into hardware.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    I really like the HP brand but they only offer the Intel Media AcceleratorX1300 and not a separate graphics card. The Dell XPS series is really calling my name and not too expensive either.
  • david88088david88088
    edited May 2007
    Hp is my best choice
  • betabob999betabob999
    edited May 2007
    i run the gateway mx6453.. about 899-1199 depending on where you go

    its got one of the most powerfull wireless cards ive ever seen in a preconfig system
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2007
    A C2D (or C2M) will probably be plenty of juice to run what you need for music or gaming. Go with XP and a decent video card.

    I have a Dell thats worked good for me for a few years besides me burning up the video card, which I was able to get a replacement asap. No complaints here.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    I really like the HP brand but they only offer the Intel Media AcceleratorX1300
    Which would be fine for office applications and Internet viewing but would bottom of the barrel for gaming.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    Leonardo wrote:
    Which would be fine for office applications and Internet viewing but would bottom of the barrel for gaming.

    That's what I figured. That fingerprint reader is pretty sweet though. Hehe.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    mmonnin wrote:
    A C2D (or C2M) will probably be plenty of juice to run what you need for music or gaming. Go with XP and a decent video card.

    I have a Dell thats worked good for me for a few years besides me burning up the video card, which I was able to get a replacement asap. No complaints here.

    Yeah, it looks like I am going to go with the XPS M1710 with a 2.33Ghz C2D, 2Gb RAM, the 512Mb Nvidia graphics card a 120Gb HD but, it only comes with Vista, so lame.

    I was also looking at a Macbook Pro, with the same C2D, 3 GBs of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive, but I need to figure out their graphics capabilities and it would actually be less than the XPS.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    Bros, I have officially decided on the 17" MacBook Pro. 2.33 C2D, 3 Gigs of RAM, and 160 Gig HD. With Boot Camp( for those who don't know, a program that allows Macs to run Windows on a separate partition on the HD. releasing on Leopard in October (hopefully) that will solve any problems I might have with compatibility. I checked into it and the Mobility Radeon that the MacBooks use isn't half bad. It's a 256 and I have an ATI 128 in my current desktop and it plays most games. I am also going to put together a new rig this summer which if I take the rig and my lappie to school my gaming fix should be more than solved. The rig I am contemplating now is an Athlon 64 X2 5200+, 2-4 Gigs of DDR, 512mb GDDR3 Nvidia Graphics card, A 500 GB hard drive and 2 DVD RW drives. Any comments?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2007
    Any comments?
    I think you've selected a very nice notebook. As for me, I wouldn't buy a Mac anything, as I think too much of your price goes toward the name and the styling and not enough towards the function and performance. But it's a preference. You will have a very nice notebook, for sure.

    Why don't you start a new thread for your proposed desktop build. We'd love to help with that, too.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2007
    Programs running under Boot Camp will take a performance hit. I cant tell you how much but there is no way it can run as fast on a native Windows system.
  • CoreyG87CoreyG87
    edited May 2007
    mmonnin wrote:
    Programs running under Boot Camp will take a performance hit. I cant tell you how much but there is no way it can run as fast on a native Windows system.

    Of course they will, but if you aren't running games, what is the real need for that much performance. The music software I use are all Mac compatible.
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