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Recommendations for a Good PC Notebook

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berkleeboy210

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 2, 2004
1,641
0
Boston, Massachusetts
Hi Folks,

I already have a sweet PowerBook 15" 1.67ghz that I'd never trade away.

But I'd like to have a windows laptop on the side just for games and that occcasional software program that won't run on the Mac.

Price Range (1,500-2,000)

Centrino or Athlon?

Definetely a Dedicated Video card, none of that integrated intel "dynamic" video crapola, and a nice screen.

What do ya'll recommend?

Thanks in Advance.
 
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paperinacup

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2005
413
0
Dell Inspirion 6000D. All around great notebook.

Don't put down the newer integrated graphics chips because some of them are pretty darn good.
 
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paperinacup

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2005
413
0
I have owned the HP ZV6000. With an Athlon 4000+ and loved it. You may wanna check that out. That's probably the best bang for buck power wise. Also install the 3rd party graphics drivers.
 
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switchr92

macrumors member
Aug 2, 2005
49
0
Sony

I would probably go sony for your price range. It does have to do with your priorities, though. Sony's have the best style, dells are most "bang for buck" (cheaper), hps i would stay away from for notebooks, unless this machine is always plugged in and at a desk (even if so, not my first choice), IBMs are business laptops, so for gaming, I would look elseware, gateways aren't bad, but they are dells with a different label. Go centrino. I Insist on sony being the best choice, but it also depends on the form factor you want. In you want thin & light, look at thin and light notebooks and decide your favorite. Different companys sometimes make onje formfactor beter than the rest. To Summarize:
Consider: Sony (style/power), dell & gateway ("bang for buck")
Dont Consider: HP (bulky), alienware (overpriced), IBM (if you want to game, don't look over there; if not, they are worth considering, but u mentioned gaming, so...)
STAY AWAY FROM: Toshiba (the iBook i'm writing on now is 253,745 time faster than an older toshiba tecra M2 w/ 1.7 GHz PM)(worst laptopmaker in market)
Good Luck!
 
EricNau

EricNau

Moderator emeritus
Apr 27, 2005
10,728
281
San Francisco, CA
Definitely Sony! If I had to buy a windows I would never dream of anything else. In which case, I may be wrong, but I think they only come with Intels.
 
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lizard79

macrumors member
Jun 7, 2005
75
0
The IBM T Series is the best PC laptop series on the market.
Thin, light, pretty powerful and build like tanks. If I wouldn't be in the apple world, I would take one of these..
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
I'd be inclined to recommend Toshiba--but if your needs aren't urgent, then the ultimate Windows notebook would be an Intel iBook/PowerBook with Windows added to it! :)

Apple won't support installing Windows (nor block it), but I bet SOMEONE (probably Microsoft) will make it easy to do.

And we could be talking just a few months away--in the most optimistic scenarios. Half a year or so at worst.

Best of all... no need to tote two laptops, and no need to choose. Have both, always, everywhere.
 
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bgd

macrumors regular
Aug 30, 2005
237
11
SG
I have Dell laptop which I can't fault and value for money there was no competition. However I wouldn't buy another, the service from Dell (at least in the UK) is appalling.

The current machine was replaced by insurance so I let the insurance company endure the pain of delivery. If it was left to me I would have looked elsewhere. In fact if it was left to me I would have gone the Apple route.
 
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dcv

macrumors G3
May 24, 2005
8,021
1
Another vote here for a Sony Vaio. I particularly like the S-series (13.3" widescreen with x-black display). If it weren't for the fact that they don't run OS X i'd be typing on one of those right now!

I have an old Sony Vaio and while they are generally more expensive than other pc laptops, they are very well made and beautifully designed.
 
AmigoMac

AmigoMac

macrumors 68020
Aug 5, 2003
2,063
0
l'Allemagne
I just got a compaq nx7010 from the company and it looks awesome, pretty old model but its widescreen and ... go sony.

Off topic, I hate that I can't change the OS language like in Mac OS X :mad:

Hate windows!!

Boot, re-boot, boot, reboot...
 
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Euan

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2005
199
0
UK
I've a HP Compaq X7000 and I really like it. Dells are a good place to look as well though although you can only buy from them. I bought my laptop from a computing company so they deal will any issues I have.
 
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Euan

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2005
199
0
UK
Essentially there are loads of PC notebooks you could choose from!

For every make and model I'm sure there are people who could tell you how wonderful they are but equally every make will have dissapointed some.
 
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godbout

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2005
182
0
Montreal, Canada
Get the sony FS (the version with the dedicated video) it is a really nice laptop that combines price/performance/style in a way few companies can. If you want to go ultraporatble the have a cute (can I say that?) T series but that would suck for gaming. The IBM thinkpad t42 I have heard is really good (and has good support for linux (so you don't always have to suffer with Windows)) but like others have mentioned I am not sure that they are the best for gaming. I think that they are great for porting around thought because I hear they are tough as nails. Some dells feel cheap (although I have not used there brand new ones) but the price for the specs are pretty awesome (I would not go this route becuase I have heard of so many problems with them). What I don't understand is if you have the PB for pretty much everything why not get a desktop (from aleinware) for about the same price. Do you need that much mobile gaming? Anyways, just a thought. Good Luck, but let me warn you dealing in these dark matters can be dangerous so be careful! ;)
 
plinden

plinden

macrumors 601
Apr 8, 2004
4,029
142
Although I think Sony makes better looking laptops, I second the recommendation for the IBM (ie. Lenovo) Thinkpads. Side-by-side with my Compaq, it makes the Compaq look cheap and plastic. I've never had any hardware problems with any IBM (although I'm fairly sure the hardware problems I had with the Compaq could be traced to the cup of coffee I knocked over and flooded its insides with).

Although the styling hasn't changed in at least 6 years, it does grow on you. My current one is a 1 year old T42p. My previous 600E looked almost exactly the same in 1999.

But it comes down to what games do you want to play. Even the best laptop with a GPU won't compete with a desktop on the newer games.
 
YS2003

YS2003

macrumors 68020
Dec 24, 2004
2,138
0
Finally I have arrived.....
dietcokevanilla said:
Another vote here for a Sony Vaio. I particularly like the S-series (13.3" widescreen with x-black display). If it weren't for the fact that they don't run OS X i'd be typing on one of those right now!

I have an old Sony Vaio and while they are generally more expensive than other pc laptops, they are very well made and beautifully designed.
Click to expand...

I also think Sony Vaio's S series look very slick. I was at BestBuy yesterday to pick up Hitch Hiker's Galaxy DVD and I took some peeks at their PC line ups. Vaio S series has a very nice screen and seems very capable for a portable.

Since I don't need another PC at this time (I have too many notebooks already), I don't plan on buying it. But, my HP Pavilion PC craps out, then, I need to buy another PC as I want to keep one Windows machine just in case.
 
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MacPassion

macrumors member
Sep 13, 2005
37
0
OZ
Do you really want to buy a Sony? look at here http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449

i bought a sony vaio with athlon and had that problem. Result: I have to throw away a 2 years old computer that costed me a fortune.....

Now I have a HP nx6120 PV135PA....It is a great machine and I would strongly recommend it. The only 'problem' is that it does not have an incorporated microphone...and of course, that it does not run a Mac OS.....
 
X

Xenious

macrumors 6502a
Mar 22, 2004
685
46
Texas, USA
My two opinions:

IBM Thinkpad - yea it is ugly, but its a solid powerhouse. They even have a new tablet PC which is very nice. The bummer is I do not think any retail store sells IBM laptops. (technically not IBM made anymore either, sold to Leveno?)

Sony VAIO - all the cool bells and whistles. Occasionally you pay a price with some headaches and issues (for example my wife's power supply died and the hinge on her laptop isn't tight anymore so the screen falls down), but they seem to last well enough. Personally I like the T series and their new screens are very nice. They have a built in DVD-R (on the higher models) and you can get a battery that actually lasts 8 hours (a friend of mine has one).

Dell's are ok, but they aren't want they used to be.

I would avoid anything else.
 
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