Lap(top)dance of Joy

GoM · Oct 12, 2006

So yeah,

My parents, and pretty much my entire family, have essentially agreed to buy me a laptop for my combined xmas-birthday (mid-late November). It's both needed and heavily wanted.

So, I've done some research into various companies...Dell, HP, Sony, VoodooPC, Falcon NorthWest, Alienware...and what do you know, to my immense surprise, the system with both the best price (in comparision) as well as the best specs (when customised) was an Alienware.

So, even though I'm not a huge gamer (I go through spurts of intense gaming to not much at all), it turns out that the specialised-for-gaming laptop turns out to be, so far, the best bang for the buck.

I mean, I could go to MDG, Sony, HP or whatever and buy a stock system, since none of them allow customisation..but..whatever qualities I get for buying stock are gonna be outweighed by sheer crap for everything else.

So, I'll keep the desktop I have now for storage..as you don't throw away 160GB of hard drive space when it can work as perfectly good storage (not to mention that I could shoot RAW now....ooooooo), but yeah. I'm pretty stoked. Never thought I'd be able to say "I own an Alienware", so even though I'm sure I'm paying a couple hundred bucks just for the name, it still ends up so much better, and cheaper, than anything else I've found so far.

So. I'm happy.

Corry · Oct 12, 2006

Congrats!!!! Wish I had a laptop..though other than travelling, I don't have much use for one.

GoM · Oct 12, 2006

Aaaand so much for the Alienware, forgot the site was in US! Without duties and taxes and shipping!

So, to Dell it is...*sigh*

I was close

EBphotography · Oct 12, 2006

Aww..oh well, Dell has some great laptops too, ask Arch!

clarinetJWD · Oct 12, 2006

EBphotography said:
Aww..oh well, Dell has some great laptops too, ask Arch!

If you ask me, I'd avoid Dell laptops at all cost.

As far as quality is concerned, the best 2 out there right now are Sony and Lenovo. What's your budget?

Plus...most alienware laptops have a battery life of less than an hour (not kidding). My Dell doesn't get much more than that. My mom's Sony (much higher power) lasts 4-5 hours

kelox · Oct 12, 2006

congrats on your soon to be new laptop.

GoM · Oct 12, 2006

I've looked into Dell and HP, and I have two I'm liking the look of...I avoided HP at first because they don't do customisation, but I found an HP machine I've liked. So, I'll take another look at the VAIO series and see what they have there. Usually, with the stocks, I find that the hard disk space, ram etc is fine, but the video card is crap. I need a good one of those, so the stock's aren't always good, but we'll see.

Looks like it'll only be $1500-2000 too, which is nice.

kelox · Oct 12, 2006

i am hoping to get a new macbook pro in a few weeks

GoM · Oct 12, 2006

kelox said:
i am hoping to get a new macbook pro in a few weeks

Nice

I was never a fan of macs...grew up on em, but since I've gotten my PCs, cant' stand macs. Good enough for those who like em, which is all that matters.

That said...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZQ_It0weI[/ame]

clarinetJWD · Oct 12, 2006

THe Sony VAIO SZ series is amazing, very light, but with a real graphics processor, and great battery life. It's at the top of your price range, but well worth it.

VGN-SZ340

(my mom got the carbon fiber one, but that's pricey)

GoM · Oct 12, 2006

clarinetJWD said:
THe Sony VAIO SZ series is amazing, very light, but with a real graphics processor, and great battery life. It's at the top of your price range, but well worth it.

VGN-SZ340

(my mom got the carbon fiber one, but that's pricey)

Yeah, that's a bit much...

starting at $2300 (CDN, remember, add a couple hundred to the US)

I'll take alook at it more tommorrow..now, i'm beat and heading to bed

Not ot mention that I have 8 swedes waiting for me. all women. naturally.

clarinetJWD · Oct 12, 2006

GoM said:
Yeah, that's a bit much...

starting at $2300 (CDN, remember, add a couple hundred to the US)

I'll take alook at it more tommorrow..now, i'm beat and heading to bed

Not ot mention that I have 8 swedes waiting for me. all women. naturally.

That's right...you're using the loonie

I always forget about those!

GoM · Oct 13, 2006

Got a Dell on order, considering the price limitaitons I had to work with (obviously), it worked out well

Dell Inspiron 9400
1.73Ghz, 17" Wide Screen XGA+ Display, 1GB Shared DDR2 SDRAM, 256MB ATi Radeon X1400 HyperMemory (downside- 128MB of that is from the RAM when I use graphics-intensive programs), 160GB HD, 8x CD/DVD Burner, etc...$1700

So, within 15 business days...

EBphotography · Oct 13, 2006

I agree that Sony has a better quality product. HP also has some nice ones out there. Sony to me though is not for someone on a budget like our friend GoM. Now if you can get it to your home without it exploding on the way we'll be set!

mortallis288 · Oct 13, 2006

i love my vaio most of the time, your mom must have like the extended battery cause my battery last for like an hour and half tops, but you will be happy with your dell, they may not be the best of machines but if you treat it right and not look at to much naughty stuff you will be ok