help choosing a laptop!

[violetdream]

Hi guys, this is an edit from a post that I made on notebookforums.com. I'm probably going to buy from Xotic so I'm going to post here too. Short story edited from the beginning about my old laptop dying :?

I want to spend from 1000-1500 dollars but still have something decent. I don't need state of the art but I do want a dedicated graphics card. I prefer something with a very high internal resolution as my Sager 8890 was 1600x1200 and I am now used to that. Screen size/weight doesn't matter too much, but I would like the screen size to be 15 inches +.

I took a look at the PC Torque Force 510 and found out that it's a rebranded COMPAL HEL80. I read some reviews and saw that it didn't score very well on 3DMark compared to other laptops using the same chipset. I was thinking I wanted that one but now I'm not sure. Also, it broke my heart that it's only available in 1280x800 for now - that seems absolutley piddly to me coming from 1600x1200 :lol:

Now I've got my eye on the ASUS Z96J. It has a better resolution option (1680x1050) and an ATI card, which I have a soft spot for. It got better benchmarks too.

However I honestly don't know that much about graphics cards since I haven't shopped in a while. I had a mobility raedon something in the 8890 with 128mb and that was considered top of the line back then, so something with 256mb (with the option to upgrade to 512) sounds awesome. But is this just a low end card? How do these two cards compare:

ATi Radeon PCI-E X1600 w/ up to 512MB HyperMemory (256MB onboard)
nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256MB PCI-Express Video

I read somewhere that the nVIDIA is just a tiny step above onboard graphics. Yuck! And I have no idea what hypermemory is, but it sounds appealing, haha.

Also coming from a Pentium 4 user, *seinfeld voice* what's the deal with the Core 2 Duo processors? I don't like that the rating is so low, although I'd assume they are faster - my P4 was 3.20 ghz and 2.0 with the Duo is freaking me out, although I did see somewhere that the speed is about equal to the P4 if you multiply it by 1.8, which I'm happy with. Or do I need more than 2.0 with the core 2 duo? I've heard a lot about this Santa Rosa processor but I need a laptop within the next month or so...I guess I could wait but I really don't want to wait for 3 or 4 months. I saw the post about the new Santa Rosa laptops but do you think that this will be in my price range?

Another quick question - anyone know of a notebook within my range which has a bay for another harddrive? The 3 hard drives in my old sager 8890 spoiled me.

And of course, if anyone knows of any other laptops that fit my criteria even better (as in getting more for a cheaper price! ) please do feel free to post.

[Justin@XoticPC]

Hello Violet =)

If you want the high resolution in a 15.4" I would recommend the Asus Z96JM or the ASUS G1 (http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php?wconfigure=yes&products_id=1877). The G1 has the 512MB 7700. The X1600 and GO7600 are nearly the same. I personally prefer the nVidia 7600 over the ATI.

Your right about the processors, they are equivalent. I wouldnt worry to much about this as they can handle just about anything you can throw at it. :)

If you want to do something with a second hard drive a good 15.4" that has the high resolution screen is the Asus V1JP (http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php?wconfigure=yes&products_id=1912). Have you looked at this model or the G1? The V1 smart bay can house a 2nd HDD or and 2nd Battery :)

[violetdream]

Thanks so much for your quick and helpful reply. Those two machines look great but they are over my budget :( I can only spend a little bit over 1500 dollars and the Z96J looks like my best bet for now. I guess I can always buy an external hard drive!

Someone told me that I should wait for the asus C90 and that it should be within my budget when it's released. I have to admit the Santa Rosa processor sounds very tempting. What do you think? I saw the two links to new models with Santa Rosa but I don't know ifthose are the C90, or if they'll be available within my time frame (the next couple of weeks).

I guess I also feel apprehensive about buying a laptop that no one has reviewed before...who knows if Santa Rosa is really worth all the hype? Also I have a suspicion that the prices *might* come down a little on the Z96J once those are released :twisted:

I just added you on MSN in case I have other questions so don't be scared if you get a random request!

[Justin@XoticPC]

No problem =)

At this time we dont have any confirmed pricing on the new Asus C90. As far as we know the C90 will not use Santa Rosa, it will use the Desktop Conroe processors. There isnt going to be much of a performance boost when comparing Santa Rosa CPU's vs the Current Core 2 Duo's.

The new laptops on our site are Compals and wont be available until mid June.

I think the Z96J would be a good fit for your needs. :)

Let me know if you have any other questions =)