Work Laptop Suggestions

[El_Gringo_Grande]

I am looking for a new laptop. I want a desktop replacement. Size and weight are not issues. A fast hard drive is and cool/quiet are big bonuses. Cost < 2k preferably.

My only experience I have are with Dell and HP/Compaq. I liked both. But I was wondering what else was out there.

This is not for games but I do want a nice and bright display as I look at the thing for about 10 hours a day. Nice crisp text is an absolute must.

[=DdogG=]

I just got an inspiron 1720 and I love it!!!

17" wuxga 1920x1200 / 2.4ghz C2D / 4gig / dual 250gig WD scorpio 16meg cache / Geforce 8600 GT 256 / Blu-Ray-R

the display is fantastic, and I am staring at it for about that long daily.

[El_Gringo_Grande]

Although I said I am not buying it for games.......

How does it handle games?

[ScratchMonkey]

Good point. I wouldn't mind getting a laptop for my next game LAN machine. I want to attend a LAN in another state and I don't want to have to pack up a tower to take with me.

[=DdogG=]

I have no problems w/ HL2 @ 1920x1200 everything maxed out.

I have not installed anything else yet, but plan on getting COD4 frontlines, BF2, AA, and maybe old school GR going soon.

Blu-Ray movies are smooth as silk too.

[ScratchMonkey]

I would think movies would be far less taxing than games, because movies are 2D while games need to use all the compute-intensive 3D polygon and texturing features of the graphics chip. The most taxing part of a movie is decompressing it off the disk. Movies don't require real-time response to inputs, so you can stream up a buffer of decompressed material to compensate for variations in decompression performance over time.

[=DdogG=]

blu-ray is quite taxing on a computer, though I do realize that it is not so much as a FPS.

[StevieRay]

I love my asus g2-b2 17 inch, and just worked with an IBM t-61 for a few days...great machine. My G2 is a work machine/gamer for me...does both very well...the IBM is a work machine. Asus lappys are very good imo.

[El_Gringo_Grande]

I received my brand new 1720 today.

My initial impression was disappointment. It just doesn't look that great. (I got the basic black.) I am used to HP/Compaq and Sony laptops and they just look better. It doesn't feel very solid either.

The keyboard is ok. It seems a little loose. And the track pad is not the most accurate I have used.

But the screen is absolutely fantastic! It is native 1920x1200 in a 17" screen. This makes the default font tiny. But even my tired, 39yr old eyes can read it so it is very sharp and bright. I did bump up the font to 120 dpi and then it is even better.

I got the basic DVD player and it is a bit clanky.

Overall speed is pretty good. Haven't done anything special yet but it seems as responsive as my Dell xps 410 and my home computer. I will know more tomorrow when I start compiling some projects and running a few unit test suites. I am a bit worried about the 5400 rpm of the sata drive. That is usually my bottle neck with laptops.

It does seem fairly quite when the DVD isn't running and no hotter than my last to laptops. Maybe even a bit cooler.

My last laptop was a HP with a 17 inch screen. That laptop had a regular Pentium and a 7200 rpm drive. It was a true desktop replacement with the 56 minute battery life to prove it. So I was a little bit surprised I found the dell to only be a little bit thinner and the Dell is actually a bit wider and longer. It is lighter, however.

If it wasn't for the screen I wouldn't be all that impressed. But that screen is just great!

[thegreatnardini]

I use an Acer Aspire 3680, cheap as can be. Bought it on sale for $300 before I went off to school and the only complaint I can think of is battery life. The screen is surprisingly very good and it runs everything work-related I need with no problems. It's no gaming monster, but I've got my PC for that. It's just a celeron with a 60 GB drive and 1.5 gigs of ram, and if you're really looking to save some serious dough I'd recommend something similar.

[=DdogG=]

wow, I am sorry to hear you are so disappointed.

I absolutely love mine. I never hear any noise from the computer, which is good b/c the one thing I do hate about it is the speakers. Mine is serving me extremely well. I replaced the default hard drive with 2 WD 250gig 16meg cache 5400rpm models, and they bench as well as any 7200rpm drive. My battery life with the extended battery is better that 4 hours with everything on and no power management, and the keyboard and mouse feel like they belong on a laptop. I have never understood the "tactile response" argument though. the keys go down smooth and rebound quickly. I do wish they were backlit. I also would like to see and led backlight on the screen for battery savings.

the bluray drive is tight and quiet, the laptop feels solid, but I do agree the basic black sucks... it looks like it was spray painted with a flat black. nothing special. I do think the laptop is better than any hp, acer, toshiba, or gateway out there. Sony may have better things out there, but they are the apple of PC's: all style, high price, but only mediocre performace (unlike apple). IBM makes some decent stuff, but I always find them overpriced and under designed.

For the price, I think it is an amazing laptop.

[El_Gringo_Grande]

The performance is what I was really looking for and this thing has it. I got the T9300 and building one of my larger solutions is about 5 seconds faster than my desktop. The sql server access is a bit slower but nothing that is going to hold me back. Visual studio 2008 loads just as fast and loading a 100 meg XML doc in stylus studio is only slightly slower.

One very good thing about this thing is the 1920x1200 screen. It is the same resolution as my 24" dell and this is huge bonus. If you are going to run a duel screen setup you really need to have both monitors at the same resolution. If you don't it gets a bit awkward. Another important factor is that when I do take the laptop home I don't have to resize all the tool bars and work areas to fit a different resolution.

Another thing. I said the thing feels a bit flimsy. I think that was knee jerk reaction based on the plastic feel. It actually is very solid with no twisting that I have noticed in a couple of other laptops.

I bet your bluray player is of much higher quality than my DVD.

I finished installing my development setup and restored a bunch of databases last night. This, of course, means high cpu and disk utilization and during this time the DVD was not used. The heat output was not bad. I kept it on my lap the entire time with shorts on and didn't mind it at all. The fan used to cool the system is pretty quite as is the HD. I was able to hear my baby boy in his room falling asleep with no problem. So it is pretty quite.

So after actually working with it a bit I can say I am not disappointed, really. Actually the modest looks are a benefit. I think I caused a bit of envy in the office when I got my 24" dell super duper monitor. Co-workers see the new laptop and don't seem envious. Their sonys and compaqs are much shinier. (Gotta love office politics!)