Fast Laptop Required!
Discussion
Hi all, i'm after a quicker laptop than I have at the moment. Current machine is a little Sony Vaio 1.5GHz Centrino with 1GB RAM, but it seems to be struggling a little recently. I've tried the usual - defragging, removing stuff I don't need, etc. But at the end of the day I just think I need a newer, quicker one!
I've been looking at alienware - they do some pretty posh machines - even with RAID 0 !! Has anyone got one of these beasts? Performance is frustrating me so much at the moment, i'm thinking of going for a performance-oriented one, rather than one which looks cool or is lightweight.
Price-wise i'm thinking £1-£1.5K. Wireless LAN not necessary, bluetooth nice to have, also decent resolution preferable (more than 1024x768).
Suggestions welcome!
I've been looking at alienware - they do some pretty posh machines - even with RAID 0 !! Has anyone got one of these beasts? Performance is frustrating me so much at the moment, i'm thinking of going for a performance-oriented one, rather than one which looks cool or is lightweight.
Price-wise i'm thinking £1-£1.5K. Wireless LAN not necessary, bluetooth nice to have, also decent resolution preferable (more than 1024x768).
Suggestions welcome!
I'm a developer and general techie. So need to run visual studio 6, 2003 (occasionally) and now 2005. Also run SQL 2005 locally and the usual ms office stuff - word, outlook, visio, etc. I also do some photo manipulation using Photoshop, but not that often. The machine is pretty much used 9am-1am most days, with the occasional break for food ;-)
CPU/disk performance I think is important, but i've always found laptops to be more sluggish than even slower CPU desktop machines. I always put this down to odd things like graphics or motherboard performance. So i'm after something which has the throttle 75% of the way down in most areas - not just CPU.
CPU/disk performance I think is important, but i've always found laptops to be more sluggish than even slower CPU desktop machines. I always put this down to odd things like graphics or motherboard performance. So i'm after something which has the throttle 75% of the way down in most areas - not just CPU.
Colleague of mine has just bought an Acer 'Ferrari' 4005 (number might be incorrect)
It has an AMD 64 bit processor, bluetooth (even the mouse works on bluetooth) and if I'm not mistaken, it's one of the few 64-bit laptops available (Dell doesn't sell 64-bit laptops yet).
It's a bit 'bling' though (lots of red and some ferrari logos on mouse and case).
>> Edited by Church of Noise on Sunday 20th November 18:11
It has an AMD 64 bit processor, bluetooth (even the mouse works on bluetooth) and if I'm not mistaken, it's one of the few 64-bit laptops available (Dell doesn't sell 64-bit laptops yet).
It's a bit 'bling' though (lots of red and some ferrari logos on mouse and case).
>> Edited by Church of Noise on Sunday 20th November 18:11
Since February I've had a Dell D810 with a 2.13 Ghz centrino (770) and 1GB ram. It also has a 15.4" WUXGA screen that runs at 1920x1200
We paid just over £2k back then including a docking station. I'm sure you could get one a lot cheaper now.
It's been rock solid - not problems at all.
We paid just over £2k back then including a docking station. I'm sure you could get one a lot cheaper now.
It's been rock solid - not problems at all.
Hi all, thanks for the interesting feedback.
I'm finding it quite difficult, actually - I use the thing all the time, and so I feel I ought to spend a little bit of time researching which is best. But it's so hard to actually work out which is quickest!
I mean; with cars it's simple - you get a BHP reading, and you get a weight. I guess the gearing and drivetrain may affect the performance a little, but generally speaking that's a good rule of thumb.
Despite being a techie, there's all sorts of stuff I don't understand in these laptops - I mean; will a raid 0 disk give a good improvement? How about raid 0 compared to, say, 2GB RAM instead of 1GB? Or perhaps stick with 1GB and upgrade the CPU - but then, surely a 1.8GHz Centrino isn't that much slower than a 2GHz Centrino? Or perhaps I should be paying attention to whether it's got PCIexpress or not? Or maybe a hyperthreaded machine would be quicker?
So far I think the best option looks like a Dell, maybe a Precision. But those Alienware machines are so damn sexy .. and this Sony I have has been excellent, and the new ones have those Xblack screens .... mmmmmmmmm
aarrrrgggghhh!!
I'm finding it quite difficult, actually - I use the thing all the time, and so I feel I ought to spend a little bit of time researching which is best. But it's so hard to actually work out which is quickest!
I mean; with cars it's simple - you get a BHP reading, and you get a weight. I guess the gearing and drivetrain may affect the performance a little, but generally speaking that's a good rule of thumb.
Despite being a techie, there's all sorts of stuff I don't understand in these laptops - I mean; will a raid 0 disk give a good improvement? How about raid 0 compared to, say, 2GB RAM instead of 1GB? Or perhaps stick with 1GB and upgrade the CPU - but then, surely a 1.8GHz Centrino isn't that much slower than a 2GHz Centrino? Or perhaps I should be paying attention to whether it's got PCIexpress or not? Or maybe a hyperthreaded machine would be quicker?
So far I think the best option looks like a Dell, maybe a Precision. But those Alienware machines are so damn sexy .. and this Sony I have has been excellent, and the new ones have those Xblack screens .... mmmmmmmmm
aarrrrgggghhh!!
here's alienware review
[url]http://pcformat.msn.co.uk/reviews/default.asp?pagety[/url]
and dell (seems to have made a good impression with a 90% rating)
[url]http://pcformat.msn.co.uk/reviews/default.asp?pagety[/url]
>> Edited by 3200ac on Monday 21st November 17:11
[url]http://pcformat.msn.co.uk/reviews/default.asp?pagety[/url]
and dell (seems to have made a good impression with a 90% rating)
[url]http://pcformat.msn.co.uk/reviews/default.asp?pagety[/url]
>> Edited by 3200ac on Monday 21st November 17:11
I am quite pleased with my Rock Quaddra as a "desktop replacement" laptop. 17" wide screen, 3.2ghz P4, gig of ram, Radeon 9700 graphics card CD & DVD burner etc etc. Performance hungry apps I run include Photoshop and Illustrator. Battery life is a bit pants, but that is the price you pay for performance I guess. (By comparison We have a fleet of Pegasus T4s for our sales team, also from Rock, which are light weight and have excellent battery life, but lower performance). Rock can be found at www.rockdirect.com
Jon H
Jon H
Alienware have known very poor customer service - they're laptops aren't all that bad though.
Try www.savrow.com - similar high performance custom laptops. Its a small British company with outstanding customer service. Had my 3.4ghz, 1 gb Ram, 256mb graphics card, 7200 60gb HD 17" widescreen laptop for about a year and its still running sweet
No problems whatsoever.... and if you want performance, they'll deliver what ever you want.
What you will have to bare in mind when buying a high performance laptop is that battery life is going to suffer ALOT. If you're just taking it to and from work and can have it plugged in at either end of your journey then its not going to be a problem.
>> Edited by mindgam3 on Tuesday 22 November 09:44
Try www.savrow.com - similar high performance custom laptops. Its a small British company with outstanding customer service. Had my 3.4ghz, 1 gb Ram, 256mb graphics card, 7200 60gb HD 17" widescreen laptop for about a year and its still running sweet
No problems whatsoever.... and if you want performance, they'll deliver what ever you want. What you will have to bare in mind when buying a high performance laptop is that battery life is going to suffer ALOT. If you're just taking it to and from work and can have it plugged in at either end of your journey then its not going to be a problem.
>> Edited by mindgam3 on Tuesday 22 November 09:44
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