Options if I can not get a 3820TG

Hello all,

I'm in the US and have placed an order with NCIX for a 3820TG but received voicemail from them that it does not look like the will be able to fill my order. I'm holding out till I can talk to them again next week and they tell me they absolutely will not be able to fill my order.

Anyway my question is: Should I get a 3820T or is there another system i should consider?

Heres my use cases to help provide context for what I'm after:

This will be my personal laptop. I also have a dell Latitude 6510 for work and a self built quad core 3Ghz gaming desktop. The Dell is heavy and the battery life is around 2.5 hours. So lightweight and long battery life is the primary consideration.

Next I am a software developer and will be running Visual Studio 2010, subversion and Git to do .Net development. I will also be firing up VMWare workstation from time to time as thats what we use for dev environments at work. So an I3 370M is my minimum processor consideration. A socketed main board would be great as I have no fear of opening a system to upgrade the proc to an I5. A system that already had an I5 450M or 520M, minimum, already would just save me the time This also makes me think that a 13.3 is my minimum screen size as VS 2010 is a screen hog, but would consider a 14 inch. Anything bigger and I think I'll be defeating the lightweight considerations.

I have no need of an optical drive, I have ISO's of all my software available via an external drive. And will be doing a clean Windows 7 X64 install from usb stick. I'm still not sure if I would go with an SSD or a 640 or 750G 7200RPM HD. I love the idea of the speed of an SSD but not sure I'm willing to pay for more than 128G at todays prices. And not needing to carry an external drive, suffer the performance hit of accessing that drive via USB2, and the low cost of getting 3/4 of a TB in spinning rust has me leaning that way. Having said that being able to pull out the Optical and replace it with a hard drive so that I could have an SSD for the system drive and a SATA 2 HD for mass storage might be the best of both worlds.

So if you have suffered through my babbling and have an opinion on what I should look at, my thought process and needs or just want to call me crazy or and idiot feel free to reply. You input is very very welcome.

Edit: Under $900 shipped would be my preferred budget. But please don't hold off posting something that you think fulfills my needs just because its over that number. If its the perfect system I'll just have to convince the wife its worth it

 

The difference between 3820TG and other 13.3'' notebooks is the ATi 5650 (or 6550) GPU, which is used for gaming. In my opinion if you don't do heavy gaming and/or graphics-related work, it might not be necessary.

Also, I think (not sure) the 4820TG (exact same specs and battery, except has an i5 CPU, a disc driver and is 14'') is available in the States? Try look for that.

 

Sorry to hear about your order. I was strongly considering the Asus U41JF here: ASUS U41JF-A1 14" Notebook - Silver. ASUS U41JF-A1

Might be worth a look.. Comes out around the 5th. I was also looking at a similar 13 incher but it is $999, has USB 3.0, a 7200 rpm hard drive and i5 though (weaker graphics; 310m). Here: ASUS U36JC-A1 13.3" Notebook - Black. ASUS U36JC-A1

The last one is really thin and light too (3.74 lbs), and the fact that it has a 7200rpm drive and i5 may offset the higher price.. just throwing that out there =)

Good luck!

 

@jerg,

Ya I keep telling myself that. Its just that the price difference was, in my opinion, minimal for the gain of the available high performance video card. Having the ability to fire up a game of Left 4 Dead 2 when I'm stuck at the in-laws for the day is a nice option. Its not a must have but I'm certainly not going to pass it up having that kind of performance available to save a couple of hundred dollars.

But thanks for your input.

 

@dib,

Thanks I'll check both of those out.

 

The 3820tg is still tops IMHO. The already great battery and upgrade potential for CPU and 8GB ram would make it a powerful VMware machine. As it's becoming harder to get I'm looking into stretching the budget for the thing. I can't find ANYTHING like it.
Ultra-portable
Able to last more then 3 hours
Can game well on higher then "lowest" settings
Did I mention it can handle work and games? While only having a 13" screen?

I think I'm in love. Don't wanna let this one go.

 

@Damarious25,

I'm right there with you!

Damn you @Hendrickson and @Bronsky for writing the posts that let me know this model exists! I was happier thinking the 3820T was the perfect laptop.

Now I have to deal with the emotional blow of knowing that there was a better model out there and I couldn't buy it. Its like your friend getting the present you wanted for christmas! :-D

 

or having a cooler girlfriend...

EDIT: luckily I'm in Canada where there still seem to be a few shops with a few 3820tgs left. It's gonna cost me more, but I feel it's worth it.

 

thanks for the info on the u36jc! no thread on here about it?

 

Confirmed that NCIX is out of 3820TG's and canceled my order today. :-(

All hope is not lost I have a friend who used to live in canada and a client who drives down to the states once a week. Between the two I think I will be able to arrange to have someone purchase one for me from a retail outlet and get it delivered to me. I'll know more in a few days.

 

lol thats pretty funny. coming north of the border for cheaper prices.

 

actually its not because of cheaper prices. Its the better video card. If things work out and I do manage to get one, I'll end up paying $200-$300 more than I would pay for the intel only version in the US. But that cost has to be considered over the life of the laptop. Thats about 3 years on average for me. which if my late night math is correct works out to less than 27 cents a day. I'm quite sure that at least once in that three years I'll be in a situation where I need more than the integrated intel graphics capabilities can deliver and I'll be kicking myself for saving 27 cents.

Notice: The proceeding rationalization is not meant for personal or business consumption. Any attempts to apply similar logic to ones own life should be done so with the utmost care and caution! No warranty is expressed or implied against bodily or emotional damage that may result from using such logic with your parents or significant other.

 

its funny because us canadians have been going to usa for ages to get better deals, not the other way around. we have had to pay +20% or whatever for the last 10 years since the dollar got better. we are always getting screwed. whoooooooooosh.

haa americans, now who is the one who controls the border?

 

Hey Lude. Sorry to hear about the order. I'm still having issues myself. I officially made an order from a small store. They've taken money from my account but haven't sent an order shipped e-mail yet. I'll call in the moring but still.

Like your cost analysis btw!

 

Where were you a few days ago dib... Where??? lol

Great thing to offer though.

 

Looks like there might be some options for you afterall. If the canadian retailers don't get any more TimelineX models, they might get the new Acer 13.3" 3740G which will have an I3 or I5 CPU, a NVIDIA GT 540M dedicated GPU and Optimus autoswitching. I would expect the price to be in the same range as the TimelineX.

Another option that will cost you a bit more is the Sony SA. I5/I7 dual core SB CPU, DDR3 1333 ram, 7200 rpm HD, HD 6630 GPU and probably a much better display than the Acer for $1,250 base price. Looks like the new boss in town for 13" units.

Another alternative might be the E220 Lenovo 12.1" notebook which is also rumored to come with an option for the HD 6630 GPU.

Bronsky

 

it is a much better display. matte and at a 1600*900

the contrast ratio appears to be good and the colors we shall see, lets just hope Im eyeing one of those

 

having higher res screen is bad to me when a laptop equiped with mid end GPU.
will be getting lower fps at native res,
or get higher fps with less sharp image(when run at none native res)

1366*768 is perect to me

 

@Bronsky,

I actually went ahead and ordered a 3820TG i3 370 from PCHOME. They were running a sale on shipping so the shipped total came to $873. Site says that it be getting on the plane shortly.

I'm crossing my fingers that it makes it here by Tuesday, since that the day I'm leaving for my conference. But my luck it will show up on Wednesday and I won't get to play until late Saturday.

 

Hey man, a couple of days is really nothing if you think about the big picture . If you've been suffering through so many days without getting it, why torture yourself for the last few days before eventual satisfaction?

 

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... she might hear you lol

 

agreed, gt540m!

 

@damarious25,

thats exactly what I was thinkin!