Asus z70va or Thinkpad t43 for student?

I would like to get a laptop soon. As an engineering student I would like to do lots of intensive graphics development, number crunching in matlab, and the occasional run through half life 2. I was originally planning on getting a thinkpad t43 when the asus z70va caught my eye. Both of the notebooks are within a few hundred of eachother so price isn't much of an objection.

The good thing about the z70va is that it comes with some more processing power vs price over the t43. However my main concern is how well it will stand up to being carried around for most of the day.

Would anyone recommend the z70va over the t43 for the things I would like to do?

 

The card in the Asus is much better. The ThinkPad will be more durable. Asus are well built machines. There is no shame in not being as well built as ThinkPads, no one else is either. I think either will be fine.

 

Yeap, as zazonz said - although its not a really fair comparison.

One is built for business while the other is pretty well rounded.

 

I voted for the Z70VA - more multimedia-orientated, and a much better graphics card.

 

It's a tough call, really... but i voted for the Z70Va. Although you wont have too much time to play games, IF another game in the future sparks your interest, the Z70Va will play it quite well, whereas the T43 wont.

 

Investing in Canada's energy is the way to go! Let's go nu-cu-lar!

 

Need a laptop for game and good casing with a widescreen, i will choose Z70va.
Need for protable, famous brand name with a regular ratio screen, just go for T43.

 

Thanks folks !

I think I'm gonna settle for the z70va... for those who own one - is it small enough to be used on an airplane or bus ? I take the Red Arrow every few weeks and apparently they have laptop hookups !

 

I don't think you are "settling" for a z70va. It's a great machine and you'll be very happy with it. As far as cruisin' around with it, no problem. Its not tiny by any means but it is very easy to carry around and being light under 7 lbs makes it nice too.

 

It hits 5.6lbs with the travelers drawer and with the AC, its no more then 6.4~ lbs!

 

Sweet banana muffins - now I'm stoked !

Thanks again everyone !

 

Yeah... it's definitely not a heavy machine considering its size, but yeah... it is quite large. Not too much of a problem if you have the appropriate bag though

 

The size is quite slim for a 15.4" but a 15.4" can only be so small.

I'd recall my experiences on the plane(Comparing the size of airplane/bus) first, use eamples from Best Buy, etc.

Because 15.4" is not small at all..

 

It is slim... light.. but it is large. With that being said, there ARE larger 15.4" systems out there... but that doesn't mean the Z70Va is small.
But, like I said, with the appropriate bag, it isn't a problem at all

 

rthat I don't think it's small enough to be used on a bus, but maybe a plane...I tried using mine on the TTC = Toronto Transit...I could not use it while sitting on the seats...it's a good comfortable size, not too small and not too big....oh yeah I'm talking about the Z70Va...hehe sorry I'm playing a game on my desktop while checking out Notebookreview.com....hehe the game is ROSE Online.

Cheers and happy lapping~!!!
Mike

 

T43 is the way to go. If you work on your computer all day, the T43 keyboard kick asus ass. Asus laptop perform little better but they are far from being as tough as the T serie. On the other hand, IBM notebooks surely are the most ugly laptop on the earth.

 

have you even used a z70va? of all the asus's i've used, i'm most impressed with my keyboard and prefer it more than any IBM laptop.

 

i never try the z70va but i have a W3V and the keyboard is far less pleasent to use than IBM keyboard. The Asus keys suspension make them more instable and need a more acurate center preasure to feel good.

 

That's not true... the keyboard on my Z63a (W3A) feels quite good; just as good as any IBM keyboard I've seen...

 

It's all preference guys...this argument will go on forever...that's like saying, "NO WAY MAN...BLUE IS SUCH A BETTER COLOUR THAN PINK~!!!" haha

Oh yeah, I like the Z70Va's keyboard, but one thing ticks me off...I have to keep my nails trimmed at all times to use the **** thing hahaha...if I don't my nails keep getting caught on the corners of the keys...oh well...kind of a goodthing doncha think?

Cheers,
Mike

 

I received my z70va yesterday - the keyboard actually feels pretty good, there is no flex that I can detect... I will try to get some pics up tommorow !

Much thanks to CanadaSys for their quick delivery - it came in 5 days after payment was received.

The only thing that peeves me at the moment is I'm trying to find the DJ drivers and some sort of screen adjustment utility.

 

What DJ drivers?
As far as I know, no drivers are needed for Audio DJ...

 

AuroraS...I think he's talking about getting the Audio DJ keys to work with Winamp and such...I found a link at notebookforums....so here it is...

http://power4gear.bk-kicks.com/hcontrol.htm

I had problems installing this thing, as it doesn't seem to work for me...I must be doing something wrong, but I can't seem to figure out what?

Anyhoo', congrats on your purchase rt_hat~!!!

Cheers,
Mike