Dual monitor capabilities

Hello, I am looking to get a new desktop replacement laptop for college (computer science major), and I will also use it for gaming, and maybe some photoshopping. I don't know for sure which laptop I'm going to get, but I am almost 100% positive it will be an Asus. My friend told me about a Z81K (I believe that's what it was) which I can get with an Athlon 64 3400+, 1Gb of RAM, and a Radeon 9700 for under $1500. My main concern is whether this will support spanning for dual monitor if I hook up a 21in CRT to it. I don't want a laptop which only supports mirroring. Also, if it supports spanning, what is the max reselution of the external monitor? Is the Z81k a good choice for a laptop for me. Portability and battery life are not huge factors to me as much as speed, and the ability to use monitor spanning. The budget is $1500. Thank you.

Pete Keyzer

 

$1500 American currency, I assume?

The Z81k is a decent computer... but I would personally recommend the Z71v for your work. It has a Geforce 6600, which is quite a lot better than the Radeon 9700...which will suit your gaming needs almost certainly.

Check out the following sites to get a good idea of what you'll be paying:
www.proportable.com
www.istnc.com
www.geared2play.com

 

Yes, it is American currency, sorry. I should have mentioned that. Do Centrino processors have pretty good preformance compared to the Athlon 64?

Pete Keyzer

 

Equally clocked Pentium-Ms(Dothan) and Athlon64s, if you do a google search, will show you that they are VERY similar in performance... and in some cases, Pentium M will even beat the Athlon 64

The Pentium-M is definitely the top notebook processor at the moment.

 

Alright, I was under the impression that the Athlon was faster, but I haven't kept up with the latest developments in notebook processors. One important thing before I buy, which Asus laptops support monitor spanning, instead of just mirroring?

Pete Keyzer

 

Well if you want to compare... sort of..... AMD has the blah blah "+" naming scheme... it's great for comparing to a P4.. so a 3400+ is equal to or better than in performance to a 3.4ghz P4. To compare a 533mhz pentium M to a P4... you multiply the speed of the PM by 1.8 ... so a 1.86ghz would be equal to a 3.35ghz P4.... . You should get the picture.

Every Asus laptop has VGA out and can and does support dual view (two different desktops); clone view; and notebook monitor off w/ only external monitor being powered...... every single model.

 

Tom's Hardware has got a useful comparison between a Turion 64, Mobile Sempron and a Pentium M at http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050906/index.html. All 3 CPUs tested have similar clock speeds (1.8GHz and 1.86GHz).

This review is worth reading if you want to understand more about the characteristics of the different CPUs.

John