New Laptop Decision: Input Welcome!!

I saw that, and GenTech has not updated their info yet. Looks like Xotic offers the 1333 RAM upgrade too, but only on 8GB.

 

I think gentech is just waiting til everything is confirmed before they post all the possible upgrades (i.e preinstalled raid0)

 

Good point, you are probably right. I just hope the price doesn't go up up up. The G73 price already did!

 

Gentech's stock price is still the same as ever, its xoticpc that has upped their price to 1,675.

 

You know I looked the the HP dv7t Quad Edition with the Core i7 720, etc. The pricing isn't bad at all, I'm just wary of buying an HP, heard some conflicting info about them.

 

I would never, ever buy an HP. at least nothing below their elitebook spec. their consumer models have the worse fail rate. I know from experience after having 3 failed HP laptops and 2 failed compaw (i.e HP) desktops. and their customer support is right there along with it. They tried to tell me to reseat my DVD drive in my desktop when I had a failing GPU.

 

Holy crap, that is enough to scare me away immediately! I would hope you were just one in a million, but I have feeling that isn't true...

I am sticking with Asus

 

lol, I'm probably a statistic of 1:3 there. you their elitebooks are top notch, but I'd never touch their consumer line with a 10 foot pole

 

Why wouldn't you get another T-series Lenovo =(. They're so durable. I too have a Pentium M working it's heart out.

Your $1600 budget is extremely flexible. I would try not to spend more than $1k on a laptop anymore, personally. It really depends on your portability needs and space availability.

Perhaps you should consider $1k for a decent laptop, and then you can build yourself a pretty nice $600 budget gaming desktop that you can use for your "sometimes" gaming needs.

 

To be honest, I considered another Lenovo, but I want to try something else. I guess I can look again, but for what I want, I don't think I can get it for cheaper from Lenovo.

 

I know this is a new lame question, but ATI over nVidia? I know about Cuda, but does ATI have something comparable? Just wondering, since some of the newer comps seem to be Radeon cards.

 

I agree, the T-series are a serious workhorse. From personal experience my T42 and T60 are still going strong.

 

I rememer reading somewhere on the boards the recent list of companies based on reliability. HPs don't rank that well if I remember correctly.

 

Never go for Dell Studio XPS 1645, it has serious HEAT issue which will lead to very very less life of ur laptop. With Asus only Sager/Clevo laptops can be comparable. If you want a Full HD 1080p screen, look for Sager.

 

Yeah I read about heat and throttling issues on a lot of Dell comps, which was another reason for my wariness.

And as for my old ThinkPad T43, it certainly is a beast for having made it through 4.5 years of undergrad relatively unscathed (minus a couple re-images). The only work ever done on it was replacing the charger connection, it kept getting losing and the charger fell out of the computer, haha, and then one fan assembly replacement, got super loud and wasn't working right. It still looks almost brand new minus one crack on the front end. Very durable little bugger, just want to get something new that is less business and school-ish, you now? This was good for college, now I want something fun! :-D

 

yea im glad that powernotebooks has a 1333 option for 4 gb, but the upgrade price seems kinda ridiculous. the only other place ive seen that has a similar upgrade (1066 to 1333) is dell on their studio and xps notebooks. for 4 gb it is $40, and the 6 and 8 gb difference is even less i believe. as im sure youve seen its $145 for the N71 on powernotebooks. looking at ddr3 prices on newegg, and fiven the dell prices, that seems to be a little much. wonder why its priced like that.

 

Not sure, maybe the type. I don't know much about that, but it does seem a little ridiculous.

 

There's OpenCL that functions on all types of GPUs, but I think ATi's direct equivalent to CUDA is called Brook+ or something. It's quite nice but CUDA is much more universal and used.

Are you doing parallel computation outside of games? I render fractals on occasion and CUDA is quite nice for that.

 

Hey all,

I am considering the N61jq, the whole screen res. thing isnt a huge issue for me I'm just wondering if its safe to preorder a laptop...this is my first laptop and need it to last me awhile and i think the asus will do the job easily, i thought i had decided on the HP dv6t with the i7 but am now seriously considering the n61, any chance you all can help me decide??? thanks

heres my "what laptop should i buy" form

 

I have a new question, for anyone in the know.

Would it be a good idea to wait for an Asus to come out with the Core i5 with switchable graphics, such as the rumored X77? I know the i7 is more powerful, however hotter and worse battery life. Is there any good info on this or should I just stick with the Core i7?

 

If you're no gamer, why, for pete's sake, are you interested in a C2Q processor?

C2D are less of a drain (twice as long battery-life as an average i7 QM)

in many tests a p9600 is doing better then an i7 you know, I for instance, will go for a i7; cos I need to play games whenever i please and used to the power-supply hooked to my current one, with the coming g73 it will be only more of a standard; having it on the charger non-stop.

 

a C2D is better for the majority of games than the C2Q so I have no idea where you're getting that conclusion.

 

Um, I think I explained myself before. I'm not a gamer yet because I haven't had the proper equipment to do so. As of now, I do design and a lot of multi-tasking. Secondly, the Core i7 are going to be a bit more future proof, as some of the newest tech on the market. I'd rather get the best in my budget range than compromise for lower. Lastly, I already said I'm not too worried about battery life. If that becomes an issue I will get a spare. Why would I get something with less power because it has better battery life if that's not my concern? If it comes to that, I'll get a netbook...........

Anyhow, EIement is right, in terms of benchmarks, from all that I have researched.

My question just referred to the Core i5 being a better idea with switchable graphics, I wanted to know what others thought, especially regarding the potential X77. However, I still really like the N71JQ.

 

I like N61Jq (i5/switchable graphics) over N71Jq, coz...

1. i5 - less power consumption
2. i7 - some are worried about the heat it produces and you will hardly find any application taking advantage of 4 cores
3. Switchable graphics - For normal activity use the on-board graphics (will consume less power)and for movies games use the 1 GB ATI discrete graphics
4. Most probably the base configuration will have Blueray reader drive
5. Will have less price as i5 costs less than i7

Obviously, I would like to have the following in N61Jq ...
1. 1080p FULL HD LCD
2. Backlit keyboard

Edit: Sorry, N61Jq has i7 and I was referring to N61Ja (i5 version)

 

Yeah, if the N61 had the full HD LCD and thebacklit keyboard, I would be all over it, I just wonder if the screen res is too low for me... ARGH!!

Not to mention the N61 weighs like 3 or 4 pounds less, which is great. I just can't decide... it's the screen res that is killing me here. Is 1366 by 768 going to be that much of a noticeable difference? especially compared to the res I have on my current comp...

 

I agree, 1366 by 768 makes one pause. Do we know for sure it will have switchable graphics? Also has it been confirmed to have USB 3.0?

 

Yeh...I missed this point on weight
And N71Jq is a larger screen with 1366x768 but N61Jq is smaller screen with same resolution, means N61Jq has one more advantage.

 

Yes... Both are confirmed.

Source 1
Source 2

 

Actually, the N71 has a res of 1600*900

 

I know! If it had those two things it would be an instant buy for me. It's a really great package. I'd be more than willing to pay more for the higher resolution screen if everything else was the same. Can't decide between this or a new G51Vx-X3a update. Such a hard choice.

 

If you can see, all most all Asus laptops have 1366x768 screen resolution
I wonder if Asus got a huge cheap lot from the LCD manufacturer (I do not know which brand) and using on every laptop

 

Haha I hadn't even thought of that! It would be nice to see an RGB LED on something in the Asus line-up, but it is what it is. I think I'm still sticking to the N71JQ since I haven't seen anything else I like that much more for the price! I'm still wondering about the benefits of a processor with switchable graphics, however I know the i7 720 will be a good processor. I'm just indecisive!

Here's a good question, is the N71 an LED screen?

EDIT just found out it isn't, is this bad? I heard LED backlit was much better... now I'm worried! I really love the looks of the N71 and all, but would I be better with something else? Like the G51Jx?