Built Quality of Certain Laptops and upgradabilty?

Hey guys, I had some threads in what laptop should I buy and got some answers and I have yet again narrowed down my list. I was wondering which laptop would be better concerning the build quality and the ugradabilty.

The tasks I wanted to do are: I'm wanting a laptop for a multipurpose reason. Be it entertainment, school, research (either school or independent) or gaming (as i might not take my PS3). So this is what I'm planning to do:
What I know I will be doing is 3D modeling, simulation, physics simulation, HE Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Data crunching, Algorithms, Programming (both High and Low Level), image/video analysis, conversion of natural algorithms (Image, Audio, Video into pure data), research/analysis maybe on the unknown/unseen/beyond (hard to explain ), being able to customize and create specialized functions, hacking/cracking/modifying, etc. (something along these lines)

So my list started from this:

Sager 9280/Clevo D900F
Asus g73jh-a1
Sony VAIO F1190X
Hp Envy 17
Dell Studio XPS 16
Alienware M17x

and narrowed down to

Sony VIAO F1190X
Asus g73ih-a1
HP EliteBook 8740w

So which one of them has best upgradabilty, build quality? Also performance wise also which is better.

Now I crossed out Alienware M17x and Sager because of the price and such..The envy was crossed out because on this thread i saw post of alot of people complaining about build quality on both generations and such. I have a HP desktop and i had to fix both the power supply and gfx card fans. I will be at university and many places with the laptop i choose so i want it to be the best in build quality, also upgradability as one can just upgrade it instead of buying another notebook 1 to 2 yrs down the line

Thanks in advance

 

Have you looked at the Dell Precision M6500 or Lenovo W701? For upgradeability, build quality, and performance those two along with the HP Elitebook 8740w would be my top choices - far above the Sony and Asus notebooks.

 

'upgradeability' of a laptop is a fools errand. Unless you are willing to treat your machine as a black hole into which you pour money indiscriminately, all you really need is to buy as much machine as you require for your immediate needs.

remember also that machines obsolete themselves on a roughly 18 month scale. So buying a machine with an idea of upgrading it to keep it fully useful over more than that period of time isn't wise, financially speaking.

Do you need to do all of those things NOW at 100% utilization or will your processing needs increase over the next 12-18-24 months? I'll bet it's the latter.

Buy a reasonably configured and priced machine now, run it until you can't stand it any more, sell it for roughly 50% of what you spent on it new, and buy new (faster, stronger, better battery life, new warranty) at that time.

 

Hmm, I'll check thoughs out sgogeta. So why are the far above the Sony and Asus? I wanna know DO they got better specs?

Your right I'd choose the latter. So which one do u think I should get?

 

Holy Mother of God :O Some amazing laptops =)

Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad W701

Dell Precision M6500 Mobile Workstation Details | Dell

Will it be suffice for gaming needs to?

 

Sony VIAO F1190X - really crap GPU 310M.

Asus g73ih-a1 - IMO your best choice out of the 3.

HP EliteBook 8740w - Just as expensive as D900F and AW M17X. A D900F with desktop i7 930 (which is still faster than the fastest notebook CPU 920XM) and 480M is only 2.8k, same as the 8740W's base config. Oh, rest of the workstation notebooks cost just as much if not more as well.


For upgradeability, none of them are upgradeable GPU wise.

 

The baseline machine I look at these days is the HP G72 with an i3 cpu. Nice box for approx U$ 750-, some coupons let you really pump up the config and stay under $850-. Has a nice 12 cell battery available (including clones of unknown quality on ebay).

The only thing that an i5 cpu buys you is turbo boost which I personally don't think is good for anything beyond running synthetic benchmarks while an i7 is overpriced overkill for a lot of people. YMMV and all that.

If availability of your machine is critical (school, work) and you have read the horror stories about shipping, breakage, warranty-voidage, etc, consider spending the additional $150- or so than a multi-year on-site service contract costs. Mail-in warranties are one thing, knowing that in some cases the makers can and have taken 30+ days to actually fix a machine is quite another.

By spending less for a machine, it probably frees up some cash for you to spend on that on-site warranty that a lot of people overlook.

 

Aww

What laptop can i get under 2500 bucks then? but have all the goodies in? Also how is an i7 overkill? doesn't the i7 HT and Turbo help in 3D modeling, CAD, Scientific and Engineering Computation?

 

i7 is great for your purpose, most people here are giving recommendations based on purpose of gaming, where most games are bottlenecked by the GPU and not CPU therefore i3/i5 is enough.

 

Ahh thanks fzhfzh really appreciate the clarifications. I just wanted to keep my list pretty generalized just in case you know, with the back-up in all. To be honest, this is my first laptop and my parents are very hesitant to buy it online, or I would've order the sager/clevo long ago. So yeah. I checked the prices of the workstations, there more the sager? why so?

 

Business laptops are typically much better built and won't fall apart as quickly as consumer ones. All the 17" business laptops have fully upgradeable parts if you so wish. The GPUs are limited to their current selection (if you decide not to get the highest end part now or for example the HP Elitebook 8740w will be coming out with the GTX 480M workstation card in a little while). You pay more for the workstation GPU over a consumer one though. If you're serious about a laptop, consider filling out the FAQ so we can tailor the specifications to your particular needs (which game in particular, what settings and resolution do you want, do you need lots of HDD capacity, etc).

 

1) What is your budget?

600-2500

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

I really don't have an preference on brands, I've used Dell, Hp and Sony so I don't know =)

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistrubited?
(For more details, please scroll to the glossary section at the bottom)

I'd like it new please =)

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

I'm wanting a laptop for a multipurpose reason. Be it entertainment, school, research (either school or independent) or gaming (as i might not take my PS3). So this is what I'm planning to do:
What I know I will be doing is 3D modeling, simulation, physics simulation, HE Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Data crunching, Algorithms, Programming (both High and Low Level), image/video analysis, conversion of natural algorithms (Image, Audio, Video into pure data), research/analysis maybe on the unknown/unseen/beyond (hard to explain ), being able to customize and create specialized functions, hacking/cracking/modifying, etc.

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

Yes portability is a plus, to class, back to home, on my journey's, labs, etc.

8) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games or types of games?

I won't be taking a console so it may as well serve me for mainstream games like BFBC2, COD, Crysis, UT, RPG, MMORPG, RTS, etc.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?

4hrs would be nice or more =) i can settle for 2 hrs btw if gaming im not gonna use the battery pack, batter pack is for when no power outlet is around.

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

Yes I'd like to see it, but online buy is okay

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Windows 7 but probably gonna try Linux (i'll get Linux myself)

Screen Specifics

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. If you are unsure of what to purchase, we would highly recommend you check some notebook screens before you buy to see what you like.

Around 16:10 so around 1080p to highest (not that specific)

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
(For more details, please scroll to the glossary section at the bottom)

Don't really care, Im looking for usability, looks are the last on my list.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

No looking for performance and usability, though looks are a plus.

15) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?

Buying it next month or so, I want it to last for 4 to 8 yrs.

Notebook Components

16) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 500GB? Do you want a SSD drive?

I think 500GB is enough, but 300 is decent, and no need of SSD, though SSD would be nice.

17) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?

Yes, to read/write media disc. The standard is fine but if its a good deal I'll go with a Blue ray =)

 

It's all well and good to have that list of potential uses, but without knowing the applications involved AND the complexity of the problems being worked, there is no way that you or anyone else here can say that you **require** an i7 cpu for any of it.

Problems that tickle an i3 won't run any faster with an i7. Even problems that run an i3 at max for 5 minutes at a time (or pick some notional amount of time) won't see a huge reduction in run time. How much of your parents money are you willing to spend to reduce a 5 minute runtime down to 4 minutes. Or a 10 minute runtime down to 8. How many of those compute-intensive problems will you have to run in any given day/week/month?

This is quite literally a $1500- question; the difference between the price of an 'ordinary' i3 laptop that you can reasonably ask to be replaced in 2 years and the price of a max-ed out i7 laptop that your parents will expect to last you for 4 years.

And if you need to choose between an i7 cpu and an SSD; the SSD will give you a greater day to day systems speedup than an i7 will. More machines are seriously bound at the disk i/o level than they are choked by an inadequate cpu.

 

Like mentioned, buying an upgradeable laptop is expensive, and its cost is close to your maximum budget or even higher.

Out of the 3 models, the sony is the weakest for its GPU and also I find all sony laptops are overpriced. If you plan to go for a quad processor, it would be better not to pick the weakest quad.

 

Like I said in your other thread... your wisest course would be to buy the best performance/price ratio currently, and save the extra cash for another lappy in a few years. That makes the g73 the clear winner.

 

Good questions. Well daily on my desktop, I surf the web, play games, do word processing, research on the internet, I test programs for fun, I try using 3D programs, and other interesting programs around the web (be it CPU or GPU intense), I try to modify my system and such. On a daily basis. During the summer cut the word processing and school work out and the rest I'll be doing. I'm pretty sure first year in university won't be intense, but i was future proofing that's all. I did want to create my own projects you know, for fun

I agree, so why did sony choose a weak gpu then ?

I think I agree g73 looks like a good deal

 

That's old thinking; and rapidly changing along with the increase in power and complexity of newer laptops. And particularly true of workstations. They're not the 24 hour "appliances" they used to be.

 

So I should future proof? Should I go for an Asus G73?

 

IMO "future proofing" is a fool's errand.

 

lol how so? Also what do u think og the Asus G73? would it fit my needs?

 

Asus G73 is a nice machine but can you settle for an hour and nine minutes when running on battery (just web browsing - mentioned in review). The laptop is fairly big, mostly cause of the screen size and it's 4kg or 8.82 lbs. I'd call it a portable desktop. I have to admit it packs the best performance.

 

You dismissed the M17x because of price but yet you're considering the M6500!? The M17x is the best choice in my opinion.

 

Yup it is quite a performer..lets hope it can last long

Hmm, really well this is what i think i'd go for if i wanted an alienware

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

 

I didn't say that. I'm just pointing out all of the variables, so that the decision you make can be made with as much useful information as possible. In the end, you will be the one who has to live with the machine. So only you can decide if "future proofing" (for want of a better phrase) is worth it or not.

For the record, the M17 is a gaming computer; the M6500 is a workstation. Two totally different animals.

 

oh then sorry for jumping to conclusion. Yes i know that one is a gaming laptop and the other is a workstation, but i believe the last guy who post was saying why cross out the M17x for the price when the m6500 is worth the same or even more =)

Also do i really need an intel i7 extreme to run my task?

Which graphic cards and cpu's should i go with and what Capacity for the HDD should i go for? My desktop has 1TB..its really good to have space...no worrying about deleting stuff

 

Hey guys i was rendering a trailer i edited with Sony Vegas 8.0 Pro on my desktop, the video that i imported was from a HD cam. So the render was done at 980i. It went pretty fast, it used ~70 to 100% of my quad core cpu and my ram usage went up to 3GB (it was stable at 1GB before render, running win 7). My gfx card is a nvidia Geforce 210. So I'm assuming for a laptop most of my work will be more CPU dependent? Note, my gfx card for my desktop is CUDA enabled, but i didn't download the CUDA SDK and all that stuff. So yeah

 

It's worth a lot more--when fully optioned. But my point was rhetorical: it referred to build quality, structure, and support.

No, but it couldn't hurt. Even if your editing program doesn't need anything nearly as powerful as an i7, there's still a lot of programs that do. However, most editing software in use or being developed now is GPU dependent not CPU dependent. Although I'm not sure about Vegas 8.0. Adobe CS5 certainly is.

Again, that depends on the software you use. If you main use for you machine is editing, then the manufacturer will tell you what works best for their product. You'd have to check the specification for Vegas 8.0.

 

True True, but i'll be doing more then editing. My task's were listed above. So i know ultimatly the machine i choose will be down on me, but I'd like your opinion on a possible machine that has performace, built quality, upgradability and all for a nifty price range of 800 to 2500

 

It appears to me that the HP EliteBook 8740w is the workhorse of the bunch. That is, if you prefer build quality and upgradeable first and foremost. That's the one that I'd choose.

The only limitation you'd have is ports (though what you give up in pizazz, you gain in practicality) since it's not designed for entertainment.

 

ports? Like audio/video ports and stuff? :S

Also would be suffice for my tasks? I have a pretty feeling it should, one does not need the highest i7 processor to do the work. Also i was wondering, does HP bloat the 8740w with software?

 

Yes. Those you would find on an entertainment notebook. HDMI and the like.

 

oh word...so is DVI connectors better than HDMI?

 

It has DP which can be converted to HDMI (DP replaces DVI, HDMI replaces component video - they're for different purposes, one isn't better than the other per se). Other than that, it's port selection is actually pretty good.

 

ahh, so

Also would the elitebook be suffice for my tasks? I have a pretty feeling it should, one does not need the highest i7 processor to do the work. Also i was wondering, does HP bloat the 8740w with software?

 

None of the business notebooks have much (if any) bloatware AFAIK.

 

'bloatware' is removable and hardly a reason to avoid buying the hardware you want.

 

HDMI (there are several version HDMI 3.1 being the latest) is considered state-of-the-art at the moment. But DVI is an equivalent computer port (also with several versions) although it do not carry audio.

 

isn't the latest 1.4 or 1.5? Anyways , i would say G73 is best bet.. awesome for gaming and CAD and all.. also u can OC it for free using setFSB so u don't need i7-920xm

 

whats setFSB? does overclocking shorten CPU life?

 

Search the forum for setFSB. Overclocking carefully and minimally has little to no consequences since each CPU has a small buffer for this. It's when you increase the voltage and/or temperatures too much that kills your CPU.

 

ahh kk

Are there any laptops that allow dual core 2 quads so 8 physical cores
Also what is the mobile workstation equivalent of the NVIDIA Tesla and the ATI Firestream?

And since u guys know so much about laptops, which hardware should i go for that will give the performance and great potential to do the tasks i want and have the potential to go beyond that ?

 

You're asking too many vague questions, which nobody can answer for you. Bottom line: Figure out what you want, and then buy what you like. Nobody can really help you with that. Deal with it.

P.S.: No 8-cores for laptops. Not sure why you're even asking, though; see above. There is no mobile equivalent for nVidia Tesla, of course. We are talking about a laptop, for cryin' out loud. Again, you are wandering off into the wild, with no relationship to your original goal of buying a laptop for college. Try to focus...

 

true true... Okay so i just had a self realization that i will be upgrading or buying a new laptop after university or so..so i do not really need to get a Sager with the hexacore processors. So my question to y'all please give an honest opinion on what you think about the laptop you own..its advantages and disadvantages..also which mobile processor do you think IYHO is great at performance, has reasonable temperature and will be able to do cutting edge computing? Same thing with the gfx card. So with all your opinions i may be able to fish out a certain build for a lappy and see if any existing lappy has that congfig for under 2500 dollars

 

Pirx is right you know: too many questions without focus. You can't learn everything there is to learn about computers in one post. Therefore, you should stick to the topic at hand, and let that be sufficient for the moment. If you want to learn more, there are books, magazines, and websites like this one (that's why I'm here) that can help you along--but in increments, not all at once.

As for your current question, that's like asking which car is best? Everyone will say there's is the best because that's the one they chosen for themselves. But in fact, there's just too many different brands and models for entirely different purposes to even begin to settle on one being the best. Especially without isolating your needs, and how you will use it. It's virtually impossible to say which one is best for you without know a lot more than what you've given.

You are correct...of a sorts. I had the numbers reversed. It should have read HDMI 1.3. And although HDMI 1.4 is now also available, and the highest in that line, it mostly adds features for the most part. But does also support 3-D if you care about that feature.

 

Dual post, please delete

 

Hmm I forgot they removed the option to delete individual posts. Nevermind.

 

Alright hear is the dealio with my problem yah know.

So i need a multipurpose laptop for my 4 years in university. Im doing a major in Aerospace engineering, i might specialize in jet propulsion and HE physics/Astrophysics. I don't remember correctly but as a kid i have an aspiration/inspiration/dream of the unknown (hard to explain, mind consuming :confused2: :errr: , it even confuses me). So i decided to take aerospace for the research. That was the background information. Now i need a laptop that can also be a desktop replacement, as I can't take my desktop with me because i'll be at the dorm. SO now what I plan to do with the laptop is to do word processing, labs, internet research. I would also download and play the latest games such as the mmorpg's, rpg's fps and such. I will also be watching high quality movies through youtube and from DVDrip, blueray rip avi files. I will be listening to music, i will be testing out alot of tools, some crazy mods and such. I will be trying to make mods. For school purposes and for fun to i will be using 3DS MAX, MAYA and such. I will also use CAD I believe. So the whole Auto desk entourage. I will also for fun use ADOBE CS5 (some tools like aftereffects, photo shop and sound booth). Now for my personal gain, fun and for school, I will be doing internet research and maybe even data manipulation, or authenticity check of say some videos or such. (now the whole authenticity check won't be used all the time). I would also do research and collect data and create a database of sort (of the unknown) full of videos, audios, charts and files. I will also be writing simulations and such as well, part of my computational sciences and for physics courses. I will also be exploring with this laptop. So I will be carrying it around everywhere. Now i believe that I will be (at one time or the other) doing programing of some sort (FORTRAN or C most probably) so idk OpenCL or CUDA might help. And I believe that's what I would be doing, as on my desktop i do most of those things. By most i mean i don't do any engineering/scientific computation as of yet, because i need learn it first

 

One site give me 24 hours, while another has no limit. I'm not sure what the logic is behind this one? But different websites have their reason. Still, they should at least give you some time, even if it just ten minutes. I hit enter again before I realized it had already gone through through.

 

no it doesn't... u really need to make ur mind up.. Its either Asus G73 or Something else.. i say G73 is better option if u get it with an SSD...

1. it has graphics power
2. CPU is awesome.
3. Massive RAM capacity of up to 16GB.
4. Very quiet so u can secretly game

 

repeat: any laptop you buy today will be obsolete in 18-24 months. why saddle yourself with an expensive obsolete laptop for your last two years at university? your last two years of university will likely make more demands on your machine than the first two will.

buy a good enough machine now, and a better machine in 2 years.