high end laptop for linux and windows

Hello all,

i have been trying forever now to find the best available Laptop for my needs.

My Requirements are :

15 or 15.4 inch
ati or nvidia display card with min. 128 mb
cpu as big and bad as it can get (t2600 ?)
it must have a dvi out, so i can connect it to my external 20inch lcd.

now the dvi seems to be a really problem for the laptops i have searched, almost none features a dvi, which i feel is really hmm. like i would have gone for the new thinkpad t60 , but it really doesnt have dvi, ****.

if you guys can suggest other laptops to me, that would AWESOME. i personally have identified two:

Acer tm8204wlmi (cpu: t2500)
Alienware Area-51 m5500 (cpu: pm 780 2.26 mhZ)
dell precision m65, but no dedicated video memory, so i think thats bad

can someone also tell me which one would you choose if no other models then the alienware or acer models i have suggested above?
i guess alienware is a pretty good overall choice, and i have read a pretty bad review about the acer one. on the other side, if i go with alienware, i dont have the best processor. do you think that i must throw away my laptop by next year, because everything is dual core and 64bit if i would go for a alienware which "only" has the pentium m 780?

thanks you very much,
overrider

 

Im going to recommend Sager Laptops from http://www.pctorque.com/
They have nice specs for 15.4" laptops especially the Sager 5720
http://www.pctorque.com/sager-5720-gaming-computers.php

Also word of advice. If your planning on using both linux and windows, I would get an Nvidia based laptop. ATi drivers suck horrendeously in linux and your high end ATi video card will perform like an nvidia card from 3 generations ago.

also you might want to fill out the FAQ at the top of forum so that ppl have a more clearer idea of what you want/need.

 

hello, thank you for your message. now this brings exaclt the same question with it, what is your oppinion about going for a pentium m 780 rather for a new dual core t2600 ?
this one i like also, http://www.pctorque.com/sager-9750-gaming-computers.php , but 17 inch is just too large for a laptop for me.

 

I have the Acer, and haven't had much luck so far getting Linux fully up and running, due to the lack of driver support for the X1600. SimplyMepis, a Debian-based distro, isn't too bad. Mostly functional, excepting the need to use VGA X. But it also doesn't appear to come with sufficient headers etc to rebuild the kernel for SMP.

- Ed

 

casualty of ATi huh.
dont use SimplyMepis, use something better like Ubuntu. Or go for the gold and install gentoo linux via Kororaa http://www.kororaa.org

 

Ubuntu wouldn't even install; the live CD also failed. Libranet likewise. Debian installer also wouldn't work.

I'm downloading kororaa now.

Yep, ATI is a pain in the butt at the moment.

- Ed

 

If it wasn't for the issues with the linux ATI drivers, I'd suggest looking at the Asus A6J... 15.4" widescreen, core duo T2400 and Radeon X1600. Build quality on the model I was looking at seemed excellent.

Oh, it's also one of the only models I've seen recently that has the DVI out you're after.

 

i mean i cant believe it is so hard to find a new laptop. can anyone suggest a laptop , any brand, any price, which features below three requirements:
15 or 15.4 inch
intel coreduo cpu
dvi out

why is it so hard to find dvi out in laptops? shouldnt dvi be a standard soon?

 

Hey, why u insist for dvi port? it,s not needed really as far as I know.

 

Acer 8204, but read the other threads around.

 

wouldnt personally recommend the 8204 due to the x1600 video card and ati's weak drivers in linux.

however some ppl do use the x1600 in linux.

go nvidia. much better linux support since their drivers have been open-sourced for a long time now. ati still believes in close-sourced linux drivers which is why they are worse than nvidia

 

your best bet for linux is a lappy with an nvidia 6600

 

actually any geforce chipset would be fine.

GF6
6200/6400/6600/6800

GF7
7300/7400/7600/7800/7900

Quadro Cards are supported. But not that many of them . Mainly the popular ones.

 

Unless of course, you want to hook it up to an external 20" LCD, as was indicated in the initial post.

Regarding ATI vs. nVidia, I'd also vote for nVidia based on my last experiences with the ATI drivers (admittedly a few years back). Based on recent benchmarks posted at phoronix.com, tom's hardware etc, you can only expect to see ~50% of the equivalent Windows performance using an ATI card under linux. nVidia has almost achieved parity with their windows drivers (~90%).

I wouldn't make the GPU decision one of politics though, last I checked neither nVidia or ATI had any plans to open their drivers. I tend to be a pragmatist, so this doesn't bother me... I just want the bloody thing to work properly.

 

U can use the analog port, no much difference practically as I know. Is there anything else in this regard?

 

actually the reason that nvidia linux drivers are almost as good as their windows drivers is because nvidia has released their drivers to open-source a while back.

thats the reason nvidia is better than ati in linux. ati is still holding onto their drivers, which I feel is holding them back in the linux market