Help decide! laptop?

[xMerCLorDx]

This is just a little hypothetical situation: lets say i have $1500 to spend. I am unbiased to which platform it would be. Heres what I want basically:

large HD
light
dvd
floppy
nice video card
wireless NIC
ethernet NIC
apple g4 / intel p4

docking option? will pay extra.

thanks guys! please be open to the macs, since i don't plan on gaming for this. I don't even think i would use windows.. or macOS... probably some open source OS with a nice GUI..

[eviltechie]

Sony, Toshiba, Compaq, Dell

take ur pick

[Gixxer420]

Dell or Gateway. Heck with the rest when it comes to laptops.

[xMerCLorDx]

so far its between Dell, Sony, Apple.

[Grinnin Reaper]

I've had two Dell laptop's for home and a few for work. I Love them. Not all laptops's offer touchpad and pointer-stick. When their new and used for a long time in a row sometimes the pointer-stick will wander but when they get broke in it's a great portable solution to the mouse. Keyboard layout is great, and the 8100/8200 has some of the best review's I've seen. Sony has some great slimline options but you have to have a docking station or add-on module's for almost everything. Ultra thin is nice but not if it's ultra-useless. My wife's 8100 has floppy, DVD Rom and battery in it at all times. The floppy is modulare so I can swap it out for cd-burner or extra battery. Dell's got their battery times up pretty good too. Also Dell went to add on graphics cards. Tom's Hardware was showing how changing the graphics card is almost as easy in a dell laptop as a desktop (you have to use Dell part's though). To me they just seem to be a better computer on the whole.

[CiKoTiC]

Nuttin but Dell Laptops here at the Firm I work for. We luv'em :)

[xMerCLorDx]

sounds promising, my friend just bought a dell i think its the 8200. Its really cool, i dunno if i could put up that much money tho.

[Grinnin Reaper]

You can fininance through dell. I did. I now it's a poor investment but we needed a laptop so I bit the bullet.

[Raven]

A word of advise if you decide to go with a Compaq. I'm a big Compaq fan mind you, might be biased since I work for them.

1- Since the merger, the technical support has gone from Great to really really poor.

2- If you do buy a laptop go with the Evo series, there the commercial units. If seen one and played with it, it actually was caught in a house fire, the fireman pulled it out of the ashes and we turned it on. The outside was burnt to a crisp molten really, but the unit did boot...

3 - Please for the love of all you hold dear stay away from the Presario line... especially the 700 series (know overheating issue)... The Presario is a WYSISYG type system. Don't try installing too many things, not even upgrades, they don't like it.

Anywho just my 0.02...

[xMerCLorDx]

i have a moral issue buying a compaq..sorry

they did, however, make nice servers at one point..haven't checked em lately.

[eviltechie]

compaq changed a bit when they merged with HP

so old experiences are not really applicable anymore in most cases

but dell is nice
good service and everything...
good for starters and medium range users

[xMerCLorDx]

i'm hardly a "starter" or "medium range" user lol

HP is ok.. i like their printers...thats about it. I unimpressed by their workstations.. just pretty standard..

Dell?, Sony?, Apple? (so far priority in that order )

i think apple has the best proprietary hardware just because thats all they make.. and laptops are all proprietary so.. apple is kind of on top in that respect..but as for things to do with it its a little more limiting but not too much. The Dell would be a nice power machine, and the sony would be nice and slim.... any more opinions?

[vee_ess]

I would also say those are the best three options. When I was looking for a laptop for my sister, I noticed that Sony notebooks came with many things standard that were available only on few other high-end notebooks. All of them come with good software packages. When you get cheap notebooks, they throw cheap software on it that you will never use just to say they have extra software. Don't just look at the major features, look at the minor stuff, because that is what you notice when you use it and this is an investment.

[eviltechie]

i guess its up to personal preference now

Sony does have a superior casing for the laptops compared to Dell...

[xMerCLorDx]

i'm not planning on having much software that i can't get free ( OPEN SOURCE, not warez bs. ) anyways, thats not really an issue..

does anyone have opinions why i shouldn't or should get one of the three i'm looking at?

[eviltechie]

well an Apple iBook is a bit more expensive...

[xMerCLorDx]

how do you figure that?

[vee_ess]

They come with Firewire standard on most, if not all of their notebooks, which is actually i.Link with support for more than just Firewire (other specialized Sony products).

Here (http://www.sonystyle.com/home/item.jsp?hierc=9683x7018x8862x9592&catid=9592&itemid=31618)'s one I found with the following spec's:
Pentium® 4 1.50GHz-M
15-16 inch XGA
256 MB
20 GB
DVD-ROM
Windows® XP Home
56K + 10/100 NIC
1599 - 200(Rebate) = $1399

From Apple I found this (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/73/wo/BBiCa2so3lW7JLuNEM/5.3.0.3.27.21.1.2.19.3.1.1.0):
700MHz G3
System bus @100MHz
128MB SDRAM memory
20GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo Drive
4.9lbs.
$1499

The Dell 8200 (http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/minicat_inspn_8200.htm) is extremely customizable (as usual for Dell):
P4-M 1.7 to 2.2Ghz
Win XP Home
15 XGA+
DVD
128Mb RAM
56K + NIC
-100 or double RAM, leather carrying case, and free shipping if ordered by 10/16
price varies tremendously

All of these are customizable, but the Dell is by far the most of all of these. They each have many other options, I just wanted to give examples.

[eviltechie]

actualy it is not more expensive

its just that things for it are expensive...
an iBook starts at 1199 USD

a G4 Powerbook starts at 2499 USD

ive used an iBOOK before
i had to install Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for this geography professor

the casing on the iBOOK is beautiful but can be scratched easily

check out this page for details on pricing
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/172/wo/zQRus1kaV1HrHgikhP/2.3.0.3.9?35,19

i do feel the iBOOK is a bit too small for me
i like the G4 Powerbook better but havent used one yet, only seen it in person

[xMerCLorDx]

wow, i didn't expect that :) thx for the research vee_ess, i only looked at dell and the ibook..

helps a bunch!

[eviltechie]

generaly the iBook has a better design

for example
the power plug lines can be scrolled onto this saucer looking power alternator

which makes packing and unpacking a very easy task when needing to use the power plug...

but i still think a PC laptop is more applicable
to my anyways

dont know about you