What laptop should i buy?

[nslay]

IMO, its better to have a cheap laptop and a good desktop rather than just a good laptop.

Remember, laptops are nowhere near as expandable as desktops.  One or two years down the line, the laptop won't even be able to run any of the newest games.

IMO, it's better to have a cheap desktop and a good laptop rather than just a good desktop.

Why?  Because my laptop goes everywhere with me.  I can bring it to work, my dad's, my friend's, and I can still play the same games there.  I bought mine almost a year ago, and it's still in good shape. 

At the rate technology is increasing, most computers end up being junked in 1-2 years anyway, and totally replaced (maybe with some salvaged parts like video card).  Your motherboard won't support the newest technology in 2 years.

But back to the subject at hand: I really like Intel's Centrino.  The Pentium-M processor runs cool and fast, and the onboard ipw2200 network card runs great with Windows or Linux, although both OS's require you to have drivers.  My drivers are stored on my iPod. 

I'm not sure how many people can afford to junk a desktop in 1-2 years.  IMO, thats horribly wasteful.  And as far as motherboards supporting new technologies, it really depends on the kind of motherboard you get.  And if you're looking to buy the newest techonology for any kind of gaming, you wouldn't be looking at a laptop.  As you've shown, laptops are meant for productivity.  You can do your work anywhre.

Also, you have to consider the loss factor, having an expensive laptop stolen or broken won't be easy to get over.  You can implement all the security features you want to prevent someone from seeing what you've stored on the laptop, but that still doesn't prevent someone from walking up and taking it.  The person who stole it won't be giving it back because they can't login to it.

I'm not suggesting you get a cheap hand-me-down laptop, I'm telling you not to buy a $2400 system.  It would be better to buy a $900 laptop and build a $1500 desktop (which would easily outperform the $2400 laptop).

That's why you don't leave it lying around!  I've been carrying laptops around for nearly a decade, I travel quite a bit...and I've never had even one stolen.

If you're patient, Dell often has $750 off $1499+ laptop deals about once every month.  I don't think the laptop you're looking at (IBM T42) is a very good deal at all.  You definetly won't be doing any high end (or probably even second generation) gaming on that.  You could easily get a much better laptop for a much lower price from Dell.

Err...I've had bad experience with Dells (just personal opinion).  Umm, that T42 can play any "high end" games...I'm not sure if you're aware, but there are laptops known as "desktop replacements" and believe me, they do just that.
Look, Intel's mobile technology resets what most people used to think of laptops.

[Lenny]

Warcraft III and Quake III are not high end games.  High end games are Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc.

And the laptops which are as you call them 'desktop replacements' cost well over 2x the amount of the desktop they replace.

[Topaz]

Warcraft III and Quake III are not high end games.  High end games are Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc.

And the laptops which are as you call them 'desktop replacements' cost well over 2x the amount of the desktop they replace.

No.

[R.a.B.B.i.T]

And the laptops which are as you call them 'desktop replacements' cost well over 2x the amount of the desktop they replace.

Only if you get overpriced stock shit.

[nslay]

Warcraft III and Quake III are not high end games.  High end games are Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc.

And the laptops which are as you call them 'desktop replacements' cost well over 2x the amount of the desktop they replace.

Alright, I've been out of the game loop, but trust me, that T42 can play anything
Go look at the specs

Yes, desktop replacements cost well over 2x...and they also come with 2x more, as well as a wider screen, tv capturing devices, and larger harddrives...all of which are not needed to play "high end" games.

[Lenny]

No, I don't trust you
Video Specs:
Dedicated 64MB

I would expect a desktop equivalent which costs half as much as the laptop which replaces it to come with more than the laptop.  This is because such parts as hard drives and memory cost less for a desktop.

And a TV tuner card would probably get more use on a desktop.  When I'm going places with a laptop, I wouldn't be looking to watch TV.  And there's a good chance that wherever I am with a laptop, any TV cable I find will have a TV on one end.

I'm not suggesting him to just buy a desktop.  I'm suggesting you to buy both a desktop and a laptop.  It's better than investing all in one laptop.  And I would deifnetly not go with that laptop on newegg for that price.

[Topaz]

Never mind what I said about Dell's Insipiron 600m for gaming - I tried playing CS on a wireless connection, and it was terrible.

[nslay]

No, I don't trust you
Video Specs:
Dedicated 64MB

And?

I would expect a desktop equivalent which costs half as much as the laptop which replaces it to come with more than the laptop.  This is because such parts as hard drives and memory cost less for a desktop.

And a TV tuner card would probably get more use on a desktop.  When I'm going places with a laptop, I wouldn't be looking to watch TV.  And there's a good chance that wherever I am with a laptop, any TV cable I find will have a TV on one end.

I'm not suggesting him to just buy a desktop.  I'm suggesting you to buy both a desktop and a laptop.  It's better than investing all in one laptop.  And I would deifnetly not go with that laptop on newegg for that price.

On second thought, my former roommate who had a desktop replacement actually heavily used his laptop for watching TV and he played a "first generation" (assuming you actually meant to say "new") game NBA Live 2005 without a problem.
I don't see anything valid to your claims that a laptop (even the T42) can't play "first generation" games.

[nslay]

Never mind what I said about Dell's Insipiron 600m for gaming - I tried playing CS on a wireless connection, and it was terrible.

I guess your router had collisions with other routers...usually this happens when two routers in the area are using the same channel or you were too far from it.  The latter can be corrected by tweaking the DTIM, preamble, and fragmentation values.

[Lenny]

Battlefield 2 requirement:

VIDEO
Video card must have 128 MB or more memory

On second thought, my former roommate who had a desktop replacement actually heavily used his laptop for watching TV and he played a "first generation" (assuming you actually meant to say "new") game NBA Live 2005 without a problem.
I don't see anything valid to your claims that a laptop (even the T42) can't play "first generation" games.

On a third thought, a friend of mine as well as myself have heavily used the tv tuner cards in their desktop for watching TV.  You can't use anecdotal evidence. 

[Topaz]

I was right next to the router, I'd thought about that beforehand. When the blips got out of control and I kept dying, I hooked it up to the modem and I still had the same issue. I'm quite sure its the graphics card, not my internet connection.

[CrAz3D]

Thinkpads are hideous.

OMG!  YOU SUCK0ZRZ!

K, but yeah, Tablet's are cool, but the whole hinge scares me...what if it busts off (which look very possible)

[nslay]

Battlefield 2 requirement:

VIDEO
Video card must have 128 MB or more memory

On second thought, my former roommate who had a desktop replacement actually heavily used his laptop for watching TV and he played a "first generation" (assuming you actually meant to say "new") game NBA Live 2005 without a problem.
I don't see anything valid to your claims that a laptop (even the T42) can't play "first generation" games.

On a third thought, a friend of mine as well as myself have heavily used the tv tuner cards in their desktop for watching TV.  You can't use anecdotal evidence. 

Alright, I'll give into serious gaming...but 64MB video memory should be enough for many many other games.
Laptop technology is always a little behind the desktop technology in some things.  Then again, I see no real difference between a laptop and desktop...the modern laptop certainly has outdone itself in performance.  Suffice to say, I've seen compact desktops from just a monitor looking thing, to a small box that sits under the monitor...it seems to me that we're moving away from bulky boxes and perhaps to laptops or something even more formidable.

On a fourth thought, the X series Thinkpad has an Intel graphics chip that is rated to as high as 128MB memory (according to Intel...though IBM makes no mention of the memory rating)

If I had a desktop, I would have it do backups, logging, personal file sharing, and VPN for my wireless network...make it nice and secure
I'd probably keep it in the closet or something...I did that with a really old computer some years back.  It was a dinky little thing, but I ran a battle.net bot on it and forgot it even existed hehe.

[Lenny]

Thinkpads are hideous.

OMG!  YOU SUCK0ZRZ!

K, but yeah, Tablet's are cool, but the whole hinge scares me...what if it busts off (which look very possible)

I recall reading somewhere that Microsoft Tablet PC had an unresolved memory leak issue.  The memory leak would continue until the system would crash. Not sure if it's been fixed yet....

The Inspiron 600m doesn't have very good display options (maximum of 64MB Video).  But then again, CS isn't exactly the newest game.  But you shouldn't expect too much from a $800-900 laptop.  If you have the time, you should as I said before wait for dell to release a $750 off $1499+ coupon.  You could get a laptop worth $2499 @ Dell for the same price of the T42 you found on newegg.

I by no means believe that a desktop is better than a laptop.  But I believe both have their advantages and disadvantages.  If I could afford it, I would probably get 2 laptops.  But that just seems silly, a more affordable/practical solution would be a laptop and a desktop.

[nslay]

The Inspiron 600m doesn't have very good display options (maximum of 64MB Video).  But then again, CS isn't exactly the newest game.  But you shouldn't expect too much from a $800-900 laptop.  If you have the time, you should as I said before wait for dell to release a $750 off $1499+ coupon.  You could get a laptop worth $2499 @ Dell for the same price of the T42 you found on newegg.

The IBM site sells the T43 with its optimal configuration (plus it has biometrics) for $1599.  Much better than newegg price...if you can, the on-site warranty is excellent (it even has overnight shipping of replacements parts, the 'on-site' part means if you need something major replaced, they will send a technician out to do it for you, if you don't want to send it in or do it yourself)

See: T42/T43

IBM's PC website:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/