Need some advice (new laptop)

[ken124578]

My dad needs a new laptop and asked me to find a good one for him :-

He said that he needs a laptop that can handle programs like solidworks (it's sortof like 3dsmax I think, it takes up a lot of RAM/cpu power to use) and his budget is roughly 1500 euros.

(We can't build it ourselves, don't try to convince me plz)

I'm overwelmed by the information given by companies like dell.

Don't tell me this is overwhelming / confusing :O

Do you guys have any suggestion where to begin??  :O

[ken124578]

Opps I meant, he needs a new laptop.

We've been looking on the internet together and none of the laptops we saw met his "requirements"  ::)

He says he needs

• An intel pentium 4: 3.2 ghz.
  
• An ATI graphic card with 128/256 MB.
  
• A wide screen (breedbeeld)
  

:-

[DukeLeto]

1) Dells are a ripoff.

2) If you're doing stuff like advanced 3D modelling, you'd be better off with an AMD Athlon 64M than an Intel P4M.

3)You'll probably want at least 1GB of RAM.

That said, you're probably not going to be able to get something terribly mobile, you're probably looking at a "desktop replacement" notebook (like mine).

Mine is a Gateway 7422GX Notebook PC

-AMD Athlon-M 64 3400+

-1024MB DDR (2 x 512MB) SoDIMM PC2700 RAM

-ATI Mobility RADEON 9600 (64MB DDR, AGP 8x)

-80GB Harddrive

-15.4" Ultrabright TFT WXGA 16:10 Widescreen (Max resolution: 1280x800x32)

That's probably the kind of system you're looking for. The exception is that the graphics card in the 7422GX is only 64MB, and it's sold exclusively through stores that probably don't exist in your area.

I paid about $1450 USD including taxes and shipping, a mouse, a wireless router for our internet, McAffee 2005, and a chillmat.  You may or may not need all of those accessories.

Also, do you plan to use this frequently while not hooked up to an AC power source?  If so, avoid Gateways like the plague, because the battery power management (which is ingrained in the battery, and cannot be shut off) drops the processor sharply to 800 MHz (about equivalent to an Athlon XP 1000) when not plugged in.

Also, don't buy an Averatec unless you're a masochist.  I know people with them, and they suck like warp-driven vaccuum cleaners.  They're the slowest, most unreliable POS I've ever seen.

Dells, HPs, and Compaqs in your price range tend to have slow and/or integrated graphics card with very little video memory.

Centrino Mobile Technology is, IMO, a waste of money, and I challenge someone to prove otherwise.  (Seriously, laptops with Centrino that cost what mine did run at about 1.2 GHz and have 1/4 the memory.)

Well, now that you know what you don't want, your best bet is just to look around and see what's available in your area.  You live in the Netherlands, right?  I doubt many major manufactures ship to the Netherlands, at least not without budget-breaking shipping costs.

[veK]

He says he needs

• An intel pentium 4: 3.2 ghz.
  
• An ATI graphic card with 128/256 MB.
  
• A wide screen (breedbeeld)
  

Why does he need a P4 3.2 GHz?

Just take a 1,70 P-Mobile... you don't need more. Maybe you should get some more information about mobile technology first, because a P-Mobile is a lot better than a P4 which is built in a laptop. So just get a 1.70-2.00 P-Mobile (Centrino = P-Mobile + WLAN) with a ATI 9700 Mobility. If you run software like 3dsmax or photoshop you should care about the ram - not only about the gpu. An ATI 9700 Mobility is enough but don't be satisfied with 256 or 512 MB RAM... My laptop had 256 MB default and I upgraded it to 1024 before I ordered it and also got a 80GB HD in instead of the 60GB.

So if you are looking for a good notebook you should get a 1.7 Centrino, 9700 ATI Mobility, 1024 RAM, 60-80GB for this price.

I had to pay 1.800 for mine but that's because I also ordered 2 more power supplies, a docking station and stuff like this. The preice without all this was aabout 1.450 EUR...