A combo of factors has me looking at getting a new PC:
- Increasing problems with my work laptop (which I use at home).
- No budget to buy new machines at the office until 1 October – and the standard laptop config right now sucks, anyway.
- A desire to separate my work and home computing some.
- A need for a more powerful gaming computer.
I still want to stick with a notebook, because I still want to set up downstairs (but be able to move it when need be). So a “luggable” laptop is okay, but a full desktop is not.
Most of my computing needs are pretty straightforward. If it can handle a browser with fifty tabs open, I’m probably okay. I do play a few computer games, but I don’t watch movies on my computer, do video editing on my computer, etc.
I am not brand name-centric. I do get an employee purchase program with Dell, which I’m looking at, but I’m also open to other manufacturers, and will probably make a swing past some local big boxes to see what they have on sale.
My main regret about this (aside from the logistical nightmare of migrating to a new machine) is that I had really hoped to wait until Win7 comes out. Whether I get a machine with Vista or a downgrade to XP, I’ll probably want an OS upgrade during the life of the unit, and that’s likely to a serious PitA.
So, any thoughts to contribute to the fray?
We’re an all-Dell shop here and have had no serious complaints. Gaming? Alienware apparently makes laptops now. Also I’ve seen some Asus laptops recently that impressed me as pretty solid. I’m still carrying the same battered Lenovo dual-booting Ubuntu/Windows.
Otherwise, just avoid Toshiba/Gateway.
Alienware laptops are available through Dell, in fact.
I saw a Toshiba the other day. My first notebook (back in the stone knives and bearskins days) was a Toshiba. Still have a fondness for that beast.
I need to look at the tier down from gaming machines, I think — I really don’t feel like I need that power enough to warrant the higher price.
Well, considereing the one I linked to on the Hero’s blog meets most of the minimum requirements and is below some of the recommended requirements to run CO, I am not sure taking a step down will buy you much in the long run. Buy the best now and you can delay upgrading for some time to come.
Yes, Alienware has a Laptop through Dell, it is top of the line and better (costs more) than the one I linked.
And I can actually get another $147 off from that. Just not sure I wanted to spend two grand on a new computer.
Actually, the Alienware M17x is only $1800 list.
Rrg. I feel Option Paralysis coming on …
On the other hand, with the Alienware one, I can get a cool “Three-Star Dave” plate in Alienese …
The price difference between the two is the cost of a dual graphics card (recommended) vs a single graphics card…which equals 300 Dollars.
Ah. So I’m back at $2K.
The irksome thing here is it’s not like a need a gaming rig all, or even most, of the time. So I feel like I’m spending several hundred dollars for something that I’ll only get part-time use of. But that I don’t want to be without. Irksome.
Ah, what a contrast. I bought my last PC (a desktop) right before M$’ original drop dead date for getting XP – 6 months before I really wanted to buy, but I didn’t want to get forced into Vista. (Of course, I’m much more of a late adopter than you!)
BTW, the Vista bubbles have always reminded me of Lawrence Welk.
Interestingly, the laptops I’ve been looking at are available from Dell with an option (if you pay extra!) for an XP install. And others have an option to let you upgrade free to Win7 when it comes out. Hrm.
Alienware was bought out by Dell a couple of years ago. Pretty much all of Dell’s gaming rigs are rebranded Alienware boxes.
The reason I haven’t bought a new laptop for myself is because I definitely want a gaming capable laptop and that’s going to start at around $1300 for the baseline M17 from Alienware. I’d say to spend the money on a decent gaming rig because you’ll know that it’ll be more than enough for anything else you might want to do with it.
Well, the “buy as much as you can afford right now” advice is something I often give to people, so I suppose I should pay attention to it myself.
If you have conflicting needs, that’s difficult. Buying a laptop is easy for me; I mostly just edit text files and retouch the occasional photo. I want small, light, and tough.
Is it difficult to replace the cooling fans in gaming-capable laptops? I would think those could wear out, get noisy, etc. I would hope the manufacturer would choose the best fans they could get their mits on.
Yeah, if it weren’t for my gaming habit, the choice would be much simpler. Of course, I probably wouldn’t be as driven to do this, either.
50 tabs at once? That alone would slow my machine to a crawl (Macintosh Powerbook circa 2006). If that’s your non-gaming use, are you sure you’re not looking at something equally powerful for gaming and non-gaming uses?
One of my rules for computers has been to buy way more memory than I think I will ever need because inevitably I need lots more memory than I thought I would ever need.
Lots of RAM is a good thing, yes.
RAM will get you through times of a slow processor better than a fast processor will get you through times of low RAM.
We’ve got about 30 Alienware and Hypersonic laptops at work for our developers. The negative things I’ve seen are that they get really, really hot, issues with the hard drive controllers and LCDs and terrible tech support (we had one that wouldn’t POST that they “couldn’t replicate the problem” on. On the plus side, the CPU and GPU are both upgradable which is a nice bonus. Overall, good machines if a bit overpriced. But every computer manufacturer makes a high end gaming machine. Are you looking for a quad-core laptop?
Gah! No, I don’t think I can justify to myself anything more than a dual-core.
(Voice of the Emperor, drawing attention to Luke’s light-saber) “You want this… don’t you?…”
Get thee behind me, Gordon Moore!