Complicated laptop needs... Help please..

Well within the next month or so I am going to buy a new laptop. The needs are quite extensic, and I dont know is one with these qualities even exhists, but thought I would post.

Preferably Widescreen [glossy if again possible]
Core Duo // want the dual core, not negotiable
atleast gig of ram.
hd atleast 40 gb
graphics that can be called graphics
not weigh as much as an anchor, and have battery life.

If such a thing exhists, suggestions please! itll be used for a little bit of modelling, CAD, typing, etc..

And games here and there.

hmmm those sound like ordinary demands (well at least according to my standards)...

The dell E1705 would be my choice...

dual core
(buy minimum amount of ram and then get a 2 gig kit from newegg and save a couple hundred bucks)
widescreen glossy display 1920x1200 (lots of workspace for CAD!!!)
up to 100 GIG HD
a tad on the heavy side but not bad...

you can get the nvidia card which will get you between 2 and 4 hours or the ATI card which will get ya between 3 and 6 hours battery life... The nvidia card is pretty darn fast...

if you don't want a 17" laptop you can go for the E1505 which you can only get the ATI card for...

some toshiba and sager models may be worth looking into as well... but if you want a dang good price, dell is the best bet with those outrageous online cupons... my last 2 dell systems I've gotten them OVER 50% OFF...

look who diddnt mention price!

theres a sony laptop that meets all of those, iirc.


SZ series

Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz5, 2MB L2 cache)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with SP2
• 1 GB RAM
• 120 GB2 hard drive
• 13.3"4 WXGA display with XBRITE™ Technology

These are actually carried at circuit city (where i work) and do have the glossy screen. (although i personally hate the gloss)

the grahics in this series is a 6600go AND the onboard intel. it actually powers down the 6600 when you dont need 3d performance, a feature that should have been available sone gaming laptops were designed.

only downside is the price, expect to shell out 2 grand for one of these.

The new Toshiba offerings meet your cirteria as well:

Qosmio G-35

Satellite P-105

Both have 17" monitors, Nvidia 7000-series GPU, 1 gig of RAM, core duo, etc..., and like most modern machines, aren't "anchors".

Thanks for the input. I will look further into the models posted..

Some concerns, doesnt Win Xp home only support 1 core and Duo is well duo?


I like the dell.. how does the toshiba and sony match to quality ?

XP Home supports Duo.

The Sony is probably slightly higher quality, but not enough to warrant the price gap. The Dell is going to be the best bang for the buck if you use one of the online coupons.

The Toshiba is probably about the same as Dell where quality is concerned, but perhaps someone who has owned or used both can pitch in with some first hand experience.

I just bought a new SZ series for grad school, it has everything you mentioned and then some- the graphics card selector is really pretty sweet. onboard for battery life, add-in for graphics. it dosent automatically powerdown the graphics card, you have to select which one you want it to use and reboot to change. no big deal though. also the lightest 'full featured' laptop ive ever seen, core duo on such a small laptop is incredible.

Highly reccommended.

but im not gonna lie, it was expensive. yay for school loans!

Como said:

look who diddnt mention price!

theres a sony laptop that meets all of those, iirc.


SZ series

Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz5, 2MB L2 cache)
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with SP2
• 1 GB RAM
• 120 GB2 hard drive
• 13.3"4 WXGA display with XBRITE™ Technology

These are actually carried at circuit city (where i work) and do have the glossy screen. (although i personally hate the gloss)

the grahics in this series is a 6600go AND the onboard intel. it actually powers down the 6600 when you dont need 3d performance, a feature that should have been available sone gaming laptops were designed.

only downside is the price, expect to shell out 2 grand for one of these.

Click to expand...

The dell Inspirion E1705 in my sig i got about a month ago, and i am loving it, it was ~$2300 and we got $650 off with a coupon, someone hear said they just got like $750 off of $1999. Mine came out to like $1700-$1800 with tax.

Mine gets around 3-4 hours of battery life, like running full brightness, and my wireless turned on.

Unforutnatly when i ordered it dell offered crap video card options (like a x1400 SE or some PoS), so i left it at integrated graphics, and am getting a 6800 go this week or next for $145.

The $1700-$1800 also has the like 3 year warrenty and the 3 year accidental damage coverage. That is about the only reason i went dell.

If you drop, spill something, break your laptop in ANY way, dell will fix/replace it free of charge. I don't know of anyone else offering that.

Me being 17, i have went through like 2 MP3 players (now on my 3rd) in a lil over a year i believe. So for me, it's important to buy warrentys.

If your a VERY careful person, and don't move your laptop much or keep it in something that will protect it if dropped, then i say go elsewhere besides dell.

it also depends on how much your willing to spend, dell still has some decent deals with those big coupons.

ryanmartini said:

Thanks for the input. I will look further into the models posted..

Some concerns, doesnt Win Xp home only support 1 core and Duo is well duo?


I like the dell.. how does the toshiba and sony match to quality ?

Click to expand...

The closest I usually come to fanboyism is for Toshiba laptops. The main reason for my enthusiasm is simple...durability. All of the Toshibas I have in the field (about 20+/- now) can really take the abuse. I've deployed these machines in environments everywhere from WWF stations in the Central African Republic to the corporate wars of Bangkok and they perform perfectly. My venerable 11-pound Satellite 1955 has endured daily pounding spanning half the globe for five years now and has never missed a beat.

That said, you'll likely be happy with any of the three choices. Sonys are very sexy (abeit pricy) and the warrantee on the Dell (hopefully, you'll not need to take advantage of it) can't be beat.

Most of the newer (but not newest) Toshiba's were of crap build quality, but the newest ones coming out seem to have addressed those problems.

The SZ is certainly an amazing laptop but the only thing I see lacking in it is the 4 hour battery life, and that's when you're using the Intel gfx. I'm only being picky because my old S series gets better battery life. The fact is, most of the lappys out now don't fare much better than the SZ and non really come close to it's uniqueness. Though I would recommend you check out laptops from Asus. The Z70VA is amazing from what I hear. Price isn't bad either. Barebone starts at 829 and if you pick up parts off ebay and newegg you should stay under 1200-1300.

There are many many many choices. Start looking, www.notebookreview.com could be a good place to start.