Laptop help

[Tanj]

i'm looking for a good laptop

these are the things i'm looking for in it

good gfx chip (ati9600m pro/turbo or the fastest mobile nvidia)
large harddrive(60-80Gb) 5400 -7200rpm
512-1024DDR SDRAM
4 in 1 Cardreader (for memory cards )

so a decent game machine for lan parties but also viable for school work

oh yeah, and i want it under $2500CND might go higher if it is the "perfect" system

and as linux friendly as possible (yep i'm one of those guys )

and yes i have been looking around,
Inspiron 8600
Asus M6000N
Mayhem G1 from www.abspc.com (can't really get that one b/c of shipping issues, they only ship in the US and i'm in Canada )

[jrcho88]

I have a Toshiba M30 and I recommend it although it may not exactly meet all of your requirements

Pentium M 1.5Ghz
512Mb DDR333
60Gig Toshiba HDD 5.4k RPM
SD Card Reader
Geforce FX 5600Go 64Mb
Harman Kardon Speakers
15.4" CSV coated WXGA screen 1200 x 800

What do you think

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

For gaming I would go with AMD 64 mobile for CPU if you can find good combo with R9600 mobile or similar

or you might wanna check Compaq R3000T series

at US Compaq site you get one with: P4 3.06Mhz,512MB DDR,60GB 5400rpm,DVD/CD-RW,R9600 64MB and 100$ rebate for 1500$ US

there is of course Alienware , but they do come with the hefty pricetag

as for 4 in 1 Cardreader I wouldnt limit myself since add-on on the USB costs about 20$ anyway and they are usually quite small

there are a lot of links for Compaq Presario and Linux, so the thing to do would be, decide on the laptop first, type the exact model and linux into search engine and see if someone tackled the problem allready, in most cases you shouldnt be dissapointed

[Martin_89]

if you have the £££££ then go for an Alienware

[sjracer]

Ditto on the Alienware. See my specs below. I use my Alienware for Lan parties. Runs great. I only have the ATI Radion 9000 mobile 128mb version though. Runs fine. The newest game I play is BF Vietnam. Runs it great.


SJRACER

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

well I am sure the above mentioned Compaq with Radeon 9600 mobile and P4 3.06, would be much faster

anyway as said before Alienware is a gaming rig, but its also quite expensive, Compaq should be well within you budget

[Tanj]

i checked out the alienware laptops
to rich for my blood tho

i'm going to seriously look into getting the Mayhem G1. got to phone the customs office and see what they want done when i get it across (Taxes/duty etc.)

in all my reading it is the only one that really says "yes" to me

it is this one here
http://www.abspc.com/app/familyNote.asp#mayhem

is it worth my hard earned $$$'s?


yes i will listen to you

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

note of coution: WXGA 1280x800 native resolution might give you problems in some games and I dont know how 1024*786 will look, but if it doesnt have borders, it will look a bit streched

and everything that isnt native resolution doesnt look too good on the LCD anyway

here are 2 reviews, they might help you decide:

review 1

review 2 at THG

The 2nd is much more flattering and much less concise, so you might wanna start with it , info on Linux there as well

[Tanj]

i've already read the THG review

it isn't going to be my main gaming rig so a bit of distortion in games isn't going to bother me too much

gonna read the pcworld review now