ok guys i knwo this has been done to death but i was wondering if i can get some assistance. ive got a $3,500 budget and im looking for a laptop for work as well as some gaming ability. ive looked at dell xps and toshiba satellites but im at a loss to decide which is the better. at the end of the day its for work so i dont need it for games really. im looking for something vista compatable 256meg 3D card(not 100% essential but i would like it) and a gig of ram, 100+ gig hard drive, wireless network, dvd/cd burner combo and a nice fast response (12ms will do) screen 17".

whatta u guys think? your thoughts would be much appreciated =D

If you've got that much money to spend, go something from P4Laptops. They have a nice range with enough options to spec it high.

If your going to run Vista, go 2gig min ram with the option for 4gig when they release Vista SP2.

Wouldn't touch a Satellite with anyones money.
I'd prefer the XPS myself (provided your sure the battery isn't going to explode)

Oh an yeah, VISTA, you will need at least 2 gig

get yoself an ibook, foo. The new ones have Intel Core 2 Duo.

My bro just bought a ASUS laptop for $1900. Its awesome... Light and nice powerful graphic card huge hard drive and everything...

Thanks for that link Leon,looks pretty good. ATM I'm trying to decide between Dell or Alienware, but that other site offers some good alternatives.

Crizane, Alienware = Dell
Just so you know (in case you don't)

Wouldn't touch a Satellite with anyones money.
I'd prefer the XPS myself (provided your sure the battery isn't going to explode)

obviously has no idea...

I am not a big Toshiba fan, but they are by far the most well thought of laptops on the market. (ie. Have the best reputation)

Dell aren't the be all and end all either, they let you customise them, yahey!

Just go and look at lots of laptops, pick the specs you want, and pick the right one. Talking to salespeople who know what they're talking about, at a variety of places will give you the best perspective on what you will need.

with that sort of money u would be a fool to get anything other then a macbook pro. run a better os 99% of the time in OSX and when u need it boot camp into windows then get the hell out again.

IBM ftw.

If i was buying a laptop right now i'd be seriously considering a mac after seeing a mate's. i've neverowned a mac of any form but this is f***ing awesome. And it runs vista no worries. For the clumsy clunky PC laptop you'll get with the same money, a mac s***s on it from high above.

I own a 13" Black Macbook and it totally s***s all over my pc.

Highly highly recommended.

id wait till vista is out.

I have a satellite laptop, it's the dogs bollocks.

I have a satellite laptop, it's the dogs bollocks.

Was that before or after the op to stop it humping your leg?

I made my comment about Satellites based on experience of a few diff models (albeit earlier) which didn't cope all that well with nothing mor difficult than opening an closing the things.

That said, I'll still trust the opinions of people who handle these things on a daily basis

I own a 13" Black Macbook and it totally s***s all over my pc.

What OS do you run on it?

id wait till vista is out.

What the hell for, so you need an even faster PC with more resources so you can render menus with even more detail!?!?!

Well we've got a fleet of a hundred or so Satellite Pro's here at work
The only time i see them fail is the hitachi hard disk dies of old age >4-5yrs.

f*** Vista, the only thing more bloaty than it is is Britney Spear's vag bits.

Get a Dell - can't go past them for bang for buck. I've had 3 now (Inpsiron 8000, 8600 and now a 6400) and they've all rocked. The 6400 has now replaced my home PC as my gaming machine as it run's games alot better.

Any laptops you buy now get you a free copy of vista + postage anyway ($27)

home -> home basic
mce -> home premium
pro -> business

so what major differences are there between a mac and other "normal" laptops?

do they run windows and IE and stuff?

thx for the help guys your comments are appreciated ...

ive had a look and i think im gunna go with a Dell XPS M1210 with a few mods. core2 duo T7200, 2gig 667MHz ddr2 sdram its got a stocko 256mb geforce 7400 but with the ram and cpu it should bench everything ill need it for. comes to $3,440 with a few nick nacks like warranty and stuff but it looks like im sorted.

thx again guys the help is much appreciated =D

im sorry to say, that your making a mistake.

macbook pro is a far superior machine, better looks, better performance in most things and far more realiable.

your money to through away i suppose

I'd go Dell simply for their no questions asked repair/return warranty policy. They are moderately cheap as well.

so what major differences are there between a mac and other "normal" laptops?

Macs traditionally only ran Mac OS X. However, the latest generation of Macs now use Intel CPUs - which means you can dual boot and install Windows XP (or Linux, or whatever other x86 OS you'd prefer).

So you can sit there happily running Mac OS X, which is a pretty damn decent operating system now (although I hate the idea of not having at least 2 mouse buttons), and you can just boot into Windows and play games or whatever.

Does anyone really dual boot like that though? Linux/Mac OSX on one partition and Windows on another. Use the better OS for day-to-day tasks and Windows for gaming?

I tried it once then just got pissed off with going back and forth so now it's just Windows and I put up with its crap.

I bought a desktop replacment Laptop about 7 months ago and it is now my main gaming machine... It was a rebranded Clevo a tiawan based subsidary company of Toshiba who makes mass market OEM laptops.

I bought it from Laptop Choice and have not had any problems. All pixels are good, nothing has died and a 7900GTX is doing it's thang. I went with the max of everythign at the time 1900X1200 17", 2gb ram, lightscribe dvd, 256mb GTX (512mb now available), T2600 dual core, digital TV)

For an online company just reselling the product the service was quite good.

At the time it was the highest spec laptop on the market in Australia (XPS was only in USA), now days the DELL XPS is pretty much on par if not better, and i would strongly consider it.

You can get $50 off if you enter the code "techone" when placing an order too ;)