Ok so my old celeron 2.4ghz laptop is showing its age and I want something shiny and new to amuse me.

I was looking at this.
Main question is what's this NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPU, External 256MB GDDR3 VRAM business? Does that mean you can upgrade to more video memory later if you want or just that the video doesn't share system ram?

Those of you who work at CA, do you keep these things in stock or order them in as required? Have many of these had comebacks? My toshiba has been going for years now, still got bugger all in the way of dead pixels but it's only a celeron and a dodgy old intel video chipset, barely plays the original CS, doesn't play source at all and even older games like C&C chug on it :(

I also realise 17" isn't exactly portable but my present laptop sits on a table and never moves as it is so weight/portability isn't an issue.

If your computer sits on a table and never moves why are you buying a laptop?

tax

well I lie, I do move it from room to room, what I meant was I'm not some student or business exec who needs something easily stuffed into a suitcase or backpack. I only said it because inevitably someone will go 17" HUGE BUY DESKTOP HURRRRRRRR

As far as I know, the "External" part of the description just means the memory isn't shared system memory but rather memory set aside specifically for the card as normal.

ive got a inspiron 1520 which i dont recommend as it has a annoying sound issue that im too lazy to warranty on so if I were you I would get the XPS 1530 (if youre after a 15" laptop)

macbook pro's should be being updated in the next few weeks, if they do a substantial upgrade it will be hard to beat performance-wise

*cue right mouse button jokes*

ive got a inspiron 1520 which i dont recommend as it has a annoying sound issue

Buzzing or sound skipping?

macbook pro's should be being updated in the next few weeks, if they do a substantial upgrade it will be hard to beat performance-wise

*cue right mouse button jokes*

or price jokes?

or price jokes?

Yes, its crazy the price some people will pay to avoid windows :D

im in the market too. id like a tablet, but their too pricey.

buy a laptop and a wacom, glue said wacom to afore mentioned laptop.

Yes, its crazy the price some people will pay to avoid windows :D

Leopard isn't all that fantastic either.

I'd be buying a dell xps if I was in the market for a new laptop.

p.s. I have a 17" ASUS lappy and its awesome, mine is 1.8ghz duo core, 2gb ram, 100gb hdd and x1600 (512mb) ~2 years old now and it's still going stong.

I really like the DELL XPS M1730 Gamer laptops, my friend at work has one and its looks very nice.

How do people rate them, not worried about price.

Has anyone used one of the Dell Vostrom notebooks?

I noticed some Dell spam fax the other day and it seemed ridiculously cheap.

15.4", T7250, 4GB Ram, 250GB HDD (5200rpm) for $1699.

WAT?

they are pretty bulky and screens are crap... basically same as the inspiron 1520 im using but in black and i think all magnesium case

i have xps m1710 which are pratically the ssame but just older specs...

only problem i have is weight and that about it.... never nice laptop comes with vga and dvi.... plug it into my 27" at home and great media box....

with all laptops recommend getting 7200rpm hard drive...

When you say the screens are crap, if I was to order one with a 15.4" 1680x1050 "with truelife" (which as far as I can tell is the same as in all their other notebooks) would I avoid the crappiness?

there is always

http://www.apple.com/au/macbookair/

as well :p

I would go a Macbook pro, performance wise they are unreal.

yeah.... but it's a mac

I really like the DELL XPS M1730 Gamer laptops, my friend at work has one and its looks very nice.

I dunno about that model but I have an M1210 which is like the small "lightweight" XPS. I got it slightly tricked out (7200rpm HDD + extended battery) so its a little heavier than the defaults but its still an awesome size - it performs really really awesomely (in some cases I feel its faster than my high-end Dell desktop!!)

I also realise 17" isn't exactly portable but my present laptop sits on a table and never moves as it is so weight/portability isn't an issue.

this is an interesting use case for laptops. I never really "got it" until I got a laptop and realised how nice it is to be able to pick it up and take it around with me - I've only ever thought laptops were for people that needed portability and thus should always buy the smallest they can get.

im in the market too. id like a tablet, but their too pricey.

I was using a Fujitsu Lifebook at my old work and man are they awesome tablets. If you can do salary sacrifice you will find tablet pcs quite affordable but I agree they're too pricey so I ended up buying a m1330 instead.

I also realise 17" isn't exactly portable but my present laptop sits on a table and never moves as it is so weight/portability isn't an issue.


this is an interesting use case for laptops. I never really "got it" until I got a laptop and realised how nice it is to be able to pick it up and take it around with me - I've only ever thought laptops were for people that needed portability and thus should always buy the smallest they can get.

really, my laptop is just a desktop that i take to work and bring home for media viewings

Damn those Dell XPS 1530 noteys look awesome!

It is tempting me very much...

I have a Dell Latitude D630. It's great for my needs as it's light as, sturdy and runs everything just dandy. Certainly not for any real gaming though...

macbook pro

vote 1, macbook pro

Ok, since CA didn't have what I wanted, I'm looking at one of these now.

More video memory, better CPU and more options. Hell, the guy at CA told me they can't even get HD dvd drives for their stuff even though they're listed on the website. So looks like DickSmiths will be getting my money instead.

Those of you who work at CA, do you keep these things in stock or order them in as required?

people at CA are paid to answer just this for ya, but you have to ask in the OCAU forums.

Sorry dude - I'd like to help out here but I can't

:*(


last edited by koopz at 21:22:35 02/Feb/08

Well I went into CA and asked, but as I said in the last post they can't get HD or blu ray players so I'm going toshiba since they come with HD players. Then later I'll get a blu ray player either standalone or for my pc whatever so I can play both formats if for some reason I have to :)

Mongie, the screens are hit and miss where they have heavy graininess when viewing solid colors, its visible when wordprocessing/browsing/coding. Theres a few threads on whingepool about it.

Whoop, if you were to get the xps 1530 you can get a slot load blu ray (i think, cant load the dell website atm for some reason). The 8600m gt on it is pretty good, plays every game out at the moment, crysis on medium, savage 2 on full details.

Damn those Dell XPS 1530 noteys look awesome!

Bought one in January; very very nice.

I got the deal with free upgrade to 3G ram, and upgraded screen to max res, battery, cpu (T7500). Chucked in a backpack and a colour laser printer and the whole thing came to ~2500 inc GST I think.

The worst thing about the whole process was waiting for the delivery; their tracking web page got spammed pretty hard!