Going mobile...

PoisonWaffle · 05-27-2006, 04:37 PM

I'm trying to decide on a laptop, and I'd like a bit of input

I was thinking of getting one from www.ibuypower.com or www.bestbuy.com...

The one I was looking at from best buy is this HP for $1399- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1142288702786

or

Battalion 101 CLS-Turbo from ibuypower for $1660 - http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...r.aspx?mid=177

Case ( Battalion-101 CLS-Turbo Series 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Ca Reflective Orion Blue Color )
Processor ( Mobile AMD® Turion™64 MT-40 CPU [2.2GHz, 1MB Cache] w/Hyper Transport Technology )
Free Software/Game ( Free Game - [Age of Empires III] with purchase of any AMD Athlon-64 X2 or Mobile Turion based system )
Memory ( 1024MB [1024MB X1] DDR-400 PC-3200 [Notebook Memory] Corsair )
Video Card ( [New !!!] Mobility 256MB ATI Radeon X1600 PCI-Express 3D Video )
Hard Drive ( 80 GB 7200rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8X Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive [CLS-Turbo] )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Notebook] )
Network Card ( Build-in 10/100 Network LAN [Notebook] )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 4x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] )
Car/Air Charger ( Notebook/Laptop Car Charger Inverter )
Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case )
Operation System ( MS Windows XP Professional Edition w/Service Pack-2 )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] )
Video Camera ( Build-in CMOS Digital Web Video Camera 1.3Mega Pixels )
Headset ( None )
Wireless Network Adapter ( [FREE] Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

I'm rather set on an AMD Turion CPU, so unless you guys have anything against them, I'm gonna go with that CPU for sure...

Graphics I'm not too picky about just as long as it's decent or rather good.

There's still one more slot in the ibuypower notebook, so I can upgrade to 2gb if I need to...

I'm thinkin' I'm gonna go with the ibuypower notebook, but I'm not sure... it's blue

Any input/feedback would be appreciated

Thanks!

rhino56 · 05-27-2006, 05:35 PM

that sounds like a nice laptop really. thats about what i paid for my asus z71v like a year ago. arent the dothans still just a bit faster than those though?

PoisonWaffle · 05-28-2006, 06:17 PM

I'm not sure about the dothan chips, but ibuypower doesn't have them available on anything, so methinks I'm going to have to skip the dothan thing...

I guess the main thing I'm worried about is the reliability of the laptop and of the company that makes it. I saw an ad for the place in MaxiumumPC magazine, and the specs of the machines they had listed there looked like they were just what I was lookin' for, so I went to the site and fell in love with everything they have (other than the prices on the desktops they sell... can build for cheaper... hell, you don't pay $8,000 for an FX-60 rig w/2x 7900GTX's in SLI...)...

I guess I haven't heard anything about them from anybody other than people on their 'customer testemonials' page. I haven't heard anyone's first hand views on them, and I really have no idea what I'm getting other than a list of specs. I don't know if the thing will run hot enough that you can fry eggs on the bottom of it (or the family jewels), or if it's got a decent enough cooling system to actually use as a LAPtop, etc...

What's the newest/biggest/bestest/baddest-ass GPU that ATI has out, btw?

Thanks

rhino56 · 05-28-2006, 09:05 PM

well they dont have a very high rating and that would scare me about dealings with them
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2001.html

i got my laptop at
http://www.proportable.com/
which has a pretty amazing rating

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller5631.html

PoisonWaffle · 05-28-2006, 11:05 PM

Hmm... that's definately worth considering...

I'll have a look around proportable and see if I can find anything I like...

I might still go with ibuypower, but I'm definately considering not...

Thanks

PoisonWaffle · 05-28-2006, 11:31 PM

Hmm... Had a look 'round, and I don't really like anything they have... they're just not FLASHY enough! This kinda has a lot to do with me being the case modder type... I gotta have all the bells and whistles and little things that make me totally stand out, and make people go "WTF?!?"

I don't like to blend in... everything's gotta be totally different than normal (recall my ear piercing? <----- note the av over there? wonder why I've got some odd 250 LED's in my computer (they consume most of the power the PSU puts out)?, etc?)...

I dunno... I need something flashy, yet freakin' shnazzy with decent graphics and a decent CPU... all for a decent price...

Proportable looks like it's a REALLY small company, if 'theres only a dozen left!', and 200 some reviews on resellerratings. They've got the Turion based notebooks listed, but not available, and when you click most of the links on the homepage you get a 'no search results' page. I dunno, aside from the resellerratings rating and your own rating of the site, I don't see anything good about buying from proportable...

I dunno... thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind, but I don't think I'll buy from there...

</ramble>

rhino56 · 07-22-2006, 09:54 PM

what laptop have you decided on?

PoisonWaffle · 07-22-2006, 09:58 PM

The price has dropped on the lappy from ibuypower, and it's got better features now (not by much, but by a bit)...

I'm definately going with ibuypower unless anybody can find a really good deal anywhere else on anything really nice...

I might not go with that exact model, but I might go with something with not quite as good graphics (x700 gpu instead of x1600)...not sure yet...

Thx for the concern tho

rhino56 · 07-22-2006, 10:02 PM

i would go with the new intel core duo over the turion.

PoisonWaffle · 07-22-2006, 10:10 PM

Scratch that, DEFINATELY going core duo! That's the conroe, right? or is that dothan? I dunno, all the intel names have me confused, but I like this lappy

Check this:

Case ( Battalion-101 HEL-80 15.4" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Case Original Metalic Silver Color )
Processor ( Intel® Core Duo Processor T2500 (2.0GHz/2M Cache/677FSB) )
Free Software/Game ( Free Game --- World of Warcraft with purchase of any INTEL based systems or Mobile notebook )
Memory ( 1024MB(1024MB X1) DDR2-533 PC4200 [Notebook Memory] Corsair )
Video Card ( [New !!!] Mobility 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7600GT PCI-Express 3D Video )
Hard Drive ( 80 GB 5400rpm Serial-ATA-150 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [HEL-80] )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.90 Fax Modem [Notebook] )
Network Card ( Build-in 10/100/1000 Network LAN [Notebook] )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] )
Car/Air Charger ( Notebook/Laptop Car Charger Inverter )
Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case )
Operation System ( MS Windows XP Professional Edition w/Service Pack-2 )
Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] )
Wireless Network Adapter ( [Free !!!] Intel® Wireless 802.11 a/b/g 3945 Mini-Card )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) [RUSH !!!], Ship Out in Next Business Day )

I can go up a notch on a few things, but it's not really worth it...

I don't really need the 2.16ghz cpu over 2.0ghz, and a couple extra gigs on the HD ain't worth that much to me 'cause I've got all my stuff on my media server and I can stream everything to my lappy (or other comps) whenever I need it. The main idea behind setting up the server was so I could do this, and that's what I'm going to do...so I don't need a big drive (or a very fast one... but 7200rpm would be prefered, but they don't have 'em on this model)...

Waddaya think!?

05-27-2006, 04:37 PM	#1 (permalink)
PoisonWaffle Command Sergeant Major Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 933	Going mobile... I'm trying to decide on a laptop, and I'd like a bit of input I was thinking of getting one from www.ibuypower.com or www.bestbuy.com... The one I was looking at from best buy is this HP for $1399- http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1142288702786 or Battalion 101 CLS-Turbo from ibuypower for $1660 - http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...r.aspx?mid=177 Case ( Battalion-101 CLS-Turbo Series 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Ca Reflective Orion Blue Color ) Processor ( Mobile AMD® Turion™64 MT-40 CPU [2.2GHz, 1MB Cache] w/Hyper Transport Technology ) Free Software/Game ( Free Game - [Age of Empires III] with purchase of any AMD Athlon-64 X2 or Mobile Turion based system ) Memory ( 1024MB [1024MB X1] DDR-400 PC-3200 [Notebook Memory] Corsair ) Video Card ( [New !!!] Mobility 256MB ATI Radeon X1600 PCI-Express 3D Video ) Hard Drive ( 80 GB 7200rpm ATA-100 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive ) CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8X Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive [CLS-Turbo] ) Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard ) Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Notebook] ) Network Card ( Build-in 10/100 Network LAN [Notebook] ) USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 4x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] ) Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] ) Car/Air Charger ( Notebook/Laptop Car Charger Inverter ) Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case ) Operation System ( MS Windows XP Professional Edition w/Service Pack-2 ) IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] ) Video Camera ( Build-in CMOS Digital Web Video Camera 1.3Mega Pixels ) Headset ( None ) Wireless Network Adapter ( [FREE] Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module ) Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support ) Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days ) I'm rather set on an AMD Turion CPU, so unless you guys have anything against them, I'm gonna go with that CPU for sure... Graphics I'm not too picky about just as long as it's decent or rather good. There's still one more slot in the ibuypower notebook, so I can upgrade to 2gb if I need to... I'm thinkin' I'm gonna go with the ibuypower notebook, but I'm not sure... it's blue Any input/feedback would be appreciated Thanks! __________________

05-28-2006, 06:17 PM	#3 (permalink)
PoisonWaffle Command Sergeant Major Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 933	I'm not sure about the dothan chips, but ibuypower doesn't have them available on anything, so methinks I'm going to have to skip the dothan thing... I guess the main thing I'm worried about is the reliability of the laptop and of the company that makes it. I saw an ad for the place in MaxiumumPC magazine, and the specs of the machines they had listed there looked like they were just what I was lookin' for, so I went to the site and fell in love with everything they have (other than the prices on the desktops they sell... can build for cheaper... hell, you don't pay $8,000 for an FX-60 rig w/2x 7900GTX's in SLI...)... I guess I haven't heard anything about them from anybody other than people on their 'customer testemonials' page. I haven't heard anyone's first hand views on them, and I really have no idea what I'm getting other than a list of specs. I don't know if the thing will run hot enough that you can fry eggs on the bottom of it (or the family jewels), or if it's got a decent enough cooling system to actually use as a LAPtop, etc... What's the newest/biggest/bestest/baddest-ass GPU that ATI has out, btw? Thanks __________________

05-28-2006, 11:05 PM	#5 (permalink)
PoisonWaffle Command Sergeant Major Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 933	Hmm... that's definately worth considering... I'll have a look around proportable and see if I can find anything I like... I might still go with ibuypower, but I'm definately considering not... Thanks __________________

05-28-2006, 11:31 PM	#6 (permalink)
PoisonWaffle Command Sergeant Major Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 933	Hmm... Had a look 'round, and I don't really like anything they have... they're just not FLASHY enough! This kinda has a lot to do with me being the case modder type... I gotta have all the bells and whistles and little things that make me totally stand out, and make people go "WTF?!?" I don't like to blend in... everything's gotta be totally different than normal (recall my ear piercing? <----- note the av over there? wonder why I've got some odd 250 LED's in my computer (they consume most of the power the PSU puts out)?, etc?)... I dunno... I need something flashy, yet freakin' shnazzy with decent graphics and a decent CPU... all for a decent price... Proportable looks like it's a REALLY small company, if 'theres only a dozen left!', and 200 some reviews on resellerratings. They've got the Turion based notebooks listed, but not available, and when you click most of the links on the homepage you get a 'no search results' page. I dunno, aside from the resellerratings rating and your own rating of the site, I don't see anything good about buying from proportable... I dunno... thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind, but I don't think I'll buy from there... </ramble> __________________

07-22-2006, 09:58 PM	#8 (permalink)
PoisonWaffle Command Sergeant Major Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 933	The price has dropped on the lappy from ibuypower, and it's got better features now (not by much, but by a bit)... I'm definately going with ibuypower unless anybody can find a really good deal anywhere else on anything really nice... I might not go with that exact model, but I might go with something with not quite as good graphics (x700 gpu instead of x1600)...not sure yet... Thx for the concern tho __________________

05-27-2006, 05:35 PM	#2 (permalink)
rhino56 Administrator General Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 6,813	that sounds like a nice laptop really. thats about what i paid for my asus z71v like a year ago. arent the dothans still just a bit faster than those though?

05-28-2006, 09:05 PM	#4 (permalink)
rhino56 Administrator General Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 6,813	well they dont have a very high rating and that would scare me about dealings with them http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2001.html i got my laptop at http://www.proportable.com/ which has a pretty amazing rating http://www.resellerratings.com/seller5631.html

07-22-2006, 09:54 PM	#7 (permalink)
rhino56 Administrator General Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 6,813	what laptop have you decided on?

07-22-2006, 10:02 PM	#9 (permalink)
rhino56 Administrator General Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 6,813	i would go with the new intel core duo over the turion.

07-22-2006, 10:10 PM	#10 (permalink)
PoisonWaffle Command Sergeant Major Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 933	Scratch that, DEFINATELY going core duo! That's the conroe, right? or is that dothan? I dunno, all the intel names have me confused, but I like this lappy Check this: Case ( Battalion-101 HEL-80 15.4" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Case Original Metalic Silver Color ) Processor ( Intel® Core Duo Processor T2500 (2.0GHz/2M Cache/677FSB) ) Free Software/Game ( Free Game --- World of Warcraft with purchase of any INTEL based systems or Mobile notebook ) Memory ( 1024MB(1024MB X1) DDR2-533 PC4200 [Notebook Memory] Corsair ) Video Card ( [New !!!] Mobility 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7600GT PCI-Express 3D Video ) Hard Drive ( 80 GB 5400rpm Serial-ATA-150 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive ) CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [HEL-80] ) Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard ) Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.90 Fax Modem [Notebook] ) Network Card ( Build-in 10/100/1000 Network LAN [Notebook] ) USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] ) Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] ) Car/Air Charger ( Notebook/Laptop Car Charger Inverter ) Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case ) Operation System ( MS Windows XP Professional Edition w/Service Pack-2 ) Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None ) IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] ) Wireless Network Adapter ( [Free !!!] Intel® Wireless 802.11 a/b/g 3945 Mini-Card ) Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support ) Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) [RUSH !!!], Ship Out in Next Business Day ) I can go up a notch on a few things, but it's not really worth it... I don't really need the 2.16ghz cpu over 2.0ghz, and a couple extra gigs on the HD ain't worth that much to me 'cause I've got all my stuff on my media server and I can stream everything to my lappy (or other comps) whenever I need it. The main idea behind setting up the server was so I could do this, and that's what I'm going to do...so I don't need a big drive (or a very fast one... but 7200rpm would be prefered, but they don't have 'em on this model)... Waddaya think!? __________________