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Looking at this notebook...

SK6

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
Looking at this notebook. Anyone have one or what is your opinion?

I had a catastrophic loss these past 4 days, so it would seem I have to get a new computer and start from scratch.


Its a Gateway at Bestbuy

Your help is greatly appreciated.

BTW: $1500.00 is my max budget
 
untitledsince89

untitledsince89

Turbo Monkey
Nov 11, 2005
1,316
0
Winston-Salem NC
Gateway rates the worst in terms of repairs in consumer reports
With a 1500 budget you can get your sell a pretty nice macbook
with everything any other computers has and better quality
 
SK6

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
LordOpie said:
why do you need that computer?

this one is half the price and almost as good.
Click to expand...
I wanted to get 2 gigs of ram, and since I do all of my school work on the computer, that system has a boatload of stuff that will at least carry me through 3 years.

And actually, I found that gateways reputation is coming around, but I could be wrong.

The Mac's are real interesting. Bigmike has one that's real sweat and it dual boots to a Mac and XP os.
 
LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
So why not get the slightly less powerful Gateway and put in an extra 1gbRAM? You'd save like $600.
 
SK6

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
LordOpie said:
So why not get the slightly less powerful Gateway and put in an extra 1gbRAM? You'd save like $600.
Click to expand...
Because of the display. I've been doing CAD for 20 years and I have grown accustom to the the larger displays. That coupled with the fact this would also be a desktop replacement. Otherwise your choice would be perfect. I like the HP, but to get it would be 3 weeks out, and my desktop is poo.
 
LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
do you do most of your CAD work at your desk or around town?

For LESS money than the larger laptop, you could get the cheaper laptop AND a 21" external display, combined with the 15.5" laptop display for your tool pallettes and you're talking about a lot of monitor workspace.


But really, it sounds like you've already made up your mind and just looking for some approval for you're decision. So go for it, get the laptop you want.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,111
1,166
NC
Here's my $0.02:

IMO, big, heavy laptops suck. The point of a laptop is to be light and portable. Big screens do not lend themselves to portability, both from a size and weight standpoint while carrying it, and from a usability standpoint when using it on the go.

If I needed a laptop and couldn't have both a laptop and a desktop, I'd buy the smallest, lightest laptop I could afford that met my performance specs, and a big monitor to plug it into at home.

If I have my way, my next laptop will be an ultraportable with a 12 or 13" screen, and an extended life battery. Never again will I own a bulky or heavy laptop.

That said, you know your own needs best. I've heard lots of bad things about Gateway's customer service, and would probably go with an equivalent Dell for less money since I've had only good experiences with Dell. Gateway's actual equipment seems to be okay these days, though, so likely you won't have a problem.
 
SK6

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
LordOpie said:
do you do most of your CAD work at your desk or around town?

For LESS money than the larger laptop, you could get the cheaper laptop AND a 21" external display, combined with the 15.5" laptop display for your tool pallettes and you're talking about a lot of monitor workspace.


But really, it sounds like you've already made up your mind and just looking for some approval for you're decision. So go for it, get the laptop you want.
Click to expand...

No not actually, this is the banter I was looking for. Your opinions and ideas are quite intriguing actually.

Which beings me too your commentary about the external monitor. Could it be used as a secondary monitor, in essence a dual monitor system?
 
Transcend

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
Tiny laptop is where it's at. I used to own a dell 8200, super mega powerful laptop at the time it was released, it weighed 9 lbs. It was pure hell to cart all over europe and such last year. My g4 powerbook is around 4.5 pounds, and was one of the determining factors in buying it. The 15 inch wide-screen is fine for doing all but the most annoying of development tasks (flash-ugh), and when i owned only this machine, I plugged it into a large 21" or larger display when at home or the office.

Gigantic desktop replacement laptops are annoying. You have less power, more cost and in the end, still have a relatively small display.

Yes, you can use the monitor as a 2 display setup on most systems. It works wonderfully on my mac.
 
H8R

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
sirknight6 said:
Which beings me too your commentary about the external monitor. Could it be used as a secondary monitor, in essence a dual monitor system?
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Laptop monitor as the tools monitor, then get a nice big LCD as the document monitor.

Dual screens in CAD and Photoshop totally rocks.
 
SK6

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
sirknight6 said:
No not actually, this is the banter I was looking for. Your opinions and ideas are quite intriguing actually.

Which beings me too your commentary about the external monitor. Could it be used as a secondary monitor, in essence a dual monitor system?
Click to expand...
I should rephrase, how bad is the memory hit on the system and video?
 
LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
sirknight6 said:
No not actually, this is the banter I was looking for. Your opinions and ideas are quite intriguing actually.

Which beings me too your commentary about the external monitor. Could it be used as a secondary monitor, in essence a dual monitor system?
Click to expand...
cool then.

Yes. "dual monitor system" is exactly what I'm suggesting. I do it at home and work. You can mirror the two monitors for presentations and you can seperate them to display different stuff. Like on the smaller one, I put all my tool pallettes or another application that I need to reference at the same time.

All you need is VGA out port. Which nearly every laptop these days have. The description didn't say, but the photos showed the port.
 
LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
sirknight6 said:
I should rephrase, how bad is the memory hit on the system and video?
Click to expand...
I don't think those laptops have dedicated memory, but with with 1Gb or more RAM, it's not a problem.

For $1500, you could get a more than powerful enough desktop PC (~$600) with dual monitor ($300) setup and a new cheap laptop ($500) for the road that would work well enough for all but your serious projects.
 
SK6

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
The laptop idea for the portability (IE: trips to the library) is appealing.

Dual monitors are typically awesome. It's been a long time since I have worked on one.

***EDIT***

I think if I go that route then 2 megs of Ram would be a better idea.


***EDIT***
 
H8R

H8R

Cranky Pants
Nov 10, 2004
13,959
35
sirknight6 said:
The laptop idea for the portability (IE: trips to the library) is appealing.


I think if I go that route then 2 megs of Ram would be a better idea.


***EDIT***
Click to expand...
Heck, go crazy and get like, 8 megs of ram.

:biggrin:
 
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