What's the best laptop money can buy???

[wassup30]

Well i'm a computer enthusiast u can say and am looking for a high end laptop. As of right now alienware seems to have the best laptop available the aurora m9700, with a nice 17 inch monitor with 1920x1200 display sli video setup and raided hard drives, the problem i have with this computer is that it's running a 2.4 ghz turion chip. Now the reason why i say i have a problem with that is 1. its not as fast as the core duo's currently on the market and 2. it only supports ddr 400 mhz ram which is shitty...altho on the plus side it is a 64 bit chip, so when vista comes out it will be optimized for that OS and other 64 bit applications. I've seen killernotebooks and must say they got some pretty good laptops at a good price but no sli video and raided hard drive in a 17 inch 1920x1200 display configuration.

Well my question is can someone find me a laptop with raided hard drives, sli video setup and a 17inch monitor @ 1920x1200 that has a core duo or the new dual core amd chips (which should support 667 mhz ram from what i read).

 

[HardWareBoss]

Do you need more than 1 HD? Plus X2s coming soon. How soon do you need your new laptop?

 

[killernotebooks]

If I were you, I wouldn't RAID the hard drive. You didn't mention what type of RAID or why you wanted it, but I am assuming it is for speed so it would be a RAID0.

If that is the case, and it isn't for disk space, and it seems as if money isn't an option for you, I would go with a 18/32 GB Flash RAM drive for your OS & programs and a larger 5,400 rpm (120/160) hard drive for your data & media.

I believe the flash drive will be faster than a RAID0, it will save heat and battery power on your laptop, it won't wear out, and if just one disk in your RAID array goes out, you're outta luck. Now I know we all back up our data (in our minds) but in reality losing a hard drive sucks).

If it is for data storage/space, I think you would be better off with a SATA 320/400 GB external hard drive connect through the ExpressCard slot. More storage, and a lot cheaper per MB, and you don't sacrafice the speed. You can even get a RAIDed external hard drive.

I would HIGHLY discourage 1920x1200 WUXGA resolution on a 17" notebook. That is the resolution I have on a 24" LCD, and it is FAR too small for a 17" monitor. I offer it, but I don't recommend it. Bigger numbers look good on paper, but it is just way too small in reality.

I would also recommend DDR2-533 Mhz low latency RAM over the slower timed DDR2-667.

I guess I need to expand my product line again!

 

[HardWareBoss]

667 cas 5 533 cas 4. I have not found anything lower for those two. The lower are PC 2700 or 3200. Why can't they give us lower cas when the release the 667? Nice to have 667 but to slow.

 

[wassup30]

Great input, i appreciate it! I love the flash RAM idea. I think your right that probably would be alot faster than a hard drive. As for hard drives i think i'd want both flash ram and raided hard drive...... only cause i'm a greedy man, and yes i would want RAID0. As far as an external raided hard drive that would be outta the question i don't wanna be lugging around a notebook and a hard drive... as far as weight goes it could be 30 pounds for all i care same for battery life as long as it lasts me 30 mins i'm good cause i'll rarely be without a plugin.

Now for the 17inch 1920X1200 screen resolution i gotta have it...it might be smaller to look at and impractical at times but i don't care 😛 .... i wanna game to the max!

As for RAM i read the article on your webpage, let me say before anything that you have a very solid webpage there with alot of good information, congrats on that i was impressed. But as for lower bandwidth on the ram i'm still not 100% convinced that lower cas timings is better than higher bandwidth availability. Have u done any tests? any benchmarks proving what u claim? your probably right but i dunno, why are all the new systems coming out with higher bandwidth RAM if it's overall slower.

As for the chip i probably will wait for the X2's to become available. I would wait for the new intel chips cause there probably going to be even better but i want a laptop sooner rather than later.... and in all honesty i won't be able to notice a difference between the two processors because as with any system your processors are never ur bottleneck.

But anywayz killer thanks for the awesome feedback i appreciate it. And when u get the new X2's in let me know and i'll be the first knocking at ur door!!

If I were you, I wouldn't RAID the hard drive. You didn't mention what type of RAID or why you wanted it, but I am assuming it is for speed so it would be a RAID0.

If that is the case, and it isn't for disk space, and it seems as if money isn't an option for you, I would go with a 18/32 GB Flash RAM drive for your OS & programs and a larger 5,400 rpm (120/160) hard drive for your data & media.

I believe the flash drive will be faster than a RAID0, it will save heat and battery power on your laptop, it won't wear out, and if just one disk in your RAID array goes out, you're outta luck. Now I know we all back up our data (in our minds) but in reality losing a hard drive sucks).

If it is for data storage/space, I think you would be better off with a SATA 320/400 GB external hard drive connect through the ExpressCard slot. More storage, and a lot cheaper per MB, and you don't sacrafice the speed. You can even get a RAIDed external hard drive.

I would HIGHLY discourage 1920x1200 WUXGA resolution on a 17" notebook. That is the resolution I have on a 24" LCD, and it is FAR too small for a 17" monitor. I offer it, but I don't recommend it. Bigger numbers look good on paper, but it is just way too small in reality.

I would also recommend DDR2-533 Mhz low latency RAM over the slower timed DDR2-667.

I guess I need to expand my product line again!

 

[killernotebooks]

why are all the new systems coming out with higher bandwidth RAM if it's overall slower.

A question of cost really. I don't use cheap components, I use what will be fastest, my competitors use what they can make the most money on. Because everyone else is using it, is not testament to it being good. Everyone else is using (2) 512 MB chips to get to 1 Gig, that's not thinking about what's best, that's thinking about saving a few bucks.

I moved from CAS 2.5 to CAS 2.0 on my AMD line and it increased my per chip cost about $30. Can you imagine DELL increasing their chip cost by even $10 (times how ever many computers they sell) and explaining that to their shareholders?

Ok, we have been marketed to death that we need dual core processors. If we need dual core processors then we are multitasking and each app is multithreded. RAM is not being accessed in gigantic chunks and sitting there sending vast quantities of data at full bandwidth endlessly. If we actually are using our computers in such a way as the processor is designed then we are accessing a lot of smaller chunks of data from different programs almost instentaneously. Therefore wouldn't the DELAY in the RAM's timing be the most important factor? If it isn't, and you are using the FULL BANDWIDTH of DDR2, then you might as well have a single core processor.

You aren't going to be able to have a flash RAM drive and 2 RAIDed hard drives unless you now find a computer that can take 3 hard drives. 2 will need to become 1 RAID array and 1 will need to be the flash RAM drive.

You state you NEED WUXGA 1920x1200 resolution for the best gaming experience, but the higher the resolution the slower the frame rate, the more you tax your GPU, the more heat you generate. Not only that, what is the response time of this notebook LCD running WUXGA resolution? Are you going to have the clearest ghosted images in your games?

Once you actually GET the 1920 x 1200 resolution on that 17" display you will see what I mean. It is incredibly small, it isn't, oh this is a little small, it is, "This is downright annoying and unreadable... I have a headache small."

 

[wassup30]

Ok i agree with u on the RAM issue better cas timing is more important.

You aren't going to be able to have a flash RAM drive and 2 RAIDed hard drives unless you now find a computer that can take 3 hard drives. 2 will need to become 1 RAID array and 1 will need to be the flash RAM drive.

I'm guessing this is not available ... that being the case as much as i like the flash RAM idea i'd probably stick with the raided hard drives.

You state you NEED WUXGA 1920x1200 resolution for the best gaming experience, but the higher the resolution the slower the frame rate, the more you tax your GPU, the more heat you generate. Not only that, what is the response time of this notebook LCD running WUXGA resolution? Are you going to have the clearest ghosted images in your games?

As far as clearest yes u will have the clearest picutre. As far as heat...thas not an issue unless things start to break in which case i should be able to take it back on warranty as long as i didn't mess with the factory specs. "more tax on my GPU" what do i have a sli laptop with the best video cards on the market for....let them tax away at it. and of course the frame rate will be slower but as long as its above 60 u won't notice "slow down" and the graphics will be stunning! ...response time...well i'm not sure ur the one selling that monitor...u tell me what the response time is...as long as it's at least 8ms were good to go.

Once you actually GET the 1920 x 1200 resolution on that 17" display you will see what I mean. It is incredibly small, it isn't, oh this is a little small, it is, "This is downright annoying and unreadable... I have a headache small."

This paragraph made me laugh...lol...but seriously tho if it's THAT small i can always change the resolution in windows to something acceptable or better yet change the font to large in the windows settings that should fix the readability problems.

 

[killernotebooks]

I'm guessing this is not available ... that being the case as much as i like the flash RAM idea i'd probably stick with the raided hard drives.

They have 16 & 32 GB flash RAM drives out from SuperTalent and Samsung respectively, 32 Gb is pleanty for OS & Programs.

As far as clearest yes u will have the clearest picutre.

That you can't see.

I want to know what games support 1920 resolution first, second, if you change the resolution in Windows the picture will not be as good (because you have taaken it out of its native resolution) and that completely negates the whole point of the WUXGA.

If heat isn't an issue, then by all means let the sucker go, let it melt its way through your legs straight through to China.

My advice, get it. Get it with all that stuff.

 

[killernotebooks]

64 GB flash RAM drive from PQI

 

[wassup30]

Wow thas interesting! I think ur right these flash drives might be the way to go...along with another big hard drive.

But that means i'll have to wait t'ill august ....well i guess i can just upgrade later...

Well as soon as those X2's come out i'm getting a laptop baby!....have they set a release date for the month or is it still up in the air?

 

[killernotebooks]

You don't really need to wait until August, you just need to plan out your system portfolio.

This is what I would do
Executioner
Intel Core Duo processor (You upgrade later to the Merom 64 bit Core Duo 2)

100/120 GB 7,200 rpm hard drive, partition it 30%/70%, the 30% for the OS & Programs 70% for data and media. This will act as your main drive now, and will eventually be your media or data drive later, you could also use a larger 5,400 rpm drive if you feel it necessary for more space.(you will add the flash RAM drive later, when reasonably available [remember in the month and a half since HardWare Boss and I have been saying, "They need flash RAM drives in notebooks" they have come out with a 18 Gb then a 32 Gb now a 64 GB... that's a month and a half]).

The optical drive of the Executioner can hold a second hard drive. When you ge the flash RAM drive you use Acronis True Image to ghost your current hard drive OS partition to your flash drive, use Partition magic to delete your current OS partition and expland your data/media partiton from 70% to 100%.

There you go. You have it all. You get it today, you get the big 7900 GTX video, the gorgeous 17" screen SXGA+ or WUXGA... you get to upgrade to everything you want with the 64 bit core duo 2, the flash RAM drive, and all you needed was someone to help you plan it.

 

[wassup30]

couple questions for u ...1.whats the deal with the 4 gigs of ram by Dell and can u get it? 2. what do u tihnk about overclocking in laptops...any good cooling solutions or recommendations. 3. what kind of waranty do u offer on ur laptops? 4. and just my question from before when do u think they'll have a motherboard suitable for the X2.

 

[wassup30]

oh just one more thing...thats a sweet setup and planning that u mentioned theres jsut one thing missing the sli video setup.....thas a must if i wanna run things smoothly at 1920X 1200 resolution ... if u had that setup with sli video i would probably take it off ur hands.

 

[killernotebooks]

1. Dell commissioned 2 GB ram chips from Infieon (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). I have no idea why, other than to say, "4 GB of RAM" (that Windows can't even use properly. I think it's kind of foolish. i can not get them.
2. You don't need to overclock this sytem, it is going to be unGodly to begin with
3. My warranty is 1 year, with 2 year uppgrade available
4. X2 motherboard...a month at the latest.

I don't have a dual 7900 GTX set up yet. I'm sure I will soon.

 

[wassup30]

how about sli Go 7900 GS ?

 

[killernotebooks]

Nope, and if you are going to do dual SLi I recommend the 7900 GS over the GTX because it uses less power and generates less heat.

Naturally, the new Go 7900 GS and GTX are based on the same 90nm G71 GPU as the desktop 7900 cards. The GPU has been tweaked for even lower power consumption in this application: the Go 7900 GTX draws only 45W, a major step down from the Go 7800 GTX's 65W. As for the Go 7900 GS, it draws just 20W.

 

[HardWareBoss]

Nice to see the 64GB flash drives. 128 will be coming soon. Just need the prices to drop.

 

[killernotebooks]

Isn't it funny though that in the month and a half we were talking about"What a notebook computer needs" it just basically appeared.

I mean, let's go back 2 years with a time machine and tell those mooks using a Pentium M 1.83 and a 60 GB 7,200 rpm hard drive and 54g wireless what was coming.

 

[HardWareBoss]

Shows you how fast things are moving. Alot has changed since I bought my laptop last July.

 

[Mech]

oh no kidding. Feels like it was yesterday that Intel came out with the "Centrino" line...and now we're talking about Core 2 Duo lol. Time sure flies...