Best laptop money can buy?

[dk]

I am looking to replace my A217 Sony 17" workhorse laptop.

I used it constantly for about 2-2 1/2 years now so it has been battered.

Its a pretty good spec at 2ghz (only single core though), 1gb ram, 100gb hdd, 256mb graphics card (think its 128mb dedicated) and something you can't beat with any other brand, a sony screen.

Its come to the point where I need a new one, running out of steam, need larger hdd, better performance etc.

So I was looking at the new Sony, the AR61ZU

http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowPro..._cons&pageType=Overview&category=VN+AR+Series

I don't think there is anything else on the market that can touch it at the moment, very fast dual core, 500gb (RAID 1 250gb) 4gb ram, blu ray recorder, built in tv tuner, 512mb graphics card and an amazing screen.

Anything anyone else can think of that I should be looking at to compare?

Only thing that is stopping me at the moment is stock, and lack of it!

 

[Daz]

I'd be looking at the new Thinkpad x300 if money was no object.. but I guess it depends what you want out of a laptop. I love my Dell D420 as it's really small and light.. but then, I don't like massive laptops which can make my breakfast for me.

I wouldn't touch a Vaio - but that's my opinion

 

[dk]

I'd be looking at the new Thinkpad x300 if money was no object.. but I guess it depends what you want out of a laptop. I love my Dell D420 as it's really small and light.. but then, I don't like massive laptops which can make my breakfast for me.

I wouldn't touch a Vaio - but that's my opinion

i need a desktop replacement, already have an 11" and a 15" for work (HP 6710p) so this is my 24x7 on laptop instead of a desktop.

I have always had sony (apart from my first laptop which was a pico) and I can't really fault them, they offer the best spec and quality IMO unless people have better ideas.

If the thinkpad was still made by IBM then i would look at it but lenovo are s**t, i've seen comparisons of ibm and lenovo built laptops and have seen the cost cutting they have made on the components and they really have ruined the brand, you can see why they are cheaper now, as they are using much cheaper components.

Dell, again, I have quality issues with them and their customer service is supposed to be second to everybody!

 

[Dafthead]

Put it towards the house fund instead fella! healthy chunk towards a mortgage!

 

[Dafthead]

But if you must, HP for me

 

[dk]

Put it towards the house fund instead fella! healthy chunk towards a mortgage!

I have the money for a house now, thats not a problem, just need to find one, i've joined the cliosport 50k a year club!

As for HP, thats my bread and butter and for business machines they are good but they dont do one high spec enough for me.

 

[Sargara]

Ok. Ive been in the whole laptop scene so to speak for the past 5yrs now after jacking in my desktop and ive come to the following conclusions about various manufactures:

- Sony. Good build quality, make alot of their own parts. Basically a windows version of a MAC.

- Macs. Again good build quality but limited to use of browsing, watching etc. Dont expect any gaming.

- Dell. Fine so long as nothing breaks and you have to go through their sh**e customer service! Best value for money.

- Alienware. Dell with an extra £300 slapped ontop due to paying for the name. Aimed soley at gamers.

- Rock. Best UK laptop manufacturer. Build quality is nothing special but everything has a 3yr warrenty as standard.

There are others out there such as Acer, HP etc but they tend to produce your more mass market average spec laptops.

Oh and dk a laptops "256mb video or 512mb video cards" means nothing really. You can get the lowest spec graphic card make itself sound good by slapping 512mb of VRAM on it but without the processing power to utilize it, its just another gimmic to make it sound impressive. Its all about the card name/model thats important in knowing what you will get from your £££. The Sonys and MACs due to their build quality will often sacrifice high performance video cards due to the heat they kick out.

 

[Tom]

MBP, best laptop money can buy.

 

[thecremeegg]

- Sony. Good build quality, make alot of their own parts. Basically a windows version of a MAC.

Thats not what most people including myself have found - you so much as look at a vaio the wrong way and it breaks! Not tough at all imo

Oh and dk a laptops "256mb video or 512mb video cards" means nothing really. You can get the lowest spec graphic card make itself sound good by slapping 512mb of VRAM on it but without the processing power to utilize it, its just another gimmic to make it sound impressive. Its all about the card name/model thats important in knowing what you will get from your £££. The Sonys and MACs due to their build quality will often sacrifice high performance video cards due to the heat they kick out.

The 8600GT in that Vaio is a very capable card, mid to low range desktop card, will easily handle the latest games at lower details

 

[Cookie]

Rock do some fairly decent desktop replacements dk

 

[The Ironist]

Dell XPS laptops are pretty good right now. I would recommend taking a look, mum just got herself a new one its not as high spec as the sony one you mentioned but she didnt go for a top spec one.

And if you ring the order line and complain about the fact that you could get the same laptop sent over from america and pay the import duties it would still be cheaper than buying it here then they will give you loads of stuff for free

 

[Sargara]

The 8600GT in that Vaio is a very capable card, mid to low range desktop card, will easily handle the latest games at lower details

the 8600M GT is only just able to play todays games, its the entry level DX10 graphics card for laptops and performs worse than high end DX9 graphics cards.

For benchmarks (they dont even categorise it in Class1):
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-8600M-GT.3986.0.html

That Vaio DK linked has a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 id imagine it will struggle in the long run. The tip to laptops is to get the best hardware possible at the time and that graphics card just wont cut it imo.

 

[Daz]

MBP, best laptop money can buy.

Kind of.
I sold mine within a year for less than half I paid for it, and replaced it with a Dell Latitude D420 - different types of laptop, so not really 100% fair, but for me, the Dell is much better

 

[JoelDee]

Get a MAC

 

[Galzzly]

Build your own, that way you know what you're getting and you can specify the spec.

 

[Richdog]

Sony are NOT one of the top laptop brands imo... they are frequently underspecced and over-priced, a bit like many Sony produicts.

If you want the best spec and build for your oney then go for a Rock and max the spec out, customer service is also briliant http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=XTREME 770

Build your own, that way you know what you're getting and you can specify the spec.

Build your own laptop... from scratch?

 

[Galzzly]

Build your own, that way you know what you're getting and you can specify the spec.

Build your own laptop... from scratch?

Yeah, I've seen a couple projects online that do it. Here's one

Can probably use the laptop case that's there already, and just stick all new components in it.

Was just a thought anyway.

 

[Richdog]

It's far more effort and trouble than its worth, i'm an experienced PC builder and i'd never build a laptop from scratch, it's a whole different kettle of fish to building a desktop PC, just not worth the hassle.

 

[Galzzly]

It's far more effort and trouble than its worth, i'm an experienced PC builder and i'd never build a laptop from scratch, it's a whole different kettle of fish to building a desktop PC, just not worth the hassle.

Probably right, does look nice and shiny though.

Some of the other ITX projects on there are pretty cool though as well... If open to suggestions, could build a PC that's really quite small, like mac-mini size or something.

Infact I'm sure that I remember seeing on there one where the case was made entirely of fans.

 

[oska]

Sony are NOT one of the top laptop brands imo... they are frequently underspecced and over-priced, a bit like many Sony products.

Maybe sometimes but that notebook is not underspecced and overpriced.

dk they are only just out so most places haven't received stock yet. Give it a couple of weeks.

 

[Ja5on]

still rate dell's very high.. We got one thats now 6 years old, just use it for GP4 and NR2K3 now but its never gone wrong once,

 

[David]

dell customer support is actually pretty good from a coperate perspective. Personally even normal service has been pretty good.

surely alienware is gonna be the best from well known brands...if you want the best money can buy...

Area51 Laptop -


8800M GTX G Card most powerful one out for laptops.
Core2Duo Extreme x9000 2.8 ghx chip most powerful for laptops
4g ram
65g solid state hdd (awesome) + 320g slave
blu ray writer
xi-fi audio
....

can't get better than that

 

[Richdog]

Sony are NOT one of the top laptop brands imo... they are frequently underspecced and over-priced, a bit like many Sony products.

Maybe sometimes but that notebook is not underspecced and overpriced.

dk they are only just out so most places haven't received stock yet. Give it a couple of weeks.

It has an 8600 GPU... very weak graphics in comparison to the 8800 series. For that money you would expect much more.

 

[thecremeegg]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NNB-597

Fastest laptop in the UK

 

[Richdog]

Not a bad price actually!

 

[David]

not as quick as the alienware..

 

[Richdog]

And how much is the Alienware, significantly more money perchance? The 65GB solid-state drive is a waste of money... they are currently nowhere near worth the premium they command.

EDIT - LOL your spec was over £3k! http://www.alienware.co.uk/Configur...sCode=PC-EU-LT-A51M15X-FC&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

 

[dk]

lots of good feedback here, and jsut to clear a few things up, the graphics card is not the most important component for me, i believe its a 512mb dedicated ram one, but as long as it plays blurays fine then thats all i'm bothered about.

I have a 360 and a PS3 for gaming so have no need to use the laptop for that purpose, more dvd's, blurays and the ocassional video editing probably.

ALienware are good, but IMO a little more overpriced than even a sony is, for the spec of the sony i think its pretty good, for £1600 anyway, its more powerful than most desktops out there!

Dells consumer CS puts me off, i'm sure if you are a big corporate then its fine, you can kick some arse but for joe bloggs you are at their mercy, sony on the other hand offer very good turnaround times on repairs.

Mac's, I have been SOOOO tempted to buy one several times, the specs normally don't seem high enough and I am worried about compatibility with apps i use, most things might work with it but i am bound to use something that won't and with a pc, i just don't have that issue or worry. When I am spending the kind of money i am i just don't want to regret buying one just to trial it to see if i like it!

 

[dk]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NNB-597

Fastest laptop in the UK

seems good although its let down by no bluray recorder and a small hdd.

if it had bluray and 500gb of hdd like the sony i would be VERY tempted!

 

[dk]

Sony are NOT one of the top laptop brands imo... they are frequently underspecced and over-priced, a bit like many Sony produicts.

If you want the best spec and build for your oney then go for a Rock and max the spec out, customer service is also briliant http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=XTREME 770

Build your own, that way you know what you're getting and you can specify the spec.

Build your own laptop... from scratch?

rock look pretty good, but speccing one to the same as the sony (with 250gb less hdd and only bluray player, not recorder) comes to £2k, so a bit pricey for the spec IMO.

 

[David]

And how much is the Alienware, significantly more money perchance? The 65GB solid-state drive is a waste of money... they are currently nowhere near worth the premium they command.

EDIT - LOL your spec was over £3k! http://www.alienware.co.uk/Configur...sCode=PC-EU-LT-A51M15X-FC&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

er.....well excuse me for going by the thread title...."best laptop money can buy". so erm, yes thats what i thought, i'm still right. :evil:

 

[dk]

And how much is the Alienware, significantly more money perchance? The 65GB solid-state drive is a waste of money... they are currently nowhere near worth the premium they command.

EDIT - LOL your spec was over £3k! http://www.alienware.co.uk/Configur...sCode=PC-EU-LT-A51M15X-FC&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

er.....well excuse me for going by the thread title...."best laptop money can buy". so erm, yes thats what i thought, i'm still right. :evil:

i guess there is a limit though, i should have put best laptop money can buy (for the money though)

I'd say the limit for any laptop is £2k unless you have a specific business purpose to have anything above that.

 

[David]

fair enough, i would say it's got to be an xps then as dell is generally the best value for money stuff really.

XPS M1730:
Dual SLi 8800m g card, core2duo extreme, 4 g ram, physix card, 400g raid 0, blu ray writer..
top spec is £3k but can spec it for around £2000. pretty good imo

 

[Richdog]

er.....well excuse me for going by the thread title...."best laptop money can buy". so erm, yes thats what i thought, i'm still right. :evil:

i guess there is a limit though, i should have put best laptop money can buy (for the money though)

I'd say the limit for any laptop is £2k unless you have a specific business purpose to have anything above that.

David, you still need to apply a bit of commons ense and judgement now and then, not everything is meant to be taken 100% literally...

I'd agree with you on the Dell though, thy are the best value for money at the mo.