Buying a Laptop

Moderators: Jason Susnjara, Larry Epplin, Clint Buechlein, Scott G Vaal

Post Reply
leigh mills
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed, Jan 23 2008, 9:49AM
Location: England UK

Buying a Laptop

Post by leigh mills »

Hi,

I need some help with buying a laptop,I have looked at the recommended laptop systems which is:
Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M6300, or
HP Compaq 8710w Mobile Workstation
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7700
Windows XP Professional
2 GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM Memory
80GB Hard Drive (7200RPM)
NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1600M OpenGL Graphics Adapter
Integrated Ethernet
24X max/10X min CD-ROM Drive
Two-button mouse w/Scroll
Broadband Internet Access
Microsoft Office Basic Edition (Word, Excel, Outlook
This was last updated in 2007, so things have now changed. So is anyone able to give me an up to date version? This is because on the site it displays that ecabinet systems isnt compatible with Vista. This is also a problem now when buying a laptop as they are all installed with vista.

Could someone please help me out, I guess the requirments are still the same so I need a work round for Vista, and if there are any other comments that people can give to me before I buy I will be very greatful.

Thanks,

Leigh Mills
Nick M Singer
Guru Member
Posts: 828
Joined: Fri, Jun 17 2005, 12:23AM
Location: South Africa

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Nick M Singer »

Leigh I highly recommend the DELL Precision M90 with a quadro fx3500. I note that there are still some on eBay with win XP
leigh mills
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed, Jan 23 2008, 9:49AM
Location: England UK

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by leigh mills »

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the reply.

This is a very pricey laptop, I am looking to spend between 400 - 600 pounds, 600 max really. Are you able to give any more recommendations? Do I definitely have to have XP, can I not get Vista and download some compatibility software?

Thanks,

Leigh Mills
Glenn Warner
Senior Member
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed, May 18 2005, 10:00AM
Company Name: Expressions in Wood
Country: UNITED STATES
Location: FLEMINGTON

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Glenn Warner »

Try the dell outlet. I just checked and there are 118 precision workstations with win xp pro. I have an M90 from the outlet and couldn't be happier with it. Amazing, though, how much prices have dropped in just one year.
leigh mills
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed, Jan 23 2008, 9:49AM
Location: England UK

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by leigh mills »

Hi just took a look at the outlook and could only seem to find an M70 and M20. Is there any chance you could paste the Link

Thanks
Nick M Singer
Guru Member
Posts: 828
Joined: Fri, Jun 17 2005, 12:23AM
Location: South Africa

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Nick M Singer »

They seem to be in the range of $350 to $550 on eBay very cheap. I bought mine last year through Dell SA and coughed R26000.00... $500.00 is only about R4000.00 so it really stings to see how much they cost now.
Gary Puckett
Wizard Member
Posts: 1324
Joined: Mon, May 19 2008, 1:39PM
Company Name: The Woodworkery
Location: Saint Charles, Missouri
Contact:

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Gary Puckett »

When do you think this vista problem will be fixed, or will it ?

Gary
HP Pavilion
Vista home Premium 64bit S. pack 2
AMD Phenom-X4
9850 Quad-Core Processor
6.0GB/Go Memory
1 TB/To Hard Drive
Nividia GeForce 9800 GT
leigh mills
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed, Jan 23 2008, 9:49AM
Location: England UK

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by leigh mills »

surely there must be other lap tops that people use? Is it an absolute no no to Vista?
Jean G Voyer
Guru Member
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue, May 17 2005, 1:38PM
Company Name: Janot Interiors Ltd
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Contact:

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Jean G Voyer »

Leigh,

It's not but it's highly recommended by Thermwood.
Jean-Gabriel Voyer
Janot Interiors Ltd
www.customcabinetscalgary.com
Dell Precision PWS490, Intel Xeon CPU,3.00 GB Ram, Window XP Pro, Quadro Fx 3500
leigh mills
Senior Member
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed, Jan 23 2008, 9:49AM
Location: England UK

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by leigh mills »

So is the Dell M90 and Dell M4300 the only laptops that people recommend?
Glenn Warner
Senior Member
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed, May 18 2005, 10:00AM
Company Name: Expressions in Wood
Country: UNITED STATES
Location: FLEMINGTON

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Glenn Warner »

Here is a link with 23 M90's with WinXP
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSale ... l=en&s=dfb

Sorry you'll have to enter the filter criteria - model and operating system to narrow it down.
Nick M Singer
Guru Member
Posts: 828
Joined: Fri, Jun 17 2005, 12:23AM
Location: South Africa

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Nick M Singer »

Leigh I dont think it is critical that it is a Dell per se, what is important is to get the right processor, amount of RAM and a workstation class graphics card. There are others that meet these criterion but they are all pricey puppies.
Robin Thompson
New Member
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun, Oct 09 2005, 1:39PM

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Robin Thompson »

I must be missing something
I am running 5.2 on an HP Pavilion dv6000 as it came from the box. AMD64 Athlon X2, NVIDIA graphics with Vista.
I had no problem installing ecabs and everthing seems to run fine.
Robin
Lamar Horton
Senior Member
Posts: 222
Joined: Sun, Dec 11 2005, 1:22PM
Location: Kennedale, Texas
Contact:

Re: Buying a Laptop

Post by Lamar Horton »

We just bought a Toshiba Satellite L350. Vista home premium, 3 gig ram Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 8MB to 256MB shared memory (dynamically allocated)

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/1 ... Processor/

It does OK, on larger stuff it slows down but still work.

Ask again in a few months after we have had a chance to really use it.
Post Reply