New laptop suggestions please

[WhiteD3]

Time for a new laptop for work apparently :) , my pick, up to $2000.

Apart from general work stuff which is mainly MS Office, its other use will be crunching photos in CS5. These are big fioles, typically 80 MB but can be up to 500MB for a pano.

My current pick is this but I'd welcome any suggestions:

Asus N73SV-TY572V
Core i7 2670QM
17.3" LED HD+
1.5TB HDD
12G RAM
BLURAY RW
GT540M/2G
WiFi N
Bluetooth
Webcam
USB 3.0
Win7 Home Premium upgraded to Pro.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Notebooks- ASUS N73SV (http://www.asus.com.au/Notebooks/Multimedia_Entertainment/N73SV/)

[fsfer]

Going from what you said about the image files, any brand should suffice but try and go for a laptop that has a nvidia graphics card that has "cuda cores". ie "GTX- ####" etc,
CS5 will use your graphics card (the cuda cores) and things will become very fast. You will need to download a support file to update your CS5 so it works with the graphics card you have. Just google cuda cores CS5 and you should be right.

[austastar]

Hi,
I went for a Lenovo on advice from my son who services lap tops, he says they are a solid unit, well built and have quality components.
I've had this one nearly 3 years with no problems.

cheers

[funkyfedaykin]

My 2c:

I work on desktops & laptops a fair bit for work & muck around with them in my spare time.

IMO Dell is best. Now I know everybody has a "Dell horror story", but in truth they work well for us, partly because the machines run well, but mostly because of their great customer service & prompt on site repair, which is an essential in business. My most recent on has had 1 issue in the last 18 months that was sorted the next day. We have at least 8 Dells at work that have had no issues in the last 2 years. (and BTW, I track mine all over the place & to & from work every day)

So simply for contingencies sake get a business Dell & a onsite support plan for the expected life of the machine.

[Ferret]

I bought the equivalent spec model in the H53SV range a few weeks ago. Saw it in HN for ~$1800 picked it up at MSY for a bit under $1200. No complaints about it.

Don't know much about CUDA but the NVIDA spec page for the GT540M says it supports CUDA - "96 CUDA cores". GeForce GT 540M (http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-540m-us.html)

[Tombie]

I'd love to say Mac, as they are robust, fast and reliable....

But here at work I'm stuck with Lenovo - which whilst lack lustre do work consistently.

[djam1]

I think your choice is fine, presume that it has 2 drives I would take one out and put an SSD in for the boot drive.
I would then run a 64 bit version of Windows and take up some of your RAM and run a RAM Drive for the files you are processing.
Should be more than adequate.

[isuzurover]

We are forced to buy Dell.

This will be my new machine.
DELL XPS17
PROCESSOR 2nd generation Intel® CoreT i7-2860QM processor 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.60 GHz
MEMORY 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus
HD DISPLAY 17.3" FHD (1080p) with 2.0MP HD Webcam
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Tray Load Blu-ray® Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs)
BATTERY OPTIONS 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

It was either the above or an M4600 workstation laptop. The M4600 would probably last longer, but we have also been forced over to leasing rather than purchase, so it just needs to last the lease. The M4600 was also a lot worse value for money.

The machine will be used for modelling, simulation and image processing (as well as the usual).

[WhiteD3]

Re the Dell comments. I think they're quite good machines for the price and we use their Vostro laptops for our techs, and desktops and servers for our customers.

But there is better buying out there if you compare the Dell specs to others, hence me looking at the Asus. I've used an Asus M51V for 3 years now with no problems at all. My two boys got an N53S each for xmas and they're awesome machines.

[Bytemrk]

One thing to keep in mind,and it definitely applies to ASUS, is that they release the same machine in several different configurations - and some can be significantly better value than others.

I recently bought a Asus U31SD laptop for my daughter. (Great little 2nd gen. i5 13" machine)

The model we originally looked at was obviously targeted at the consumer market (Win 7 premium, 6 cell battery and 1 year warranty.) After some poking around, I found I could get the same machine, but speced with Win 7 Pro 64bit, 8 cell battery and a 2 year global warranty for exactly the same money. - obviously different model targeted at a commercial market.

So if you settle on the Asus - might be worth checking out if that also applies to the N73SV.

As for Dell, I agree the commercial Dells are good machines (I've owned 4 and managed about 400) - but recently I think there are better units around for the money.

Tombie is right the best hardware you would get is an Apple... but not 17" for your budget.

I used to be pretty anti Apple.... but honestly, my current Macbook Pro would be the best piece of laptop hardware I have ever used. (Even running Win 7 In Vmware.)

Good luck with it...

Mark

[87County]

Nobody seems to have mentioned unltrabooks so far....

thinner smaller lighter laptops with increased battery life

I quite like the Toshiba Z830 but the Dell 14z XPS, abt $1200, seems to be the best specified for the $ and I'm thinking of getting one in the near future

[WhiteD3]

Nobody seems to have mentioned unltrabooks so far....

thinner smaller lighter laptops with increased battery life

I quite like the Toshiba Z830 but the Dell 14z XPS, abt $1200, seems to be the best specified for the $ and I'm thinking of getting one in the near future

Unfortunately they do not have the grunt I need. SWMBO's Macbook Pro is a great bit of kit but the processor, memory and screen size isn't there.

[Basil135]

We use Dell at work, and I take mine everywhere. Never had a problem.

I have a Toshiba at home, and like the Dell, is rock solid.

I dont have any nice words to say about Acer thou, so I wont... :eek:

[fsfer]

I have been doing some looking on the interweb and have stumbled across "METABOX" they are aussie assembled Laptops and you can basically build the laptop you want.
They have 15, 17 and 18 inch screen version. The 18 inch P180HM laptop, has the option of coming with two nvidia gtx 560m cards running in SLI - GPU 3gb GDDR5 (you can't really ask for better when using your machine for graphics, CAD, games or editing - CS5 will take full advantage of this setup) and you can also have up to three HDD's, two could be running RAID, one could be a SSD for booting, i think the memory is expandable to 12gb DDR3 1600mhz of ram,
You would have quite a fast machine, for around 2,300. The alienware (dell) equiv would cost a lot, lot more .

I think they are labelled CLEVO aswell (assembled in another country), but METABOX have a website, where you can build your custom laptop and they send you a quote. Just google METABOX. They are labelled the fastest notebooks in the world. (ha that was probably the case for all of three minutes, one day past)

I am slightly hesitant in METABOX, as there are very few reviews, though what i have found is that they seem to go down pretty good with the GAMERS and they generally know what they are talking about. If anyone has any stories about METABOX please share, as i am not always the keenest guinea pig.

I think i will invest in one next month as a portable edit suite, though i will do some more research before i do.

[OffTrack]

Unfortunately they do not have the grunt I need. SWMBO's Macbook Pro is a great bit of kit but the processor, memory and screen size isn't there.

The 17" Macbook Pro can be spec'd with the fastest mobile processor currently available from Intel (i7-2860QM -2.5ghz). Memory is a bit limited at 8Gb Max, but still I'm struggling to see how that equates to lacking grunt?

[WhiteD3]

The 17" Macbook Pro can be spec'd with the fastest mobile processor currently available from Intel (i7-2860QM -2.5ghz). Memory is a bit limited at 8Gb Max, but still I'm struggling to see how that equates to lacking grunt?

The suggestion was about ultrabooks and SWMBO's Macbook pro is a 13", hence my comment. I'll bet a 17" Macbook Pro would be north of my 2k budget too.

Ordered the Asus N73 today.

[fsfer]

The specs on the N73 are nice. Good sounding machine. Remember to google mercury machine and cuda support for CS5 as you now are the owner of nvidia gt 520m GPU, you just put a patch in a support file and the card will work its magic.

[HangOver]

my 2c worth is go with dell.
they are a bit like a volvo, while they never really look cool even the top end models they run for ever and ever and do what they need to do. One of the few real "desktop" replacements.
Outstanding support.
Pricing is very competative if you contact your account manager, $$ cheaper than retail.
They do tend to be on the heavy side.
Their OEM carry bags are horrible.

Although aimed at gamers dont rule out the Alienware range. Good specs for the $$$ one of the guys I work with chose one and swaers by it rather than at it :D

Saying that some of the new Asus & Toshiba's look really nice ;)

[HangOver]

OK so I missed this bit "Ordered the Asus N73 today."

oops :D

[WhiteD3]

Well, first impressions is FANTASTIC! Screams along. I did a couple of RAW conversions in CS5 and it processed them in a 10th of the time.

It came with 1.5 TB HDD as advertised although it is actually 2 x WDC 750 GB drives, both partitioned for 325 GB ea.

I've got some weird issue with IE9 wanting to log onto the Buy Microsoft site every time I open IE but I'll sort that out.

[horaceOz]

I have only heard good things about Asus laptops.

I would also suggest Lenovo. Used an old IBM (Lenovo) for years at work which got dragged out to mine sites and plants and it got thrown around and generally treated poorly but it kept on ticking. We opened it when it finally died and it was full of red bull dust. What a trooper

[horaceOz]

I dont have any nice words to say about Acer thou, so I wont... :eek:

I agree
Stay clear of Acer anything.

You cant go wrong with the Toshy, Asus and Lenovo
Had good experience with all and to a lesser extent Dell (Have had to send a few back for work)

Bouncing around in a Landy I would go for the Lenovo though.
They may not look as pretty as others but if you were concerned with looks and not what it can do you would have liked the MacBook Pro ^_^

[WhiteD3]

I have only heard good things about Asus laptops.

I would also suggest Lenovo. Used an old IBM (Lenovo) for years at work which got dragged out to mine sites and plants and it got thrown around and generally treated poorly but it kept on ticking. We opened it when it finally died and it was full of red bull dust. What a trooper

I had a serious look at IBM but price for an equivalent to the Asus was over the top I thought.