12 replies to this topic

[dmt]

hey guys, need your help/advice. my POS laptop is dying and i need a new/2ndhand one. needs to run pretty demanding CAD and CFD software and still be portable, preferably 12" or 13" and be light as possible. ive been looking at the lenovo x60s and it seems alright but just wondering what else you guys knew of. cheers in advance

[Richo]

Alienware have the option of a Nvidia Quadro for you CAD fellas

The Area-51 m17x 17-inch Notebook

(512MB NVIDIA® Quadro FX 3600M - as far as I can tell, its an option)

[tangcla]

If you want CAD, I wouldn't recommend the X60s - the X60 (no-S) has a better processor at the expense of battery life.

[dmt]

thanks for the replies, Richo, that alienware one seems pretty sweet, but its way too heavy for me, have to carry it to uni each day which is about 50 mins each way on the bike. Tangcla, thanks for the heads up, the x61 has a better processor again doesn't it? Alex, cheers, ill send him a PM. keep the advice coming!

[tangcla]

Tangcla, thanks for the heads up, the x61 has a better processor again doesn't it?

Yup, Core 2 Duo as opposed to Core Duo.

If you do graphics-intensive stuff, you will probably find that the X6x has an LCD resolution of 1024x768 - this will most likely frustrate you

If you want a good all-rounder with grunt, but slightly heavier, get the Dell XPS M1330. Very nicely built, optional Nvidia 8-series graphics card (which you might need if your CAD software has hardware acceleration), optical drive...

[buddylove]

I work in a toshiba repair centre, we also sell brand new toshiba business end laptops, i can email you a price list? We've has some pretty pathetic experience with lenova's in the past, couple of DOA's and dodgy software.

[dmt]

that dell looks pretty good, would it be easy enough to load XP onto it? cause vista is just.... average to say the least. buddylove if you could email the pricelist to david.michael05@gmail.com that would be awesome, cheers.

[tangcla]

that dell looks pretty good, would it be easy enough to load XP onto it? cause vista is just.... average to say the least.

Wouldn't be hard.

[dmt]

I've been reading a fair few bad reviews about the quality out of the box of the dell M1330, personally I've had good experiences with dell quality in the past, what do you guys reckon?

[tangcla]

I think the biggest problem is in the hinge mechanism. I used one for two months, it felt reasonable in terms of build.

[Xon]

Lenovo W500 is a great laptop, although it's on the heavy side. If you can find a T60p or T61p either of those will probably do everything you ever need.

[Blaeven]

my company uses DELL laptops, so i tend to service/image/upgrade quite a few of them. (not that they tend to break a lot, i find the quality quite good) the older ones had a bad problem with the hinges breaking. newer ones don't seem to have this problem as the hinge mechanism is completely different. one of the guys at work has the XPS M1330... he loves it to death, and despite being a bit on the small side, i'd be more than happy to live with one. even for gaming/other graphics intensive stuff.