Ditching the lot for a notebook

[beardybuck]

I have been an enthusiast for a few years now, starting with a crappy 400mhz of the shelf pc world system and catching the upgrade o/c bug, through many upgrades.

Now I have two systems, and find I only use one really any more, and do very little gaming bar the odd blast in UT2004. In the 5-6 years of tinkering I have aquired a wife and two kids, and dont have the time, inclination, money or space for these things.

So.... I am considering ditching these two behemoths (both Lian li PC70's and both have 19" CRT's) and going for a tasty desktop replacement.

This is what I have in mind.

Anyone else made the jump form a powerful desktop system to a fully featured notebook? Any comments or suggestions?

[LayZeh]

nice.

[directhex]

a dell XPS? those thingsd are HUGE

four kilos O_o

[beardybuck]

huge i dont care about - rivalling my desktop more important.

It'll rarely leave the house - just jump room to room and maybe garden.

[Rabs]

Its a good idea, its just the weight of desktop replacements, sometimes you need a forklift to transport them so it wouldn't make much difference.

[Bindibadgi]

whow beasty, youll probably get about 30secs battery life out of it though if u try anything intensive

[Stubzz]

Thats one nice spec laptop, however the graphics is somehwat lacking RAM, 64MB surly isn't enough these days. Thats my main gripe with it.

Gaming on laptop is is no different to a full blown PC. Mines a 2500XP/9600 and it'll play any game I throw at it 9albeit not always at highest detail), just make sure you use an externall mouse()

[Applecrusher]

i personaly cant stand using laptops... they just rub me up the wrong way.... i dont know why but i just cant use em i think its the keyboard and the fact that the monitor is so close to you.....

[Kezzer]

I'm going to be getting one, nowt special but i preferably need it. imho, shuttle and TFT = teh sex for deskspace etc.

[swek]

yeah, why not just go for a shuttle and a tft? Small and simple. You could always get a tinkywinky laptop to carry around the house. My dad bought a compaq about 10 months ago, its a b*tch to carry around the house, and i wont talk about out of the house, 3.4kg!!!

I say get a light little non-high spec. laptop and a powerful sff. for your desk. Why not try an Epia based model? those are tiny, and if youre not gaming!

That my "HO".

[Byatt]

i personaly cant stand using laptops... they just rub me up the wrong way.... i dont know why but i just cant use em i think its the keyboard and the fact that the monitor is so close to you.....

Complete agreement, I despise laptops, my experience with the four or five that mates have at university is that they manage to generate random unsolvable bugginess...get a shuttle man!

[r1zeek]

imho, shuttle and TFT = teh sex for deskspace etc.

Totally agree with you. If the laptop wouldn't leave the house then i'd say a shuttle and tft would do the trick and if you really needed you could have a palm top in sync with your desktop. Keep it nice 'n' simple!

[dgr]

epia = too slow to do anything useful with. mine is only fast enough as i compile everything with real strict cflags. you can forget about anything av wise.

IMO - if i could start again, i would keep my 18'' lcd, but get an apple g4 powerbook - probably the 17'' model. its not very heavy, and you can add all the extra storage requirements through a 250gb external hdd. result is something fast, unix like, with two massive screens, a nice keyboard and plenty of disc space.

dgr

[Jonny M]

If you want a true desktop replacement, have a look at the high-end HP Photosmart notebooks. GeForceFX 5600Go / P4 3.06Ghz / 512Mb RAM

Not badly priced either.

http://www.johnlewis.com/stores/mult...rsid=1339&m=-1

[tiggerai]

Hmmm... I'm thinking of doing the same thing, although the Shuttle/TFT idea is sounding a bit better.

I definitely don't need most of the power I have at the moment, the odd game and bit of java compiling but that's it... until i'm out of uni.

What's the best way to go?

[Jonny M]

Well you can't upgrade laptops