I need suggestions on the best way to spend my buck on a new notebook. I've been doing a little research and i've noticed you can get some really nice laptops from independent companies for competetive prices. Where should I buy? What models should I look into? Lets hear some of your personal experiances. I'm looking for something nice here. I need help, guys...only a few weeks until Christmas!

do you want it heavy?
do you want a long battery life?

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blah i thought you asked what the best notebook for your buick would be

I did...

Im also looking for one
the main feature i'm looking for is WXGA and ATI 9600
the gateway m657x looks pretty good, its powerful but cost too much
with all the features i want

This will be my gaming and working notebook

Weight isn't much of an issue. Longer battery life is a definite plus, which is why I started looking intro Centrinos.

Then get a Sager

Awesome performance and very well priced.

well im not sure what games you play on laptop but i got my gf a
Sony VAIO® Z1VA Notebook
PCG-Z1VA
for xmas and put 1gig of ram into it, it plays gunbound,daoc with expansions,shes playing syberia now(still sigh)... and it loads anything just as fast as a 3ghz p4 ive got in the living room, it doesnt play as fast but the battery lasts for ever 6hours when shes playing doac or im using it at a libry it lasts longer...its using the super lithium tho

Yeah Sagers looked awesome, but the ones they have on their site versus the ones I'm seeing on PC Torque seem to have a pretty large difference in price. The 8890, on Sager's site, is supposedly discontinued due the monitor manufacturer

aren't alienware notebooks good for gaming performance?

Well they would be if it wasn't for the lame Intel onboard Video they use.

I heard that Alienware Batterys dont last long.. *only what i heard* might be different
now.. but they look sweet !!
oh and




mmmm your wrong i think, look:

Alienware Magnesium Alloy Chassis
Pentium® 4 @ 2.8GHz 800FSB
User-Upgradeable Graphics
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 128MB DDR
16.1" inch UltraXGA 1600x1200 LCD
40GB 5400rpm HDD with 8MB Cache
Infrared Remote control

I'm not sure where you saw that, but on their site http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Page...ode=SKU-EXTREME
under video it says "Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 technology". I see no mention of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 128MB DDR.

LOOK HERE *hehe* :

http://www.alienware.co.uk/system_pages/area-51m.aspx

Appears as though I missed some sections on their site. Sorry about that, you may be right.

no problem at all Nard im looking at laptops at the moment, just
seeing whats a good price to pay etc. Happy to help

Nice but a ways out of my price range. The ram is a bit low in the modestly priced laptop.

ya plus those have battery life of probly under 2 hours

TechTV had a special on the Top 20 gifts for Christmas and they had the best laptop for your buck at #3. You can find the review here http://www.techtv.com/holiday/story/0,23008,3550386,00.html

BTW, it's an IBM.

Alienware

Not bad, but I'm not at all impressed with the Videocard. I need at least 64 Megs to work with...16 just won't cut it, or I'd go with a Vaio Z series.

Keep the suggestions coming! Looking for bargains and sales as well...

Since you have $2500 to spend you should just build (if you know how otherwise I'm sure you can find a fairly cheap on somewhere) a nice gaming desktop and then get a good portable laptop.

I guess if I was going to get a laptop I'd get a Sony Z1VA....

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP....puters_Z1Series

Or a Sony GRT with a 16" screen....

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP....RT240G&Dept=cpu

They have practically worthless grpahics cards, gaming wise, but otherwise they are good units.

Well...if you are wondering whether or not they are genuine than I can assure you that they are. I have had a lot of contact with the guys over at PCTorque during the past six months and their service has always been top notch. You will be guaranteed an awesome product with great service to back it up.

As for the 8890 being discontinued, there is just a wait on that particular product because they are having difficulty getting in 16" LCD's. Manufacturers don't want to make them no more.

Lastly, the official Sager site is slow to update so the information there is not always the most recent.

Best of luck!

Hows the battery life on these Sagers? One thing I like about these Pentium M chips is they have a really long battery life.

Sager specialize in high performance "desktop replacement" notebooks so yes, they will be on the heavier side and battery life will not be so great. Having said that, they do offer lightweight mobile models and with a good centrino setup you can be looking at 5 hours plus, of battery life.

Go to a retail store. Buy the 17" Toshiba. It is AWESOME!!!! I want it soooo bad.