As you may know, I made a post about buying a new laptop a few months ago. Well, I never got that as a present, and am looking for one again. This one will probably is bought around April or possibly over to early summer.
I have somewhat made my choices of a notebook, but this is pretty much what I'm looking for. It needs atleast a 8600M GT, or equivalent card. DDR2, DDR3; either choice will work but DDR3 is what I'm leaning towards as it may give the laptop a few more months of use. I would like it to last atleast 2 years, preferably 3 years. I will either get the T8100 or the T9300 Penryn processors, I haven't decided yet. I would like a 7200 RPM drive, as I don't need it that big, so a high storage 5400 RPM drive will be out of the question. They are usually more expensive anyway, even if there is better performance. I will have a budget of $1500, which will be flexible up to $1600.
The choices are either a Compal JFL92/Sager 2092; Lenovo ThinkPad T61P; or a Dell Vostro 1500.
Now I know that the Dell only has the T7xxx processors available, but since I am not buying urgently, I can wait until Dell makes it available, if they do. These are all 15.4in. notebooks, and I do not plan to go any bigger than a 15.4in. notebook.
My question for you guys is which of these would you prefere? Do you guys have another option for me to look at? Keep in mind, I would like to keep the buying within the USA, so the European Zepto notebooks are out of the question.
Also, I would like to note that the new Intel Montevina platform will be coming out in the next 6 or so months. It would replace the current Santa Rosa platform all these notebooks are running on. Should I buy a Santa Rosa laptop before the release of the new Montevina's in '09, or should I wait until I get more information about them?
Sorry for the long post, if anything needs clarification, please post.
I have somewhat made my choices of a notebook, but this is pretty much what I'm looking for. It needs atleast a 8600M GT, or equivalent card. DDR2, DDR3; either choice will work but DDR3 is what I'm leaning towards as it may give the laptop a few more months of use. I would like it to last atleast 2 years, preferably 3 years. I will either get the T8100 or the T9300 Penryn processors, I haven't decided yet. I would like a 7200 RPM drive, as I don't need it that big, so a high storage 5400 RPM drive will be out of the question. They are usually more expensive anyway, even if there is better performance. I will have a budget of $1500, which will be flexible up to $1600.
The choices are either a Compal JFL92/Sager 2092; Lenovo ThinkPad T61P; or a Dell Vostro 1500.
Now I know that the Dell only has the T7xxx processors available, but since I am not buying urgently, I can wait until Dell makes it available, if they do. These are all 15.4in. notebooks, and I do not plan to go any bigger than a 15.4in. notebook.
My question for you guys is which of these would you prefere? Do you guys have another option for me to look at? Keep in mind, I would like to keep the buying within the USA, so the European Zepto notebooks are out of the question.
Also, I would like to note that the new Intel Montevina platform will be coming out in the next 6 or so months. It would replace the current Santa Rosa platform all these notebooks are running on. Should I buy a Santa Rosa laptop before the release of the new Montevina's in '09, or should I wait until I get more information about them?
Sorry for the long post, if anything needs clarification, please post.