is this worth the money?

[jake_amos]

http://www.alienwaresystems.com.au/dnn2/default.aspx?tabid=103&ConfigurationID=42
i need a laptop for school next year and its compolsury i saw this on tv thought i would check it out i'm not a comp whiz or know the first thing about them i was just wondering if anyone thinks i would be getting ripped off

that currency is AUD it works out at 1,572.80 USD

[jake_amos]

if you don't think that it is worth it could you please suggest a laptop that you think would do the job

[iridemymuni]

looks neat

[jake_amos]

thats what got me at first

[tomtrevor]

ive never heard of them. personally, i would go to Harvey Norman or some computer place a ACER or a Toshiba or something else you know is good.

[tomtrevor]

i would also recommened a 15" screen or bigger. 14" is just to small.

[j-n]

I'm no expert on notebook prices ;-)
But I can give you some hints...
My brother has just bought HP Compaq nx6xxx (I don't remember the exact model, probably nx6310) for about 1000 USD (now it's available for $600 in US) and what is worth noting about both yours and this hp nx6310:
- Core Duo cpu -- good choice! quite fast and it doesn't get hot...
- hp nx has a 15.4" panoramic screen and Sentia has 14"
- though Sentia has probably better resolution
- no floppy -- it can be disadvantage for some, but for most it's good
- neither serial nor parallel port (this also concerns your notebook) -- so if you
have any peripherals which need it, you'll have to buy serial/parallel expander
- Sentia has SD/xD/etc card reader and hp nx hasn't got it

OK, so you've got the clue... go compare both and decide what you want and what are your priorities.

-Jedrzej

[Eddbmxdude]

Hey!

Alienware make some of the best gaming systems out there imo. I have never used one of their laptops but they have a very good rep.

i would also recommened a 15" screen or bigger. 14" is just to small.

On a laptop? Its supposed to be small and portable, kind of defeats the object!


- neither serial nor parallel port (this also concerns your notebook) -- so if you
have any peripherals which need it, you'll have to buy serial/parallel expander


Who uses serial or parallel ports anymore??? Everything is USB now anyway!


It would easily handle schoolwork, but if thats just what your going to do with it, you could save money and get a lower spec one that would also be upto the task.

Rock on!
Edd

[rob.northcott]

Like Edd mentioned, Alienware mostly make gaming systems. Often they'll fit desktop processors and fast-access drives in their laptops to make them good for gaming, but at the expense of battery life. If you want a games machine it'll probably be a good buy, otherwise you'd be better off with a more normal laptop.

BTW... Laptops compulsory at school? How things change - anything electronic (calculators, Simon games - no laptops then) was pretty much banned when I was at school. Makes me feel old :(

Rob

[onelesscar]

I don't think that laptop is worth $1500USD, IMO. The high-end towers that Alien Ware makes may be good, but the laptops were reviewed in Wired, and they weren't impressed. At $1500, it seems also that you could do better, like you're just paying for the name.

I find that Dells, though I don't really like the new designs, tend to be fairly priced (if you know what you need vs. what they're trying to sell you) and come with the least junkware of any laptop brand.

Or, if you're so inclined, the MacBook is an excellent machine, and it can Windows as well as MacOS.

[habbywall]

The Macbook is the only option.

[burjzyntski]

Alienwares are definately battery hogs. Expect 45 minutes or less battery life after less than a year, and having to have it plugged in all the time. I know two people whose Alienware laptops, after two years, don't hold enough power to even boot up (without being plugged in, of course).

I have a Compaq laptop, and it's great. AMD Mobile Sempron (32 bit), ATI Radeon 128MB express, 1.8GHz, 512MB RAM, XP Pro (dual boot slackware 10.0), 80GB hd, 2 usb ports, s-video out, altec lansing speakers, integrated 802.11g, vga out, ethernet of course, and it holds a 2-3 hour charge even after almost a year (about 8 months). Compaq doesn't make the best desktops, but they make excellent laptops. I had an HP before this (HP/Compaq same company), and it was very good too, but now there's something wrong with the power supply, so I don't really ever use it. I have a desktop and a laptop, I don't need the other laptop.

My mom has an IBM , which also has a great reputation - the new IBM Lenovo series sound really good. I recommend either an IBM or a Compaq. I fix computers and too many of them are Dells - so I never recommend getting a Dell (unless you absolutely need a cheap-o laptop).

BTW, this laptop was about $890. My mom got a rebate through work (Florida Power and Light, Co.), but it was a great deal even without the rebate.

Don't get a computer based on it's appearance.

[Seager]

what do you want this for? If basic schoolwork and internet get a used one on ebay for 1/4 the price and spend the extra money on like, 5 ipods or something. I had a pentium 500 all through college, and a I gamed on it, and it was more than fine. A laptop slightly more powerful than that will cost you very little these days.

You'll of course want to reformat if you get a used one. I'd recommend putting win2k on it instead of XP. Win2k runs better on slower computers than XP does. (I'm still running it)

[onelesscar]

I had a pentium 500 all through college, and a I gamed on it, and it was more than fine.
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I'd recommend putting win2k on it instead of XP. Win2k runs better on slower computers than XP does. (I'm still running it)
Well, yeah, every little bit helps when you're running @ 500Mhz, lol.

[rob.northcott]

My laptop at home is a P3 450 running Win98 - it's probably worth something like £50 to £100 now, but it's plenty powerful enough for web browsing, office work and the like. Of course it's not up to running new games or heavy video encoding and stuff (I've got a desktop machine for that), but you really don't need huge power for the majority of work. After all, that 450 was pretty good when I bought it, and it's not got any slower.

Rob

[onelesscar]

yeah, my last post was kind of a joke. I too (well, my parents) have a 500mhz P3 that I've kept in good condition for ~5 yrs, and it runs just fine (for them ;) )

[Seager]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:


Well, yeah, every little bit helps when you're running @ 500Mhz, lol.

Haha, it was the best computer you could buy when I started college in 1999. I'm only running a 1.4 athalon now, and I use it for video encoding etc. I can see wanting a faster system (I do), but not needing one if all you are doing is using it to study.

[unisteve]

I would like to suggest that it's not about needs. If it were about needs, then most of us would be running dinky little 1GHz machines with 512MB of RAM. Few applications make real use of the processing power a lot of people have on tap. It's the few times that you do need the extra power that you really notice not having it.

My experience is that faster is always better. Better in that it makes me feel happy. I will pay extra to be happy.

If I were to get a laptop right now, it would have to have these things:
-widescreen display with a resolution of at LEAST 1440x900 (Having a lot of room to move things around on the screen is a very liberating experience. Widescreen is also very pimp and good for movies and gaming.)
-dual core processor (I like Intel's Core Duos-- fast, reasonably priced, not power hungry-> not prone to eating battery or overheating)
-1GB of RAM (You may think you can get by on 512MB, but an extra 512MB makes things a lot smoother. Go for 2GB if you can afford/justify it.)
-no legacy ports (No one uses parallel printers anymore. If you have one it can be replaced for less than $100 with something a lot better.)
-decent battery life (A laptop that only lasts 45 minutes on a charge is useless for its intended purpose.)

In short, I am more of a geek than I sometimes care to admit.

[Seager]

We're talking about 5-600 dollar differences or more between "good enough" and "awesome." Unless you are really going to use this computer for tons of things, the extra money could be better spent on a KH unicycle, 4 or 5 ipods, a vacation, etc.

[vuniw]

looks neat

advertising always makes it look cool

[ice_cold_uni6]

i thought the thread title was "is this worth the monkey" at first.

[burjzyntski]

I would like to suggest that it's not about needs. If it were about needs, then most of us would be running dinky little 1GHz machines with 512MB of RAM. Few applications make real use of the processing power a lot of people have on tap. It's the few times that you do need the extra power that you really notice not having it.

If I were to get a laptop right now, it would have to have these things:
-widescreen display with a resolution of at LEAST 1440x900 (Having a lot of room to move things around on the screen is a very liberating experience. Widescreen is also very pimp and good for movies and gaming.)

widescreens always use more battery power than, say, a 14" screen. 17" or 21" laptop is incredibly dumb.

-dual core processor (I like Intel's Core Duos-- fast, reasonably priced, not power hungry-> not prone to eating battery or overheating)

why do you need a dual core processor? and do you think you'd find one that uses less battery power than a single core processor?

-1GB of RAM (You may think you can get by on 512MB, but an extra 512MB makes things a lot smoother. Go for 2GB if you can afford/justify it.)

Windows can only take advantage of 1GB. Unless you're running some linux distro or Vista, 2GB won't make much of a difference.

-no legacy ports (No one uses parallel printers anymore. If you have one it can be replaced for less than $100 with something a lot better.)

true, but serial comes in handy sometimes. on my older HP (1999) I had a serial port which proved very useful for programming in robotics, where it was required to send info to the dongle/microprocessor.

-decent battery life (A laptop that only lasts 45 minutes on a charge is useless for its intended purpose.)


yep ;)

[onelesscar]

why do you need a dual core processor? and do you think you'd find one that uses less battery power than a single core processor?

Well, actually, yes, and yes. Dual cores use less power and generate less heat to perform the same as a single core.

Windows can only take advantage of 1GB. Unless you're running some linux distro or Vista, 2GB won't make much of a difference.
I beg to differ. When I'm Photoshopping, my 2 GB of ram makes a WORLD of difference. It can store the entire high-res image I'm working with in ram, as well as all my undos. In addition, when I'm using Mathematica, I often fill all 2 gigs of my ram rendering 3D graphs.

[johnfoss]

widescreens always use more battery power than, say, a 14" screen. 17" or 21" laptop is incredibly dumb.
A 14" widescreen monitor is *smaller* than a 14" regular one. Why would it use more battery power? I think you are assuming a widescreen is wider. It isn't; it's shorter.

A large screen on a laptop is anything but dumb depending what you need it for. For regular homework it's probably a bad idea as you're probalby carrying it around a lot and not doing lots of graphics. But if you're doing lots of graphics you might need the extra screen real-estate. For what I do, anything smaller than my 17" would be quite a pain to use.

true, but serial comes in handy sometimes. on my older HP (1999) I had a serial port which proved very useful for programming in robotics, where it was required to send info to the dongle/microprocessor.
If you need a serial port you probably already know it. Do they even make laptops with serial ports still? I don't think I've ever used one.

As has been mentioned before, you shouldn't judge a laptop by what it looks like. Generally, the best "look" for a laptop is smaller/lighter. Mine is only 1" thick, but it's heavy because it's a 17" (Powerbook).

[iridemymuni]

don't forget, your laptop HAS to be cooler than everybody elses !!