High-End Laptops
High-end computer components are typically a case of diminishing returns, and laptops are not different. You can get pretty much everything you need in a laptop for under $2000 with no difficulty; getting that last 20% performance boost - whether it be in CPU power, graphics power, battery life, or just plain style - can be expensive. Here is where you'll find such upgrades as the Core 2 Extreme X9000, 8800M GTX (perhaps two!), Blu-ray, and solid state hard drives.
For maximum battery life and improved performance, you'll want a smaller laptop with an SSD. A 32GB SSD on its own will set you back around $400, or $800 for the 64GB drives. You can purchase the SSD separately for a potential savings, though some vendors have close ties with memory companies that allow them to pre-install the drive at a discount. A quick survey of the online resellers leads us to the Samsung SSDs as some of the best price/performance/reliability options. The 32GB MCBQE32G5MPP-0VA00 and 64GB MCCOE64G5MPP-0VA00 both boast 100MB/s sequential read and 80MB/s sequential write speeds, with random read/write speeds of 80/30MBps. Take any of the 12.1" midrange notebooks, add a 64GB SSD, and you have a high-end laptop. Or you can grab something like the ASUS U2E-A2B for $2700 and get an even smaller laptop. Just be forewarned that many of these ultraportables sacrifice a lot of performance to extend battery life.
Gaming options for high-end notebooks come in a variety of flavors. Besides upgraded versions of midrange offerings, there are numerous companies selling systems based on the Clevo M570RU that comes with an 8800M GTX. We first saw this particular notebook early this year with the WidowPC Sting 517D2, and then we looked at a modified configuration a bit later with the AVADirect M570RU. Given they both use the same design, we're inclined to go with whoever offers the better price, and of all the Clevo M570RU options we've seen the least expensive happens to be AVADirect. The fact that they offer a ton of component choices doesn't hurt either.
One gaming option that we'd steer clear of in this price range is the 8700M GT SLI laptops. SLI might sound like a nice feature, but a single 8800M GTS will generally outperform 8700M SLI, and with the Gateway FX laptops costing far less there's no point in SLI unless you're going with dual 8800M. With prices starting at upwards of $3000, we'll save them for the Dream category.
If gaming isn't your major concern but you want a lot of number crunching power, you can go one of two ways. Option one is to get a notebook with an X9000 processor. The CPU alone will set you back over $1000 on its own, so take the midrange options from the last page and if they can support the X9000 you've got a powerful number cruncher. The other alternative that can get you even more processing power is to purchase a notebook that supports desktop processors and drop in a higher end dual-core or even a quad-core CPU. We're not aware of any laptops that will officially support anything above a Q9550, but at 2.83GHz that will already easily surpass the X9000. Desktop CPUs pretty much guarantee that you'll be lugging around a 17" or larger notebook, but the X9000 is still quite demanding and is not likely to be found in anything smaller than a 15.4" chassis. However, unless you demand every last ounce of performance, we'd recommend against either choice and instead stick with a T9500 (2.6GHz) or T9300 (2.5GHz) - which you can find in 14.1" laptops.
We've mentioned Apple several times already, but they always seem to cost a bit too much for the performance and features on tap. Sure, you get all the OSX goodness that so many seem to like, and you can run both OSX and Windows. Not that you can't do that with an appropriate hackintosh, but I digress…. The MacBook Pro has a lot of great features, like the LED backlighting on the LCD and keyboard. The base $2000 model also includes a T8300, 2GB RAM, 200GB HDD, and 8600M GT 256MB. An extra $500 will get you a T9300, 250GB HDD, and a 512MB 8600M GT, and there's also the 17" MacBook Pro, which gives you a larger 1680x1050 LCD for $300 more. Obviously, those are some very steep price hikes for a few minor upgrades, but there are lots of people that love the Apple "look". You could also opt for the MacBook Air, perhaps with an SSD; we have reservations about the Air, but the overall design makes for a great traveling companion.
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theoflow - Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - link
I know this is pretty much covered in the first line of this article, but I'm dying to see the new desktop system build guides.I've been out of system building for about 3 years and I'm somewhat clueless as to what direction I should go.
ARG!!!
LOL
Rekonn - Sunday, July 27, 2008 - link
"we understand the P-6860 is scheduled to be replaced in the future by another slightly upgraded model"Anybody know details on this?
JarredWalton - Sunday, July 27, 2008 - link
Yes but it's under NDA. I can tell you next month, and trust me you'll be impressed (again).Rekonn - Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - link
Sweet, looking forward to it.Rekonn - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Think I found it, the Gateway P-7811 FX. Available on August 14th for $1500.http://laptopcom.blogspot.com/2008/08/gateway-p-78...">http://laptopcom.blogspot.com/2008/08/g...y-p-7811...
Now, how much better is a 9800GTS vs an 8800 GTS?
JonnyDough - Saturday, July 12, 2008 - link
I have a hard time with believing that the "mid-ranged" notebooks are between $1500 and $1750. It's like you pulled these numbers out of thin air and you neglected the $1K-1.5K segment altogether. $1K is where a decent modern laptop starts. Anything pushing $1500 is too much for many people to bother spending, while $1K is about right. I just got a Dell flier, the multi-page one with desktops in it too. The majority or main line notebooks start at $999, like the Inspiron. Granted, you can add options for a hundred here or there, but the starting price is $999 on a few different lines of their notebooks. I would have to say that this is the "mid-range" as they show a $999er right on the front page. You can shop NewEgg and find decent laptops that are older processors and so on for $500ish. So saying that $1500-$1750 is "mid-range" is complete bullocks. Mid-range is the budget minded market segment that wants something just a bit better than the bare minimum and it's what Dell caters to and always has. The mass market. Mid-range = mass market. Period. There's no argument against it. Budget does not = mass market. Budget = budget = those that have to watch every dollar. Remember mainstream America? Remember those that pinch pennies but still go to the fair? Yeah, us. The middle income folks. The majority of America does not live in poverty, yet. Thanks.JonnyDough - Saturday, July 12, 2008 - link
Eek! They edited the article right after I posted. LOLJarredWalton - Sunday, July 13, 2008 - link
Um... no, we didn't. I had budget, then Entry-level, then Midrange, then High-end, then Dream since the beginning. As I mention in the intro, the price brackets are indeed somewhat arbitrary with plenty of overlap. I may call $1000 "entry" and $1500 "midrange", but regardless of the name I did my best to cover all bases from $300 up through $5000. As I mention on the Entry-Level page, $1000 will get you a LOT of laptop, and unless you want gaming (i.e. Gateway P-6860) a lot of people can stop right there - give or take $250.Jjoshua2 - Saturday, July 12, 2008 - link
I think the 6-cell Wind is pretty cool. I pre-ordered one from buy.com and I was able to use a coupon that got me $15 off. Now I just hope it will get in-stock soon.fabarati - Saturday, July 12, 2008 - link
Besides warranties, this article lacked Two major points that are often overlooked - and one not quite as oftenly overlooked -when shopping for laptops: Build, Screen and Battery.Build quality is very different from laptop to laptop. Generally business lines are better built than consumer lines, which are better build than budget lines. There are laptops that are built better than consumer laptops, but worse than business ones, etc. That's why a same specced Thinkpad T61 is more expensive than a HP DV6700 (typical consumer build quality) or any acer (crappy budget build). Or why a an XPS m1530 is a better buy than an Asus M50/51
Screen is also overlooked. Nearly all laptop screens are horrible compared to desktops. They're all TN screens. The very, very best are at about desktop mid-range TN's level.
Batterylife depends on more than just what specifications a computer and the battery has. It also depends on ACPI and bios coding, and what and how good the batterysaving applications that come with are. Almost ny new Asus (Santa Rosa or newer), with a few exceptions like the U2e, has horrible batterylife. Some have a hard time reaching 2 hours under normal usage.
Then there are some small stuff that nagged me about this article, mainly performance things. Whilst the HD3650/9500m GS/8600m GT/HD2600 are not really powerful, even when not compared to desktop midrange alternatives, they are possible to game on. In fact, you'll get a pretty decent gaming experience, and it'll be portable. They are just usually run on lower resolutions (because many laptops they're in have lower resolutions) and lower (medium) settings. The fact that they can't run a game on all high does not make it un-gameable.
Anywho, you guys didn't do too many mistakes, and had some Ok recomendations. Pretty good for beginners.