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I want to buy a laptop with a gfx card supporting pixel shaders 2.0.

Besides the ps2.0 support, the priority is the solidity and the fact that one can replace/reinstall the default OS easily (I know some laptop manufacturers prevent it, which is utterly annoying)

Any advice? (brand, model, etc...)

Thanks in advance.

Get the Commodore sx64 Executive !!!

Gericom notebooks look decent considering capabilities. OS is optional afaik... dunno about the durability.

powerbook is really nice esp. in terms of service plan but i'm betting 0 >> $$ you h@t3x0r"macintrash"

i would get a newer ps 3.0 because otherwise you will be pxxed when you can't run newer demos; goforce 6600 is a good compromise on $/speed/heat, but i don't know specific laptop makers

i have a dell 17" inspiron 9300, 1.86ghz pentium-m, 1 gb ram, geforce 6800 with 256mb, 80gig hd, a brilliant 1920x1200 display, 4,5h batterytime, internal subwoofer, etc etc... rock solid..and with 1500 euros quite cheap.

giZMo: this one looks quite interesting indeed, thanks!

I was not too keen on buying a Dell laptop but that was only prejudice actually :)

I have a slightly older model but I can confirm that the dell 17" inspiron is a pretty cool laptop for demo watching :-)

ACER or GERICOM it is

same configuration as gizmo but. really good system.
but how do you get 4,5h gizmo? bei office benutzung komm ich auf max 3 mit dickem akku und laufzeitsettings.

What can anyone say about the Vaio? looking at the mid-range Go-6200+, I can't remember the model number though. mainly for uni, but I want to watch demos too! $2500AU for that beast.

i've got a ibm thinkpad t41p which has ati fire gl2 (radeon 9600) and does pixel shaders 2.0. it works great for demos and games and i'd highly recommend it. there are newer models now, but definitely get the "t" version which is nice and thin and the "p" for performance (thus t41p).

Asus M6N

I love my Zepto 6515WD. Too bad that there isn't many demos which support widescreen.

i'm rather happy about my ALDI-laptop (medion). 3 years guarantee, radeon 9700 mobile, tons of other good features (big drive and ram, widescreen, winxp pro, centrino cpu, etc). and a lot cheaper than the spensive brands, who often don't do more than 1 year guarantee, too (that, or pay 200e more).

the big problem is that you're going to have to buy one at ALDI, of course, and they're only sold a couple of weeks per year (every time a newer model - mine's from feb 05).

Personally i'd say you won't find anything better than a powerbook. Dell is cheap and alright, but pray it doesn't go wrong as dell have about the worst customer service of any of the big companies at the moment.

One thing i'd REALLY recommend before buying a laptop is to check out the maker's support site and make sure you can get recent drivers etc. I've seen people with a 1 year old high-spec laptop who couldn't upgrade to xp cause no drivers were available and the support site was a total pile of shit.

ttl, with surfing and chatting etc only...
when watching demos or working in xsi/zbrush batterietime usually drops to 2 hours or so....

ASUS M6N here too... I own one since january 2004 and i'm positively surprised by everything (support, long-living battery [very little capacity loss, long battery time when unplugged], best screen resolution, quality hardware [something a gericom or medion can't provide], and everything you possibly need as a coder/gamer/graphics artist...)

if you want your laptop to hold a year or longer you should decide to buy an ACER even they are usually 500g to 1kg heavier than compareable other brands...

if you want a cheap laptop you can get a Gericom, but it wont really last longer than 6 month, then they usually start to have problems...

if you have too much money buy a DELL with 3 or 5 year warranty, that warranty really pays, most the DELL i had got problems with the mainboard about 2 years after perchase and the 3 year warranty always made them exchange the parts free of charge...

If ya want some lightweight(2,5kg) goodlooking and very
good assembled, stick to the SAMSUNG X series.
Meaning X20,X25 and upwards.
I've kicked the preinstalled XP to use WIN2k instead...
so there was only some driverreserach necessary for the
Ethernet device. All other drivers were provided on CD.
It comes with a Centrino CPU 512MB RAM and an ATI gfx board starting from X600 (64MB). Standard resolution 1400x1050 ....costs about EUR 1000,- ATM but gets cheaper every month --ususaly :)

tmb, hmm all people that i know having acer laptops have had big problems with durability. :)

but what is true that anything with less than 3 years of warranty stinks - just as with hd's if the warranty is for one year only you can pretty much expect the thing to break down at some point.

i've had some pretty good experiences with the hp/compaq nc-series laptops (with radeon 9600 mobility etc.) but i'd say those are perhaps not worth the price / efficiency ratio. as some people have said, why not go already for a one with a ps3.0 gfx adapter.

melwyn: i guess its better to have something with a 3 year warranty and a 2 year breakdown with something with a 1 year warranty and a 2 year breakdown though..

ACER ASPIRE \o/

Its probably only me that thinks this, but i think laptops with really high-res screens are shit. You have to either squint to read text, or increase the size of everything, which messes up half your apps and web sites for you. And running demos on it will mean that the demo looks a little better, probably not noticably unless you squint, it'll likely run slower and it will use more of that valuable power.

Comedy WTF suggestion.

I want one :(

http://www.gericom.com/index.php?id=notebook

HEY BABY WAKE UP FROM YOUR ASLEEP! WE HAVE ARRIVED ONTO THE FUTURE!
:D