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alright so the notebook i am using now is pretty much useless for what i need.

with the tuning and datalogging i am trying to run, it pretty much just locks up and/or doesn't want to work with the tools i am using.


what i need:
80-100gig of space
fast(read: the faster the better but it doesn't need to be the fastest on the market or anything like that)
lots of ram to run more than one application at a time
quality display for video editing
quality graphics card
DVD burner
long battery life with a quality battery!
3-4 usb 2.0 ports
firewire port
s-video port if possible

size is not really an issue nor is weight as i have a big laptop case and i'm not a pussy who will bitch and moan about my laptop being too heavy.


checked out the Dell site but ordering a computer online when i don't even know what i *NEED* seems a bit stupid to me. went to A&B and they have some nice non-brand name "in-house" laptops but i question the quality.


suggestions?
i'd like NOT to spend more than $1500 before tax
not that I know enough about puters to make this a worthwhile post, but what are you running now that won't work for just tuning?

Asking because we plan on using a p3 800 I think that's what it is.
Normally I would never say this but.. futureshop or bestbuy sell Toshibia which are good makes I know my dads work that's all they use. Good laptops and never had any problems. Dell is pretty good too from wat I've heard. U seem to have an idea wat you want in a laptop just pick one of the models that seems pretty good and upgrade it to wat you need. Dells website is pretty good for that. Pick something in the 1200 range and just add onto it for the extras HD space, burner etc.
what the rest said mofo'
Toshiba's are the best for the money. Toshiba Satellite series are great budget laptops. I've actually got a 3ghx toshiba satellite from futurecrap i got two years ago, and paid around $1600 for it.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.a...608&catid=20354

This is what I have, bought it at Christmas.

Processor isn't the fastest, but it's decent and it's a tradeoff for battery life anyways.

You can buy a gig of RAM at NCIX for about $100, sell the free printer and use that to buy the RAM (I have 1.5G) That way you can max out the vid card memory to 128Mb (it's shared). It's the best sub $1000 laptop I found, free shipping. I'm happy with it--if I want screaming power I have my desktop.
Toshiba's a great deal for the money...
PM sent.
your gonna kick yourself, they had a HP notebook last week, I believe it was centrino, for $999, it went back up to $1200 now. Mitch, try to look for one with an 8-cell battery, that coupled with a (intel) Centrino or (AMD) Torino (Turin) processor, will get u really good standby times, like 4 hours max. if u need s-video out,then hp/compaqs generally have that, if you can only find composite video out, not to worry, you can easily put an adaptor plug on it and you have s-video. Stay away from MDG, even though Steve Nash says theyre "The Best"
actually on the advice of 3 people i trust out here, i just ordered this: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetai...10070601&catid=


should be here in a few days!
meford,
actually, the biggest thing was there wasn't enough ram to run more than one program at a time and barely that.
plus it was old and didn't have usb 2.0 slots. most of the new datalogging and tuning systems like Diablo and SCT run off usb 2.0 so kinda screwed there.
plus i need a firewire for video editing and i need the extra space on the harddrive... current laptop only had a 20gig!?

i could have upgraded my current laptop but to get it close to where i needed it it would have been a few hundred less than just buying the one i did plus i got a 3year extended warrenty basicly for free by ordering online.... something i would not have gotten from upgrading my current laptop!
8 cell battery... thats very good. :) the rest of the specs look nice, great buy mitch!
Mitch. Gateways rule! I been using mine for my mobile video editing and have no complaints. Battery is awsome to.
darkpuppet,Feb 12 2006, 12:25 AM Wrote:Toshiba's a great deal for the money...
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My Toshiba Satellite 2400 has been bulletproof for more than 2 years now ... couldn't recommend it more highly

And you can get pretty good deals at costco canada, believe it or not
Well from what you said about movie editing, i would recomend a Macintosh I-book or power book, they seem to be the leaders in image/audio/video editing. But u gotta beware of a few things with macs, they are a little bit more pricey. And they tend to not have as fast of a software selection as would a microsoft OP computer. But pretty much every program that can't be run on a mac they have simalar one out with it.

uhmmm if your not for that, i'd suggest going to a custome pc place and tell what you need your laptop for and junk and they should be able to hook you up with the perfect machine.

I for one am getting a decent gameing pc to be made

specs

Intel P4 3.0Ghz
200 GB seagate SATA hardrive
16X DVD drive
ATI Radion X800GT 256mb
2 GB DDR2 ram

should be fun this is costing me around 1300$ and am only like 1 paycheck away about.
Macs wont work as most tuning programs are for MS.
great for video and music editing, yes but that is not my main concern.
Tri_kento,Feb 12 2006, 04:59 PM Wrote:Well from what you said about movie editing, i would recomend a Macintosh I-book or power book, they seem to be the leaders in image/audio/video editing. But u gotta beware of a few things with macs, they are a little bit more pricey. And they tend to not have as fast of a software selection as would a microsoft OP computer.  But pretty much every program that can't be run on  a mac they have simalar one out with it.

uhmmm if your not for that, i'd suggest going to a custome pc place and tell what you need your laptop for and junk and they should be able to hook you up with the perfect machine.

I for one am getting a decent gameing pc to be made

specs

Intel P4 3.0Ghz
200 GB seagate SATA hardrive
16X DVD drive
ATI Radion X800GT 256mb
2 GB DDR2 ram

should be fun this is costing me around 1300$ and am only like 1 paycheck away about.
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If you were a gamer and were building a gaming PC, you would have gone AMD64.

Mitch, nice laptop. It's about what I would have spec'ed.