[Jimmyjimjim]

Hate to post another "survey" of sorts, but;

I finally going to bite the bullet and get a laptop. Does anyone have any advice as to which brand is the best? I can get something in the $1000-$1500 range. I was looking at the Dell Inspirions, Sony Vaios and HP Pavillions.

What's the difference between a Pentium M, Centrino, Celeron, AMD?

Any advice on what I should be looking for?

I'll be using it as a backup and a mobile workstation. Is there a brand that has decent GFX acceleration?

[[Shizo]]

I bought Dell M600 for $1300 on eBay a couple years ago. I needed a laptop that is small and lightweight. Also, it's pretty durable. It fell on the floor one time, but everything still works fine. The only grip is only 2 USB ports, but that's what you usually get on the mini-laptops.

M, Cely, AMD - anything will be alright, as long as it's not an old gen. CPU Current market is very competitive, meaning that everything is about the same. Although you may wanna check more detailed reviews on the differences, or someone here will tell you.

[Naeem]

jimmy> don't get a vaio. my dad has one, and i have one. photoshop doesn't work on both models. if thats not what you're getting it for then they're great. i only wish photoshop worked on them
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http://www.annisnaeem.blogspot.com/

[balistic]

My advice: Toshiba Tecra M4 convertible tablet pc. It's 14.1", 1.7 GHz, with a decent 3D card, and has a Wacom Cintiq built into the screen. They're going for 1400-1500 right now.

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=HHO&coid=-29325
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Jimmyjimjim]

Thanks for the recommendations.

I ended up getting a Compaq Intel Pentium Centrino M 745 w/ 512 Ram, 80 g DVD+/-RW, Intel Media Accelerator 900.

$699 this week at Best Buy. With the money I saved I'm going to get a new Wacom.

Funny thing, it's faster than my main machine- P3 2ghz 1gig ram, ATI 9600XT

[Naeem]

jimmy> i guess because it's new. i've never held compaq's in high esteem. my first computer and my dads business computer from them were a disaster. hopefully 8 years later,now, they've improved. good luck with that.
get an intuos 3, with a 6D ART PEN!!! i've been dying to get that for years. it's like drawing with a marker, i suppose, and gives your painting a very... traditional feel.
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http://www.annisnaeem.blogspot.com/

[B0b]

that'll be P4 2Ghz... P3's stopped @ 1.4Ghz

my next Laptop will be a Dual Core AMD64/Opteron

[Jimmyjimjim]