New laptop, worth the money?

Hellm0

Howdy folks,
Decided to upgrade my laptop recently(previous one had reached the 3 year mark).

Done a bit of shopping around, gotten some recommendations and have nearly come to a decision however I though I would post the specc's of the beaut I have my eye on and get some feedback from my lovely boardsies.

And so without further delay,

Core™2 Extreme Dual Core X9100 (3.06GHz/1066MHz/6MB)
4096MB Ultra Speed DDR3 1333MHz Extreme Performance Memory
200GB @ 7,200 SATA300 Storage 16MB (1x 200GB 7200RPM)
No External Storage
Standard 8X High Speed DVD-RW / CD-RW DL Burner
nVIDIA Geforce 9800M GT 512MB DDR3 EXTREME GPU
15.4" HD WUXGA 1920 x1200 Matte X-treme Bright LCD
8 Channel Advanced SRS WOW Surround Sound System
High Speed 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Networking Adapter
Internal High Speed V90k Dial Up Modem
**SALE** Built In 802.11AGN 300mbps Ultra Speed Wireless Adapter
Microsoft® Windows Vista Business Edition 64 Bit **NEW**
Standard Limited 1 Year Warranty Coverage
Dead Pixel Protection Not Included


Just wondering if I made the right decision and if some of you may give me an idea as to what you think the above is worth(I paid 3200 USD).

Not sure as to if I am allowed to post a link to the actual site, I'll take the safer option unless told otherwise.

Cheers,
H.

charlesD

That does look like a pretty nice computer. Who is the manufacturer?

Alanstrainor

charlesD wrote: »

That does look like a pretty nice computer. Who is the manufacturer?

and model ect?

AlmightyCushion

Very powerful laptop and should be a beast for gaming. The one thing that would put me off would be the screen resolution. It's quite high and might be a bit uncomfortable on a 15" screen, saying that I haven't seen a 15" screen running at 1920 x 1200. I'd love to see you do a review of this when it arrives.

Oh and yes feel free to post a link to the site.

Overheal

link please

Hellm0

Hey Guys,
Just wanted to be on the safe side;)

The model is "Edge", its the new 15.4" from PC Microworks. Got the recommendation from a contract I'm with at the moment, seems to knock 7 shades of value out of both Alienware and Dell models of compareable price(in terms of components I didnt see anything that even competed except one model with an x9000 processor for 1 grand more).

Yeah the resolution was something I was iffy in, I had to upgrade to get the 1920 but I feel that with the size of the screen(it aint widescreen) I probably wont be running it that high, just out of kindness to my already bespeckled eyes. Depends though, if it's text I would prefer smaller whereas for games I like a nice high res. We shall see;)

I'll be sure to post a review, I aint much on benchmarking but I do intend to use it for the likes of Age of Conan, COH4, Crysis etc so I can post FPS at the least. I'm also a developer so it aint purely for game's, I'll be running a copy of SQL server 2005 on there along with all the IDE's/Apps I use for work.

x in the city

all that shoehorned into a 15.4" notebook?

I will believe it when i see it tbh.

Overheal

Must Heat UP like a sonnofabitch.

Wireless N? Isnt that the weak brand of Wireless?

GPS, holy ****

"8 cell battery - up to 2 hours of battery life" <

---

thats terrible

Hellm0

By the by, the price I said I paid for those speccs will not match what you see on the site if you config one with the same; I got a little off due to folks I know(bulk account).

Also I completely agree on the battery life, it is not going to be very good for long journies at all. That said I intend to keep this puppy pretty well juiced up when I'm not on the road so it's not a major concern.

AlmightyCushion

Overheal wrote: »

Wireless N? Isnt that the weak brand of Wireless?

No it's the newest standard (I think it's only draft or draft 2 at the moment).

Overheal

Hellm0 wrote: »

Also I completely agree on the battery life, it is not going to be very good for long journies at all. That said I intend to keep this puppy pretty well juiced up when I'm not on the road so it's not a major concern.

Forget the occassional road trip, think about wanting to walk around the house with it, use it in the bedroom/living room/office/etc. when 2 hours is your MAximum battery life that means thats how much time you get with all the bells and whistles shut down, No Wireless, Lowest Display Lighting, Low CPU performance threshold, etc. etc.

If youre actually away from the power grid and trying to accomplish something, like watch a Blu Ray Movie, (ugh, Especially watch a bluray movie!), play a video game you will only get a whopping 40 minutes out of it, if youre lucky. Around an hour and a bit of browsing the web. Its not a great travel companion at all, basically.

Hellm0

Overheal wrote: »

Forget the occassional road trip, think about wanting to walk around the house with it, use it in the bedroom/living room/office/etc. when 2 hours is your MAximum battery life that means thats how much time you get with all the bells and whistles shut down, No Wireless, Lowest Display Lighting, Low CPU performance threshold, etc. etc.

If youre actually away from the power grid and trying to accomplish something, like watch a Blu Ray Movie, (ugh, Especially watch a bluray movie!), play a video game you will only get a whopping 40 minutes out of it, if youre lucky. Around an hour and a bit of browsing the web. Its not a great travel companion at all, basically.

Certainly a valid point, and it is a concern for me that it be useable(IE not out of power) while on the move but in reality I am one lazy b*stard, I don't really move alot and when I do it's usually to somewhere with a power socket at my disposal. Also bare in mind that I never leave the house without my ipwn(actually an ipod-touch, just wanted to say ipwn) so my communication needs are pretty much already met. This shall be my "travel" notebook, the kind that spends most of it's time near to my couch/bed/toilet.

Overheal

well all i can say to that is buy a spare charger and a spare battery: if youre as lazy as me its a pain in the ass to constantly migrate your power cable around: keep one at your desk and one with you.

Hellm0

Overheal wrote: »

well all i can say to that is buy a spare charger and a spare battery: if youre as lazy as me its a pain in the ass to constantly migrate your power cable around: keep one at your desk and one with you.

Defo, though with the cost of both those accessories being what they are on the manufacturer site I was thinking I'll wait for it to arrive before I order theirs, I may be able to get generic models cheaper. Its the same situation with the mouse, they sell the Logitec VX mouse along with it for another $130 but I've read that thing has conflicts with the 2.4ghz range(meaning it competes with wifi) so I'm going to buy it sep.

Overheal

should be fine if your wireless network is operating on a different channel. if you experience connectivity problems just enter your router and change the channel frequency.