New laptop needed: graphics performance important

upmeath

Hi all,
The Inspiron 6000 is dead. New laptop needed urgently! I'm studying architecture in college so the programs I'm using most are AutoCAD, Photoshop and Sketchup. I've big presentations coming up next week so I need to get a new machine asap.

I had been looking at the Dell Studio XPS 16 on their site but I've heard Dell's delivery times have gone downhill since they closed operations here, it can take up to 3 weeks now.
Do Sony stores sell Vaio laptops across the counter with good graphics and RAM spec?

Summing things up, my priorities are speed of delivery (i.e. something I can walk into the city and buy tomorrow morning, maybe in a Sony shop?) something that's ready to run (Windows preferably, and I have all the necessary programs backed up and ready to install) with good graphics and speedy performance.

I don't particularly want any tag-along antivirus software that constantly asks me to update like Dell did with McAfee, I'll download AVG for free, thank you very much. I don't need Office either, OpenOffice.org covers all my needs in that field.
Many thanks in advance.

Alanstrainor

Have you tried reinstalling windows on your Dell? Could solve a lot of your problems.

upmeath

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Have you tried reinstalling windows on your Dell? Could solve a lot of your problems.

Thanks for the quick response. Yeah I had the entire thing formatted and reinstalled XP on it about 6 months ago. That gave it a decent boost, performance improved by about 30-40%, but it's on its last legs now. I frequently defrag and run virus scans weekly (the daily scan was slowing me down too much).
I need something for between €500 and €800 that I can buy good to go either tomorrow or Monday. I'm thinking a trip down to the nearest Sony store mightn't be a bad idea?
A mate who studies IT says I'm probably looking for a machine with minimum 4Gb RAM, Windows 7 and either a G-Force of ATI Radeon graphics card, but he hasn't bought in ages and his requirements aren't the same as mine so he couldn't recommend a brand or model.

ED E

TBH I think a load of the Sony stuff has a large premium for style and branding.

When I ordered my dell a year ago, I paid sunday night, confirmed as building monday and arrived at 11 or 12 on the tuesday. This may be a lot slower now though as you said.

Toshibas can be picked up in store all over the place, dunno how high up the chain they go though, and they tend to have some bloatware in there as stock.

I'd say your best bet is hitting town for a few hours in the morning with a pen and paper. Pick a max, then go to each store you can find and ask them whats the highest performance for that figure. At the end look at your list, whichever is the highest spec wins, simple.

upmeath

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

When I ordered my dell a year ago, I paid sunday night, confirmed as building monday and arrived at 11 or 12 on the tuesday. This may be a lot slower now though as you said.

I think so anyway. My bro's gf ordered a Dell online a month ago and it only arrived during the week. Nothing too fancy. They're having to ship them much further now and it's putting in on delivery times, so I think Dell are out of the picture for me.

Lethal_Bullet wrote:

Toshibas can be picked up in store all over the place, dunno how high up the chain they go though, and they tend to have some bloatware in there as stock.

Bloatware = "free" goodies software to make you think you're getting a better deal I presume?

Lethal_Bullet wrote:

I'd say your best bet is hitting town for a few hours in the morning with a pen and paper. Pick a max, then go to each store you can find and ask them whats the highest performance for that figure. At the end look at your list, whichever is the highest spec wins, simple.

Sounds like a plan, I'm probably going to go down that avenue tomorrow morning. Thanks very much for the reply.

Duggy747

My laptop is on it's last legs so I bought a Dell Studio 17 with 4GB RAM and 1TB ATI 4650 GFX for €800 last week off their website. They gave me an estimation that I'd get it on or before Xmas eve (I'm sure the date will drop closer) so I'm guessing that's pretty useless to ya.

Since you need it for these types of software I'd go with your buddy, get a laptop with 4GB, 64-bit operating system (not essential), and stick to a Nvidia or an ATI GFX. AutoCad is the one that needs the power.

Suss out the laptops that might suit you in shops (PC World, Sony, etc) and google the graphics cards for a comparison chart. They're easy to find and they break them down in terms of performance pretty well so you'll have a good idea whats the best one for you.

The same can be applied to the processors (there's a difference between Duo-Core, Dual Core, etc)

You don't want to shell out an extra lump of cash for a laptop that does little better than one thats much cheaper.

And format that bitch as soon as you turn it on to get rid of all the pre-installed shìte.