Gateway Parts - What Is the Best Laptop?

What Is the Best Laptop?

What Is the Best Laptop I can Buy for Games, Music, Movies, and College? I would Like to get a nice computer for college around $3000, but less if possible. Ive asked many people but gotten different answers. DELL? HP? SONY? TOSHIBA? GATEWAY? MAC? ALIENWARE? What parts should i get for the computer? ThankYou

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ALIENWARE definitely if your a gamer Acers are nice as well, which is what I am currently on for personal use. are you going to use it more for games/movies, etc or more for school work? You will need a lot of space and may need to but more but thats no biggie.
Alienware is the best but it is also the most expensive... Alienware comes with dual graphics cards(if you want to at extra cost) which is best for gaming if your not a hardcore gamer then sony is a good allround performer....
try this site, it uses top notch components like alienware but at half the price http://www.vigorgaming.com/ you should definately get at least a 250 gb hard drive for you movie, music, and games, 320 if possible, consider investing in an hd screen for it get this laptop and you'll be able to do anything, and i mean anything on it http://www.vigorgaming.com/product/config_artoriuspro.html upgrade it to include the following components SPECIAL PROMOTION Free Shipping PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile Processor T8300 at 2.40 GHz, 800MHz FSB, 3M Cache NOTEBOOK COLOR Black with Red Outlines MB CORE LOGIC Intel PM965 + ICH8-M Chipset w/800MHz FSB SCREEN SIZE 17" WUXGA 1920x1200 ClearView Glossy-Glass Wide Screen TFT LCD Display MEMORY 4GB Corsair/Kingston SODIMM PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz Memory (2 X 2048MB) TURBO MEMORY 1GB Intel Turbo Memory for up to 2X Faster Performances under Windows Vista HARD DRIVE 320GB High Performance S-ATA150 5400 RPM Hard Drive VIDEO CARD nVidia GeForce Go 8700M GT 512MB DDR3 16X PCI Express DirectX 10 Ready OPTICAL DRIVE Internal 2X Blu-Ray Writer 8X DVD+/-R/RW (2.4X+DL) + 24X CDRW Drive RECORDING SOFTWARE Bundled DVD/CDRW Software SOUND High Definition Azalia 7.1 8 Channel 3D Digital Audio w/SRS WOW, 2 Speakers + 1 Subwoofer WIRELESS NETWORK WiFi Wireless Intel 4965 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless Card BLUETOOTH Internal Bluetooth Module NETWORK PORT Built-in Gigabit 10/100/1000 Mbps NIC MODEM 56K Modem with V.90 Technology I/O PORTS 4 USB, Firewire, 4 Audio, S-Video, DVI, Infrared, Serial, Express Card Slot, and 7-in-1 Card reader CAMERA Intergrated 1.3M High-Resolution Digital Video Camera SECURITY Integrated Fingerprint Reader for Data Security OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/Original DVD OPTIONAL MOUSE None. EXTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVE None. DIMENSIONS 15.60" Width X 11.50" Depth X 1.00~1.80" Height. 8.35lbs. MOBILE TRANSPORT Free Mobile Transport Bag (MSRP $69.99) SERVICE Standard 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty EXTRA BATTERY None. TV TUNER None. STORAGE MEDIA None. SOFTWARE BUNDLE None. ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE None. It has an hd screen to watch movies really well, a blue ray writer/reader to store massive amounts of files and also watch hd movies, a super processor, a decent video card to play most modern games at high settings, 4 gigs of ram for the ultimate multitasking, windows ultimate for all the best features, a massive hard drive, amazing wireless with bluetooth, the list goes on and on, this computer would outperform 90 % of desktops and that is saying something
Dell XPS is good for gaming, is lightweight, and great for college.
Sager, they have been making the top of the line notebooks for 10 years. No one else can touch their build quality, capability, or customer service and support If your willing to dump 3K into a laptop i recommend them. Another top notebook maker is Voodoo, they have been really good for along time as well. And i think their prices have come down alot since HP purchased them. They are still a seperate entity than HP, but have the corporate muscle to make the laptops available in a slightly higher volume and at a lower price. Alienware is the other high end laptop maker, but i typically dont recommend then, they have always been a company that made you pay for their alien head logo, but its gotten bad now that dell bought them out. They still make very good notebooks, but they have gotten a bit "plasticy", is about the best term i can come up with, here lately. I dont know if its because of Dell or because that was the direction the company wanted to go, so i generally stay away from their products. Now away from boutique dealers Dell - Their XPS systems are pretty good, i've generally been impressed with their build quality, if not their hardware. They tend to make a good computer, but you cant really get the "best" hardware so even their most expensive system will be not quite top of the lime. HP - The DV9700 or the HDX Dragon are both very good and gaming capable notebooks. They dont have the top of the line Videocards (like dell typically 1 step behind) but they make up for it will wonderful build design and the "extras" that make the notebooks worth having. Sony - They make very good products, but charge WAY to much for them. I will pay for another viao the day hades freezes over. They are very good notebooks, but crappy prices Toshiba - I cant really comment as i have never owned one. I will try to do some reasearch for you to find out anything that pretains to your question. Gateway - My current gaming rig is the Gateway 6860-fx With a starting price of 1250 its about the cheapest way to get the 8800 video card. Its down side is ther card is teh GTS instead of the GTX, and it only comes with a 5750 1.83 processor. I have upgraded my processor and over clocked my video card with nvidias ntune sofeware and i can put out decent stats. But over all its taken me about 2K to get the computer where i want it, but to me was worth it. Design is wonderful on the computer, but i wish they would have supported the screen better. Mac - If you want the mac software then its the only choice you have, as you cant legally run mac software on a PC (though some do so anyways) If you dont need the Mac software then you are paying a premium on hardware that is unjustified (as mac's are built out of the exact same componets as PC's they just use diffrent software) Hope that covered everything for you
You've been getting a lot of suggestions because you're basically asking for whatever $3,000 will buy, and that will buy a lot of everything on the market. Any of your suggested makers will get you a system that fits your bill for even gaming (although there are doubtlessly lappies out there for more than 3 grand). But beware!!! High priced systems have more high-performance components: desktop class CPUs rather than the more power-conserving and cooler kind used for laptops; faster RAM, bigger and faster HD's (7200 is rapidly becoming the standard, so it will soon not be enough for those monster lappies) and best/worst of all a dedicated graphics card instead of a graphics chip "integrated" on the MoBo. The advantages of dedicated cards over integrated chips is that they are much more powerful, just enough to draw the line between a lappie you'll use for your playing BF9 and one you'll just need for typing out that final paper. The downside of dedicated cards is that they generate a lot of heat, requiring coolant, adding to the price, internal volume, power consumption and (not sure on this one) weight. Bigger lappies need more power and drain their batteries faster. I also suspect that they have shorter life-spans, but I have no empirical evidence of that. If that dedicated card quits on you (gets fried) replacing it will prove costly, at the very least. Getting the right card for your desktop can prove tricky (right bus, voltage requirements, did you get the chipset you wanted, overclocking, etc...) To these considerations, lappies may require a card built for a form-factor specific to that machine. As an example, a version of the Alienware Area-51, the 766, came with a dedicated card that could be upgraded, technically speaking. There were 4 possible cards available for that lappie - 2 mobility radeons, and 2 GeForce Go cards. These cards soon fried, leaving their owners out of luck when the supply of new cards disappeared. (the story of the 766 is also a great warning about how prospective buyers much take claims of upgradability with a grain of salt.). Unable to run their machines, owners found themselves the proud users of paperweights. Because these computers are usually premium machines, the cost of owning one of these things is pretty high. This problem is exacerbated in the case of Alienware by the fact that AW doesn't actually make their machines and their ability (willingness) to support them once they become legacy machines is limited by the fact their contribution to these machines goes litte further than finding funky names for the different colors they come in. I just want to end off with 2 ideas to keep in mind. 1) you'll be spending a lot of money on a laptop that won't last as long as a cheap probably; 2) besides gaming, you'll need this thing for school. If you blow a gasket, you'll lose not only your gaming machine but also that important machine you actually use to get your work done. For these reasons, I suggest getting a machine not optimised for gaming - integrated graphics, at least 2 gb of RAM, a 7200 rpm hd; core 2 duo, at least 2 gb. I also suggest getting Vista now because machines run better on a clean install than when upgrading from XP. Any of the big brands should do well - you may even consider getting a refurb (but only from the manufacturer).