I am looking at getting a new laptop as my main system and was hopeing to get some thoughts on what features i should look for and possibly what models are good.

I am looking around the $2500-3000 price range as this will be my main system and i want it to last a while.

Few things i'd like are:

- Decent sized HDD but not huge. I have a 4TB file server.
- Fast speed and heaps of RAM
- At least 15.1 screen
- Decent vid card. I don't game really but i'd like the option.
- Blu-ray/DVD/CD burner drive
- 802.11n wireless, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth.
- Decent battery life. Probably asking too much for a powerful machine.
- Card reader. 8 in 1 if possible. Mainly xD as i have an Olympus camera.
- Decent audio out. Speakers and connection.

Also, what are thoughts on Solid State HDDs? Worth the extra money for saving on heat/power/etc.?

Look wise i like ASUS.

So yeah, will be looking over next few weeks and seeing whats out there but if anyone has some good pointers on what i have missed that is good, let me know.

Thanks

Well i dont about all ASUS but I bought ASUS for my brother 1-2 years ago.. and now its stuffed. The fans are all working but for some reason it gets extremely hot...

Ok, i'll keep that in mind.

Though from the ones i have come across so far, the ASUS seems pretty nice.

3 that have caught my eye in first look are:

Asus L50VN-AK004G T9400 2.53GHZ 500G 4G 15WSXGA+ VU
http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=76&bid=2&sid=36794
http://www.asus.com.au/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=23&l3=523&l4=51&model=2438&modelmenu=1

Fujitsu Lifebook E8420H VB (XPP downgrade) T9400/2Gx2/320G/DVDSM/NV9300/15.4WSXGA/BT/FP/Webcam/Wifi/
http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=148&bid=2&sid=33108
http://www.fujitsulifebook.com.au/1210_Fujitsu-E8420H-Lifebook-Notebook-Intel-Centrino-2-T9400-with-Vista-Busi.php

MSI GX720-045AU P8600 2.4GHZ 17WSXGA+ 4GB 320GB 9600GT512MB HDMI 2.0MPWCAM TVturner VHP($150cashback $150 cash back from MSI till end of March 2009
http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=160&bid=2&sid=34684
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1521

I have an Asus that I use as the main PC and it's all good. It is only 6 months old though.

I think the audio output on all laptops are pretty crappy, regardless of model and price. At least that's what I concluded when I was looking. But you can get external USB soundcards for about $50 which should make a significant difference (I'm yet to buy one and try it though).

*BTW if any one wants to buy a AMD dual core desktop machine with all the bits, give me a holler.*

work just gave me a new dell yesterday;

i lubs it! (its just a latitude d630) but its got enough grunt for me to do my work stuff

We've had an asus here at work for quite a while, and it runs fine, about 2 or 3 years old now.

Have had to replace the battery once though.

I ordered a new dell laptop 7weeks ago and and they're still making excuses as to why it hasn't been shipped. While I'm not usually the flaming type, I'm a little pissed at dell atm. Just a heads up.

I got my Dell XPS M1530 laptop a year ago for around $2500 and it's still awesome today (even runs GTA4 pretty well) and looks great so I'd definitely recommend them, it even shipped and arrived a week earlier than they estimated.

The main problem I'd say with this model is that the battery is really too small. I mean I understand I got a pretty powerful system and a discrete video card but it's still much less than convenient. You can get a 9 cell instead of a 6 cell battery but it sticks out and looks pretty ugly.

I've never really liked Asus's laptop designs before, but that one you linked there looks pretty damn good.

XPS1530 are seriously nice systems.

i went a HP tablet. Upgraded it to 4gig ram. Love it. Good for reading pdfs on the train / plane. Good for FullTilt, just touch the screen : )

good thing about dell is there warranty...

I use my HP Pavilion DV6519tx. It is 18 months old - 1.7ghz core2 duo, 4gb ram, geforce 8400m graphics, 500gb sata 2.5".

damn good laptop. If i was looking to update it (which isnt necessary) then i would look into the newer HP laptops. It is really a great, decent performance machine.

Also its the entertainment model so it has the remote and quicklaunch etc

XPS1530 are seriously nice systems.

Yeh but they don't see to be selling them anymore =\

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/xpsnb?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs

yeah I got an xps1530, pretty good for a laptop. Also running windows 7 on it so I got rid of all that dell s***ty stuff.

What are you doing with your old laptop mantis?

Studio XPS

Decent battery life. Probably asking too much for a powerful machine.

In power saving mode my toshiba x200 (2.4ghz core2duo, 2 gig of ram, 8700mgt video card or some such) gets a few hours, at least enough to watch a full length movie. What about the latest macbook? I saw an ad for it saying it runs on 1/4 of the power of a lightbulb, they didn't specifiy WHICH lightbulb though so if it was a 400watt light bulb that's still a s***load of power :p plus they probably cost $6k knowing (cr)apple.

it says 60watt lightbulb on the bottom of the screen in little writing... (oh s***... i use macs)

I've got an Asus, have had it for 2.5 years. Haven't had too many problems with it, other than switching itself off sometimes (I assume this is due to heat, but not really sure how to fix that). As it's a little old I could use some new ram and maybe a bigger hard drive (80g at the moment) but it has a nice sized screen, and I use it more as a desktop than a laptop anyways. Have a few friends with Asus as well, they have all been pretty happy.

I'm also trying to buy a laptop at the moment for my sister and there are a lot of similar spec machines at varying prices. Eg. Asus laptops with 2.0GHz processors, one saying Dual Core and another saying Core 2 Duo, 3 hundred bucks apart. Is dual core and Core2 totally different or just diff vocab? I'm currently reading the Core 2 entry on wiki to learn the difference but it's very in depth...

My next Laptop will be a Sony, f*** me they are hot and the LED screen is awesome. Thread over.

asus have 2 year manufacturer warranty as standard. Dunno about the process once something goes wrong though..

They have a service centre near JB HiFi at Macgregor.

I mainly went ASUS due to the 2 year warranty and the fact it doesn't need to be sent away.