Question:
HP NW9440 or Asus W2j(c)
I need help deciding which laptop to purchase between now and December to be my primary computer for work. I'm an architect(I'm located in the US) and my office will pay for. Price must be below $4000 which both of these laptops should be. I'm assuming the WSXGA screen will be available on the Asus W2 in the US soon; I know I definitely want a 17" WSXGA or above screen. I have a matte 15" UXGA (sager) now that I like okay but wish it was bigger (and didn't flicker). I don't know much about the glossy screens, but I have concerns about reflections; my office can be bright sometimes. I use Autocad 2d primarily for production drawings (fairly large files(10mb +/-)), but will also use it for Photoshop, and some Autocad 3d. May use it for 3D studio max eventually. I don't "game", at least not yet. I won't move it much so weight/battery life are not a huge concern. I haven't seen either laptop in person but they both appear to be decent looking and well made which is definitely a concern. I should probably be considering the Dell M90 but I'm not crazy about the way they look (and a couple of friends have had bad experiences with Dells over the years). In particular, I'd love input on how the screens compare. I'd probably get the WUXGA in the HP depending on what people say about it. I'm also curious about the difference between the GPU's. The HP has the Nvidia Quadro FX1500 and the Asus has the ATI Radeon X1600. I guess it comes down to whether or not I need a "workstation" (the HP) or if a "media" notebook (the Asus) can serve my needs adequately. I'd appreciate any insight.
Answer:
Re: HP NW9440 or Asus W2j(c)
hey there mr architect, hows life?? well, the quadro is most suitable to your needs cos its more for cad, 3d imaging etc, which is what i imagine your needs are... x1600 is definitely a gaming peice... its not going to do nearly as well on your work related tasks, so ya...
ati does have an equivalent of the quadro, and that is the ati FireGL, which is good also but because i dont really look at 17 inch lappies i dont know what comes with it...
this might be a bit bias but i just got off the phone with hp tech support... indian is seriously not the way to go.. i spurt out my 400 word question, and shes like "pardon me sir?" so ya, if you get the HP beware the TECH SUPPORT!!! what you can do is find a retailer with good customer service, and ask them to deal with it for you...
hmmm i thinkt the hp actually looks pretty professional eh, but its keyboard look not very clean cos they frame all the function keys... random... but anywya, its not a bad looker... anything else, you can pm me if you want ya
Answer:
Re: HP NW9440 or Asus W2j(c)
Well, I know you may not want an M90, but as a user who has had absolutely no problems with it, I will put it out there and urge you to take a second look. 3D modeling is absolutely no problem for this machine, even on battery life. In addition, it is a very solid build, and personally, I have had much better luck with Dells than HPs. Most of my friends would attribute to that as well. Another thing to consider; you can get the M90 with the WUXGA screen, which seems to be what you prefer, as well as the Quadro FX 2500M, which will certainly handle anything you can throw at it as it is hands down the best mobile workstation graphics card available. As for the difference between the Quadro FX 1500M and the ATi x1600, the 1500M is far powerful in all respects. It's in a different class, going from the x1600=mid-range card, 1500M=top range. Once again, I implore you to at least consider the M90. Customer service is U.S. as well since it's a Small Business machine.
EDIT: Dell's have come a long way over the past few years in terms of service and build quality. You can read my review . Between those two, go with the HP, though I would say that the Asus will probably of higher quality. But the HP is more powerful and of course isa workstation.
Answer:
Re: HP NW9440 or Asus W2j(c)
As far as I know, the FireGL is a just a workstation x1600, whereas the 1500M is a workstation 7900GS. I don't think ATi has a higher FireGL than the v5200 (=x1600).
Answer:
Re: HP NW9440 or Asus W2j(c)
I second ftw's sugesstion of the M90, it seems like a very nice laptop. The only shame is that it looks very similar to the XPS Gen2/M170 models. I trust Dell over HP, becuse HP keyboards and quality in general have gone down in that past few years, wheras Dells has gone up.
convo: speak slower. Americans speak very quickly and the accent is different from what Indian people are used to. Also, it helps significantly if you speak the tech support persons native language (usually Tamil or Telegu if the tech support center is in India). It makes things much easier.
Answer:
Re: HP NW9440 or Asus W2j(c)
I appreciate the advice. Will definitely look at the M90 a little closer; I'm sure it probably makes the most sense in the end for my needs. This is always a tough decision; trade offs between different laptops. Wish the options/componenents of the M90 were available in a laptop designed/built like the Asus. Maybe the M90 is better built and looks better than I'm imagining. Users have said good things about it so it must be pretty solid. Hopefully the M90 battery won't spontaneously combust on me and burn down my office (see front page New York Times article from today).