dzirob33

If I don't decide to but a mac for some wild reason what kind of Dell or Thinkpad should be my second choice? Money is not too much of a problem but I'm not looking to get one of Dell's gaming laptops that cost like $4,000. I want a high end media laptop thats powerful. Which will give me the better quality? A Dell laptop (and if so which one??? maybe a latitude or XPS?) or a Thinkpad (and which thinkpad is better, I think there's a two different versions)?

Chipmoney

for a media laptop, dell is definitely better then lenevo, lenovo's are good business laptops, but aren't strong media wise

toxic_waste

if you want gaming, get a Dell Vostro or XPS (in terms of build quality, Vostro > XPS). Thinkpads and Latitudes are designed specifically for businesses, which don't need huge chunks of graphics processing power.

j89

if you're looking at gaming, go XPS. Thinkpads are more for business.

kyledavid80

Er, ThinkPads can really be what you want them to be--you can add in the graphics to make them as strong as a Dell. They really aren't designed just for business...

Coopjust

The ThinkPads are built to withstand more abuse, have better keyboards (this is opinion), and have a slight price premium.

But the better Lenovos are more business oriented. You'd probably get more multimedia features and a laptop better suited to gaming from Dell (XPS is much higher quality).

VectorLaplacian

The new thinkpad t61p's are pretty much everything you could want in a college laptop. Besides being easily customizable up to the "level" of a dell, they're built like absolute tanks; they even have a *spill drain.*

There's no such thing as a "multimedia feature" in a laptop. You can't customize in compatibility for photoshop; you just select which type of cpu or video card you want. In this respect, thinkpads have basically the exact same customization options as a dell.

Several people have mentioned the superiority of thinkpad keyboards; do not underestimate this. Remember that you're going to spend at least several hours per day typing on it; it should be as close to perfect as possible.

Finally, if you'll read reviews of the t61p (not the t61) you'll see ravings about the heat dissipation. From my experience, they are absolutely correct. You can use the laptop for hours straight on your lap and never feel uncomfortable.

P.S. Who pays a ridiculous amount of money per year to go to college just so he/she can play some stupid games? It would be pretty unwise to consider a gaming laptop and then get stuck with a 17" monster that weighs 10 lbs and feels like a lap warmer.

toxic_waste

yes, they are. you can stick an nVidia 8600M GT in a Dell (XPS or Vostro), but the most powerful GPU in a Thinkpad is a Quadro FX 570M, which is mid- or lower-end card designed for workstations. i don't care if it has a billion MB of memory, it was designed for CAD work at most, not gaming. the Latitude has an NVS something-or-other, which is worse.

if that works for the OP, then sure, Thinkpads and Latitudes are fine. otherwise, no.

Dabu

Actually Toxic the Quadro FX 570M is basically the same exact card as the 8600M GT, they just are configured slightly differently and use different drivers. If the drivers from laptopvideo2go are installed on a thinkpad with the 570M, it would be able to run just as well as the 8600M GT, assuming that both have DDR3 memory.

That being said, my school offers thinkpads through their program, but I decided to buy a Dell XPS 1530 instead and couldn't be happier with my purchase....it is a great computer and since I don't need the tech support provided by the school, it did not make a difference for me. The thing seems solidly built, looks amazing, and runs great...

dzirob33

So all-in-all im hearing that the thinkpad is better quality but not for gaming. How much are those t61p? My school (Penn State) only sells t61 (without the letter "p" in the name). Is there much of a difference?

Dabu

The t61p has the 570M graphics card and the option for a higher resolution screen, the t61 has integrated graphics or the 140m. Also, Dzirob33, if you get the t61p with the 570M, you will be able to play games as long as you change your driver.

pearlygate

you can save some money (like $100) if you opt the preinstalled linux version for t61 btw

VectorLaplacian

The t61p is *very* sturdy. It has a better lcd cover, and a roll cage on both screen and motherboard.

Don_Quixote

If you're looking at Dell XPS laptops, you might try the newer Alienware laptop... Dell bought ought alienware a while back, so the quality should be about the same (it'd be worth checking on the quality though), but the alienware laptop is more compact than the equivalent dell laptop and has some nice media features... I think they start around $1,500 or so...

Don_Quixote

here's a link on that...
Alienware Area-51 m15x high performance gaming notebook computer – Learn More

It's a tad heavy at 7 lbs, but you can put an nVidia 8800 into it, if media is what you're into...