ZT ELement Laptop

[c_nelsen05]

Hey guys, i have been looking for a laptop for Engineering school lately, and I need a dedicated graphics card for running the CAD programs and things like that. I hav basically narrowed down my selection to two laptops.

The Dell Studio 15, which is about $850 after all expenses

<http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/laptop_studio?c=us&cs=2236&l=en&s=eep?

and the laptop I found on Newegg which has considerably better specs for the same price, but I have never heard of the brand before. It is ZT Element.

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834210015>

Please let me know which ones you guys would recommend, or maybe even one around the same price range that I could consider. Thanks!

 

[frozenlead]

With no reviews, the ZT doesn't seem to be a good choice; i'd never buy a machine if i didn't know what to expect. I'll google a few reviews in a minute. By the numbers, though, the ZT crushes the Dell - for CAD, I wouldn't even consider the Dell.

I suggest you fill out the questions in the laptop FAQ sticky at the top of the forum catagory. They were geniously suggested by maziar, and make helping you SO much easier. That way, we know what kind of things you want/need specifically, and what kind of money you have to spend.

 

[frozenlead]

I can't find much about the particular system. Fill out the FAQ, and we can go from there.

 

[c_nelsen05]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about the ZT, thanks for recommending this....here we go....

1_What is your budget?
I would like to keep the price range under $900...kind of a poor college student....

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
I really dont care about the size.

3_What screen resolution do you want?
1024 x 768 or higher

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I need a portable basically just used at the college.

5_How much battery life do you need?
I should have it plugged in most of the time but I would like at least 4 hours

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Games isnt really much of an issue since I can use my desktop, I just need to run CAD utilities.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing , surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
I need it for CAD and computing software for Aero engineering

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 120 GB (7200 RPM)

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
I really dont have any preferences.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 4 years through the rest of my college and then some.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
I need at least a 2.0Ghz Core 2 duo processor, at least 2G of RAM (4 is recommended), and a CD/DVD reader

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I dont really have a preference, though I would like it to be at least a little well known.

13_What country do you live in? United States

 

[frozenlead]

I can't get many respectable machines together for that price..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147741
^ decent, but only 3GB of ram and the 8400m GS

I customized an HP dv5t with 3GB of ram and at 9200m GS (free 250GB hdd included) for $999.99

I customized an HP dv6700t with a 2.0GHz dual core processor, 4GB of ram, an 8400m GS, and a 160GB hdd for $898.99

I customized a Dell studio 15 with a 2GHz dual core processor, 4GB of ram, an HD3450, and a 160GB hdd for $924

Bear in mind, none of these have 7200rpm hard disks - they're too expensive.

I would go with the dv6700t - lowest price, has the features you need.

 

[c_nelsen05]

Yeah I have been messing with configurations for a while on the HP and Dell sites. Thanks for the help, but I dont have to take my CAD class this semester yet, so I may just end up waiting for the prices to drop a little bit during the middle of this semester, but if not a customized dv6700 seems the way to go. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[theworminator]

Yeah, just make sure you have at least that 2 gigs of RAM (minimum!) and a midrange graphics card. Though it was hilarious watching my friends try to model in 3D running on Intel GMA.

 

[c_nelsen05]

Hey guys I was on Newegg surfing around, and I found this, Is it a good deal?

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220348>

pretty good card for the money and has most everything that I need, and I heard asus has great cust. service.

 

[frozenlead]

Me being me, I would never go with an AMD processor in a notebook, but for that graphics card with that price, it looks like a decent package.