Recommendations for new laptop

[G-Stress]

I'm looking to get a new lap-top this week hopefully and thought I'd get a few suggestions. My main use for the laptop will mainly be VMWare. I currently have a Dell Lattitude D830 which is great, but I need something a lil better. I've been writing alot of video tutorials on the D830, but with only 2GB of ram there is quite a bit of lag trying to run win7, vista and leopard in vmware. (not all at the same time)

I need something where I can run at least 1 instance of server 2k3 or 2k8, win7, vista and leopard at the same time.

Hopefully this is feasible with an affordable laptop. I prefer Intel based, but will go with amd if need be.

A recent episode of hak5 where Darren was at the Mubix layer he mentioned Mubix was running like 12 VM's during the episode on his laptop, curious to know what laptop he had.

What I would like included:

Wifi a/g/n

Bluetooth

Webcam

500 GB + HDD

Looking on Best Buy's site I saw this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemap...sc=abcat0500000

However I'm a little hesitant about buying HP as I've bought 2 brand new over the years and both have had hardware failure after only a little over a year.

[b0park]

I would say an Asus UL or with plenty of memory to distribute between your VM's. Or you can go for Alienware's new M11x, those things are sexy!

I commend you on using a D830 this whole time, I hate those things, we use them as workstations here. They don't really have anything wrong with them, I just hate their plasticy cheap feel.

Fortunately those 2 laptops I listed above will definitely do what you need, but also give you great battery life, not sure if that's one of your requirements. It's definitely and added benefit though!

[null_x86]

Pretty much anything Asus will do, along with OCZ's DIY kits, those were good last time I checked, plus they arent factory loaded with crap. The m11x when it comes out will be good for a gaming netbook, but thats its only real purpose... I would try to steer clear of Dell, unless you get a business line model; for whatever reason they are better built and have way better tech support. HP's alright, I'd go for ASUS and DIY OCZ first.

[G-Stress]

Thanks guys, I was looking at alienware also. I know those are the way to go for gaming, but I'm not a gamer. Still I'm sure anything alienware will suit my needs.

I personally like the D830, mostly because it has pretty much everything integrated, bluetooth, pcmcia and expresscard. The cd/dvd drive pops out and I have a second battery that pops in it's place. Good battery life is definitely something I'll need.

[x290]

Well, if you're considering an Alienware, you may consider an Apple computer. Similar price premium, however the Macbook Pro computers have incomparable battery life in their class, with the horsepower behind it that works. It may not be "zOMG i7 with 8gb of RAM", but I can guarantee you will have a longer battery life. Also, it can natively run OSX, Win7 and Linux, which could be nice if you're having problems running certain apps in VMware, you've got the capability to boot natively without issues.

As per, if you want a cheap, quality laptop, check out Sager. Also, Dell Precision laptops are decent, but remember, most laptops of this class are not going to have reasonable battery life, the only exception I can think of is the MBP.

I may get called out as a fanboy, but to the contrary, I don't own any Apple products.. I tend to think they are trying to monopolize the industry. However, per your requests of power, battery life, and support... I can't think of a better choice.

[Netshroud]

x290: Just wait a week, see what the rumored Arrandale refresh from Apple brings.

[b0park]

Not to get into a fanboy, flame war of any kind. I personally do own Macbook and I'm happy with it. Honestly, (without knowing what will come in Arrandale refresh) I would still go with a Asus UL. I personally believe it comes close, if not meets.

It all depends on what you use it for, and if I was to purchase a new notebook right now, I'd go for the Asus UL.

Macbook is in fact rated for a 7 hour battery life. That's best case scenario, I believe real world is 5-6 hrs. Not to mention when you run any VM's especially Windows based VM's, you can kiss that battery life away to I would estimate 2-4 hrs?

The UL is rated for 12 hrs best case scenario. So I would almost assume you would get 10 hrs real world battery life. The particular one I've been eying comes with 4gb of DDR3 memory and 500gb HDD. The thing is a beast.

So you don't think I'm hiding anything, you do loose some stuff. Personally I don't find them important. The processor is a Intel SU7300 which is great for battery. It's not T6700 but what you're doing I don't see you running into any issues. It's strong enough to do HD video editing. You'll also be loosing an optical drive. If it matters that much to you, Amazon has a deal right now where if you buy a Asus UL notebook, they will throw in a free external Optical drive. $697 beat's $999+ in my book. Not to mention you get a 1 year warranty PLUS accidental damage coverage included in that price. Check it out here

[G-Stress]

I do like that Asus laptop alot. It does just about fit my needs and I like the good battery life and 13.3" display. I'll keep this one in mind, hoping to find something just a bit more powerful though.