Print production/design lappie?

Just got hired for a new production/design job (yay!) and it turns out I can telecommute half or more of the time. The good news is I'm finally making decent money; the bad news is I'm pretty busy now and it'd be a huge help if I could take my work with me. Hence, I need a laptop.

Primary apps I'm using are Quark 7.3 and CS3 Web Premium (mostly Illustrator), the problem is that most of what I'm doing is print work and therefore nasty high resolutions. I'm wondering about how much a laptop that could handle up to 2000dpi on an 11x17" doc of maybe 20 pages max would cost me.

I'm thinking an Inspiron 1720 with the 17" screen, 250GB hard drive, 2GB DDR2-667, and a pair of 9-cell batteries might fit the bill - only thing that worries me is whether the onboard X3100 graphics will hurt performance. I don't really know how much the graphics card helps for 2D performance, but I figure I should at least grab a solid Core2 processor.

The only graphics upgrades they have are a 128MB GeForce 8400M GS for $100 or a 256MB GeForce 8600M GT for $200 - both seem like a ripoff considering the weak performance of those cards. When my g/f got her Inspiron 9300 (I think that was the model at least) about a year and a half ago they were selling a 6800 Mobile for like $150. What gives? Is there an 8800GT-based mobile part underway at all?

My CPU options are:
-T5250 is included (1.5ghz/667fsb/2mb cache)
-T7250 for $100 extra (2ghz, 800fsb)
-T7500 for $175 extra (2.2ghz/800fsb/4MB cache)

There's also a T5450 and a T7700 but they're just minor mhz bumps and don't seem worth the money.

I can upgrade the screen from 1440x900 to 1920x1200 (1080p) for $150 - that seems like a good choice considering my work. It's a 17" wide either way, and I don't mind things being on the smallish side (was using a 21" CRT at 1600x1200 until recently).

Last question is the hard drive... I can choose between a 250GB 5400rpm or a 160GB 7200rpm - how much would the 7200rpm help? I'm not really concerned about space and they cost the same... but of course if I *do* happen to have space for all my music I certainly wouldn't complain...

Looks like I'm at $1279 plus any CPU or GPU upgrades. It comes with 2GB memory standard - that seems to be enough on my desktop so no worries there.

Recommendations? Different brands/models that might fit my needs better? I'd like to avoid the XPS lines if possible - they seem like more of a high-end/mobile gamer tax than anything. I have had good experiences with Toshiba and Lenovo so either of those might be worth considering.

I'd go with T7250 for sure... and if it's within budget, that screen res. upgrade to 1080p would be excellent as well.

I assume you meant X1300? For 2D, that should suffice... but if you are gonna lug that thing around... I wouldn't get a 17" laptop. :eek: Really.

Thanks pete - I'm definitely getting the resolution upgrade. The X1300 is only for the AMD version of those lappies (in this case the Inspiron 1721). The Intel version I'm looking at comes with the X3100 instead. Is that still ok for just 2D work?

As for the size/weight, I grew up portaging my kayak around the backwaters of Minnesota - I'm pretty sure I can manage a 10lb lappie ;) Besides, it'll just be going class to house to work to friends' houses to a few ice cream and burger places (Saran wrap over the keyboard ftw - yes, I actually do that :p) - not like I'm trying to use it on planes or anything. Besides, there's not much point in the system if it's too cramped to work on, especially since I'll have to sell my desktop to pay for it.

Actually, if I got PDF versions of my books (or just scanned them) it would make my backpack a whole lot lighter. Nothing like porting a bunch of pointy, spine-gouging monolithic textbooks to make you appreciate a good paperback or PDF :p

Oh... Intel X3100! :p that should be fine... so long as it's dedicated video card. Well, if you are used to carrying a kayak around, go for it!! :D

Haha sounds good then, thanks for the info. I think the X3100 is integrated though - is that a problem? I know it's gonna drain 256MB of memory or whatever, but it isn't that big a deal to upgrade to 3GB if needed - is there some other problem with integrated video I should know about?

Funny, now that I've resigned myself to racking up some credit card debt on this thing... the prospect of that debt being a little higher than I planned is way less painful. Call it fatalism or something... this was meant to be. :D

...I'll post back when it arrives (read: whenever I find the cujones to hit the order button)... lol

It's always a known fact that

dedicated > integrated

when it comes to video... lol... if you are gonna spend that much on the laptop, then don't skimp out on warranty either. esp with your amount of traveling...

Heh, dedicated is of course better but if the most demanding thing I ask it to handle my .ai files (and, of course, their ridiculous pseudo-3D which afaik is completely software-based) it shouldn't matter how many pipes and shaders and dilithium crystals and little green men it has, right? This will not be any sort of gaming machine so that's not an issue. The RAM penalty is pretty minor and I'm not away of any other major issue with integrated... heck, this Spring I was using Biostar mobo with onboard 6100 video and it did alright for me as long as I didn't throw anything worse than the Aero interface and Quake 3 at it :p

As for the warranty, I'm probably just gonna bite the bullet and get their accidental damage protection. And my $1300 lappie will have ended up costing me $2k by the time I finish insuring and accessorizing and probably bringing it up to 3-4GB memory... ouch. At least I can wait on the upgrades until the beast is paid off (the funny thing is I have friends who spend almost that much on just their vid cards).