Yes but???
 

Yes I think we got that, but what everyone is trying to tell you is that you do not need to spend $1800-$2000 on a laptop to have a good PC based system which will accomplish your desires. The PC market in general is very flakey right now, and prices are dropping across the board. If you are not a serious PC gamer anything over $1000 is a waste of money looking at what is presently available at the moment. Look you have the right to spend your money any way you like, but you came in here asking for opinions and advice regarding your laptop plans. At least listen to the masses and consider what they have to say. The desktop that I am using for our home Command center was originally built (by me) in 1993-93. This was my first PC desktop and with the help of a close friend I hand picked all of the components and put it together myself without any previous training. Of course over the last 15+ years I have gradually replaced nearly every component as I kept upgrading the original system. keep an open mind and do some research, but listen to the experience being shared on here. TexasP and a few of the other guys posting not only have experience, but work in the PC industry and can give you some pretty good first hand knowledge on the subject.

what HP and asus? both companies make good and crap laptops...

Jerry - what the heck makes you think I have not taken into consideration the advice given? I also got advice on another forum (one specific to HTPC users). Just because I'm not following your "model of need" to the tee, doesn't mean I did not think about it.

The only two machines that I have been able to find locally that have the three features I want (BD player, 1900x1020 screen, and numeric keypad) are the HP ENVY 17" (@$1400) and the ASUS 17" A1 (@$1700).

A BD player is easy to add later. You can find the drives for under $100 on ebay. Do you know that you need to pay for a decent program to play them? I have yet to find any free ones that will play all BD movies out there...


If you don't need something right now, check with dell/HP/asus return policies to see if you can try them out for a few days. IMO I would NEVER buy something from a B&M store unless it was a super deal.



Don't pay for an memory or HDD upgrades from the man. memory is dirt cheap, and a good aftermarket HDD will have a 5 year warranty.(unlike the laptop)



EDIT: another thing you can do is order over the phone/kiosk in the mall. You can usually haggle your way to a 5-10% discount

Calm down
 

Calm down Thiessen dont get mad because we are trying to share our advice with you. You started this thread asking us for advice and info, but your continuing communication seems to be that you have already made up your mind. Please share with us why the resolution on a laptop is so important, when you stated that you would be connecting this to your home theater system, which would pretty much make the resolution on the laptop itself a none issue. Plus as stated one can add HDD's and memory much cheaper after market through suppliers, rather than paying top dollar from major PC dealers. If you are hell bent on spending $1800-$2000 on a laptop regardless of the great info being supplied on here, than why did you ask? Please don't take it so personal as we are only trying to help to advance your research and maybe save you a few bucks in the process as you requested. There are ways to avoid paying through the nose for PC gear that you can get much cheaper through other venues. I did not come in here to battle with you, but to try and help just like a few others are.

soooo, what did you buy?

Yes, I agree; what did you end up buying!?

Sorry guys - been putting in 70 hour weeks here. I ended up with the HP Envy noted above. Seems great so far - only complaint I would have is that it doesn't have the matte screen. Taking a bit to get adjusted to the size too - but its not much heavier than my old 15" Dell.

You can always pick up a matte screen:wink: check ebay, any screen that is the same size will bolt right up.

Nice!

I actually like the HP Envy series, they're pretty nice!
They have a MacBook look to them, which honestly, appeals to me.
Simple, sleek, and beautiful.

We haven't seen many Envys in the shop, except one... Where the lady was just.. well, let's just say there was never an issue.... :whistle:

They don't seem to have the same issues the DV series has, so woo!

Hope it runs for years to come!

Not exactly.
There are different connectors in different models, usually, you can just get lucky and get one; but there ARE other specific ones per specific laptops.

That's why when a laptop comes into the shop, we either start looking through our screen stack for a viable option, or order a replacement right as we get it regardless of it's # in queue, so when we're ready to work on that laptop, the part is handy.

all of the laptop screens I've come across have the same connection on the back of them... :neutral:

Were you working on a specific line/model?

I've come across several with different connections from mobo ribbon cable, to LCD connections..

a few dells, a few alienware's(pre dell), an old HP 14, a older gateway... etc...


I know ribbon cables change from brand to brand, but I thought the conector on the LCD itself was universal.

Have you ever compared them with the same cable?

They all look suspiciously the same, but they aren't.. They vary from size. # of pins, shapes, etc, etc..

I know they all worked on my gateway POS, I use it as a 'testbed' for laptop repairs.


I'm using a 7 year old(man date is jan 2004) WUXGA screen from a dell 9100xps in my 2009 sager np8660/m860tu.


I believe you, but I haven't come across a screen that wasn't compatible with the cable I was using:neutral: