Thinking of getting a new laptop for my bday. Looking in the 1500-2000 range but will go over a tad. Thinking about the MacBookPro? I have never owned a Mac. Or an Alienware. 15 " screen size is fine. Has anyone used either of these? Anyone care to tell me about a nice notebook they have? How about a tablet combo one? Any input will help out thanks.

I know a guy who has had 3 alienware laptops. He is a pretty intense gamer. All three have at one point or another fried out. 1 in particular has had the same issue 4 seperate times. I watched him take directions from their customer service tech in which he was instructed to completely take apart the laptop. If you are up to the challange go for it. However, they are more game specific than design.

Apple. I love apple I would still be using my G4 if I was back home. They are reliable and last a while. You wont have to worry about a new version coming out a week after you buy your laptop. Their OS is going to be different from regular PCs (if you have never used it before). Apple is perfect for designing. It is a staple in the field. The only problem that you may encounter with it is crossplateforming files. To face facts the majority of the world operates on IBM PC based machines. While Apple is making a comeback from it's yesteryear you may find software incompatable. Your more prominant Adobe and such will not be an issue.

MAC's are great particularly if your designing a lot. Problem is compatibility of software as gravital mentioned and this can be frustrating when moving from xp/vista to tiger. I don't own a mac but have heard great things about em.

Which is why I cannot decide about the mac yet. The new software apple has lets you use windows programs on it now but you have to install a ver. of win I think. I get about a $200 discount on hp through employee discount and get about 6/7 % off dells/alienware and about $150 off the apple. The mac pro is the most money about $2100 and thats a lot to see if I like Mac. Was the Alienware problems around 2005 or before? dell bought them in 2006. All I do is screw around with Pictures or coverart but I wanted a hi-res screen and good graphics card. Thanks for the comments.

The alienware probs were as recent as 6 months ago. I personally think that they are overpriced as well.

I own an HP laptop. I think that they make better components than they do computers. I paid just under 2k for mine about 2 yrs ago. It is still working for me but I have had some issues with it. Apparently the graphics card and the motherboard were a match made in hell. So when the graphics card took a nose dive I had to get that as well as the motherboards replaced with a compaq version. I can say that it is nice to have the ability to switch components easily.

I will be getting a new laptop in the future and it will more than likely not be an HP.

thanks for the info gravital. think I am leaning to the Asus g1s or g2s. They have a direct10x card and hd lcd. You kind of made me forget about the alienware and you were not real happy with the hp (I know its just one persons imo) I own a Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe mb diy pc now. But of course I don't get a employee discount with them. Bestbut stores in usa have the g1s with a DC centrino pro 2.4ghz, 2gb ddr2,geforce 8600gs/256, 1680x1050 15.4", but has a slow 5400-160gb hd. for $1599($1749- $150= 1599 sale) us. Compare with the Macpro for $2100 and its hard to spend that much more for an unknown so unless someone has had a bad go with the asus g1s I think i will go for that one. My wife has a gateway and my daughter has a compac(hp sister I know), both have worked just great with no hiccups, they just don't make a notebook with direct x10 cards.