Interestingly, I heard about this "Nvidia ION" which "substantially improves 3D performance" and I found out that Asus 1015PN has it! It is a 10 inch with Nvidia Ion, fully capable of 1080p and small dose of 3D gaming. Well, I answered my own question, lol, thanks anyway. Googling around it is mighty rare for Nvidia ION on a 10-incher.

hi, bros, i am start making decision to have a high performance laptops, but after went to lowyat survey a few stalls, so blur oredi, dunno listen to who.....pls help me

1. Preferred Brand, some say asus, some say acer.....now i say cincai lar....
2. Budget : around RM3000 - ok
below RM3800 - quite ok....
over RM4000 - out of budget......in this range prefer go for desktop...
3. Usage : 1)graphic editing, Adobe Illustrator drawing large format vector files, rendering a lots of embed files.....
2)photo editing, Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop editing large format photos RAW files, using a lots of customizes brushes , shapes, filters, effects etc......
3)AutoCAD / Sketch up / if the graphic cannot support that high, i will give up on 3D studio max + V ray......it's ok i change sketch-up, more faster....just rendering not nice...
4. Preferred laptop/screen size , must bigger than 13"

Thank you to all here who have given me advice for my hunt!

@AlexLai: I will admit to still being fond of Dell laptops-- mine has served me well and faithfully. I actually dropped it once from about 2 feet high while it was on, and my Inspiron didn't miss a beat; worked on just as normal! Looked at Dell website, the Inspiron 15R going for RM2599 has the latest 2nd generation Intel® Core i7-2670QM processor, 2.20 GHz capable of turbo boost up to 3.10 GHz; I looked it up and the i7-2670QM is supposed to be the successor to the i7-2630QM that's on the Asus N55SF; RAM options are nonexistent outside of 4GB DDR3 though. >.< Not sure whether it's a good buy for that price.

Asus N55SF? While I don't quite like Optimus tech, I can live with it: IIRC all the 2nd gen Sandy Bridge processors' integrated graphics are still fairly powerful right? After all I don't plan to do any strenuous gaming or things like that on my Linux install that would require a powerful graphics unit. The most maybe watch some HD movies, and that very rarely and more likely to happen on the Windoze side of the box. Should be good enough for that purpose, maybe? Can confirm? Also, is there any place selling it below RM36xx?

@astria: Well, I don't really mind i5 myself LOL-- but since my dad who is footing the bill says when buying a computer get the best possible at the time of purchase and flat out said to GET an i7, who am I to want to argue?

@eugenechiuu: Nope, not a typo. I really DO have 700+ tabs open in Firefox most of the time normally, though not at the moment--once got up to 800+, but then FF became unstable LOL... the newer FF versions allowing for memory tweaks are handy when you want to do that kind of thing. At one point when researching for my final project I had three browsers open with tabs in the high 400s in Chrome and Firefox and Opera. Don't mind desktop, but as it is, this year uni room and study table really no space for CPU and monitor... want to squash in my printer also must get creative already.Also I probably have to take my laptop(s) home with me to work over the weekends, and moving CPU+ monitor every week will be a pain, to say the least.

This post has been edited by ArianneG: Sep 19 2011, 05:08 PM

problem is, the CPU is still Atom, plus Ion 2 plugs into a mini PCI-E x1 slot, that's going to be a huge (or should a say narrow) bottleneck in graphic performance...

Dell XPS 15, i7-2670QM + Nvidia GT540M@RM3699 [JBL], upgradeable to FullHD, backlit keyboard customizable

then upgrade the RAM as well...

well the other option would be

HP Dv6-6114TX, i7-2630QM + AMD HD6770 + BluRay@RM3799 [Beats][2.63kg], [4GB RAM] Beats headphones, HP optical mouse, HP 500GB external HDD

since u ve such a budget...

@astria: Not looking for HP la bro... HP and Toshiba and Samsung are on my no buy list for laptops LOL.

Yes, but ever since AMD Zacate and Ontario Fusion APUs appeared for the netbook and subnotebook sector, the ION2 has basically been totally dropped from production as it cannot compete in terms of pricing with the competition from AMD. That said, the 1015PN's AMD counterpart is the 1015B, just as competent but at a cheaper price.

The i7 version of the N55SF however does not have a HD+ resolution screen as far as we know. However there seems to be a refresh coming up soon so we'll wait for that. As for the RAM, you can always add your own. Sandy Bridge's graphic accelerator is quite competent in its own right with it being able to do much more than just playing HD videos.

Any problem with MSI?
GE620-DX, i7-2630QM + Nvidia GT555M (2GB)@RM2999, 8GB RAM

Btw, you can use acpi_call to switch off the Nvidia card or use BumbleBee to switch between iGPU and dGPU.

MSI not sure of reputation nia, otherwise don't mind considering...

I'm sorry to say that there is no laptop that can fulfill your requirements at the moment. Either you lower the screen resolution or get i5 instead of i7.

Please try again in near future.

dell inspiron or asus better?

^ Better in term of what?

well which model of asus are you exactly comparing to inspiron..also tell screen size..inspiron has 13.3 14.1 and 15.6 inch variant

with such general qn i can only give u a general answer...

Dell has one of the best (and also the most expensive) warranty service, where the technician would come to ur place to fix it after simple diagnoses over the phone, while Asus has 2yrs int'l warranty by default, and pick up service if u need to get it serviced...

generally most ppl will say that Asus has overall better quality... but Dell allows u to customize the laptop to the way u like...

Hi Guys,

Looking for laptop with the following specification.

1. Preferred Brand : Asus, Dell, HP, etc
2. Budget : 3k - 4k (lower the better)
3. Usage : movie, surfing, gaming (waiting for D3), programming
4. Preferred laptop/screen size : 15"
5. Warranty : prefer 2 years and above international warranty as I stay in SG

Asus N55Sf-S2043v [black], i5-2410M + Nvidia GT555m (2GB) + 1600x900@RM2799[Bang & Olufsen]; USB3.0, Sonic Master subwoofer
Asus N55Sf-SX047v, i7-2630QM + Nvidia GT555m (2GB) + Bluray@RM3699[Bang & Olufsen]; USB3.0, Sonic Master subwoofer
HP Dv6-6114TX, i7-2630QM + AMD HD6770 + BluRay@RM3799 [Beats][2.63kg], [4GB RAM] Beats headphones, HP optical mouse, HP 500GB external HDD
MSI GE620-DX, i7-2630QM + Nvidia GT555M (2GB)@RM2999, 8GB RAM

Asus laptops come with 2yrs int'l warranty by default...

Hey everyone I'm planning to get a new laptop someday, not right now though. For now gonna try to save up money.

Budget : 3k and below
Purpose : Mainly for gaming, though of course will also be used for surfing net, watching movie, etc
Preferred brand : Only used Dell before, so I'm not that familiar whether or not other brands are good. Open to suggestions though.
Preferred screen size : 15"

Asus N55Sf-S2043v [black], i5-2410M + Nvidia GT555m (2GB) + 1600x900@RM2799[Bang & Olufsen]; USB3.0, Sonic Master subwoofer <- highly recommended
Dell Vostro 3550, i5-2430M + AMD HD6630@RM2577, W7HB, backlit keyboard, Belkin Radius 15.6" Backpack
MSI GE620-DX, i7-2630QM + Nvidia GT555M (2GB)@RM2999, 8GB RAM

This post has been edited by astria: Sep 20 2011, 11:57 AM

Assu G53SX-SZ039@RM3999 ?

honestly i see the 128-bit GPU instead of 192-bit already no appetite...

Still at least, should have the better cooling system..