<p>I have an m17x that I love. Make sure you know that most of the name brand pc companies have educational discounts. I got 15% off my alienware m17x which made it really reasonable for what I got.</p>
<p>[ASUS</a> G74SX-A2](<a href=“http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g74sxa2-p-3120.html?wconfigure=yes]ASUS”>http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g74sxa2-p-3120.html?wconfigure=yes) $1968.13</p>
<ul>
<li>17.3" FHD 16:9 “Glare Type” Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)</li>
<li>2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) </li>
<li>nVidia GeForce GTX 560M 3 GB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11</li>
<li>16GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB)</li>
<li>- 160GB Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II)</li>
<li>- 750GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s)</li>
<li>4X Blu-Ray Reader / 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive</li>
</ul>
<p>You can’t get around the laws of physics - i7 takes a lot of juice and can put up lots of heat, and 17" of LCD needs a car battery to light up for more than an hour. Even 17" is puny for design work (our designers use 27") and for serious (professional) work they use $2-3k video cards on desktops. If you’re doing laptop for studio use, ask the profs or other students what they use. </p>
<p>And, for such work, a 4 year anything - laptop or desktop - is not very feasible.</p>
<p>Pick two of the three; Portability, Speed, Battery-life</p>
<p>macbook pro 15 ($2200 model) is the only one.
-quad core i7
-7 to 8 hr battery in basic usage
-AMD 6750m
-high res option
-1 inch thin and 5.5 lb
-super expensive :(</p>
<p>It doesn’t provide the EXTREME GPU but you can’t go any higher or else you’ll be carrying around a small desktop.</p>
<p>All the others require a 9 cell battery or extended battery which adds to bulk.</p>
<p>Apple is using their own ‘tweaked’ version of the Nvidia Optimus and it’s currently the best available. MBP sales are up 50%+ when competitors are flat to down.</p>
<p>“But if you want a big screen, excellent battery life, and plenty of muscle in a compact package, no other system comes close.”</p>
<p>[laptopmag</a> review Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i7)](<a href=“Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i7) | Laptop Mag”>Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i7) | Laptop Mag)</p>
<p>You guys know this thread is from 2008 right…</p>
<p>F****************</p>
<p>lol</p>