Sounds like the 8600 would be a good choice for you, given your graphics use.

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@John Michael wrote:

Thanks for your reply! Anybody else have some suggestions?

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I will 2nd the 8600, widescreen, cooler than most laptops, battery life is long, (I watched 2 DVD movies and still had plenty juice left.) Plus  it looks heavier than it really is.

Message Edited by Odius on 06-07-2004 07:01 PM

I have a Inspiron 8500 and love it for Graphic and web design.

Let me know what you decide. The newer model must be nicer. :)

Mobile Intel Pentium
4-m CPU 2.20 GHZ
1.18 GHZ
512mb Ram

JumpingFrog

P.S.

I'm not thrilled with the life of my battery, but I live with it. Sounds like the newer model is better! Or else I just have a defect. Might check into this since I'm still under warranty.

Hope you guys don't mind me saying, but the 15" Powerbooks are also sweet, thin and light at 1.5 Ghz with 128 MB ATI graphics chip and 80 Gig hard drive with a wide screen. Aluminum casing is the icing on the cake. I edit weddings on my 17". I was also shocked to find I could get on the internet wirelessly today while on my job, since my Powerbook has internal Airport Extreme wireless capability. Apparently there is a wireless "hotspot" in my worksite area. I am on the third floor of my work building. It could be the Apple Store across the street, but gee whizzz, that place is at least 120 yards away from my building where I work and am typing this post! My Powerbook, after booting up, asked me to set the incomming mystery signal "Default". All I did was check "yes" and then click on Explorer browser. No other adjustments were necessary and now I am bootlegging a signal with free internet. Totally awesome dude! Dells are undoubtedly cool also but after today I just have to say Powerbooks ROCK. Wireless bluetooth mouse permits me to left and right click on items; no one button Apple mouse for me; and Bluetooth is built in also. And the light up keyboard is a nice touch. The speakers are the loudest I have ever heard in a laptop. Well I better get back to work. Hope you guys have as much fun as I have for the past year with my 17" Powerbook. I am not here to bash or anything. I just love sharing the joys of lap-topping.

The older Titanium 15" models peeled paint but my newer Aluminum model is a pleasure:

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum34.html

The 17" developed a screen problem and after getting it back from Apple Repair the 3rd time yesterday I found they still did not fix the problem correctly again due to the fact that the screen problem comes and goes. But with Apple it is not 3 strikes and I am out. The paperwork is in for me to get a BRAND NEW laptop from them. If approved I will just swap my old laptop for a new one. I should know within a couple of days. This I like...hee heeeeee!

Lets see. A PB 15" with a WXGA screen (doesn't come any higher than that) 1.5GHz, 512MB, DVDRW, 80GB is 2500.
And equivalent 8600 is $1749. Is OSX worth $751? Not to me, and not to most people, and thats why apple is still a niche player.

Funny, I checked an inspiron with all included comparable components, which include DVD-R, internal bluetooth and wireless LAN as well as 128 MB ATI and it came to $1993 for the Inspiron 8600. No matter; I can see your point; The extra $500 may be too high a price for some, even though I can get it for $200 cheaper at a state discount, so for only an extra $300 I think in my case it's well worth it, especially because it comes with a firewire 800 port (twice the data throughput as regular firewire) for the new and faster exterior firewire 800 drives, much quicker than ordinary firewire. In my business of video editing it seems very close to a perfect editing suite in anyone's lap. And OSX is a thoroughly cool bonus of rock steady reliability.

Message Edited by buddy1065 on 06-08-2004 01:39 PM

Thats cool John. I'll take that as a message for me to beat it out of here back to the Mac forum where I belong. Don't want to cause a fuss.
Bye All!

I like Windows! I've never used a MAC and i don't want to. Thanks for your replys!