buying a lap top and monitors

[philipbaker]

I am looking to buy a lap top for stock/share trading so need something fast and reliable. I also want to run 2 or 3 monitors off of it to show different graphs etc. Does it matter what size the lap top screen is if I want to have large monitors and how do I wire them up? My budget is about £800 for the lap top. I think that the ram is more important than the memory but please correct me if I am wrong

[Computer_Commando]

1st of all, RAM is another name for memory.  2nd, a laptop running multiple monitors may be difficult or impossible to find.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi Philip

I would look for a laptop that had a 3 year next business day warrantee. Most brand name business laptops have a option to restore a backup to any model from that maker so if you want to change in a couple of years you can use the same windows and software on the new laptop. This is also important should the Laptop get stolen. Matrox make this unit that allows up to 3 monitors from 1 video out put.

 http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

And i have used this on a build for Flight simulator X and it worked very well.

The rules say that i can't push one make or model but if you have a laptop in mind please post the link for comment.

[philipbaker]

Hi Lisa Thanks for the info. The Matrox looks like a good bit of kit. I am thinking of buying either a Samsung R780 or a Samsung RF510 or maybe a Toshiba Satellite L775-11E. What do you think?   

[Transfusion]

using an i7 for office applications is quite overkill... although it would be a good investment if you are planning to use the samsung rf 510 computer for the years to come. The Toshiba sounds just right if you are on a budget-it supports a huge video resolution (1600x1200 max)-will be handy if you are planning to hook it up to a huge monitor to monitor all your stock charts. However, the graphics card is not all that aspiring and will not handle graphics-intensive applications with up-to-par performance-Intel is clearly not a leader in graphics cards. The Samsung's GT 420 is actually good for moderate gaming, not that I'd recommend gaming on a laptop.


RF510:http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-computers/performance/NP-RF510-S02UK/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail
Satellite:http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/product/Satellite-L775-11E/1106669/
I'd recommend the RF510 if you have a little more money to spend.


The HP Probook series is also a pretty interesting deal.

[soybean]

I think I'd go with a desktop/tower system if I wanted multiple monitors.  You just have more flexibility in video card choice to support multiple monitors with a desktop system.

[patio]

Agree 100%

[philipbaker]

Thanks Soyabean and Transfusion  The reason I want a laptop is because I tend to only spend about 5 months in my home and the rest in a couple of other places. I hear what you say about the graphics card. which card on a lap top do you think is best? (for my usage) Also you say the i7 is overkill do you think the i3 is good for me or is i5 the best option. Thanks for your  imput

[Transfusion]

the i7 is geared towards extremely CPU-intensive applications, say video encoding or photo editing, which will definitely put a strain on the battery life. Any graphics card with specs equal to or better than the Radeon HD 4350 will suit your needs.
The i5 is a good balance between price and power. The Asus X77 seems just about right.

[camerongray]

I'd recommend that you take a look at Lenovo ThinkPads, they are designed for business enviroments and are very robust and reliable.  They are quite expensive but well worth it for the quality in my opinion.

http://www.lenovo.com/