Where have you been all of my life?

[Clippy]

I loathe using the touch pad of a laptop.

Always an external mouse for me - and not some mini travel version fit only for a childs hand size.

[bobspud]

Is the turbo boost service enabled on it?

Sadly yes still seems like more than half the power of the pentium 4 it replaced ...

[Spacecadet]

The current pro chips are i7 2.4, 2.5 & 2.6 I have a 1.53 in the envy and its next to useless, apart from making people jealous when you open the task manager

Is the turbo boost service enabled on it?

[bobspud]

The apple, as far as i know, is only dual core

The quad cores may appear to be slower e.g. 1.8GHz but they are self over clocking (officially called Turbo boost or something) if not all the cores are being used.

The current pro chips are i7 2.4, 2.5 & 2.6 I have a 1.53 in the envy and its next to useless, apart from making people jealous when you open the task manager

[Spacecadet]

That,s the sort of spec I'm after apple can do a 2.6ghz i7 model for around the 2k mark

the annoying thing is that I already spent close to that for an envy 15 + a replacement usb keyboard and design tablet... peaved is not the word...

The apple, as far as i know, is only dual core

The quad cores may appear to be slower e.g. 1.8GHz but they are self over clocking (officially called Turbo boost or something) if not all the cores are being used.

[bobspud]

If you want VMware grunt without the forklift then you'll want a 15.6" quadcore laptop, 8GB of ram and preferably a second hard drive (you can get caddies to fit this to the optical drive bay).

That,s the sort of spec I'm after. Apple can do a 2.6ghz i7 model for around the 2k mark

The annoying thing is that I already spent close to 2k for an envy 15 + a replacement usb keyboard and wacom design tablet...

Annoyed is not the word...

[Spacecadet]

My next laptop will be a mac book pro, but only because I want the grunt to run VMware on something that doesn't need a fork lift to carry.

If you want VMware grunt without the forklift then you'll want a 15.6" quadcore laptop, 8GB of ram and preferably a second hard drive (you can get caddies to fit this to the optical drive bay).

[bobspud]

After years of using Dell laptops with Alps touchpads, I've now got an HP with a Synaptics touchpad.
The difference is amazing!

Alps felt sluggish, lagged, would freeze up, and generally made me plug in a mouse whenever possible.

Synaptics feels responsive, accurate, doesn't freeze, and now my mouse stays in the laptop case

Why do so many major laptop manufacturers use tulip Alps touchpads ?

Lucky you.

This time last year I spent £1300 on an HP Envy15 i7 laptop, with its funky synaptics pad. The keyboard and mouse have continually froze/locked up and been a pain in my @rse. I have sent it back twice to no avail Im sat writing this on a very old Fujitsu life-book that came out my mates skip, and its bloody fantastic!

The HP Laptop is sat in a box under my desk

My next laptop will be a mac book pro, but only because I want the grunt to run VMware on something that doesn't need a fork lift to carry.

[RichardCranium]

The Dell laptops at previous ClientCo drove me mad because the TouchPads were unusable. Thankfully the one I was allocated had a hairy nipple as well so I used that.

But my 10-year old laptop has an Alps touchpad which I've always been happy with.

Could there be good Alps touchpads and crap Alps touchpads?

[NickFitz]

Why do so many major laptop manufacturers use tulip Alps touchpads ?

Because Apple cornered the market in good ones

[CheeseSlice]

After years of using Dell laptops with Alps touchpads, I've now got an HP with a Synaptics touchpad.
The difference is amazing!

Alps felt sluggish, lagged, would freeze up, and generally made me plug in a mouse whenever possible.

Synaptics feels responsive, accurate, doesn't freeze, and now my mouse stays in the laptop case

Why do so many major laptop manufacturers use tulip Alps touchpads ?