New Laptop Purchase

RacerF500RacerF500
edited July 2003 in Hardware
Hey guys,

This is actually Pseudonym for those of you who remember me. My account is disabled for some reason, so I loaded up this one until I get things cleared up.

Anyways, I'm going to be picking up a new laptop and I have a few questions about experiences and video card choices. Oh yeah, and if any of you know some good review sites for some gaming oriented lappies, thatd be nice.

Basically I'm looking at anything with a 16" screen (Or more) and costing at or below $2500. Vid card has to be good and so does processor. Vid cards seem to be either ATI 9000 128mb or GeForce Go 5600 64mb. Any experiences out there with these cards, and or comparison reviews someone knows about? RAM is going to be 2x256 PC2100 (Seems to be what everyone has), but processors are the other sticking point. I see I can get some 2.8 P4, 3.06 P4, and then the centrino crud, and then the mobility crud. I know the centrino and M are going to have better batt life, but I'm not sure if I care about that. (There will usually be a plug around somewhere). Since I'm an AMD man, I'd prefer AMD, but I'm having a hard time finding one in a good Lappy. Any suggestions?? Thanks for the help guys.

Pseudo

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    I'll tell you right now the Pentium M is a monster performer. I compare it with a P3 Xeon - it's got a 1 meg cache for starters. I have a 1.3ghz Centrino lappy and I love it - the battery life is sweet, but it's seriously a nice performer. It folds better than my 1.4ghz tbird athlon, and with the Mobility Radeon 9000, I've been playing games at a decent clip (most recently the Final Fantasy XI beta, which runs fine on this laptop). So, I say don't discount the P-M (Banias) processor, it packs quite a surprising punch.
  • RacerF500RacerF500
    edited July 2003
    Interesting. I was checking out a widescreen compaq with that, and was very interested, but it only had a 32mb 9200 on it. Booo :( Basically, my whole choice seems to be determined by vid card. This Sony here seems pretty good

    http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=303469&pfp=BROWSE

    Sold out there, but my local Comp USA has em lying around. Its very tempting........ After reading some reviews the new 9600 seems pretty kickass, but it looks like its gonna cost an arm and a leg, so 9000 or 5600 looks to be it
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited July 2003
    www.powernotebooks.com

    The Sager NP56X0 series is the same as the Alienware notebooks, only cheaper. I have the NP5620, which I bought in June of last year. See my sig for specs.

    They have the NP88X0 series, which has a 16" UXGA, and the upcoming 8890 will offer hardware RAID (yes, 2 hard drives, in RAID 0 or 1, in a laptop) with 2 drives, up to 80gb, including Hitachi's 60gb/7200rpm/8mb model. It will support the 800MHz bus p4 using the i865 chipset, and will have dual-channel ddr 400. Graphics are going to be by a 128mb Radeon 9600 Pro Mobility.
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Cool, thanks guys. My research continues
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Well the decision has been made.... almost. I'm just waiting till Aug 1st when two things happen

    1. The most kickass site ever (Short-Media of course) gives away cool stuff.
    2. Several Lappy makers come out with ATI 9600s and I need to see those prices :)

    Oh yeah, Current choice is a Sony Vaio GRT with 2.8 ghz P4, 512 ddr, 16" 1600x1200, Gforce 5600, DVD/R etc....
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited July 2003
    Well, what features are important to you? I guarantee that when the Sager 8890 comes out, it'll blow the Sony out of the water- it'll be faster- with faster graphics, a faster hard drive, dvd-r (which the sony has too, I see) etc., and cheaper- when I priced mine out, it was $500+ less than the top-of-the-line Sony, and $1500 less than a top-of-the-line Dell. However, the battery life won't be much to write home about, and it'll be heavy...
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Yeah. Right now I've priced just about everything out and that Sony seems to be right at the top of the list price wise (Which has surprised me). The main problem is the Sagers don't have the graphics to keep up right now. Thats why I'm waiting though. That Sony will be around for awhile, I just have to wait for the new stuff with the 9600 to come out.

    edit// Oh yeah, I'm supposed to answer a question:) Anyways, Features important to me are large screen with good resolution (UXGA), Top Graphics card (Gonna Game with it), 512 ram or greater if the price is right. Fast processor (desktop is fine, so I don't care about batt life, it'll be near a plug most of the time), 40 mb with 5400 rpm, DVD/R (Not essential, but wanted) and a warranty. I've had too many friends with lappys that need screen replacements, or other types of repairs I can't do myself. That puts that sony I described about 300 bucks cheaper. Quite the surprise.
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